Your Rights

Data Protection - Your Rights

Data protection laws in the UK give individuals a number of rights in relation to personal data. This guide explains these rights and tells you how to contact us about them.

Your personal data

Personal data is information that relates to a living individual. Any information about you where you can be identified, or you are identifiable either directly or indirectly, is your personal data.

At Ayrshire College, we gather lots of personal data (about students, staff, visitors and partners) so we can deliver our services.

When we process (use) personal data we will follow the Data Protection Principles set out in Article 5 of UK GDPR. This means we must:

have a good reason to use your personal data and tell you what we are doing with it

only use your personal data for the purposes (reasons) for which you have given it to us

only collect personal data that is relevant and limited to what we need

ensure your personal data is accurate and kept up–to–date

only keep personal data that identifies you for as long as it is needed,

ensure that your personal data is kept securely and take reasonable steps to protect it

Under UK data protection law you have the following rights:

Right to be Informed 
Right of Access - Find out how you can access your personal data from us below – How to make a Data Subject Request.
Right to Rectification 
Right to Erasure (the right to be forgotten)
Right to Restrict Processing
Right to Data Portability 
Right to Object 
Rights Relating to Automated Decision Making and Profiling

You can also find out more one the ICO website

How to make a Data Subject Request

You can exercise any of the rights above by making a Data Subject Request.

You can make a request by writing to us, sending an email or asking over the phone or in person. However, it would help us to confirm your identity and find your information more easily if you use our Data Subject Request Form.

If you'd rather just email or write to us, you can. We may need to contact you to clarify your request if we don’t have enough information, but we'll do that as quickly as possible.

If you'd rather speak to us to make your request or are unable to put it in writing for any reason, that's fine. We'll write down your request and
confirm it with you afterwards.

By writing to -
Information and Customer Relations Officer,
Ayrshire College
Kilmarnock Campus
18-20 Hill Street
Kilmarnock
KA1 3HY

By telephone – 01563 495066

By email - dataprotection@ayrshire.ac.uk

How will you know who I am?

We’ll need to confirm your identity before we take any action and before we send out any information. How we do this will depend on your relationship with us for example, whether you are a student, staff or a member of the public, the type of information we hold, and what you have asked for.

We will take all reasonable steps to ensure we are satisfied that you are who you say you are, and that the information held relates to you.

Will there be a fee to pay?

Data Subject Requests including Subject Access Requests are usually provided free of charge, but there might be a charge in some circumstances. If a request is excessive or repetitive we may charge a fee to cover the administrative costs of providing the information. Alternatively, we may refuse to comply with the request in these circumstances.

How long will it take to get the information I ask for?

We will respond to you within one month of receiving your request, by either providing you with the information you've asked for or telling you why we can't. But if the request is complex, we may extend the deadline by a further two months.

If we need to extend the deadline, we will discuss this with you. We'll tell you why more time is needed, how long we expect it to take and what you can do if you're not satisfied.

Will I get all the information I ask for?

There are some exemptions that may apply which means you might not get all the information you ask for, for example if providing the information would also disclose the personal information of another person.

In such circumstances we will redact (withhold) some or all of the information. We will explain our reasons for doing this when we provide the response.

When we do provide information, we'll also tell you:

the reason we collected it

if we’ve shared it with anyone else

how long we keep it for

about your data protection rights

how to contact our Data Protection Officer

What do I do if I think there's something wrong?

When you’ve received the response to your Data Subject Request, if you think we're not processing your data lawfully, or something is incorrect, or you have any data protection concerns you can contact our Data Protection Officer.

By email - dataprotection@ayrshire.ac.uk

Or you can write to:
Data Protection Officer
Ayrshire College
Kilmarnock Campus
18-20 Hill Street
Kilmarnock
KA1 3HY

The Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO)

If you are dissatisfied our response, you have the right to complain to the ICO about our handling of your personal data:

email: Contact ICO Online

Telephone: 0303 123 1113 or write to:

Information Commissioner’s Office
Wycliffe House
Water Lane
Wilmslow
Cheshire
SK9 5AF