BGU REPORT AND SUPPORT PRIVACY NOTICE
No member of the BGU community is expected to tolerate bullying, harassment or sexual misconduct, whether by a member of the BGU community, a visitor to the University or a member of the public. We are committed to preventing unacceptable behaviours and will treat all reports of such behaviours seriously, whilst respecting your rights under data protection law.
This notice is informed by the principles of our Prevention of Bullying, Harassment and Sexual Misconduct Policy which is available here: https://www.bishopg.ac.uk/about-bgu/policies-and-procedures
Before you use the Report and Support tool, we want explain how and why we collect and use personal information about persons disclosing or reporting an incident of bullying, harassment or sexual misconduct. This notice sets out the different ways in which personal information may be processed in different reporting scenarios and options for anonymous reporting. Personal data, or personal information, means any information about an individual from which that person can be identified. It does not include data where the identity has been removed (anonymous data). There are “special categories” of more sensitive personal data which require a higher level of protection.
This notice applies to any member of staff, student, research participant, or member of the public disclosing experiences of unacceptable behaviour experienced while working, studying or participating in a BGU activity.
The Report and Support tool is for submission of formal disclosures. Should you wish to make an informal disclosure, please use the guidance here: https://www.bishopg.ac.uk/about-bgu/safeguarding-harassment-and-misconduct/information-reporting-and-support
Reporting with a name
You can use our Report and Support tool, to tell us about an experience or incident yourself, or on behalf of someone else. Personal data will be used to record and respond to your report, including offering you support. We will need to use the information you give us to investigate what has happened and to discuss your report with you. The types of information we need are your name (or the name of the person you are reporting for), your contact details and a description of what you have experienced. We will need to record details of third parties involved in incidents you tell us about. As part of reporting, you may need to provide us with sensitive (special category) information such as health details, political beliefs, sexual orientation or ethnicity of any identifiable person. We will also use information provided through the tool, to conduct reporting so we can analyse trends and outcomes. Provision of some information is optional such as demographic information.
Information is provided on basis of your consent, or your explicit consent in the case of sensitive personal data. By submitting your concerns using the Report and Support tool, you are consenting to your details being used according to this notice.
We may need to rely on other lawful bases (with or without consent) for handling your details in different ways:
- In circumstances when the law allows or obligates us to share information with others (the police, NHS or other relevant agencies) to safeguard someone at real risk of harm;
- In best serving our staff and students in accordance with our contracts;
- In situations where we need to deliver our wider tasks in the public interest;
- where we have a legitimate interest in ensuring a working and studying environment where everyone is treated with equal respect and dignity.
Use of sensitive (special category) personal data, will be on the basis of your explicit consent or because we need to meet specific legal obligations or achieve an outcome in the substantial public interest. We will always ensure that what we share is kept secure, proportionate and only shared if necessary in all the circumstances.
We will discuss each stage of your report progression with you.
Access to your report details, sharing and security
A small number of staff within our Regulatory Compliance department have access to reports. Permissions are set up with your confidentiality in mind. Information may need to be shared internally, securely, with specific staff in other departments such as Human Resources or Student Advice - according to the best route for your report to take. Information may be shared externally in a limited set of circumstances, and only after careful consideration, as outlined above.
Our Report and Support Tool is provided by a third-party provider, Culture Shift Ltd. Staff at Culture Shift do not have routine access to reports. There may be occasions where their employees need to access our system to help with IT or technical issues or to assist staff with reporting. We have a robust agreement in place with Culture Shift setting out responsibilities and to ensure your data is held in an environment that is technically secure, with measures in place to reduce risks to your data.
Your rights and retention
Your details will only be kept for as long as necessary, in line with our Retention Schedule, before being securely deleted from the Report and Support tool and removed from other University systems where held. Retention timeframes may vary depending on which route your report takes. Only anonymous statistics will be retained for reporting purposes. You have the right to withdraw your consent at any time.
For full details of your individual data protection rights, notices for staff, students and our wider University Privacy Policy please see: https://www.bishopg.ac.uk/about-bgu/governance/data-protection. For full details of how Student Advice process your personal data please see the Student Advice Confidentiality Policy: https://www.bishopg.ac.uk/about-bgu/policies-and-procedures
Reporting Anonymously
If you choose not to share your name when reporting to us, we will be unlikely to be able to take any formal action or help you directly. Your report will be taken seriously and we may use a numbering system to be able to track your report and help us make improvements for others.