GovWire

Purpose

This privacy notice tells you:

• what we will do with your personal information
• how you can get a copy of your personal information
• what you can do if you have any concerns about our use of your personal information

Who we are and what we do

CICA is an Executive Agency of the Ministry of Justice. We collect and process personal data for the purposes of administering the Criminal Injuries Compensation Schemes, the Victims of Overseas Terrorism Compensation Scheme (together the Compensation Schemes), and the Hardship Fund.

CICA is the data controller for the personal information we hold. Under the Criminal Injuries Compensation Schemes, we receive and determine compensation claims from people who have been physically or mentally injured in England, Wales or Scotland by violent crime.

Under the Victims of Overseas Terrorism Compensation Scheme, we receive and determine compensation claims from people who have been physically or mentally injured overseas in a terrorist incident.

Under the Hardship Fund, we receive and determine claims from low paid workers who are temporarily unable to work due to a violent crime in England or Wales, and whose injuries do not fall within the Criminal Injuries Compensation Scheme.

Read more information about the Criminal Injuries Compensation Schemes, Victims of Overseas Terrorism Compensation Scheme and the Hardship Fund.

About personal information

Personal information is information about you as an individual. We know how important it is to protect your privacy and comply with data protection laws. We will safeguard your personal information and only disclose it where it is lawful to do so.

Types of personal information we process

We only process personal information that is relevant to the exercise of our functions. This can include:

• your name, address and contact details
• your date of birth
• information about the incident in which you were injured
• information about your injuries and their impact (health information)
• criminal offence data about any criminal convictions you may have
• financial information about your earnings (if you are claiming loss of earnings) and other expenses you have incurred due to your injuries
• photographs of your injuries and video recordings (for example, CCTV footage of the incident)
• your identification documents
• payment details (including card or bank information)

We may obtain information from you (or your representative if you have one), the police, medical practitioners and other third parties in order to assess your application.

Purpose of processing and the lawful basis for processing

Under data protection law, we must have a lawful basis for collecting and using your personal information. There is a list of possible lawful bases in the UK General Data Protection Regulation. You can find out more about what is a lawful basis on the Information Commissioners Office website.

The lawful basis we rely on may affect your data protection rights which are described further below. You can find out more about your data protection rights and the exemptions which may apply on the Information Commissioners Office website.

Our lawful basis for processing personal information is the performance of a public task, which is to administer the Compensation Schemes and the Hardship Fund. This means we have to collect and use your information to carry out a task laid down in law, which the law intends to be performed by an organisation such as ours.

The extent to which we need to share and obtain your personal information will be determined on a case-by-case basis according to what is reasonably necessary to determine your claim. As consent is not the lawful basis on which we process your personal information, you cannot withdraw your consent to the processing of personal information if you wish to continue with your claim. However, you can withdraw your claim at any time before payment is made and, in those circumstances, we will only retain the small amount of personal information described in the section below titled Storing your information.

We will use the personal information we collect only for the purpose of processing your application, to check on the level of service we provide and as otherwise required by law. We compile and publish statistics showing general information but not in a form which identifies anyone.

Who the information may be shared with

We need to share the personal information we process with you and with other organisations. Where this is necessary we will comply with all aspects of data protection law. As well as members of our own staff, we have to disclose your identity and details of your application to the police (and, in some cases, prosecuting authorities) to obtain information we need to assess the application. This will include getting details of any criminal convictions held by you.

We will usually also have to disclose your identity and some application details to your doctor or other health professionals and obtain from them sufficient evidence of your injuries to allow us to assess what level of compensation should be awarded. This can include medical records from your GP and/or other treating practitioners and the commission of expert medical or psychological reports. In most cases you will be expected to provide this evidence but in some circumstances we may obtain it on your behalf.

We may also need to share details of your application with other third parties, such as your employer, Department for Work and Pensions, HM Revenue & Customs, or another relevant government department, local authority, or agency. We may also use fraud prevention agencies for the purposes of verifying your identity and preventing crime, fraud and money laundering. Such disclosures will be made in accordance with data protection law.

Storing your information

We will keep personal information contained in our case files in line with our retention policy. This means that information relating to an application will be retained for a designated number of years from the date of closure. The precise length of time depends on the nature of the application. Routine case files will normally be held for 3 years from the date the application is finalised or, if the application relates to a child, until the child turns 21.

Our legal functions require us to retain some personal information on each application beyond the destruction date. This is necessary so that we can identify duplicate applications, prevent fraud, and assess any request that is made to re-open an application on medical grounds or where the applicant has subsequently died of their injuries. The data we retain includes your name, address, date of birth, incident date, case reference and case outcome. As our lawful basis is the performance of a public task, the right to erasure does not apply and we are unable to destroy this information.

Our telephone service

We offer a telephone service to those who want to apply over the phone or tell us about a development in their claim. Telephone calls to our Customer Support Team are recorded and kept for 120 days. Call recordings may be used for monitoring and staff training purposes during that period.

If you have an existing claim, we will add a written summary of the telephone call to your case file where it will be stored in line with our retention policy described above.

We may also seek user feedback to help us develop our telephone service.

How our digital service uses cookies

Cookies are files saved on your phone, tablet or computer when you visit a website. When you use the service, well set a cookie to remember your progress through this site. This cookie does not store your personal data.

The cookie is deleted when you:

• submit your application
• do not interact with the service for 30 minutes
• close your browser window

We also use cookies to:

• store information, if you create a user account
• measure how you use our service so we can update and improve it
• make sure we do not keep showing you the same notifications
• protect your security by stopping sites that pretend to be GOV.UK services from gathering your information

You can read more about

View the original news story