Honours nomination: privacy notice

Data Controller Name: Welsh Government
Address: Welsh Government, Cathays Park, Cardiff, CF10 3NQ
Email: honours@gov.uk 

The processing of the nominee’s and the nominator’s personal details is necessary for the Crown to exercise its function of conferring an honour or dignity. The Honours Secretariat in the Welsh Government collects the personal information necessary to determine eligibility and suitability for an award.

To comply with data protection legislation, we must have a lawful basis for processing any personal data. The processing that this Department carries out is on a ‘Public task’ basis (i.e. the processing is necessary for the Department to perform a task in the public interest or for our official functions, and the task or function has a clear basis in law). As detailed below, some of the information we process will be of a particularly sensitive nature (e.g. relates to race or ethnicity), and the condition for processing this special category (sensitive) personal data is for ‘reasons of substantial public interest’. There is no requirement for the nominator to obtain the consent of the nominee. Nominees should not be told that they have been nominated as it is not fair to raise their expectations.

We are processing both personal data and special category (sensitive) personal data. Personal data processed includes name, address, and date of birth. Special category (sensitive) personal data includes race, ethnicity, and disability information.

Personal data originates from the Honours nominator and nominations are received in confidence. The nominator can be any individual or organisation - for example, a member of the public, a Welsh Government Department, local politicians, Lord Lieutenants, or from UK Government departments including the Cabinet Office and the Foreign and Commonwealth Office.

Personal information is shared with other Government departments, or those staff in other public bodies who are involved in the nomination process. For example, personal information may be shared confidentially and securely with Welsh Governments Departments; Cabinet Office, other UK Government Departments, and Lord Lieutenants appointed by the King for the purposes of processing the Honours nomination.

Sometimes it may be necessary to transfer personal information overseas. When this is needed information may be transferred to countries or territories around the world. Any transfers made will be in full compliance with all aspects of data protection legislation.

Information relating to administering the honours system, including personal data, may be retained by the Welsh Government for 20 years. A record will be maintained in perpetuity of those nominees who receive an honour for the purposes of maintaining the records of the honours system.

Your information will not be used in respect of automated decision-making including profiling.

Your personal information will be managed in line with Data Protection legislation and the Welsh Government’s retention and disposal schedule. It will only be kept for as long as necessary for the purposes for which it was collected. The Department follows Welsh Government information management and governance policies to ensure your data is processed securely. Specifically, your information is stored electronically within the Welsh Government’s secure records management system and is accessible only to a limited number of authorised staff.

Under data protection legislation, you have the right:

• to be informed of the personal data Welsh Government holds about you and to access it
• to require us to rectify inaccuracies in that data
• to (in certain circumstances) object to or restrict processing
• for (in certain circumstances) your data to be ‘erased’
• to (in certain circumstances) data portability
• to lodge a complaint with the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) who is our independent regulator for data protection

The Welsh Government is committed to handling your personal data safely, securely and only for as long as we need. 

If you have any concerns about how we use your personal data, we encourage you to raise them with the relevant team in the first instance. 

You can also contact the Data Protection Officer by emailing DataProtectionOfficer@gov.wales or writing to the DPO at: 

Welsh Government 
Cathays Park 
Cardiff 
CF10 3NQ

If you wish to make a formal complaint about how the Welsh Government has processed your personal data, you can complain about Welsh Government

We will acknowledge your complaint and respond within an appropriate timescale, in line with data protection legislation and our complaints process.