Telephone: (028) 90524149
Email: DataProtectionOfficer@finance-ni.gov.uk
The Department of Finance, is committed to protecting your privacy when you use our services. Civil Service Pensions (CSP) is a Branch within the Department of Finance. The purpose of this Privacy Notice is to explain why and how CSP collects and uses your personal information, your rights regarding this information and how CSP complies with data protection law.
Department of Finance is the data controller of the personal data you provide to us. The information we need to collect includes:
We also process sensitive classes of information that include:
Your death benefit nominee details:
These are required in the event of your death so that we can pay any death benefits due. We receive this information from you:
CSP may pay benefits to you, your spouse, your dependants and your nominees over the period of your membership of the scheme. In some instances we may require official documentation to verify your personal circumstances or the identity of others in order to pay those benefits. This information will be provided by either yourself or others and includes:
CSP operates a continuous improvement approach and as such may request feedback from you, either by the phone or written/electronic. We also progress any complaints you may have in order that we can make improvements to our service. We receive this information from you.
We collect and process personal information in order to meet our legal obligations and public functions under the Public Services Pensions Act (Northern Ireland) 2014 and the Superannuation (Northern Ireland) Order 1972.
As pensions are long term, the reason for processing your personal information is likely to change over time as your circumstances change, for example:
The lawful basis for processing your personal information is that we have a legal obligation to do so under legislation. Therefore, we do not require your consent in order to process your personal information.
There is an exception to this, which is, if you apply for deferred into payment ill health or make an application under the Civil Service Injury Benefit Scheme (Northern Ireland) health details are classed as a "special category" of personal information under legislation and you will be asked for your consent to sharing the information with the relevant parties, for example the Scheme Medical Advisor.
There may be cases where due to legal reasons or public interest, the Civil Service Pension Scheme arrangements require us to use your personal information, for example, to defend its legal rights, prevent and detect crimes such as fraudulent activities, for data matching under the National Fraud Initiative and for purposes of litigation and legal advice.
For more information on the National Fraud Initiative go to: https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/national-fraud-initiative
We will only collect and hold the minimum amount of personal data necessary in order to provide and manage our services.
We may also collect information when you voluntarily complete surveys or participate in consultations.
Website usage information is collected using cookies. You can read more on our Cookies page: https://www.finance-ni.gov.uk/cookies
We use CCTV on our buildings to maintain the security of property, premises and staff, and for the prevention and investigation of crime. For these reasons the information processed may include visual images, personal appearance and behaviours.
We obtain personal information directly from you, and from other sources, such as other government departments and bodies including HMRC, HRConnect and employers.
We can also obtain your personal data from publicly accessible sources.
When your employer enrolled you into the NICS pension scheme your personal information was sent to us to set you up as a scheme member.
If you are an active member, your employer continues to send us your personal information (usually monthly), including for example salary and amount of time worked. This is so we are able to maintain your pension record, send you an Annual Benefit Statement and be in a position to calculate your benefits when they become payable, or if you wish to leave the scheme.
Even if you have opted out of the NICS pension schemes we continue to receive information from your employer so that we can process any entitlement you might have in the future under the Civil Service Compensation Scheme (NI) or any benefits that you may already have accrued.
Your employer keeps us informed of any changes to address or marital status therefore it is important that you keep your employer updated of any changes to your personal circumstances.
In some instances we may receive additional personal information, about your health, for example if you are applying for benefits from the Civil Service Injury Benefits Scheme (Northern Ireland). This is so we can assess your eligibility for benefits from that scheme.
You may provide us with your personal information, for example you will need to inform us of your Death Benefit Nominee(s).
When you are an active member your employer keeps us informed of any changes to address or marital status, (provided you have disclosed this information to your employer) but when you are a deferred or pensioner member then you need to inform CSP of such changes directly.
Any postal, email or phone communication you have with CSP, is also classed as personal information. These communications are retained in order to protect your interests and those of the schemes. Email and any postal communications are stored electronically.
Any personal information we process will only be used for the purposes stated or if necessary to fulfil legal or regulatory requirements.
All the personal data we use is processed within the European Economic Area (EEA). Sometimes it may be necessary to transfer personal information outside the EEA. Where this is required, information may be transferred to countries or territories around the world. Any transfers made will be in full compliance with all aspects of data protection legislation.
In most circumstances we will not disclose personal data without your consent.
However, we may share your data with the following to meet our legislative or public function requirements, to pursue debt, for fraud or crime prevention and detection purposes, to process benefits, or, in your vital interests:
Further information is available in Departmental Guidance on Data Sharing about the factors we shall consider when deciding whether information should be disclosed.
CSP will keep personal information about you as long as it is necessary, and in line with the DoF Retention and Disposal Schedule, after which time it will be destroyed securely.
The security of your personal information is very important to us and we take this matter very seriously. We use appropriate procedures and security features and have in place a robust framework to ensure the security of your personal information.
In addition, CSP operates a Privacy by Design Policy, which means that a structured assessment of personal information risks is conducted at the point that any new or amended processes are considered. This ensures that data protection is built in from the outset of any changes or new initiatives.
We use technical and organisational measures such as:
Data protection legislation provides individuals with a number of rights with respect to your personal information. These are not always applicable because in some cases the lawful basis for processing overrides that right.
The table below shows which rights are applicable and which are not, and there is more information regarding each right following the table:
*Note that whilst the right to data portability is not applicable under data protection legislation for the NICS pension schemes, the scheme rules and regulations allow for your pensions to be transferred to another provider, as explained below.
You have a right to understand how we process your personal information and your rights relating to it. This Privacy Policy provides this information.
You have a right to access your personal information. We routinely provide access to a summary of your information, as explained below:
The provision of an ABS or P60 (as applicable) does not prevent you from requesting access to specific items or all of your personal information that Civil Service Pensions holds.
A request for your information will be free of charge, with the exception that a reasonable fee can be charged when a request is manifestly unfounded or excessive, particularly if it is repetitive. Any fees charged will be based on the administrative cost of providing the information. Where we have identified that a charge is applicable, we will notify you in advance so that you can decide whether to continue or not.
Information will be provided within one month of receipt, however we are able to extend this by a further two months where requests are complex or numerous. If this is the case, we will inform you within one month of the receipt of the request and explain why the extension is necessary.
Where requests are manifestly unfounded or excessive, in particular because they are repetitive, we can either charge the reasonable fee or refuse to respond. Where we refuse to respond to a request, we will explain the reason why and inform you of your right to complain to the supervisory authority and to a judicial remedy within one month.
You have a right to have personal information rectified (corrected) if it is inaccurate or incomplete.
If you are an active employee (i.e. still in work and paying into the scheme) then your personal information can only be rectified by your employer, so you will need to contact them in the first instance. They will then pass corrected details to the CSP.
If you are a deferred or pensioner member then the common changes of personal details (e.g. name, address, bank details (pensioners only)) can be done via existing member forms which can be accessed on the Civil Service Pensions (Northern Ireland) website: www.finance-ni.gov.uk/civilservicepensions-ni
Where we have shared your information with others and it is subsequently rectified, we will share the corrected information with those parties.
The right to erasure is also known as 'the right to be forgotten'. The broad principle underpinning this right is to enable you to request the deletion or removal of personal information where there is no compelling reason for its continued processing.
In the case of pension information, there are very few circumstances where the right to erasure can be invoked as the maintenance of your pension information is required in order to pay your benefits either now or in the future.
If you consider that there is no compelling reason for the scheme to continue to hold your personal information then you should contact us. Please note that if you have benefits in the scheme either in payment or built up, then we will refuse your request as it would prevent you from receiving the benefits that you are entitled to.
This right does not apply as the schemes will be required to continue processing your personal information in order for the scheme to administer your benefits and for any data rectification of personal information to be received and applied to your record. If you are concerned about the accuracy of personal information then your right to rectification can be invoked.
This right does not apply as it is only relevant when the reason for processing is based upon your consent, which for the NICS pension schemes is not the case. However, the scheme rules allow for transfer of pension benefits to other schemes.
This right does not apply due to the legitimate grounds for us to process your information, namely that we need your personal information in order to administer your pension to ensure you receive the scheme benefits that you are entitled to.
Please note that the CSP does not perform any direct marketing activities and we do not sell or otherwise provide your personal information to any third parties for the purposes of marketing. Your personal information is used solely for the purposes of administrating your benefits under the Northern Ireland Civil Service pension schemes.
This right prevents decisions being taken based solely on automated processing, including profiling. The Civil Service Pension Scheme arrangements do not perform solely automated decision making.
A personal data breach is defined as a breach of security leading to the accidental or unlawful destruction, loss, alteration, unauthorised disclosure of, or access to, personal information transmitted, stored or otherwise processed.
All organisations have a duty to report certain types of personal data breach to the relevant supervisory authority (the Information Commissioners Office) within 72 hours of becoming aware of the breach, where feasible.
If the breach is likely to result in a high risk of adversely affecting your individual rights and freedoms, we must also inform you without undue delay.
We operate robust breach detection, investigation and internal reporting procedures to facilitate decision-making about whether or not we need to notify the relevant supervisory authority and you.
We maintain a record of any personal data breaches, regardless of whether they were notified to the ICO or to you.
If you believe your Personal Data has been compromised, then please contact us using the contact details provided below.
To make a request to access any personal information we may hold about you, you should put the request in writing and email it to:
cspensions@finance-ni.gov.uk
Alternatively, you can write to us at:
If at any point you believe the information we process about you is incorrect, you can also ask to have this information rectified.
If you wish to raise a complaint about how we have handled your data, you can email the DoF Data Protection Officer who will investigate the matter:
DataProtectionOfficer@finance-ni.gov.uk
If you are not satisfied with our response or believe we are not processing your personal data in accordance with the law, you can complain to the Information Commissioner:
casework@ico.org.uk
or
We keep our privacy notice under regular review. This privacy notice was last updated in May 2018.