Privacy policy
General information
This privacy notice tells you what to expect us to do with your personal information when you visit our website or contact us by our contact form.
When we process your personal information, we will:
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make sure you know why we need it
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only ask for what we need, and not collect too much or irrelevant information
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make sure it is accurate and up to date
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let you know if we share it with other organisations, unless we have a legal obligation to pass it on without telling you
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protect it and make sure nobody has access to it who shouldn't
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make sure we don't keep it longer than is necessary
The first part of the notice is information we need to tell everybody.
About the Scottish Blue Carbon Forum
The Scottish Blue Carbon Forum was established by the Scottish Government in 2018 to help understand Scotland’s blue carbon habitats, their vulnerability to human and environmental impacts and their potential contribution as a marine nature-based solution. The Forum connects blue carbon experts from research institutions, non-government organisations and public bodies across Scotland and beyond to exchange knowledge, progress blue carbon research and provide independent advice to Scottish Government to inform blue carbon policy development and delivery.
Controller's contact details
The Scottish Blue Carbon Forum is managed by the Scottish Government. The Scottish Government falls under the legal entity of the Scottish Ministers in relation to processing of your personal information. We are the controller for the personal information we process, unless otherwise stated.
Our Central Enquiry Unit will pass on your enquiry to the appropriate area.
Telephone
Opening hours: Monday to Friday - 8:30am to 5pm.
From the UK: 0300 244 4000 (0300 numbers are geographically neutral)
International callers: +44 131 244 4000
Text relay service: 18001+ 0300 244 4000 (service for the hard of hearing)
If you are a British Sign Language (BSL) user, you can contact us via our national BSL video relay service Contact Scotland-BSL.
Post
Scottish Government
St. Andrew's House
Regent Road
Edinburgh
EH1 3DG
Data Protection Officer's contact details
You can contact our Data Protection Officer at DataProtectionOfficer@gov.scot or via our postal address. Please mark the envelope ‘Data Protection Officer’.
Your data protection rights
Data protection law gives you certain rights that you may exercise in respect of your own personal information.
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you have a right to request a copy of personal information we hold about you, by making a subject access request. This right always applies. There are some exemptions, which means you may not always receive all the information we process. We have published further information on this.
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you have the right to ask us to update our records if you believe that the data we hold is inaccurate or incomplete. This right always applies
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you have the right to ask us to erase your personal information. There may however be some circumstances in which we cannot comply. Such as, if we have a legal duty to keep data, or we process it in a particular way
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you have the right to ask that we stop or restrict the processing of your information in certain circumstances
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you have the right to object to processing if we are able to process your information because the process forms part of our public tasks
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you have the right to ask that we transfer the information you gave us from one organisation to another, or give it to you. This right only applies to information you have given us and we are processing information based on your consent or under, or in talks about entering into a contract and the processing is automated
You are not required to pay any charge for exercising your rights. We have one month to respond to you. Please contact us at dpa@gov.scot if you wish to make a request, or contact our Central Enquires Unit on 0303 123 1113.
Your right to complain
If you have concerns about our compliance with data protection laws, please contact our Data Protection Officer (DPO) in the first instance at DataProtectionOfficer@gov.scot. They will look into the concerns you have raised and provides the response.
If you are not satisfied with the DPO’s response you have the right to lodge a complaint with the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO). The ICO are the supervisory authority responsible for data protection in the UK.
You can contact the Information Commissioner at:
The Information Commissioner
Wycliffe House
Water Lane
Wilmslow
Cheshire
SK9 5AF
Tel: 08456 30 60 60
More information is available on the Information Commissioner's website. You can also report any concerns via the Information Commissioner's Officer's website.
How we get information
Most of the personal information we process is provided to us directly by you via the contact form on our website. We also gather information about you using essential cookies on our website, which you will be asked to opt into.
Lawful basis for processing
We process your personal information because:
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you have given us clear consent for us to process your personal data for a specific purpose
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processing is necessary for a contract we have with you, or because you have asked us to take specific steps before entering into a contract
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processing is necessary for compliance with a legal obligation that applies to us
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processing is necessary to protect your (or some else’s) life
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processing is necessary for us to perform a task in the public interest or for our official functions, and the task or function has a clear basis in law
Changes to this privacy notice
We keep our privacy notice under regular review to make sure it is up to date and accurate. If this privacy notice changes in any way, we will update this page. Regularly reviewing this page ensures that you are always aware of what information we collect, how we use it and under what circumstances we share it with other parties.
Contacting the Scottish Blue Carbon Forum
You may have written to us because you have a question or concern about something. This part of the privacy notice sets out how we use your personal data, and your rights when communicating with us.
What we do with information we collect from you when you contact us
When you write to us via the contact form on this website, your enquiry will usually be first handled by the Scottish Blue Carbon Forum secretariat. If necessary, the secretariat will send your enquiry to a specific team so that your question can be answered. We will only use your personal information for the purpose of handling, investigating and resolving your issue. We will use the contact details you provided to respond to your correspondence. If you have raised any issues about a third party, we may use the contact details you have provided for them to investigate your issue.
What personal information we collect
If you contact us via the contact form on this website, we will need a return address for response. We need enough information from you to answer your enquiry. We also gather information about you using essential cookies on our website, which you will be asked to opt into.
Who we share your information with
If your enquiry needs specialist advice it will be passed to the relevant team for consideration and input. In some circumstances we will share your information with other organisations. When we do that, we will satisfy ourselves that we have a lawful basis on which to share the information and document our decision making.
Visiting our website
We collect information about you when you visit our website, and when you interact with our pages. We also collect information when you get in touch with us by using the contact form on this website.
What we do with information we collect from you when you visit our website
We use this information to:
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improve the site by monitoring how you use it
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respond to any emails you send us, if you've asked us to
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record and/or publish your response to a survey or consultation
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publish your comment on a blog or discussion site
What personal information we collect
Analytics
We use Wix Analytics to collect information on how you use the site. The information we collect doesn't identify anyone and its retention complies with GDPR in Wix Analytics.
Cookies
You can read more about how we use cookies, and how to change your cookies preferences, on our Cookies page.
Questions and feedback
If you contact us asking a question or giving feedback, we collect your email address and any other personal data contained in your message. If you contact us asking for information, we may need to contact other government bodies to find that information.
Links to other websites
When we link to other websites, we encourage you to read the privacy policy statements contained on those sites.