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UK Parliament

House of Lords Privacy Notice for the public

1. Controller and Data Protection Officer

The House of Lords’ Controller is the Corporate Officer (Clerk of the Parliaments). The Data Protection Officer is the Head of Information Compliance. The Data Protection Officer can be contacted at holinfocompliance@parliament.uk or on 0207 219 5693.

This notice relates to personal data processed by the House of Lords Administration. This notice does not apply to personal data in cases where individual members of the House are the controller of the data.

2. Personal data collected, purpose and legal basis for processing

When personal data are collected

Corresponding with the House of Lords

You may give us your information when you send correspondence to our Communications Office, the Parliamentary Archives, the FOI team, the House of Lords Commissioner for Standards or another office within the House of Lords Administration.

Visiting the House of Lords

We may collect personal information about you when you attend an event organised directly by us, or when you contact us for the purposes of arranging a visit to the House of Lords. This could include:

  • visiting the Parliamentary Archives
  • booking a table at one of our public dining events
  • applying to be on a waiting list for our public dining service
  • visiting the House of Lords to attend an event or as part of a tour

We may sometimes receive information about you from third parties, for example when a third-party organisation has arranged an event at the House of Lords and the organisation provides us with your details in order to facilitate your visit or when you have been nominated to attend an event at the House. Where information about you is provided to us by a third party, we advise the organisation or person concerned to make you aware of this privacy notice.

Images of visitors may be captured by the security cameras on the Parliamentary Estate. Our security camera policy (pdf, 323KB) is published on the Parliamentary website.

Requesting publications or purchasing items from us

We collect and process your personal information when you order publications from us, purchase items directly from us, or sign up to receive newsletters from us.

Having an artwork commissioned or acquired by the House

We collect and process personal data about you when we commission artwork from you or acquire your artwork by other means. We may also collect and process personal data about you if you are a sitter depicted in artwork commissioned or acquired by the House of Lords.

We may also wish to collect and process special category data about artists and sitters for equality and diversity monitoring purposes. Such data will only be collected and processed with your explicit consent. More information about the way such data is processed is provided at the point of collection.

Types of personal data collected

The personal data we process about you may include your:

  • name, address, phone number, email address, other personal contact details
  • bank account/credit card details
  • photograph
  • CCTV images
  • dietary or access requirements

Purpose

We process your personal data so we can:

  • provide you with goods, facilities or services
  • support the functioning of Parliament
  • explain and promote the work of Parliament

Legal bases

The legal bases allowing us to process your personal data are that it is necessary for us to do so for:

  • performing a contract (see article 6(1)(b) of the UK General Data Protection Regulation “the UK GDPR”)
  • complying with a legal obligation (see articles 6(1)(c) and 9(2)(b))
  • performing a task carried out in the public interest (see article 6(1)(e)) which includes the exercise of a function of either House of Parliament
  • furthering our legitimate interests (see article 6(1)(f)), in particular, to publicise and promote events in the House of Lords and also, so that we can bring or defend any legal proceedings

Consent

In some cases, we process your personal data because you have given your consent to allow us to do so (see articles 6(1)(a) and 9(2)(a) of the UK GDPR), for example when you sign up to receive our newsletters, or when you provide information about your dietary needs if you are attending an event at the House of Lords.

3. Who we share personal data with

Where necessary, we may share personal data with:

  • the House of Commons Service
  • providers of goods and services contracted by the House of Lords
  • organisations holding events at the House of Lords which you are attending

If you make a complaint to the House of Lords Commissioner for Standards about the conduct of a member of the House of Lords or their staff, we may need to share your personal data with the respondent. Please see the Commissioner webpages for further guidance on how complaints are managed.

We may also share your data when permitted to do so or when there is a legal requirement to do so.

4. Transfer to third countries

Some personal data we control are held outside the UK. These data are predominantly held in data centres within the European Economic Area (EEA), for the purpose of hosting and maintenance. If personal data are transferred to third countries outside the EEA, the adequacy of the data protection regimes of those countries and organisations holding the data is assessed to ensure appropriate safeguards are in place.

5. How long we keep personal data

Personal data collected about you are kept in accordance with Parliament’s Authorised Records Disposal Practice (ARDP). The length of time different types of personal data are kept depends on the purpose of their collection and legal requirements. The ARDP is published here.

6. 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.

7. Right to withdraw consent

Where the House of Lords Administration has relied on consent to process your data, you have the right to withdraw it at any time. To withdraw consent, please contact the Data Protection Officer at holinfocompliance@parliament.uk or on 0207 219 5693.

8. What if you do not provide your data?

There are certain circumstances where we rely on your personal data to facilitate services to you. Whilst there is no obligation to provide your personal information, it may affect the range of services you can access. For example, you have to provide us with certain details to be able to book a tour or visit the House of Lords.

9. 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.

 

Last updated October 2024