Introduction
The Feminism in London planning committee are fully committed to compliance with the requirements of the Data Protection Act 1998 (“the Act”), which came into force on the 1st March 2000. We will therefore follow procedures that aim to ensure that all supporters and volunteers or other partners of the group who have access to any personal data held by or on behalf of the organisation, are fully aware of and abide by their duties and responsibilities under the Act.
Statement of policy
In order to work as efficiently as possible, the Feminism in London planning committee has to collect and use information about people with whom it works and who support the event. These may include members of the public and the volunteers who help make the event possible. This personal information must be handled and dealt with properly, however it is collected, recorded and used, and whether it be on paper, in computer records or recorded by any other means, and there are safeguards within the Act to ensure this.
The Feminism in London planning committee regard the lawful and correct treatment of personal information as very important to its successful operations and to maintaining confidence between the organisation and those with whom support it and it carries out its work and will ensure that it treats personal information lawfully and correctly.
Guidelines
In order to ensure compliance with legal regulations the Feminism in London planning committee will follow the guidelines below when collecting and storing information about the people it works with.
1. Collecting data
1.1. The committee will only collect personal data from volunteers or event participants that is genuinely useful to the committee, for example in funding applications or when seeking to improve the conference.
1.2. The committee may collect personal and sensitive personal data from volunteers and event participants both on paper and electronically.
1.3. Wherever personal and sensitive personal data is requested by the committee a clear reason will be given for the collection of the information.
1.4 Where sensitive personal data is required it will be made clear that the provision of this data is optional.
2. Storing data
2.1 Any hard copies of forms carrying personal data will only be kept if necessary, if not needed, they will be destroyed. Any paper forms which need to be kept will be held on file by Anna Fisher.
2.2 Any personal data collected electronically will be kept in a locked database, access to which will be restricted to members of the planning committee.
2.3 Sensitive personal data such as sexual orientation and ethnicity will be stored anonymously and separately from any documents (paper or electronic) that could relate sensitive data to individuals.
3. Accessing data
3.1 Any individual can access information stored about them by the planning committee by contacting info@feminisminlondon.org.uk. A statement to this effect is displayed on the Feminism in London website. The information will be sent to the individual as promptly as possible.