Who are we?
The IUCN UK Peatland Programme was set up in 2009 to promote peatland restoration in the UK and advocates the multiple benefits of peatlands through partnerships, strong science, sound policy and effective practice.
Our long term vision is that peatlands in the UK function to their full potential and that there is no further loss of peatland ecosystems, which will help mitigate climate change. Investment in peatland restoration is needed now, securing the benefits they provide and avoiding the costly consequences of their deterioration.
The work of the Peatland Programme is overseen by a coalition of partner bodies including Defra, John Muir Trust, Moors for the Future Partnership, National Trust of Scotland, Natural England, Natural Resources Wales, North Pennines AONB Partnership, RSPB, Scottish Natural Heritage, Scottish Wildlife Trust, University of East London, University of Newcastle and Yorkshire Wildlife Trust.
The Programme is currently hosted by the Scottish Wildlife Trust. It operates across the UK and Ireland, as well as engaging with international peatland work through IUCN, Ramsar and the Global Peatlands Initiative.
Our commitment to your privacy
We are committed to keeping the personal details of our stakeholders and any interested parties safe. This policy explains how and why we use your personal data, to ensure that you remain informed and in control of your information.
Any references to IUCN UK Peatland Programme, IUCN UK PP, or to ‘we’ or ‘us’ refer to:
- IUCN UK Peatland Programme. We are a programme hosted by Scottish WIldilfe Trust, registered charity in Scotland, charity number SC005792, and Yorkshire Wildlife Trust registered charity in England and Wales, charity number 210807.
We use three key definitions to describe people mentioned in this policy. These are definitions used by the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO), the UK’s independent body set up to uphold information rights (www.ico.org.uk).
- ‘Data subject’: this is you, one of our stakeholders. As the data subject, we respect your right to control your data.
- ‘Data controller’: this is us, the IUCN UK Peatland Programme. With your permission, we determine why and how your personal data is used (as outlined in this policy).
- ‘Data processor’: this is a person, or organisation, who processes your data on our behalf, with your permission. For example, this might be an events company, who send out conference booking details on our behalf (sometimes it’s more cost-effective to outsource ad-hoc and large-scale tasks like this).
When we work with other organisations or individuals in this way, we always set up a written contract with them to protect your data. The third parties we work with at no point ‘own’ your data, so you will never hear from them independently and they will always delete your data from their systems when they have completed the task in hand. We always send your data to partner organisations securely, to minimise the risk of it being intercepted by unknown individuals and/or organisations.
We will never sell your personal data.
Should you wish to find out more about the information we hold about you, or about our privacy policy, please contact us at: info@iucn.org.uk
Why do we collect your personal data?
We use your personal data to keep in touch with you.
We will only ever collect, store and use your personal data when we have an identified purpose and reason to do so. The ICO refers to this as a ‘lawful basis’. Further information about why we collect your personal data is outlined below.
1) To send you information about the work of the UK peatland community and ask for your opinion
We collect your personal data so that we can send you information about our work and that of our partners that we feel will be of interest to you. This includes a monthly newsletter, event information, services, products, feedback, competitions and other activities, as well as information about other carefully selected organisations that we work in partnership with. From time to time, we may also use your personal data to ask for your opinion about our work.
This information is defined as ‘direct marketing’ by the ICO.
Your personal data also helps us to get to know you better and to develop a ‘profile’ of you on our secure contact database. This ‘profile’ enables us to send you the information listed above in a timely and relevant way, to suit you. For example, keeping track of e-communications you have engaged with allows us to provide you with more relevant information in future mailings.
As defined by the ICO, we use two different lawful bases for processing your data for ‘direct marketing’ purposes:
- Legitimate interest
This is where we have identified a genuine and legitimate reason for contacting you, which crucially does not override your rights or interests
We use legitimate interest to send you the information listed above by post, email or telephone (if you are not registered with the Telephone Preference Service, and you have given us your telephone number).
- Opt-in consent
This is where you have given us express permission to contact you by particular communication channels.
We use opt-in consent to send you the information listed above by email or telephone (if you are registered with the Telephone Preference Service).
We respect your right to update the way we get in touch with you about our work at any time.
2) To send you confirmation of event bookings and ticket purchases
We collect your personal data to send you information about events you have booked onto. The ICO define the lawful basis for processing your data for these purposes as ‘contractual’.
3) To enable you to volunteer with us
If you are an IUCN UK Peatland Programme volunteer, we collect your personal data so that we can keep in touch with you about, for example:
- changes to planned volunteer work programmes that you may be taking part in
- the positive impact you have on our work, by sending you our newsletter
- dedicated volunteer thank-yous.
As defined by the ICO, the lawful basis for processing your data for these purposes is ‘contractual’ (where administering your volunteer record) and ‘legitimate interest’ (when sending you information about our work).
What kind of personal data do we collect? How do we collect it?
1) Basic information
We will usually collect basic information about you, including your name and email address. In some cases, we will also collect your postal address and telephone number, for example when taking payment for a conference ticket.
Most of the time, we collect this data from you directly. Sometimes this is in person; other times, it is over the telephone, in writing or through an email. Occasionally we obtain information, such as your telephone number or other contact details, from external sources (only where you have given permission for such information to be shared).
2) Getting to know you better
We also collect information about you that helps us to get to know you better. This may include:
- information about your views on aspects of our work through surveys
- your preferences of how you would like us to contact you
- ways you’ve helped us through volunteering your time
- records of events you’ve attended, or campaigns or activities that you’ve been involved in
Once again, most of the time we collect this data from you directly. Occasionally we also obtain data from external sources. For example, we may check against Royal Mail’s National Change of Address database to ensure that the address we have listed for you is up to date. We know moving to a new house can be a busy time and appreciate that you don’t always have the chance to send us your new address. By undertaking this exercise, we can update your record without you needing to get in touch.
Other ways in which we collect personal data to get to know you better include:
- Our website
Our website uses ‘cookies’ to help provide you with the best experience we can. Cookies are small text files that are placed on your computer or mobile phone when you browse websites.
Our cookies help us:
- Make our website work as you'd expect
- Remember your settings during and between visits
- Improve the speed/security of the site
- Allow you to share pages with social networks like Facebook
- Continuously improve our website for you.
For more information on our Cookies Policy, please click here.
3) Sensitive personal data
We do not normally collect or store sensitive personal data (such as information relating to health, beliefs or political affiliation) about our stakeholders. However, there are some situations where this will occur.
When we do so, we will be very clear as to why we are collecting such information, and we will only do so with your specific consent and permission. In these situations, we collect the data from you directly.
If you are a volunteer then we may collect extra information about you, for example:
- references
- criminal records checks
- details of emergency contacts
- medical conditions
We may also collect sensitive personal data if you are attending one of our site visits. This information will be retained for legal reasons, for safeguarding purposes and to protect us (including in the event of an insurance or legal claim). If this does occur, we’ll take extra care to ensure your privacy rights are protected.
4) Children and young people
In line with data protection law, we will not collect, store or process your personal details if you are under 13 years of age; unless we have the express permission from your parent or guardian to do so.
How do we store your data?
a) Security
All of the personal data we process is processed by our staff in the UK. However, for the purposes of IT hosting and maintenance your information may be situated outside of the European Economic Area (EEA). This will be done in accordance with guidance issued by the Information Commissioner’s Office.
Electronic data and databases are stored on secure computer systems and we control who has access to information (using both physical and electronic means). Our staff receive data protection training and we have a set of detailed data protection procedures which personnel are required to follow when handling personal data.
b) Payment security
All electronic IUCN UK Peatland Programme forms that request financial data will use the Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) protocol to encrypt the data between your browser and our servers.
All payments are processed by host organisation Yorkshire Wildlife Trust. Yorkshire Wildlife Trust complies with the payment card industry data standard (PCI-DSS) published by the PCI Security Standards Council, and will never store card details.
Of course, we cannot guarantee the security of your home computer or the internet, and any online communications (e.g. information provided by email or our website) are at the user’s own risk.
c) Data retention policy
We will only use and store information for as long as it required for the purposes it was collected for. We continually review what information we hold, and delete what is no longer required.
Your rights
We respect your right to control your data. Your rights include:
- The right to be informed: This privacy notice outlines how we capture, store and use your data. If you have any questions about any elements of this policy, please contact us.
- The right of access: If you wish to obtain a record of the personal data we hold about you, through a Subject Access Request, we will respond within one month.
- The right to rectification: If we have captured information about you that is inaccurate or incomplete, we will update it.
- The right to erase: You can ask us to remove your personal details from our records.
- The right to restrict processing: You can ask us to stop using your personal data.
- The right to data portability: You can ask to obtain your personal data from us for your own purposes.
- The right to object: You can ask to be excluded from marketing activity.
- Rights in relation to automated decision making and profiling: We respect your right not to be subject to a decision that is based on automated processing.
For more information on your individual rights, please see the Information Commissioner’s Office.
Making a complaint
IUCN UK Peatland Programme want to exceed your expectation in everything we do. However, we know that there may be times when we do not meet our own high standards. When this happens, we want to hear about it, in order to deal with the situation as quickly as possible and put measures in place to stop it happening again.
We take complaints very seriously and we treat them as an opportunity to develop our approach. This is why we are always very grateful to hear from people who are willing to take the time to help us improve.
Our policy is:
- To provide a fair complaints procedure that is clear and easy to use for anyone wishing to make a complaint.
- To publicise the existence of our complaints procedure so that people know how to contact us to make a complaint.
- To make sure everyone in our organisation knows what to do if a complaint is received.
- To make sure all complaints are investigated fairly and in a timely way.
- To make sure that complaints are, wherever possible, resolved and that relationships are repaired.
- To learn from complaints and feedback to help us to improve what we do.
Confidentiality
All complaint information will be handled sensitively, in line with relevant data protection requirements.
Responsibility
Overall responsibility for this policy and its implementation lies with the Director, IUCN UK Peatland Programme.
For further information on how to make a complaint, please email us on info@iucn.org.uk.
Information Commissioner’s Office
For further assistance with complaints regarding your data, please contact the Information Commissioner’s Office, whose remit covers the UK.
Information Commissioner’s Office
Wycliffe House
Water Lane
Wilmslow
SK9 5AF
Telephone: 0303 123 1113
Email: casework@ico.org.uk
Leaving our website
We are not responsible for the privacy practices or the content of any other websites linked to our website. If you have followed a link from this website to another website you may be supplying information to a third party.
Get in touch
Should you wish to find out more about the information we hold about you, or about our privacy policy, please contact us: info@iucn.org.uk
