How will we use the information about you

 

Small Area Health Statistics Unit Research Database

Imperial College London is the sponsor of this research database and acts as the data controller. This means that we are responsible for looking after your information and using it properly. Imperial College London will keep your personal data for 20 years after the study has completed in relation to primary research data.

We will need to use your information for our research programme which consists of many studies focusing on how our environment affects our health. Our research includes studies of the impact of waste management, air pollution and climate change on health.

We obtain your information from national data providers after providing assurance that your information will be stored safely and legally. We must justify a valid reason for using your information which will benefit health and care. All the information we hold about you is controlled by legally binding data sharing contracts between the data providers and Imperial College.

The information may include your NHS Number, Address, Postcode, Date of Birth and Date of Death. Data managers will use this information to do very specific tasks after which they will generate codes for this information. The people who will use this information to do research do not need to know who you are and will not be able to see your personal details. We will keep all information about you safe and secure.

Once we have finished a study forming part of our research programme, we will keep some of the data so we can check the results. We will write our reports in a way that no-one can work out that you took part in our research programme.

Legal basis

We process your personal information for the purposes of scientific research carried out in the public interest in the area of public health. Where we process special categories of personal data (which include data about your health, ethnicity, or sexual orientation), the condition used for processing is ‘necessary for scientific research in accordance with safeguards’.

Sharing your information with others

We do not share your personal data with any third parties outside of the Small Area Health Statistics Unit.

What are your choices about how your information is used?

You can stop being part of our research programme at any time, without giving a reason, but we will keep the information about you that we already have. We need to manage your records in specific ways for research to be reliable. This means that we will not be able to let you see or change the data we hold about you.

Where can you find out more about how your information is used?

You can find more about how we use your information here:

Our confidentiality pledge: Keeping your data safe
List of main projects: Our research
By emailing us: sahsu@imperial.ac.uk

Complaint

If you wish to raise a complaint about how we have handled your personal data, please contact Imperial College London’s Data Protection Officer via email at dpo@imperial.ac.uk, via telephone on 020 7594 3502 and/or via post at Imperial College London, Data Protection Officer, Faculty Building Level 4, London SW7 2AZ.
If you are not satisfied with our response or believe we are processing your personal data in a way that is not lawful you can complain to the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO). The ICO does recommend that you seek to resolve matters with the data controller (us) first before involving the regulator.