Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO)
Date last modified: 02/05/2019
Who we are
The Bishop of Truro
Has been commissioned by the
Foreign and Commonwealth Office
King Charles Street
London
SW1A 2AH
To conduct an independent review of the FCO’s support for persecuted Christians.
What data will be processed and why
On 26 December 2018 the Foreign Secretary asked the Bishop of Truro to conduct an independent review of the way the FCO supports persecuted Christians around the world. The Review will map levels of persecution of and other discrimination against Christians in key countries around the world. It will provide an objective assessment of the impact and levels of FCO support and make recommendations in this regard. The Review findings will be presented in a report to the Foreign Secretary. Thereafter the report will be published by the FCO.
The objectives of the Review are to:
- Establish recent and continuing levels of persecution and other discriminatory treatment affecting Christian communities around the world, focusing on a number of key countries, and based on an assessment of the existing data, and identify trends and underlying social, ideological, political and historical drivers and causes;
- Analyse the range of persecution and other discrimination Christians suffer, their direct discrimination or targeting in law, employment, business, education and academia; discrimination due to social or cultural norms, especially with regard to gender inequality; or that resulting from insufficient protection in administrative, political or legal systems;
- Examine the treatment of and outcomes for affected Christians and the range and effectiveness of local and international responses, including that of regional and multilateral bodies;
- Provide an independent and objective assessment of FCO support, specifically whether the FCO offers appropriate and proportionate support for Christians, given the various religious minorities and discriminated groups facing threats; and
- Identify countries of most concern and/or where the UK has particular opportunities to influence.
In order to deliver these objectives, the Bishop of Truro and his staff will collect personal data about individuals. This data will be analysed, to understand the scale of persecution of Christians and assess the effectiveness of FCO policy in this area. The Bishop’s findings will be included in the interim report and/or final report to the FCO. The reports will be screened where redactions of sensitive information may occur, before being published by the FCO.
Controller of the data
Although the review is being conducted by a team of independent experts led by the Bishop of Truro, the review has been commissioned on behalf of and is being done for the benefit of the FCO. For the purposes of data protection legislation, the FCO is the controller of the data collected. In order to encourage as broad engagement in the Independent Review as possible, the Bishop will ensure that any personal data provided in confidence to him and his team during the evidence gathering and report writing stages is either anonymised before it is passed to the FCO or securely destroyed upon completion of the Independent Review.
Legal basis for the processing
Where data are collected from published sources (such as reports by NGOs on the plight of persecuted Christians) such data will be processed because it is necessary for us to do so in order to perform our functions as a government department and (in relation to special category data – which includes data relating to religious opinions) it is also in the substantial public interest. In this regard the data would be collected in order to review the effectiveness of our policies in respect of persecuted Christians and whether they are helping those they are intended to help and if they are not, to inform decisions about how those policies can or should be changed. For these purposes the FCO has an appropriate policy document in place. Where special category data have been manifestly made public by the data subject this provides a further lawful basis for the processing of such data.
Where personal testimony is collected from individuals that is not otherwise in the public domain the explicit consent of those individuals will be sought to process their data.
What happens to data
The data collected will be used in statistics on the persecution of Christians. In some cases the anonymised data will be used in case studies or where the experiences of individuals is already published in reports in the public domain then it will not be anonymised. Where data relating to individuals that is not already public is to be used in the final report those individuals will be contacted by the Review Team to seek consent for the data to be used in this way.
There may be circumstances in which we may lawfully share personal data with third parties where, for example, we are required to do so by law, by court order, or to prevent fraud or other crimes. Where we share data, however, we shall do so in accordance with applicable data protection laws.
How long data are kept
Where the Bishop and his staff have agreed that your personal data will not be shared with the FCO they will retain your personal data for one month after the publication of the final review and then it will be securely destroyed. In other cases at the end of the review all material associated with the review will be dealt with by the FCO in accordance with our obligations under the Public Records Act.
Your rights
In certain circumstances, you have the right to:
- Object – request that your data is not processed for certain purposes.
- Erasure – request that your personal data is erased where one of the statutory grounds applies.
- Data portability – the right to obtain and reuse your personal data for your own purposes across different services in certain circumstances.
- Restrict processing – request that the processing of your personal data is restricted in certain circumstances – for example, where accuracy is contested.
- Rectification – request that any inaccuracies in your personal data are rectified without delay. Request that any incomplete personal data is completed, including by means of a supplementary statement.
- Access – request information about how your personal data is processed and to request a copy of that personal data.
You also have have the right to:
- withdraw consent to the processing of your personal data at any time. You can withdraw consent by emailing the Data Protection Officer at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office at the address below.
- request a copy of any personal data you have provided.
Contact details
If you have any questions about anything in this notice, or if you consider that your personal data has been misused or mishandled, or if you would like to exercise any of your rights, you can contact the FCO at the address above.
You can also contact the Data Protection Officer at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office:
Data Protection Officer
Knowledge Management Department
Knowledge and Technology Directorate
Room K4.02
Foreign and Commonwealth Office
King Charles Street
London
SW1A 2AH
Email: Data.Protection@fco.gov.uk
Tel: 020 7008 1500
Complaints
You may also make a complaint to the Information Commissioner, who is an independent regulator. The Information Commissioner can be contacted at:
Information Commissioner’s Office
Wycliffe House
Water Lane
Wilmslow
Cheshire SK9 5AF
Email: casework@ico.org.uk
Tel: 0303 123 1113
Changes to this notice
We may modify or amend this privacy notice at our discretion at any time. When we make changes to this notice, we will amend the last modified data at the top of this page. Any modification or amendment to this privacy notice will be applied to you and your data as of that revision date. We will endeavour to notify of any material changes to this notice but we encourage you to periodically review this privacy notice to be informed about how we are protecting your data.