Privacy Policy

1. About Us

Electrical Safety First is the UK charity dedicated to reducing deaths and injuries caused by electrical accidents. Our aim is to ensure everyone in the UK can use electricity safely. We campaign on behalf of consumers to improve safety regulation and make sure that safety messages are appropriate, up to date and well communicated.

When doing this, we process personal data about people who receive advice or guidance from us, or provide us with support through campaigns, donations or booking and attending events. We are committed to protecting and respecting your privacy and take this responsibility very seriously. We are responsible for protecting your personal information as a “data controller” under applicable data protection legislation.

www.electricalsafetyfirst.org.uk is a site operated by the Electrical Safety Council (“We”). We are registered in England as a company Limited by Guarantee with the number 570175 and as a registered charity in England and Wales (No: 257376) and in Scotland (No: SCO39990), and have our registered office at 45 Great Guildford Street, London SE1 0ES.

This notice outlines what data we collect, how we may use it, how we protect your data and your rights, and how you can exercise those rights. Please read the following carefully to understand our views and practices regarding your personal data and how we will treat it. By visiting www.electricalsafetyfirst.org.uk you are accepting and consenting to the practices described in this policy.

This privacy policy was prepared to be as comprehensive as possible, but it does not include an exhaustive list of every aspect our collection and use of personal information. However, we would be happy to provide any further information or explanation about our practices.

Our nominated person for data protection is Catherine Roalfe. She can be contacted via email at catherine.roalfe@electricalsafetyfirst.org.uk.

This privacy policy was last updated in May 2018.

2. Why we collect your data

We collect personal data for many reasons, including the provision of services, to send you information you have requested, to share updates about campaigning activity and administer campaigns and donations. Depending on how you interact with us, we may process data for the following reasons:

to provide you with advice or product safety services that you have requested or been referred to
to record personal details shared during conversations/interactions with our helpline or Enquiries email (enquiries@electricalsafetyfirst.org.uk)
to process personal details required for the administration of a booked event
to process applications and communicate with applicants for grants and funding through the Grants Scheme and Electrical Fire Safety Fund
to process a purchase of an Electrical Safety First publication via our online sales portal
to record and contact you regarding payments you make to Electrical Safety First
to communicate with you regarding Electrical Safety First’s work and campaigning activities
to process donations and administer Gift Aid information for any donation you make to Electrical Safety First
to provide you with information about and to administer events
for our own internal administrative purposes, and to keep a record of your relationship with us
to manage your communication preferences
to process job applications
to conduct surveys, research and gather feedback
to obtain information to improve Electrical Safety First’s services and user experiences
to carry out research to find out more information about our supporters’ and prospective supporters’ backgrounds and interests
to comply with applicable laws and regulations, and requests from statutory agencies.

The personal information we collect might include name, email address, postal address, and telephone number.

3. Information we collect

We may collect the following personal information:

your full name
contact details – including your postal address, telephone number(s), and email address
date of birth
details of your case when providing you with advice via the helpline
your bank details
records of your correspondence and engagement with us
donation history and Gift Aid details
information you may enter on the Electrical Safety First website
photographs, video or audio recordings
occupation
biographical information
other information you share with us

This information may be collected via:

any paper forms you complete
telephone conversations or face-to-face interactions
digital forms completed via our website, or online surveys
third-party companies and websites such as Just Giving
publicly available sources
communication via social media

4. Using your personal data

Helpline Support

If you are receiving advice or guidance from us, we will need to process your data because of your specific relationship with us.

We will keep all information relating to your query – including notes, letters and information given to us about you – in a confidential record that is specific to you.

We may use your data for statistical reports. These statistics will not include any information that could be used to identify any individual.

We may wish to use your experience as a case study for one of our campaigns, but this would not be done without your written permission.

Campaign Updates

We use a range of channels to keep in touch with our supporters – including our website, social media, email, and telephone.

We will obtain your consent to contact you by email to update you on our campaigns and general activity. We will also obtain consent from all new supporters (who sign up after 25 May 2018) to send information about the Charity’s work.

We send the following information via email:

updates about Electrical Safety First’s work and campaigns – information about our campaigning activities, including how you can support our campaigns, (for example by signing a petition), and updates about the progress of our campaigns
research – surveys to gauge attitudes towards electrical safety issues to support our campaigning activity
events – including our annual Product Safety Conference. Please note that if you sign up to an Electrical Safety First event, we will also send you administrative communications about your involvement and attendance. On occasion we will also send you a reminder about the same event in future years, in case you want to participate in it again
publications – including information about leaflets that can be purchased via our online Print Services portal
professional services – including details of the professional services that Electrical Safety First offers to industry professionals, such as risk assessment services and product safety training.

We will never share or sell your personal data to a third-party organisation for its marketing, fundraising or campaigning purposes.

You can withdraw your consent, unsubscribe from or update your communication preferences at any point by using the details in the ‘Contact us’ section below.

Any electronic communications, such as emails, will have a link to unsubscribe from future electronic communications, so you can manage your own communication preferences.

If you tell us you do not wish to receive marketing or campaign communications, you may still receive transactional and service-based communications confirming and servicing other relationships you have with us (as described below).

Administrative communications to donors

In addition to the marketing communications that you receive from Electrical Safety First, we will also communicate with you by post, telephone, and email in relation to administrative and transactional matters. For example, we will call you after you have set up a Direct Debit to confirm your details, and upon cancellation. There may also be other occasions where we need to contact you about a donation – for example, if there is a problem with a payment or in relation to your gift aid declaration.

As mentioned above, we may still need to communicate with you for administrative purposes even where you have opted out of marketing communications from us.

6. Print Services

When you purchase an item from our online portal, we will collect certain information from you – including your name, address, phone number, email address and payment details – so that we can process your purchase or contact you if we have any queries regarding your purchase.

7. Social media/digital

Depending on your settings or the privacy policies for social media messaging services like Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram, you may receive targeted advertisements through our use of social media audience tools. For example, Facebook’s ‘Custom’ and ‘Lookalike’ Audiences’ programmes enable us to display adverts to our existing supporters when they visit Facebook, or other people who have similar interests or characteristics to our supporters. We may provide your data (including your email address) to Facebook, so it can determine whether you are a registered account holder with them, or so that Facebook create a ‘lookalike’ audience. Our adverts may then appear when you access Facebook. We only work with social media networks that provide a facility for secure and encrypted upload of data, and immediately delete any records not matching with their own user base. For more information, or to manage your social media ad preferences, please see Facebook’s ‘About Custom Audiences’ guide and its Data Policy.

If you receive an email, open it, don’t open it, select a link and/or browse our website, we collect this information to ensure that the information we send to people is received and relevant.

When we’re seeing what people do online like this, we’re using cookies. We use cookies to tailor your browsing experience and ensure we show you more relevant information. If you don’t want cookies, you can set your browser to notify you when you receive one, then choose to decline it. Please see our Cookies Policy for more information.

8. Applying for a job with Electrical Safety First

When you apply for a job with us, your personal data will be collated to monitor the progression of your application, and the effectiveness of the recruitment process through the statistics collected. Where we need to share your data, for example, for gathering references, you will be informed beforehand. These checks are only done after a position has been offered and only to the successful candidate.

Personal data about unsuccessful applicants are held for 12 months after the recruitment exercise is complete for that vacancy. You, as an applicant, can ask us to remove your data before this time if you do not want us to hold it. If we feel there is another suitable vacancy available, we will contact the applicant prior to sharing your application details with the relevant manager.

Once you have taken up employment with Electrical Safety First, we will compile a file relating to your employment. The information contained in this will be kept secure and will only be used for purposes directly relevant to your employment. Once your employment with us has ended, we will retain the file in accordance with the requirements of our retention schedule and then delete it from our files.

9. Professional contacts

We may collect data about professional contacts and partners with whom we work, or to whom we provide professional services – such as our product safety consultancy services. Personal data collected in this way will be processed in accordance with data protection legislation and this policy.

We may send our professional partners information and updates about our work (primarily by email). Such contacts can opt out of receiving this information at any time.

We maintain a record of information related to MPs and other holders of public office, to enable us to undertake our campaigning activity in furtherance of our charitable aims. This will include keeping a record of contact details such as address, telephone number and email address as well as publicly available voting records and committee and group memberships.

10. Our legal basis for processing personal data

We need a lawful basis to collect and use your personal data under data protection law. The law allows for six ways to process personal data (and additional ways for sensitive personal data). Four of these are relevant to the types of processing that we carry out. This includes information that is processed on the basis of:

a person’s consent (for example, to send you campaign updates by email)
a contractual relationship (for example, to provide you with goods or services that you have purchased from us)
processing that is necessary for compliance with a legal obligation (for example to process a Gift Aid declaration, and carrying out due diligence on large donations)
Electrical Safety First’s legitimate interests (please see below for more information)

Personal data may be legally collected and used if it is necessary for a legitimate interest of the organisation using the data, if its use is fair and does not adversely impact the rights of the individual concerned.

When we use your personal information, we will always consider if it is fair and balanced to do so and if it is within your reasonable expectations. We will balance your rights and our legitimate interests to ensure that we use your personal information in ways that are not unduly intrusive or unfair.

Our legitimate interests include:

Charity Governance: including delivery of our charitable purposes, statutory and financial reporting and other regulatory compliance purposes
Administration and operational management: including responding to solicited enquires, providing information, research, event management, the administration of employment, and recruitment requirements
Campaigning: including administering campaigns and donations, sending thank you letters, analysis, targeting and segmentation to develop communication strategies, and maintaining communication suppressions

If you would like more information on our uses of legitimate interests, or to change our use of your personal data in this manner, please get in touch with us using the details in the ‘Contact us’ section below.

11. Security of your personal data

We use appropriate technical and organisational measures and precautions to protect your personal data and to prevent the loss, misuse or alteration of your personal data.
Unfortunately, the transmission of information via the internet is not completely secure. Although we will do our best to protect your personal data, we cannot guarantee the security of your data transmitted to our website. Once we have received your information, we will use strict procedures and security features to try to prevent unauthorised access.

We encourage you to review the privacy statements of websites you choose to link to from the Electrical Safety First website, so that you can understand how those sites collect, use and share your information. We are not responsible for the privacy statements, security, or other content on sites outside of the website.

12. Retention of your data

Whatever your relationship with us, we will only store your information for twelve months, as set out in our data retention policy.

Once the retention period has expired, the information will be confidentially disposed or permanently deleted.

If you request to receive no further contact from us, we will keep some basic information about you on our suppression list to avoid sending you unwanted materials in the future.

13. Your rights

You have a right to ask us to confirm whether we are processing information about you, and to request access to this information (‘right of access’). To request this access please contact Catherine Roalfe at catherine.roalfe@electricalsafetyfirst.org.uk

You may ask us, or we may ask you, to rectify information you or we think is inaccurate, and you may also ask us to remove information which is inaccurate or complete information which is incomplete (‘right to rectification’).

We want to ensure that your personal information is accurate and up to date. If any of the information that you have provided us with changes, for example if you change your email address, name, payment details, please let us know using the contact details at the end of this policy.

You have a right to obtain your personal data from us and reuse it for your own purposes, perhaps for another service, without hindering the usability of the data (‘right of portability’). This right does not apply where processing is necessary for the performance of a task carried out in the public interest or in the exercise of official authority vested in us.

You have a right to seek the erasure of your data (often referred to as the ‘right to be forgotten’). You may wish to exercise this right for any reason, for example where it is no longer necessary for us to continue holding or processing your personal data you may withdraw your consent. You should note that we are entitled to and reserve the right to retain your data for statistical purposes. This right is not absolute, as we may need to continue processing this information, for example, to comply with our legal obligations, or for reasons of public interest.

You have a right to ask us to restrict our processing of your information (‘right to restriction’) if:

you contest its accuracy and we need to verify whether it is accurate
the processing is unlawful and you ask us to restrict use of it instead of erasing it
we no longer need the information for the purpose of processing, but you need it to establish or defend legal claims
you have objected to processing of your information being necessary for the performance of a task carried out in the public interest, or for the purposes of our legitimate interests. The restriction would apply while we carry out a balancing act between your rights and our legitimate interests.
you exercise your right to restrict processing, we would still need to process your information for the purpose of exercising or defending legal claims, protecting the rights of another person or for public interest reasons.

You have a right to prevent us from processing your data for the purposes of marketing.
If you would like to exercise any of your rights above, please let us know using the contact details at the end of this policy. We will act in accordance with your instructions as soon as reasonably possible and there will be no charge.

You have a right to report any of your concerns about our use of your data to the Information Commissioner’s Office. You may do so by calling their helpline at 0303 123
1113.

14. Complaints

If you have any complaints about the way in which we have used your data, please get in touch with us using the details in the ‘Contact us’ section below. We would be happy to help and discuss your concerns.

In addition, you are also entitled to make a complaint to the Information Commissioner’s Office and the Fundraising Regulator.

15. Contact Us

If you have any questions about this policy, would like more information, or want to exercise any of the rights set out in section 13 above, you can get in touch with us in the following ways:

Via email to catherine.roalfe@electricalsafetyfirst.org.uk
In writing to Electrical Safety First, 45 Great Guildford Street, London SE1 0ES