Privacy Notice - Scottish Government Intercountry Adoption

General information 

In the following notice, 'you' refers to prospective adoptive parents who share personal information, directly or via a third party, with the Scottish Central Authority, and 'us/we' refers to the Scottish Government Intercountry Adoption Team.

As the Scottish Central Authority for Intercountry Adoption, the Adoption and Siblings Team are responsible for checking and processing Intercountry Adoption applications. This privacy notice tells you what to expect with regards to your personal information, when you (or a third party on your behalf) contact(s) the Scottish Government regarding Intercountry Adoption (ICA), including by phone, email, and post. 

When the ICA team processes your personal information, we promise to:

• make sure you or your representative know(s) why we need it
• only ask for what we need, and not collect too much or irrelevant information
• make sure it is accurate and up to date
• let you or your representative know if we share it with other organisations, unless we have a legal obligation to pass it on without informing you
• protect it and make sure nobody has access to it who shouldn't
• make sure we don't keep it longer than is necessary

When appropriate, after successfully checking and processing your application, we forward a copy of your application with your Certificate of Eligibility to Adopt to the Central Authority of the country from which you wish to adopt, using our procured courier service.

Controller's contact details

The Scottish Government falls under the legal entity of the Scottish Ministers in relation to the processing of personal information. We are the controller for the personal information we process, unless otherwise stated.

Email

dataprotectionofficer@gov.scot

Post

Intercountry Adoption Team 
The Scottish Government 
Victoria Quay 
Area 2C South 
Edinburgh
EH6 6QQ

Complaints

If you are unhappy about how we have used your personal data, you can make a formal complaint to our Data Protection Officer.

Email

dataprotectionofficer@gov.scot

Post

Data Protection Officer
Victoria Quay
EH6 6QQ

If, following this review, you or your representative still have concerns about the way your data has been handled, you can write to the UK Information Commissioner’s Office – the regulator for data protection in the UK – at the following address: 

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

Phone

Tel: 0303 123 1113 (local rate) or 01625 545 745

Online

You may also find their website a useful source of information.

Your data protection rights

Data protection law gives you certain rights that you may exercise in respect of your own personal information.

You have a right to request a copy of personal information we hold about you, by making a subject access request. This right always applies. There are some exemptions, which means you may not always receive all the information we process. We have published further information on this.

• You have the right to ask us to update our records if the data we hold is inaccurate or incomplete. This right always applies.
• You have the right to ask us to erase your personal information. There may, however, be some circumstances in which we cannot comply, such as if we have a legal duty to keep data or process it in a particular way.
• You have the right to ask that we stop or restrict the processing of your information in certain circumstances.
• You have the right to object to processing if we are able to process your information because the process forms part of our public tasks.

You are not required to pay any charge for exercising your rights. Please contact us at dpa@gov.scot if you wish to make a request or contact our Central Enquires Unit on 0300 244 4000.

How we get information

Most of the personal information we process is provided to us directly by you or via practitioners from your local authority, for one of the following reasons:

• you have a question or a concern about something
• you have made an information request to us
• you are progressing an application for Intercountry Adoption

We also receive personal information indirectly, in the following scenarios:

• we have contacted an organisation about an issue you raised, and they give us your personal information in their response

What this information will include

Where applicable, your ICA application document pack, which we forward to the Central Authority of the country from which you wish to adopt, contains the information provided by you to your local authority practitioner during the adoption assessment process. This will include information relating to:

• your family background, including your parents, siblings and any other significant persons in your family
• significant events that have impacted your life
• your health history and that of family members, if deemed relevant
• your employment history and the occupation of your parents and siblings
• your marital status and the marital status of family members
• your nationality and religion
• your social interests and lifestyle
• your education history, financial status, income and financial commitments including information relating to your home
• a copy of your birth and marriage certificates and PVG Disclosure Certificate(s)

The document pack will also contain your medical assessment provided by medical professionals and references provided by your nominated referees, as well as the minutes of the meeting of the Adoption Panel which approved your adoption application.

It may also include information provided by your current partner relating to their relationship with you, their childhood – including their family background, their date of birth, marital status, employment status, social interests and, if relevant, their children.

Lawful basis for processing

For our use of your personal data to be lawful, we need to meet one (or more) conditions in the data protection legislation. We process your information in accordance with UKGDPR Article 6 (1)(e). This processing is necessary for the performance of a task carried out in the exercise of official authority vested in the controller, i.e. to enable the Scottish Government to process your Intercountry Adoption application in compliance with relevant legislation. 

The processing of your special category personal data, such as information about your ethnicity or health information, is lawful in accordance with UKGDPR Article 9(2)(g). This processing is necessary for reasons of substantial public interest and is in exercise of a function conferred on the Scottish Government as regards processing ICA applications. This is to ensure that ICA is processed in compliance with the legislative framework, with satisfactory child safeguarding procedures and that Intercountry Adoption is in a child’s best interest.

The processing of your criminal offence data is considered separate from regular and special category data and is lawful under section 15 and section 20 of The Adoptions with a Foreign Element (Scotland) Regulations 2009, under UKGDPR Article 6 (1)I and under UKGDPR Article 10(1). This processing is necessary for the performance of a task carried out in the exercise of official authority vested in the controller, i.e. to enable the Scottish Government to process your ICA application in compliance with relevant legislation and where authorisation in domestic law is met. 

Changes to this Privacy Notice

We keep our privacy notice under regular review to make sure it is up to date and accurate. If this privacy notice changes in any way, we will update this document. Regularly reviewing this document ensures that you are always aware of what information we collect, how we use it and under what circumstances we share it with other parties.

Contacting the Scottish Government

You (or a third party on your behalf) may have written to us, or contacted us by phone, because you have a question or concern about something. This part of the privacy notice sets out how we use your personal data, and your rights when communicating with us.

What we do with Information we collect from you when you contact us

When you write to or call us, your enquiry will usually be first handled by our Central Enquiry Unit or Public Engagement Unit, unless sent to the Intercountry Adoption Team directly at the dedicated ICA inbox (intercountryadoption@gov.scot). They will then send it to a specific team so that your question can be answered. We will only use your personal information for the purpose of handling, investigating and resolving your issue. We will use the contact details you provided to respond to your correspondence. If you have raised any issues about a third party, we may use the contact details you have provided for them to investigate your issue.

Who we share your Information with

To enable the processing of Intercountry Adoption, we need to share your personal data with other organisations both in the UK and overseas. To enable the processing of your Intercountry Adoption application we may need to share your personal data with the following organisations: 

• Scottish Adoption Agencies
• Local Authorities
• Notary publics 
• Central Authorities
• Relevant overseas authorities
• Legal representatives 
• Accredited agencies 
• Other Government Departments
• Domestic and International embassies 
• Overseas agencies/lawyers 
• Translators

Transferring data to third countries 

When applying to adopt a child from a country or territory outside of the United Kingdom, the process of making an ICA application requires that personal data in relation to your application is then transferred outside the UK to complete your adoption process. Transfers to the EEA are safeguarded by the EU-UK Adequacy Agreement. 

For all countries, a Transfer Risk Assessment (TRA) is a mandatory assessment required under UK GDPR when transferring personal data to countries outside the UK that lack an "adequacy regulation". It ensures that the protection of personal data is not "materially lower" in the destination country than within the UK.

For Hague cases, the transfer is safeguarded by a legally binding and enforceable instrument, as well as a Transfer Risk Assessment.

For non-Hague cases, the data sharing is lawful under UKGDPR Article 49(1)(d); the transfer is necessary for important reasons of public interest. This is because it is necessary to ensure that an Intercountry Adoption application is processed in compliance with the legislative framework, with satisfactory child safeguarding procedures, and that an Intercountry Adoption is in a child’s best interest. 

Enquiries

We collect names and email addresses with every response we receive through the ICA inbox (intercountryadoption@gov.scot). Email addresses are used to send an acknowledgement following your query and/or to supply you with any further correspondence related to your request.

How long we will keep your personal data 

Personal data is securely stored in a paper case file and on a restricted access electronic file. We will only keep physical documents for as long as necessary. A digital copy of all documents will be retained on eRDM for the official record of the adoption process having taken place. Once a Certificate of Eligibility is issued, physical documentation is either returned to the prospective adopter or posted to the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) and then the sending country. 

Data protection policy document

See Information assurance and data protection: data protection policy.