TEACHERS DEFENCE SERVICE – DATA & PRIVACY POLICY, including Cookie Policy

1. Purpose of our privacy statement

Under the Data Protection Act and the General Data Protection Regulation, we are required to explain to you why we are asking for information about you, how we intend to use the information you provide to us and whether we will share this information with anyone else.

We can provide our literature in different formats. If you require this information in a different format, please contact us.

Note that our Terms of Use apply to all users of this website.

2. Who are we?

We are Teachers Defence Service (TDS) – a division of Trident Chambers – and we are the Data Controller. We are regulated by the Bar Standards Board of England and Wales. Our principle lawyers are regulated in England and Wales and can undertake all legal work in those countries (inlcuding regulatory law, civil law and criminal law cases, and appeals). Dependent on the regulations of a particular country of the UK, we can advise and represent you in certain matters related to Teaching anywhere in the UK. Regulations permit us to represent teachers before the teaching regulators of the four countries of the United Kingdom. We also work with lawyers in Scotland and Northern Ireland where they may be better suited to advise and represent you in relation to some other areas of law, such as criminal and civil law, and in appeals. We can often work with your own established lawyer, to advise you on legal and regulatory matters relating to teachers. Or recommend suitable lawyers to help you with certain aspects outside of our rights of audience and litigation powers (the regulations that restrict which lawyers can operate in certain areas of law within the four jurisidctions of the United Kingdom).  Contact us to see how we can assist you. We will advise you on the scope and limits of our practice. Our lawyers carry indemnity insurance for all work that they undertake on your case. We also operate a complaints process, in accordance with the Legal Ombudsman for England and Wales.

3. Our data protection officer

Our Data Protection Officer is or CEO/HoC responsible for overseeing what we do with your information and monitoring our compliance with data protection laws.

If you have any concerns or questions about our use of your personal data, you can contact our Data Protection Officer by writing to us at our email address.

4. Who is this for?

This privacy statement is targeted at all individuals we interact with and anyone using our website, including teachers and lecturers and other staff in education or the regulation of education.

5. Why are we collecting your information?

We collect limited information. Note that we are not responsible for third-party cookies and the data collection by third-parties.

We receive data by email and through our online forms, and occasionally by telephone.

6. What information are we collecting?

All the information we collect about you will be stored and used by us in accordance with this privacy statement and in accordance with your rights as described in Section 13 of this statement under the Data Protection Act and the General Data Protection Regulation.

Personal data

The information which we process about you is collected:

• when you complete an online form, or update your details with us;
• when you submit an application or form to us online or manually;
• when you complete a survey or otherwise provide  us with information for research purposes;
• when you contact us by email, post, telephone or fax;  
• when you contact by telephone, we may record telephone conversations to offer you additional security, resolve complaints and improve our service standards;
• from persons duly authorised by you, such information, evidence or reports, provided to us by yourself or third parties;
• through cookies on our website (for further information see our Cookies Notice 
• IP addresses collected through our websites.

The information which we collect about you from other sources:

• when obtaining the references from referees you have supplied, for the purpose of confirming your suitability for appointment to committees, panels or expert groups.
• Other data as needed to function.

The information which we collect about you through the above processes will typically be your name and contact information such as postal address, email address and telephone numbers, your contact history, subscriptions, any application information or report from you and in relation to cookies, your internet log information and visitor behaviour information.

7. What is the lawful basis for using your information?

Personal data

In accordance with the data protection laws, we need a “lawful basis” for collecting and using information about you. There are a variety of different lawful bases for processing personal data which are set out in the data protection laws.

The lawful bases on which we rely in order to use the information which we collect about you for the purposes set out in this notice will be:

• using your information is necessary for the performance of a task carried out in the public interest (to fulfil our statutory regulatory obligations); or
• you have provided consent to our use of your information; or
• using your information is necessary to fulfil a contract you have with us, or because you have asked us to take specific steps; or
• using your information is necessary for the pursuing of legitimate interests of the Teachers Defence Service.

Special categories of personal data

The lawful basis on which we rely in order to use your sensitive personal data/special categories of personal data which we collect about you will be:

• that it is necessary for the performance of a task carried out;

8. What are we going to do with your information?

Personal data

The information which you provide to us will be used to carry out legal services work, and to meet or regulatory requirements. This includes the handling and processing of your data by our staff and lawyers.

9. Sharing your information

Contractors and sub-contractors

It may be necessary to share your information with our contractors and sub-contractors so they can provide a service to you or to enable us to deliver our legal services work. The contractors and sub-contractors shall be contractually required to ensure that they adhere to the security requirements imposed by the Data Protection Act and/or the General Data Protection Regulation (as applicable).

Our contractors and sub-contractors will not share your information with any other parties (except in the case of our file storage contractor) and will only be able to use the information when completing work on behalf of us.

Regulators and other legal obligations

Our own regulator may require the disclosure of data in certain circumstances, to monitor our compliance.

Other organisations

10. Transferring your information abroad

Some of our servers are overseas but data will be held confidentially under GDPR or Privacy Shield type agreements.

11. Security and your personal information

The information that you provide will be stored securely on our electronic systems. Our security measures and procedures reflect the seriousness with which we approach security and the value we attach to your information. These measures and procedures are audited and reviewed.

Only relevant members of staff will have access to the information you provide to us. Those members of staff will have received appropriate data protection training.

12. Can we use your information for any other purpose?

In limited circumstances we may use your information for a purpose other than those set out in this policy. If we intend to do so, we will provide you with information relating to that other purpose before using it for the new purpose.

13. Storing your information and deleting it

We shall retain shall only retain personal data for as long as is necessary for the legitimate purposes for which the personal data is processed. As we are a legal services provider and, bearing in mind the limitation periods of various jurisdictions, we may need to retain your data for several years. When the legitimate purposes come to an end, we shall securely delete the personal data unless the retention of the personal data is required for archiving purposes, which are for up to 21 years.

When one of the above situations arise, we will review the information which we hold concerning you and determine whether there are any legal reasons why we need to continue holding that information.  Once the identified purpose comes to an end, unless there is another identifiable purpose for which it is necessary to hold on to your information, we will delete your information.

If you provide information for research purposes, at the end of the research project the information will be deleted or kept in an anonymised or pseudonymised format unless you are specifically notified otherwise.

If you would like further information about our data retention and disposal schedule then please contact us.

14. Your rights

In relation to the information which we hold about you, you are entitled to:

• see a copy of the information;
• ask us to rectify the information where it is inaccurate or is incomplete. If we agree the information is inaccurate or incomplete and make the rectification, we will inform any recipients of the information of the change, where possible;
• ask us to erase the information, but we will not be able to comply where we hold your information to fulfil our statutory regulatory and representative obligations;
• ask us to restrict what we do with your information, but there are a number of exemptions relating to this right;
• object to our use of your information and ask us to stop that use, in certain circumstances; and
• instruct us to provide you with the information we hold about you in a structured and commonly used format or transmit that information directly to another organisation.

Our obligations to comply with the above rights are subject to certain exemptions.

Where we are using some of your information because you have provided your consent to that use, you are entitled to withdraw your consent at any time. The lawfulness of our use of your information before consent was withdrawn is not affected. You can do this by emailing us.  

You also have the right to complain to the Information Commissioner’s Office (the “ICO”) if you are not satisfied with the way we use your information. You can contact the ICO – see here for details.

15. Other websites

Our Site may contain links to other websites which are outside our control and are not covered by this Privacy Policy. If you access other websites using the links provided, the operators of these websites may collect information from you which will be used by them in accordance with their own privacy policies, which may differ from ours. Therefore, if you use these links to leave our Site and visit websites operated by third parties, we cannot be responsible for the protection and privacy of any information that you provide whilst visiting those websites. Please check these policies before you submit any personal data to these websites.

16. Cookies

Our websites might include cookies and on the whole we do not process data from cookies ourselves. However, we might use SEO and other tools to analyse data. If you prefer not to have your data tracked, delete the cookie and delete your relevant cache.

17. Reviewing our privacy policy

This policy will be kept under review and if amended notification will be made on our website.

TEACHERS DEFENCE SERVICE