Privacy Notice

Its purpose is to protect the rights and privacy of living individuals and to ensure that personal data is not processed without their knowledge and wherever possible, is processed with their consent.

In order to perform its functions, Smiths Equipment Hire Ltd. needs to process certain personal information about its staff and other individuals it has dealings with for administrative purposes (e.g. to recruit and pay staff, to administer work, to record progress and to comply with legal obligations).

Smiths is defined as the ‘Data Controller’ for these activities and the Directors are ultimately responsible for compliance. Smiths has appointed the Human Resources Manager who is, responsible for responding to individual requests for access to personal data and framing guidelines and procedures with the aim of ensuring that all personal data processing by Smiths is lawful.

Compliance

Smiths Equipment Hire Ltd. is committed to a policy of protecting the rights and privacy of individuals in relation to the processing of their personal data in compliance with the Data Protection Act 1998. To comply with the law, information about individuals must be collected and used fairly and in accordance with individuals’ rights, stored safely and securely and not disclosed to any third party unlawfully.

Status of the Policy

This policy applies to all staff of Smiths Equipment Hire Ltd. The policy does not form part of the formal contract of employment, but it is a condition of employment that employees abide by the rules and policies made by Smiths and with its legal obligations. Any failure to follow this policy may result in disciplinary proceedings or prosecution.

As a matter of good practice, other agencies and individuals working with Smiths, who have access to personal information, will be expected to have read and comply with this policy. It is expected that where relevant, staff who exchange information falling within the scope of the Data Protection Act with external partners, they will take responsibility for ensuring that such partners sign a contract agreeing to abide by this policy and that suitable usage and security measures are in place.

Obligations of Staff

All staff are required to comply with the Data Protection Act and with this policy when handling personal data. All have an obligation to keep Smiths informed of changes or inaccuracies in personal data relating to their employment so that Smiths can maintain accurate records.

Smiths will, from time to time, take steps to audit the accuracy of the personal data it holds by contacting the data subject. This may be in the course of a routine check up or where it becomes apparent that the personal data we hold may be inaccurate.

Principles of Data Protection

The Data Protection Act establishes principles with which all members of Smiths must comply at all times. In summary, these state that personal data shall:

• Be obtained and processed fairly and lawfully and shall not be processed unless certain conditions are met.
• Be obtained for a specified and lawful purpose and shall not be processed in any manner incompatible with that purpose.
• Be adequate, relevant and not excessive for those purposes.
• Be accurate and kept up to date.
• Not be kept for longer than is necessary for that purpose.
• Be processed in accordance with the data subject’s rights.
• Be kept safe from unauthorised access, accidental loss or destruction.
• Not be transferred to a country outside the European Economic Area, unless that country has equivalent levels of protection for personal data.