Further Information about Your Records
Children of the 90s want your permission to collect information about you from your official records.
This page provides more information about the organisations that collect your official records.
Sections
- Health Records
- Educations Records
- Benefit and Earnings Records
- Criminal Conviction and Caution Records
- Your Children of the 90s details
How often will Children of the 90s access my records?
Your records will probably be accessed once or twice a year to allow our researchers to measure changes over time. This will allow us to keep up to date with your health and the other big events in your life.
Protecting your privacy
How a person or organisation can or cannot lawfully use your personal data is set out in the Data Protection Act 1998. The responsibility for making sure your information is used within the law rests with the organisation which determines the purposes for and manner in which your personal information is to be collected and used. This makes this organisation the data controller for this personal information.
Information that you give to Children of the 90s
Children of the 90s (part of the University of Bristol) is responsible for the information you give us at a focus clinic or in questionnaires and we decide how it is used in order to comply with your rights. Therefore, for the purposes of the Data Protection Act, the University of Bristol is the data controller for personal information it collects from you for the purposes of this study.
Information about you that we receive from your official records
Organisations that collect your information for official records, (e.g. the NHS collects information about you for your health records) are the data controllers for this information.
Children of the 90s will collect these records under a data sharing agreement with the organisation that has collected your records. . Once Children of the 90s have received your records then the University of Bristol will be the data controller for this information.
Children of the 90s (University of Bristol) will
- Make sure that your records remain confidential and advise our researchers on how these records should be handled in accordance with the Data Protection Act 1998 in order to comply with your rights.
- Work together with the official organisations which collect your records to protect your privacy.
- Children of the 90s will respect your consent decision.
Health Records
Children of the 90s want access to your health records. These records include information such as:
- details of visits to your doctor and any medicine you were given
- if you’ve ever been to hospital; why you were there and what happened whilst you were there
- eye tests and dentist records
- information about you (e.g. ethnic group)
We also want to use your contact details from your health records to make contact with you if we lose touch.
Health records are collected by:
1. The NHS (unless you have private health care)
These records will include hospital treatments and your doctors (General Practitioner or ‘GP’) records. The NHS Information Centre and the National Information Governance Board (NIGB) control researcher access to your NHS records.
The NHS maintain a record of everyone’s contact details, they call this the NHS Central Register. The NHS Central Register has a computerised record of everyone registered with a GP in England and Wales, who their doctor (GP) is and the address they have given their doctor’s practice. It is also used to let research projects know who has died and who gets cancer. The NHS Central Register is part of the NHS Information Centre.
2. Your doctor
Your records are collected by your GP’s practice.
3. Any private health company
Companies such as a dentists and opticians that provide your health care will also collect your health records.
Education Records
School education records
School education records are collected by the Department for Education (http://www.education.gov.uk/).
School education records are held in the National Pupil Database (NPD), a longitudinal database for all children in maintained schools in England, linking information about them (e.g. age, gender, ethnicity, attendance and exclusions) to school and college learning aims and attainment. It also holds education attainment information for pupils in non-maintained and independent schools who take part in the tests/exams.
For the purposes of the Data Protection Act (1998) the Department for Education is the data controller for the NPD.
Children of the 90s (at University of Bristol) want to be given information about you from your education records. These records are:
- when you started and left school
- the school you went to (just as we change your name to a ‘barcode’ ID we also do this for your school name so researchers can’t identify which school you went to)
- your exam or assessment results
- your attendance records
- if you have Special Educational Needs
- your ethnicity
- if you are entitled to free school meals
We want to use this information, along with any information about you that we have already collected from other organisations (or from focus clinics you have attended, or questionnaires that you or your parents have filled in) for research purposes only. We will use this information to study how experiences of school and education impacts on the lives of the young people taking part in this study.
Further education records
Further education records are collected by the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (http://www.bis.gov.uk/):
- Further education records are kept in the ‘Individualised Learner Record’. This is a collection of records about pupils who undertook further education and the institutions where they studied.
Higher education (or university) records
Higher education records are collected by the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (http://www.bis.gov.uk/):
- Higher education records are kept by the Higher Education Statistics Agency (HESA) (http://www.hesa.ac.uk/)
- This is a collection of records about pupils who undertook higher education and the institutions where they studied
- If you have applied for a university place then your application records are collected by the Universities and Colleges Admissions Service (UCAS) http://www.ucas.ac.uk/
Benefits and Earnings Records
Children of the 90s want access to your benefits and earnings records. These records include information such as:
- where you work and the type of job you do
- how much you earn
- any benefits you may get to help you out
- how much you pay in national insurance and tax
We also want to use your contact details which appear in these records to make contact with you if we lose touch.
Benefits and Earnings Records are collected by:
- The Department of Work and Pensions http://www.dwp.gov.uk/
- Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs http://www.hmrc.gov.uk
Criminal convictions and caution records
Children of the 90s want access to information about any criminal convictions and caution records you may have. These records include information such as:
- details of any crime for which you may have received a caution or an offence of which you have been convicted
- details of any decisions made by a court
We also want to use your contact details which appear in these records to make contact with you if we lose touch.
Children of the 90s will access this information held in the Police National Computer system through the:
- The Ministry of Justice http://www.justice.gov.uk/
Your Children of the 90s details
(Your personal details: name, date of birth, address, phone number(s), email address and study status: i.e. what you have agreed to take part in)
Should the above information we hold about you be incorrect, you can update your personal details by contacting us.
Under the Data Protection Act 1998, you have a right to know what personal data belonging to you that we hold. Where requested, we will provide you with a readable copy of your personal details and study status we hold, by contacting us at the address below. We will need to confirm your identity before supplying you with this information to ensure confidentiality and to comply with the Data Protection Act.
Where the data has been collected by Children of the 90s (University of Bristol) we allow you to challenge the data we hold about you and where appropriate you may have the data erased, rectified, amended or completed. For complaints or queries about the privacy policy or data protection queries generally please contact us at:
Email: info@childrenofthe90s.ac.uk
Phone: 0117 33 10010
Write:
Children of the 90s
Oakfield House
Oakfield Grove
Bristol
BS8 2BN
Feel free to get in touch if you’d like more information about Children of the 90s and ‘data linkage’
If you have any questions, or are concerned about how we use your personal information, then please get in touch, our contact details are here:
If you would rather speak to someone outside of Children of the 90s then you can contact the independent ALSPAC Ethics and Law Committee. One of their roles is to see the study from the point of view of the families involved.
David Jewell
Chair of ALSPAC Ethics and Law Committee
University of Bristol
Oakfield House
Oakfield Grove
Bristol
BS8 2BN, UK
Email: David.Jewell@bristol.ac.uk
Or, you can speak to someone from the University of Bristol who is not part of Children of the 90s.
Information Rights Manager
University of Bristol
Senate House
Tyndall Avenue
Bristol
BS8 1TH, UK
Email: data-protection@bristol.ac.uk
If you are not satisfied with the reply you receive, you can contact the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO), the UK’s independent public body set up to promote access to official information and protect personal information:
Information Commissioner’s Office
Wycliffe House
Water Lane
Wilmslow
Cheshire
SK9 5AF
Tel: 01625 545745
Email: via website
Internet: http://www.ico.gov.uk/
Changes to this Web Page
Version 4 – 03 February 2012
Version 4 of this webpage added additional information about your education records and clarifies which organisation is the data controller during Children of the 90s use of official records. The section on accessing records was also amended.