Privacy policy

Privacy notice for ESFA services

This privacy notice explains how we collect and use your personal information for ESFA services. These services are run by the Education and Skills Funding Agency (ESFA), which is a part of the Department for Education (DfE).

This notice covers the following all services on Manage your education and skills funding.

For the purpose of data protection legislation, the DfE is the data controller for the personal data processed as part of these services.

If you follow a link to a service provided by another government department, agency or local authority, that organisation will:

  • be the data controller
  • be responsible for processing any data you share with them
  • publish and manage their own privacy notice with details of how to contact them

A data controller determines how and why personal data is processed.

For more information, read the DfE's entry in the Data Protection Public Register.

What data we collect

The personal data we may collect from you includes:

  • your name
  • your work email address

What we do with your data

When you register on the service, the personal information you give us will be used:

  • so you can sign ESFA contracts, agreements and funding claims
  • to view who signed ESFA documents on behalf of your organisation
  • for administration and research purposes

Our legal basis for processing your data

For our use of your personal data to be lawful, we need to meet one (or more) conditions in the data protection legislation. For this service, the processing is necessary for the performance of a task carried out in the public interest. In this case it is necessary for the department to process your data to assess your eligibility for funding.

Sharing your personal information

We sometimes need to make personal data available to other organisations. These might include contracted partners (who we have employed to process your personal data on our behalf) and/or other organisations (with whom we need to share your personal data for specific purposes). Where we need to share your personal data with others, we ensure that this data sharing complies with data protection legislation.

We share the names of contract signatories and users who have reviewed contract documents with other members of your organisation who are also users of the service.

How long we keep your data

We will only keep your personal data for as long as we need it for the purpose(s) of this service, after which point it will be securely destroyed. This will usually be 7 years after the end of each contract.

If you haven't signed in for 366 days, we'll delete your account and remove your personal details. You'll need to register again to use the service.

Please note that, under Data Protection Legislation and in compliance with the relevant data processing conditions, we can lawfully keep personal data processed purely for research and statistical purposes indefinitely.

Your rights

You have the right:

  • to ask us for access to information about you that we hold
  • to have your personal data rectified if it is inaccurate or incomplete
  • to request the deletion or removal of personal data where there is no compelling reason for its continued processing
  • to restrict our processing of your personal data (that is, permitting its storage but no further processing)
  • to object to direct marketing (including profiling) and processing for the purposes of scientific/historical research and statistics
  • not to be subject to decisions based purely on automated processing where it produces a legal or similarly significant effect on you

If you need to contact us regarding any of the above, please do so via the DfE site at https://customerhelpportal.education.gov.uk/.

Further information about your data protection rights appears on the Information Commissioner's website at https://ico.org.uk/for-organisations/guide-to-data-protection/guide-to-the-general-data-protection-regulation-gdpr/principles/.

How to complain

If you are unhappy with our use of your personal data, you have the right to raise any concerns with the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) via their website at https://ico.org.uk/make-a-complaint/.

Last updated

We may need to update this privacy notice from time to time, so we recommend that you revisit this information occasionally. This version was last updated on 3 March 2021.

Further information

If you have any questions or concerns about our handling or use of data in our services please contact sde.servicedesk@education.gov.uk.

More information on how the ESFA uses your data is available from https://www.gov.uk/government/organisations/department-for-education/about/personal-information-charter#how-we-use-your-information.

More information about the ESFA can be found at https://www.gov.uk/government/organisations/education-and-skills-funding-agency.

Published: 3 March 2021

Last updated: 3 March 2021

From Education and Skills Funding Agency