Privacy notice for House of Lords select committee witnesses

Controller of witnesses’ personal data and Data Protection Officer

The House of Lords’ Controller is the Corporate Officer (the Clerk of the Parliaments). The Data Protection Officer is the Head of Information Compliance. The Data Protection Officer may be contacted at holinfocompliance@parliament.uk or on 020 7219 5693.

Personal data collected, purposes and legal bases

Personal data collected and purpose

The personal data about witnesses collected and processed are normally names, addresses and personal contact details.

Signatures and bank account details of witnesses giving oral evidence may be collected and processed, for the sole purpose of payment of certain expenses to those witnesses.

Processing these personal data is necessary for the functioning of Parliament, in particular for the functioning of the select committee concerned.

Legal basis

The legal basis for processing these personal data is that processing is necessary for the performance of a task carried out in the public interest (article 6(1)(e) of the UK General Data Protection Regulation (“the UK GDPR”), which includes the exercise of a function of either House of Parliament).

Special category personal data collected and purpose

Witnesses giving oral evidence may be invited by the House administration to provide data to be used to monitor the diversity of those giving evidence. This may include data on age, disability status, ethnic background, gender identity, religion, belief or non-belief, and sexual orientation. Providing this information is optional. No accompanying identifying information (e.g. name or contact details) will be asked for.

While in certain cases it may be possible to identify individuals from individual responses, the House of Lords administration will publish statistical information only in datasets large enough so as not to enable individuals to be identified.

Legal basis

The legal basis for processing these special category personal data is that processing is necessary for the purposes of the legitimate interests of the House of Lords (article 6(1)(f) of the UK GDPR).

The legitimate interests are that House of Lords select committees are able to monitor the extent to which they receive evidence from a range of different perspectives that reflect a diverse community, enabling committees to be better informed and better able to represent the public.

The processing is also necessary “for reasons of substantial public interest” (see article 9(2)(g) of the UK GDPR, as supplemented by paragraph 8 of Schedule 1 to the Data Protection Act 2018). This allows for the processing of special categories of personal data (with the consent of the data subject) for identifying or keeping under review the existence or absence of equality of opportunity or treatment between groups of people.

Who we share personal data with

Personal data held by the staff of one House of Lords select committee may be shared with the staff of another committee, where such sharing relates to committee functions.

Where necessary (including where there are shared services), the House of Lords administration may share witnesses’ personal data with the House of Commons Service.

The House of Lords administration will not share witnesses’ personal data with other third parties unless required to do so by law.

Oral and written evidence, together with the names of witnesses, are published on the parliamentary website, may be referred to in committees’ reports and are available in the Parliamentary Archives.

How long we keep personal data

Personal data collected about witnesses are retained in accordance with Parliament’s Authorised Records Disposal Practice (ARDP). The ARDP is published here.

In connection with committee inquiries the House of Lords administration may retain witnesses’ personal data for archiving in the public interest; this may involve indefinite retention of the data.

Data subject rights

You have the right to:

• access
• request rectification of
• request erasure of
• restrict the processing of
• object to the processing of
• data portability of

your personal data held by the House of Lords administration. This is subject to the exceptions in the Data Protection Act 2018. Further information is available on the parliamentary website.

Right to complain

If you are unhappy with the use of your personal data by the House of Lords Administration you should contact the Data Protection Officer in the first instance.

You also have the right to complain to the supervisory authority if you consider that the House of Lords Administration is in breach of its data protection obligations. The supervisory authority is the Information Commissioner’s Office, Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow, Cheshire, SK9 5AF. The ICO’s website is here.

Updated November 2022 v.3