data protection

Welcome Solutions is required to maintain certain personal data about living individuals

for the purposes of satisfying operational and legal obligations. Welcome Solutions

recognises the importance of the correct and lawful treatment of personal data; it

maintains confidence in the organisation and provides for successful operations.

The types of personal data that Welcome Solutions may require includes information

about current, past and prospective employees; suppliers; creditors; clients

and others with whom it communicates. This personal data, whether it is held on

paper, on computer or other media, will be subject to the appropriate legal

safeguards as specified in the Data Protection Act 1998.

Welcome Solutions fully endorses and adheres to the eight principles of the Data

Protection Act. These principles specify the legal conditions that must be satisfied in

relation to obtaining, handling, processing, transportation and storage of personal

data. Employees and any others who obtain, handle, process, transport and store

personal data for Welcome Solutions must adhere to these principles.

Principles

The principles require that personal data shall:

1. Be processed fairly and lawfully and shall not be processed unless certain

    conditions are met;

2. Be obtained for a specified and lawful purpose and shall not be processed

    in any manner incompatible with that purpose;

3. Be adequate, relevant and not excessive for those purposes;

4. Be accurate and, where necessary, kept up to date;

5. Not be kept for longer than is necessary for that purpose;

6. Be processed in accordance with the data subject’s rights;

7. Be kept secure from unauthorised or unlawful processing and protected

    against accidental loss, destruction or damage by using the appropriate

    technical and organisational measures;

8. And not be transferred to a country or territory outside the European

    Economic Area, unless that country or territory ensures an adequate level

    of protection for the rights and freedoms of data subjects in relation to the

    processing of personal data.

Satisfaction of principles

In order to meet the requirements of the principles, Welcome Solutions will:

• observe fully the conditions regarding the fair collection and use of personal

data;

• meet its obligations to specify the purposes for which personal data is used;

• collect and process appropriate personal data only to the extent that it is

needed to fulfill operational or any legal requirements;

• ensure the quality of personal data used;

• apply strict checks to determine the length of time personal data is held;

• ensure that the rights of individuals about whom the personal data is held,

can be fully exercised under the Act;

• take the appropriate technical and organisational security measures to

safeguard personal data;

• and ensure that personal data is not transferred abroad without suitable

safeguards.

Welcome Solutions Designated Data Controller

Welcome Solutions Information Compliance Manager is responsible for ensuring

compliance with the Data Protection Act and implementation of this policy. The Information

Compliance Manager is Nigel Palmer, Welcome Solutions, Welcome House, 20 Foxglove Drive , Chorley, PR6 7SG.

 Any questions or concerns about the interpretation

or operation of this policy should be taken up in the first instance with the Information

Compliance Manager.

Subject Access

All individuals who are the subject of personal data held by Welcome Solutions are entitled

to:

• Ask what information Welcome Solutions holds about them and why.

• Ask how to gain access to it.

• Be informed how to keep it up to date.

• Be informed what Welcome Solutions is doing to comply with its obligations under

the 1998 Data Protection Act.

Data Security

The need to ensure that data is kept securely means that precautions must be taken

against physical loss or damage, and that both access and disclosure must be

restricted. All staff are responsible for ensuring that:

• Any personal data which they hold is kept securely

• Personal information is not disclosed either orally or in writing or

otherwise to any unauthorised third party.

Rights to Access Information

Employees and other subjects of personal data held by Welcome Solutions have the

right to access any personal data that is being kept about them on computer and also

have access to paper-based data held in certain manual filing systems. This right is

subject to certain exemptions which are set out in the Data Protection Act. Any

person who wishes to exercise this right should make the request in writing to

Welcome Solutions Information Compliance Manager.

Welcome Solutions aims to comply with requests for access to personal information as

quickly as possible, but will ensure that it is provided within 40 days of a request unless there

is good reason for delay. In such cases, the reason for delay will be explained in writing to the

individual making the request.

Subject Consent

The need to process data for normal purposes has been communicated to all data

subjects. In some cases, if the data is sensitive, for example information about

health, race or gender, express consent to process the data must be obtained.

Processing may be necessary to operate Welcome Solutions policies, such as health and safety

and equal opportunities.

Retention of Data

Welcome Solutions will keep some forms of information for longer than others. All staff are

responsible for ensuring that information is not kept for longer than necessary.