Privacy notice

In order to help NHS England cope with the pressures of the coronavirus crisis, Royal Voluntary Service has been appointed by NHS England to run the Volunteer Responder Scheme. The Volunteer Responder Scheme aims to recruit and deploy a network of volunteers throughout England who are willing and able to provide certain categories of support to individuals who are self-isolating for age or health related reasons or who otherwise fulfil the criteria for support set by NHS England.

This privacy notice is directed at individuals who use the website owned and operated by Royal Voluntary Service relating to the Volunteer Responders Scheme nhscarevolunteerresponders.org. Its purpose is to provide information to individuals who use the website about:

  • who we are;
  • what personal data we collect via the website;
  • how we use that personal data and who we share it with;
  • your rights under data protection law

as well as other important privacy information.

Royal Voluntary Service has a legal obligation to make this information available to you under data protection law (including General Data Protection Regulation 2016 (‘GDPR’)), as Royal Voluntary Service will be the controller of personal data collected from individuals who use the Volunteer Responder website.

Please read over this privacy notice carefully. If you have any queries about the content of this privacy notice or our use of your personal data, please get in touch with us using the contact details set out below (see ‘How to contact us’).

This privacy notice only relates to your use of the Volunteer Responder websiteIf you are a Volunteer Responder, a person who would like to request volunteer support through the Scheme or work for an organisation who would like to make a referral to the Scheme on behalf of an individual, additional privacy information will apply to you.  Please refer (as applicable) to our:

Key terms

In the following sections of this privacy notice, for convenience, we use the following defined terms:

Our data protection officer

Name: Geraint Jugessur
Address: Royal Voluntary Service, PO Box 565, Unit B, RD Park, EN11 0RF
Email address: [email protected]
Telephone: 029 2073 9184.

Personal data - any information relating to an identified or identifiable living individual;

Scheme - the Volunteer Responder Scheme;

We, us, our - ROYAL VOLUNTARY SERVICE (a company incorporated in England and Wales with registered number 2520413, and a registered charity with number 1015988) whose registered office is at Hanley Centre, 29 Charles Street, Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire ST1 3JP;

Website - the Volunteer Responders website owned and operated by Royal Voluntary Service and found at nhscarevolunteerresponders.org

You, your - an individual who uses the Website and at whom this privacy notice is directed.

Who we are

The Website is owned and operated by Royal Voluntary Service. As stated above, we are a company incorporated in England and Wales and a registered charity. You can find more information about us on our website royalvoluntaryservice.org.uk.

We collect, use and are responsible for certain personal data about you. When we do so we are regulated under the GDPR, which applies across the European Union and the United Kingdom and we are responsible as ‘controller’ of that personal data for the purposes of those laws.

Our website

This privacy policy relates to your use of the Website nhscarevolunteerresponders.org.

The Website links to other websites owned and operated by third parties, including third parties who are involved in the Scheme.

These other third party websites may also gather information about you in accordance with their own separate privacy policies. For privacy information relating to these other third party websites, please consult their privacy policies as appropriate.

Our collection and use of your personal data

The purpose of the Website is to provide you with information about the Scheme and how it works, in particular:

  • information for volunteers about the Volunteer Responder activities;
  • information for individuals about how to request support under the Scheme and the volunteer support available under the Scheme; and
  • information for organisations about how to make a referral on behalf of someone who needs support.

As such, we collect a very limited amount of limited personal data via the Website.

The personal data we collect via the Website is limited to:

  • your internet protocol address;
  • information we collect about your browsing activity and how you use the Website. We collect this information when you use and/or browse the Website using cookies and other technology embedded on our website. Further information about how we do this can be found in the section ‘COOKIES’ below and in our cookies policy;
  • any feedback you provide to us about your experiences using the Website (e.g. by ticking or filling in boxes on the Website). Please note that, when providing any such feedback, you will not be required to submit your name and contact details.

Each of the categories of information referred to above are unlikely to constitute personal data in their own right, but they may do so when combined. Please note that we will anonymise any such personal data before using it.

How we will use your personal data

We will only use the personal data we collect about you via the Website to improve and enhance the functionality, layout and other elements of the user experience.

Our legal basis for processing your personal data

When we use your personal data, we are required to have a legal basis for doing so. There are various different legal bases on which we may rely under data protection law, depending on what personal information we process and why.

In relation to the personal data we collect as a result of your use of the Website, we will largely rely upon your express or implied consent. In particular, your express consent is required before we can use many kinds of cookies. For more information about this, including how and when we will seek to obtain your consent, see our cookie policy.

Alternatively, we will rely upon a ground known as ‘legitimate interests’. This ground is available where our use of your personal data is necessary for our legitimate interests or the legitimate interests of a third party (unless there is a good reason to protect your personal information which overrides our legitimate interests).

Who we share your personal information with

Some of the cookies and software applications embedded in the Website to help us to understand how the Website is used are run, on our behalf, by third parties. In this situation, information about your use of the Website will generally be collected by such third parties, anonymised, analysed and provided back to us as analytics data.

It is possible that we may also need to share your personal data with law enforcement or other authorities if required by applicable law.

We will not share your personal information with any other third party.

Transfer of your information out of the UK and EEA

Neither we nor any of the third party processors we use to process personal data on our behalf will transfer your personal data outside the European Economic Area (EEA).

Cookies and other tracking technologies

A cookie is a small text file which is placed onto your device (e.g. your computer, smartphone or other electronic device) when you use a website. We use cookies and other similar technologies (such as Google Analytics) on the Website. These help us recognise you and your device and store some information about your browsing activity.

For further information about the cookies and other similar technologies we use on the Website, when we will request your consent before placing them and how to disable them, please see our cookie policy.

How long your personal information will be kept

Please refer to our cookie policy for details about the duration of the cookies and other technologies we place onto your device.

Any information that we extract from such cookies or other technologies for analytical purposes will be anonymised so will not constitute personal data.

Your rights

Under data protection law, you have a number of different rights which you can exercise free of charge. These are described in the table below. Some of the rights only apply in certain circumstances and not all of the rights will be relevant in relation to our use of your personal data:

Access - The right to be provided with a copy of your personal data (the right of access)

Rectification - The right to require any mistakes in your personal data to be corrected

To be forgotten - The right, in certain circumstances, to require that your personal data is deleted

Restriction of processing - The right, in certain circumstances, to require use of your personal data to be restricted (for example, if you contest the accuracy of the data)

Data portability - The right, in certain circumstances, to receive your personal data in a structured, commonly used and machine-readable format and/or transmit that data to a third party

To object - The right to object to your personal data being processed for direct marketing (including profiling) and the right, in certain circumstances, to object to the continued processing of your personal data on the basis of legitimate interests

Not to be subject to automated individual decision making - The right not to be subject to a decision based solely on automated processing (including profiling) that produces legal effects concerning you or similarly significantly affects you.

For further information about each of these rights, including the circumstances in which they apply, please contact us. Alternatively, you can refer to the follow guidance published by the Information Commissioner’s Office (the UK supervisory body for data protection) – see ico.org.uk/for-the-public

If you would like to exercise any of your rights, please email, call or write to our Data Protection Officer (see below: ‘How to contact us’). Please note that we will ask you to:

  • Let us have enough information to identify you;
  • Provide us with proof of your identity and address (e.g. a copy of your driving licence or passport); and
  • Let us know what right you want to exercise and the information to which your request relates.
How to complain

We hope that our Data Protection Officer can resolve any query or concern you may raise about our use of your personal data.

The GDPR also gives you right to lodge a complaint with a supervisory authority. In the UK, this is the Information Commissioner who may be contacted at ico.org.uk/make-a-complaint or telephone: 0303 123 1113.

Changes to this privacy policy

This privacy notice was first published on 5 August 2020.

We will make updated versions of our privacy notice available on our Volunteer Responder website.

How to contact us

Please contact us/our Data Protection Officer by post, email or telephone if you have any questions about this privacy policy or the personal data we hold about you:

Our data protection officer - Geraint Jugessur
Our postal address - Royal Voluntary Service, PO Box 565, Unit B, RD Park, EN11 0RF.
Our email address - [email protected]
Our telephone number - 029 2073 9184