Your privacy
The Accountant in Bankruptcy (AiB) has a statutory duty to administer the bankruptcy (sequestration) process and Debt Arrangement Scheme (DAS) in Scotland, supervise the performance of trustees of sequestrations and protected trust deeds (PTDs) and maintain the public register of insolvencies under the Bankruptcy (Scotland) Act 2016 and other legislation. In order to fulfil its statutory duties, AiB may also undertake tasks in the public interest.
To complete these statutory duties and tasks, AiB does need to collect, process and retain certain types of personal information about you. In certain circumstances, AiB may be required to disclose personal information to others. AiB is committed to protecting your personal information and has a process in place to ensure it will keep your personal data secure and not share it with any unauthorised person.
The Privacy Notice below explains how AiB uses information about you, why it may need to share your personal information, how it protects your privacy and who to contact if you have any concerns.
Data Protection Officer
AiB has a Data Protection Officer who is responsible for making sure it only uses your information lawfully and your rights are respected. If you have any concerns about how your personal information is used, please contact AiB’s Data Protection Officer by email at gdpr@aib.gov.uk or call 0300 200 2600.
You can expand on each of the areas below by clicking on the links.
What is personal information?
Personal information is any information that can identify or relates to a living person. This can be pieces of information that can identify a person when put together, such as your name and date of birth.
Information we hold about you
Categories of information
To carry out our statutory duties we may be required to collect, store and use the following information about you:
· Personal: your name, date of birth, address and other contact details
· Financial: This can include details of your assets, creditors, sources of and amounts of your income, your household expenditure and financial transactions
· Employment details: name and address of employer and details of your profession
· Behavioural: your financial conduct before and during the administration of the debt solution or management product that you are in, and about your compliance with your statutory obligations
· Communications: information we learn about you from, for example, correspondence, telephone calls, interviews and investigations
· Relationships: details of any person whose information we require to establish your financial situation, include joint owners of assets
· Public records: details that are held by any public register such as, credit reference agencies and the land register
· Information that identifies you: photographs, passport, driver’s licence
· Documents that evidence your financial position: credit agreements, invoices or statements, debt recovery documents such as earnings arrestments and decrees. Proof of ownership of assets such as title deeds, policies, bank and building society statements.
Wage slips or other proof of income, utility bills or proof of other household expenditure
· Documents generated and received during the administration of your debt solution or management process, such as: statutory letters and forms, contribution orders, court documents
This list is not exhaustive.
Special categories of information
Some information is ‘sensitive information’ that requires extra protection. This is often very personal information which you may not want widely known and which could, for example reveal your:
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sexuality and sexual health
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religious or philosophical beliefs
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ethnicity
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physical or mental health
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trade union membership
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political opinion
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genetic/biometric data
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criminal history
As well as special categories of information that AiB may require to complete its statutory duties, the Agency is required by law to collect and process other certain special categories of information in order to comply with legislation on health and safety, equal opportunities and discrimination. Special categories of information are also used to formulate policies and legislation.
Why do we need your personal information?
AiB needs your personal information to:
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carry out its statutory duties
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form legislation and policies
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train and manage those who deliver its services
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check the quality of services
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help with research and planning of services
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ensure the latest information on AiB and personal insolvency products are made available to the public
Statutory duty to provide personal data
You may be required by law to provide us with your personal information. This lawful requirement is called a statutory duty. We will tell you when you have a statutory duty to provide us with any personal information
How the law allows us to use your personal information
There are a number of legal reasons why AiB needs to collect and use your personal information.
Generally, personal information (including special categories of information) are collected and used where:
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it is necessary to perform statutory duties
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it is required by law
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it is necessary for legal cases
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it is necessary for AiB’s employment purposes
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you have made your information publicly available
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it is in the public interest
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it is necessary for archiving, research, or statistical purposes
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it is required for completion of a contract
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it is necessary to protect someone in an emergency
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where you have given consent (in limited circumstances)
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it is necessary for reasons of substantial public interest
Should AiB require consent for any reason, you will be contacted to ask for this. If you have given your consent to use your personal information, you have the right to withdraw this consent at any time. If you have any questions about consent, please contact our Data Protection Officer at gdpr@aib.gov.uk.
We will only use what we need
AiB will only collect and use personal information if it is needed to meet statutory duties, undertake a task in the public interest or where we have a legitimate interest
In order to carry out our statutory duties, AiB may be required to obtain and share personal information about people who are not insolvent or in a debt payment programme. This may be done where:
- you are a member of a household where an individual is subject to insolvency proceedings
- you have an interest in an asset of an insolvent individual
- you are jointly responsible for the debt of an insolvent individual
- you have provided information in relation to an insolvent individual
Your personal information will only be requested if it is required in order to complete one of AiB’s statutory duties or it is necessary for a legitimate interest or public task.
If your personal information is recorded on one of AiB’s IT systems, insolvency updates may be sent to you.
AiB, or an agent acting on its behalf, may contact you to discuss your experience of using AiB’s services as part of an on-going commitment to improve customer service.
Where you have attended an AiB corporate event, your name will be added to a list of contacts for future event notifications and updates concerning the products and services of AiB.
If you do not wish to be contacted for these purposes, please contact aib_communications@gov.scot
How AiB can obtain personal information about you
In order to fulfil its statutory duties, AiB may be required to gather personal information about you from a variety of sources. Where relevant, these sources are required by law to provide AiB with your personal information and can include:
- the data subject
- insolvency practitioners
- money advisors
- courts
- solicitors
- creditors
- credit reference agencies
- banks and building societies
- DVLA
- the public Registers of Inhibitions, Registers of Scotland land register, UK insolvency registers
- any other individual, firm or organisation who can provide information in relation to an insolvent individuals assets, liabilities and business and financial affairs
Who we may disclose or share your personal information with
AiB has a statutory duty to publish certain personal information in the public Register of Insolvencies and the Debt Arrangement Scheme Register. This information can be accessed, free of charge, by any person and will be retained and destroyed in accordance with AiB’s retention and destruction policy, which you can read here.
AiB will also share personal information with a number of organisations to assist them to meet their statutory obligations. Before any personal information is shared, AiB will ensure the recipient has a legitimate reason to receive the information and will put in place agreements to confirm that each organisation is aware they may only process any personal information received in accordance data protection law.
Where required, a data privacy impact assessment will also be completed before personal information is shared to make sure your privacy is protected and data protection law is complied with.
Examples of who your information may be shared with are:
- individuals who have been sequestrated
- relatives, guardians or other people associated with individuals who have been sequestrated
- current, past or prospective employers of individuals who have been sequestrated
- AiB staff, including agents (providers), volunteers, and temporary and casual workers
- complainants, correspondents and enquirers
- advisers, consultants and other professional experts
- other individuals and parties required to support and administer the affairs of people who have been sequestrated
- organisations who have a legal duty to regulate the performance of individuals and companies who are involved in selling and/or administering debt and insolvency products
This list is not exhaustive.
If you are concerned that sharing your personal information with any person or organisation may put you at risk, please contact AiB either by phone on 0300 200 2600, in writing or by email the Data Protection Officer at gdpr@aib.gov.uk
AiB will discuss this with you and, where possible, either restrict the information that is shared, or obtain your permission before your information is shared. However, where there is a statutory obligation, or when it is considered there is a significant public interest to do so, AiB may still share your personal information as deemed required.
AiB will never share your information with any third parties for the purposes of direct marketing.
Your rights
Data protection law gives you rights to control what personal information and how it is used. These rights are:
Right to access information held about you
You have the right to ask for a copy of any personal information held about you.
If you wish to access information held about you, you can make a request to AiB in writing by completing and submitting form GDPR2AiB, which is available on the AiB website. There is no legal requirement for you to make a subject access request in writing, however, due to the sensitive nature of the personal data that AiB will process, we ask that the GDPR2AiB is completed and submitted in all cases, so we can be sure that your personal data is securely and appropriately released only to you. We ask that you send copies of two forms of identification with the GDPR2AiB, one of which must have your picture on it, e.g. a copy of your driving licence or passport.
If you cannot access the form, please phone on 0300 200 2600 or email AiB’s Data Protection Officer at gdpr@aib.gov.uk and ask for this form. AiB is not required to, and will not, provide access to or disclose the existence of personal data where it would be likely to prejudice any on-going investigations or enquiries or where we apply an exemption under data protection law. In some cases, an exemption that applies may only be temporary.
Examples of personal information that may not be provided, are:
- any personal information that would prejudice negotiations over asset realisation, although this personal data may be disclosed where the negotiation in relation to the asset has been concluded
- any personal information in respect of which a claim to legal professional privilege or, in Scotland, a claim to confidentiality as between client and professional legal adviser, could be maintained in legal proceedings
- any personal information which is processed by AiB for the purposes of management forecasting or management planning to assist AiB in the conduct of any business or other activity in any case where disclosure would be likely to prejudice the conduct of that business or other activity
- any personal information that relates directly to matters of policy or process
- any personal information processed by us for regulatory or supervisory purposes conferred on AiB by statute to the extent to which that disclosure would prejudice those purposes
- correspondence between AiB and an individual, unless specifically asked to do so, and with the consent of the individual
- any personal information processed by AiB for the purpose of protecting members of the public against:
- financial loss owing to the conduct of discharged or undischarged bankrupts
- dishonesty, malpractice or other seriously improper conduct by, or the unfitness incompetence of, people authorised to carry on any profession or other activity
Right to have inaccurate information amended
If you think any personal information held about you is incorrect or incomplete, you have the right to ask for this information to be amended or completed. AiB will amend or complete information if it is considered appropriate to do so, but may not always be able to do this if it is believed there is a legitimate reason to retain the information as recorded. If a request is received to amend or complete, information, AiB will tell you if this will be done. If AiB believes information cannot be changed or completed, you will be told why. AiB will retain a record of the requests received to amend or complete personal information and the decisions made regarding such requests.
If you wish to amend or complete personal information retained by AiB, please write or email the Data Protection Officer at: aib@aib.gov.uk with details of the information you believe is incorrect or incomplete and what information you believe is the correct or complete information. Please also send copies of any documents which support the requested amendment or completion.
Right to ask to have information deleted (right to be forgotten)
AiB has a retention and destruction policy which provides details of how long your personal information will be held. All personal information acquired, retained and processed will be dealt with in accordance with appropriate insolvency and data protection law, regardless of how it is collected and retained.
In certain circumstances, you can ask for the personal information held about you to be deleted if:
- there is no legal reason for the information to be retained
- your personal information is no longer needed for the reason it was collected in the first place
- deleting your information is a legal requirement
- you have withdrawn your consent for us to use your information (where there is no legal reason to retain and use it)
If your personal information has been shared with others, AiB will do what it can to make sure those using your personal information comply with your request for deletion.
Please note, we cannot delete personal information that:
- is required to be held by law
- is required to conduct statutory functions
- is used to formulate policies and legislation
- is necessary for legal claims
If you wish AiB to delete all, or some of, your personal information, please write or email the Data Protection Officer at: gdpr@aib.gov.uk with details of the information you wish deleted and the reason why you wish it to be deleted.
AiB will notify if your request can be complied with. If it is not believed appropriate to delete any of the information you have requested, you will be told why.
Right to ask us to limit what we use your personal data for
You have the right to ask how AiB uses your personal information to be restricted where:
- you have informed AiB about incorrect personal information held and the accuracy of that information is being verified
- there is no lawful reason to use your personal information, but you wish to restrict how that information is used, rather than it be deleted
- AiB no longer requires your personal information but you need AiB to keep it for legal claims
- you have objected to how your personal information is used and AiB is considering your objection
Where the use of personal information has been restricted, AiB cannot use it for any other purpose, but can continue to securely store the information. You can request any restricted, stored information for use in relation to legal claims, the protection of others or in the significant public interest of the UK. Where the restriction on the use of your information has been granted, AiB will inform you before carrying on using it for any other purpose.
If you wish to have restrictions placed upon what AiB uses your personal information for, please write to or email AiB’s Data Protection Officer at gdpr@aib.gov.uk with details of the information you wish restricted and the reason why. AiB will notify if it can comply with your request. If it is not believed appropriate to restrict something, AiB will tell you why.
Right to ask for your information to be moved to another organisation (data portability)
You have the right to ask that personal information you have provided, which is stored electronically, is provided to you in a commonly used format. This is data portability.
However, due to the fact AiB retains personal information using electronic case management systems designed by AiB, it is unlikely your data portability request can be complied with, as the format this information is retained in is unlikely to be compatible with other electronic systems.
Right to object
You have the right to ask that your personal information is not used by AiB for any purpose related to collecting information about the performance of its duties, e.g. personal information that could be used for the purpose of conducting customer service surveys.
If you do not wish your personal information to be used for this type of purpose, you should write to the Data Protection Officer at gdpr@aib.gov.uk stating why you object to your information being used.
AiB generally does not use personal information for research and statistical analysis purposed.
If you wish further information about this, please contact AiB’s Data Protection Officer. Where AiB is processing personal data to fulfil statutory duties, it is unlikely any objection will be successful.
Rights in relation to automated decision making and profiling
Where AiB makes an automated decision that has a legal or similarly significant effect on you, we will notify you of this in writing. Where AiB makes any such decision, you have 21 days to ask for a person to review the decision or take a new decision that is not based on automated processing.
All decisions made by, or on behalf of, AiB are made by a person, the only exception is when an individual who owes money to more than one creditor has applied to enter into the Debt Arrangement Scheme (DAS) debt payment programme (DPP).
If all of the person’s creditors have consented to the DPP being approved, AiB’s DAS administration system (DASH) will automatically approve the DPP with no human intervention. This is because the law says that where all creditors have consented to the DPP, AiB must approve the DPP. In these circumstances, we will write to you and you will be given the opportunity to request that an AiB member of staff considers a variation or revocation to the automated decision.
AiB does not automatically process any data to evaluate individuals.
How we protect your information
AiB regards the lawful and correct treatment of personal information as essential to the success of its operations and for maintaining confidence between the Agency and those it is involved with.
Security measures
AiB is required by law to make certain personal information available to the public. However, it is committed to ensuring all information retained about you (on paper and electronically) is kept secure and only made available to those who have a right to see it.
Examples of security measures include:
- controlled access to AiB’s IT case management systems and networks, which ensure that only people who are required to see your personal information can access it
- regular data protection training for staff to ensure awareness of data protection requirements
- regular testing of IT systems for cyber resilience
- encrypting data, so personal information cannot be read without a secret code or password
- appointment of a Data Processing Officer to monitor data handling performance and ensure compliance with data processing requirements
Is all of your information processed in the UK?
AiB only processes personal information on systems based in the UK.
However, in order to fulfil our statutory duties, there are some circumstances where AiB must communicate with third parties out with the EU to obtain information about assets and debts held in non EU countries. Where we do so, we will have a lawful basis on which to obtain and share information and we will always ensure that we take the appropriate data security measures when doing so.
Where AiB carries out any task in the public interest that requires the services of a company based out with the EU, we will ensure that the company is in a country considered “safe” by the UK or EU Governments and that the company uses appropriate data security measures, such as Privacy Shield.
How long do we hold your personal information?
AiB will hold your personal information in accordance with AiB’s, Retention and Destruction policy, which can be read here. If you cannot access this link, a hard copy can be requested by contacting us on 0300 200 2600 or emailing us at aib@aib.gov.uk
CCTV recordings
AiB operates a number of closed circuit television cameras in and around the public areas of its office. AiB and the Scottish Government share joint responsibility for the CCTV operated, and are Joint Data Controllers for data protection purposes.
The recordings from these CCTV cameras are used for the safety and security of the building, staff and visitors. These recordings are retained for 30 days, unless a recording is required for evidential or claim purposes.
You have the right to ask for a copy of a recording of you, or for a recording to be deleted, before the recording is automatically deleted. To ask for this, you can make your request to AiB in writing, by completing form GDPR2AiB.
If you cannot access the form, you can phone the Data Protection Officer on 0300 200 2600 or by email at gdpr@aib.gov.uk and ask for this form. You must send copies of two forms of identification with the GDPR2AiB, one of which must have your picture on it e.g. a copy of your driving licence or passport.
Further advice on data protection
If you have any concerns or questions about how your personal information is handled and retained by AiB, you can contact AiB’s Data Protection Officer at gdpr@aib.gov.uk or by calling 0300 200 2600.
For independent advice about data protection, privacy and data sharing issues, you may contact the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO):
On their website: https://ico.org.uk/concerns/ (link is external)
By writing to them:
Information Commissioner's Office
Wycliffe House
Water Lane
Wilmslow
Cheshire
SK9 5AF
By phoning them: 0303 123 1113
Or emailing them at casework@ico.org.uk.
Community language Versions and alternative formats of AiB’s Privacy Statement are available on request. Please contact 0300 200 2600 to ask for this to be arranged.
Further data protection information
Crime and taxation exemption requests
For requests for personal data for exemption under Schedule 2, Part 1, paragraph 2 of the Data Protection Act 2018 for crime and taxation purposes please complete this form.
Personal data exemption requests
For requests for personal data for exemption under Schedule 2, Part 1, paragraph 5 (1-3) of the Data Protection Act 2018 for information required to be disclosed by law etc or in connection with legal proceedings please complete this form.
Cookies and Website Traffic Analysis
When you enter this website your computer will automatically be issued with 'cookies'. Cookies are text files which identify users' computers to the server that host the website. The website then creates "session" cookies to store some of the preferences of users moving around the website, e.g. retaining a text-only preference. Cookies in themselves do not identify individual users but identify only the computer used and they are deleted on departure from the website.
Many websites do this to track traffic flows, whenever users visit those websites.
This website uses third-party cookies to measure use of the website including number of visitors, how frequently pages are viewed, and the city and country of origin of users. This helps to determine what is popular and can influence future content and development. For this purpose, we use Google Analytics to measure and analyse usage of the website. The information collected will include IP Address, pages visited, browser type and operating system. The data will not be used to identify any user personally.
Users have the opportunity to set their computers to accept all cookies, to notify them when a cookie is issued, or not to receive cookies at any time. The last of these means that certain personalised services cannot then be provided to that user.
The @AiB_updates and @DASScotland Twitter account and all "tweets" are the property of Accountant in Bankruptcy and not of any individual within the agency, unless explicitly stated otherwise. Our Twitter policy is available online.
Log files
Log files stored on the web server allow the recording and analysis of users' use of the website. Log files do not contain any personal information.
Copyright
The information and publications on the AiB website are subject to Crown Copyright. Material may be reproduced without formal permission or charge for personal or in-house use only. For other use or if in doubt, further information is available from http://www.hmso.gov.uk/copyright.htm (link is external) (link is external).
Guidance notes on publishing and copyright, including those from the Queen's Printer for Scotland, are available at http://www.hmso.gov.uk/guides.htm (link is external) (link is external).
Information Collection
The Accountant in Bankruptcy is the sole owner of the information collected on www.aib.gov.uk.
Sharing
Though we make every effort to preserve user privacy, we may need to disclose personal information when required by law wherein we have a good-faith belief that such action is necessary to comply with a current judicial proceeding, a court order or legal process served on our Web site.
Links
This Website contains links to other sites. Please be aware that we, the Accountant in Bankruptcy, are not responsible for the privacy practices of such other sites. We encourage our users to be aware when they leave our site and to read the privacy statements of each and every website that collects personally identifiable information. This privacy statement applies solely to information collected by this website
Notification of Changes
If we decide to change our privacy policy, we will post those changes to this website, and other places we deem appropriate so our users are always aware of what information we collect, how we use it, and under what circumstances, if any, we disclose it.
Retention and Disposal of Information
AiB operate a Records Retention and Destruction Policy to ensure that information is not kept for any longer than necessary in accordance with the principles of the Data Protection Act.
Contact Information
If you have any questions or suggestions regarding our privacy policy, please contact us at:
Email: gdpr@aib.gov.uk.
Phone: 0300 200 2600 [charged at the local call rate from a landline within the United Kingdom]
Post: AiB Communications, Accountant in Bankruptcy, 1 Pennyburn Road, Kilwinning, KA13 6SA, UK