Advice Centre Confidentiality Statement

Introduction

University of Plymouth Students’ Union (“we”, “our” or “us”) are committed to providing a confidential Advice Centre and believes our clients’ (“you”, “your”, “students”) deserve the right to confidentiality; to protect your interests and to safeguard our services. We want you to be able to contact our service in the confidence that no other person will know that you have used our services without your consent.

How do we stay confidential?

The UPSU Advice Team operates independently from the University of Plymouth (“University”) and any other external organisation. Your details, or any information which could identify you will not be released to any member of University staff, or to any other organisation or individual without your express written permission.

We will ensure that all students who require an in person meeting are seen in an appropriate, and wherever possible, a private interview space. Except for the protection of your vital interests (where there is a risk to your life), we will not confirm your contact with the Advice Team (or any other outreach facility), or use of our Advice team to any third parties without obtaining your consent.

When we may break confidence?

We may need to share the information you have provided us under the following circumstances:

• There is a danger to you or others
• When not doing so would break the law
• When the Advice Team discover that it is advising both parties to a dispute and needs to disclose the fact in order to avoid a conflict of interest.

What legislation do we abide by?

We are compliant with our legal and statutory requirements and in specific cases our obligations supercede our confidentiality procedures.

General Data Protection Regulations

Your privacy is of utmost importance to us and we take data protection very seriously. We’ve created a student data protection statement to detail how we protect your rights and ensure your personal information is fairly and lawfully processed. Disclosure of your personal information to third party organisations and individuals is only undertaken when we have received written explicit consent from yourself or where we are required by law to do so. Full information on how we process your data can be found in the UPSU Advice Centre Privacy Statement

Prevention of Terrorism Act 1989

You have no duty to disclose any criminal offence to us however if a criminal offence is declared and the information given may help to prevent acts of terrorism or apprehend a terrorist we are required to disclose this information to the relevant authorities. We will not inform you if we release this information.

Changes to this statement

We may change this Confidentiality Statement from time to time.  If we make any significant changes in the way we treat your personal information we will make this clear on our Website or by contacting you directly.

Contact

If you have any questions, comments or suggestions, please let us know by contacting the Data Protection Officer on dataprotection@upsu.com