Introduction

This privacy notice explains the way in which we (the Public Services Ombudsman for Wales) handle your personal information.  This privacy notice is layered.  You can read more about the way we process your information depending on the nature of your contact with us.

The general information section of this privacy notice explains:

 

Who we are

The Public Services Ombudsman for Wales has legal powers to consider complaints about public services in Wales.  For example, you may complain that you have been treated unfairly or received a bad service through some failure on the part of the body providing it.  We can consider complaints about most public bodies in Wales.

We can also look at complaints that councillors (including community councillors) have breached their local authority’s code of conduct.

 

How you can contact us

You can contact us in the following ways:

  • By phone: 0300 790 0203

If you use BSL, you can use our free SignVideo interpreting service to talk to us (available from 8am-6pm, Monday to Friday).  You can read the SignVideo Privacy Policy from here.

We record our calls (telephone and other audio/video calls), as we find that it can be useful to listen again to conversations, to help us understand what we have been told. Calls are recorded and stored on our own systems.

 

Our Data Protection Officer’s contact details

Our Data Protection Officer is Alison Parker.  You can contact her at Information.Request@ombudsman.wales

 

How we collect your personal information

What information we collect depends on the nature of your contact with us.  Depending on the reason for your contact we may need to collect information about you from others.  To find out more read the privacy notice that relates to your reason for contacting us.

 

The steps we take to protect your information

We ensure that we protect your personal information. We have internal policies and controls in place to keep your information secure.  We also limit access to your personal information to only those who have a business need have access to it.  

We use data processors who are third parties to provide some services for us.  We have contracts or data processing agreements in place with them for these services which set out the instructions they must follow.  This includes ensuring that adequate safeguards are in place to protect your information.

 

How long we keep your information

We will keep the information only for as long as we need it and will depend on what it is being used for.  Find out more about how long we keep different records for in our record retention schedule.

 

Your data protection rights

You have the following rights under the UK General Data Protection Regulation (UK GDPR):

  • To be informed about how we use your information.  This privacy notice is an example of this. 
  • To request access to the information we hold about you.  However, we may be unable to give you all the information you ask about if it relates to other people or has been given to us in confidence.  Read our page about asking for information we hold about you.
  • To ask that we update, complete or correct your information, if it is inaccurate or incomplete.
  • To ask us to delete your personal information.  However, we may be unable to agree to this if we are using the information to fulfil our statutory duties (also known as public task) or if the law requires us to keep the information for longer. 
  • To object to our using your information for certain purposes.
  • To limit our use of it for certain purposes.

You can contact us to exercise your rights by emailing Information.Request@ombudsman.wales.

We will respond to your data protection request within one calendar month. 

If you are unhappy with our response you can make a data protection complaint to us by emailing Information.Request@ombudsman.wales.  Your complaint will be considered by a different person you received the response from. 

If you are still unhappy with the way in which we have used your information you have the right to complain to the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO).