Tribunal Privacy Notice

The Scottish Solicitors’ Discipline Tribunal is a judicial body created by statute. The Tribunal deals with complaints of professional misconduct by solicitors, applications for restoration to the roll of solicitors in Scotland, applications for removal of restrictions on practising certificates, claims for compensation and appeals relating to unsatisfactory professional conduct made by the Professional Practice Committee of the Law Society of Scotland.

The Tribunal receives personal data from the Law Society of Scotland, solicitors, secondary complainers, appellants, respondents and other third parties while dealing with Tribunal cases. This can include personal data about clients or others connected to solicitors appearing before the Tribunal. Personal data is processed and shared to the minimum extent necessary with members, parties to Tribunal cases and third parties. We publish on our website the Tribunal’s diary of cases.

The Tribunal has a legal obligation to process personal data to comply with the law contained in the Solicitors (Scotland) Act 1980 as amended. Processing is necessary for the Tribunal to perform its tasks in the public interest and for the Tribunal’s official functions which have a clear basis in law. Processing is also carried out in furtherance of the Tribunal’s legitimate interests. The Tribunal occasionally processes special categories of data. This occurs when necessary for the establishment, exercise or defence of legal claims.

The Tribunal takes steps to ensure security of the personal data it processes. It destroys personal data in accordance with its retention policy. Personal data which the Tribunal receives when acting as a judicial body is not used for any other purpose. If you have any concerns about your personal data being processed by the Tribunal, please contact the Tribunal Office.

The written decisions (findings) of the Tribunal are provided to the parties and published on the Tribunal’s website. By law, the Tribunal must publish every decision in full. The Tribunal tries not to include personal data in written decisions. However, there will be occasions when it is necessary. If you have concerns about your personal data appearing in a Tribunal decision, please raise this with the Tribunal Office at the earliest opportunity.

GENERAL
When we receive a complaint from a person about the Tribunal we make up a file containing the details of the complaint. This normally contains the identity of the complainant and any other individuals involved in the complaint. We also maintain a Complaints Register. We use the personal information we collect to process the complaint and to check on the level of service we provide and to track the areas giving rise to complaints.

Usually we would disclose your identity to whomever the complaint is about. If you don’t want identifying information to be disclosed, we will try to respect that. However, it may not be possible to handle a complaint on an anonymous basis.

We keep personal information contained in complaint files in line with our retention policy. This means that information relating to a complaint will be retained for three years from closure. It will be retained in a secure environment and access to it will be restricted according to the ‘need to know’ principle. 

Where enquiries are submitted to us we will only use the information supplied to us to deal with the enquiry and any subsequent issues and to check on the level of service we provide.

The Tribunal Office may provide information to the Chair or the Lord President about the case to assist them to deal with a complaint.

COMPLAINTS ABOUT PERSONAL DATA
We take any complaints we receive very seriously. We encourage people to bring it to our attention if they think that our collection or use of information is unfair, misleading or inappropriate. We would also welcome any suggestions for improving our procedures.

This privacy notice was drafted with brevity and clarity in mind. It does not provide exhaustive detail of all aspects of our collection and use of personal information. However, we are happy to provide any additional information or explanation needed. Any requests for this should be sent to the address below.

If you want to make a complaint about the way we have processed your personal information, you can complain to the Tribunal Chairman using the contact details below. Alternatively, you can contact the ICO at www.ico.org.uk/concerns.

When someone visits www.ssdt.org.uk we use a third party service, Google Analytics, to collect standard internet log information and details of visitor behaviour patterns. We do this to find out things such as the number of visitors to the various parts of the site. This information is only processed in a way which does not identify anyone. We do not make, and do not allow Google to make, any attempt to find out the identities of those visiting our website. To opt out of being tracked by Google Analytics across all websites visit http://tools.google.com/dlpage/gaoptout.

We do our best to protect your personal data. We employ industry standard security measures to protect your information from access by unauthorised persons and against unlawful processing, accidental loss, destruction and damage. However, it is technically impossible to provide a totally secure system on the web and you are responsible for ensuring your own computer system is adequately protected from access by unauthorised persons. A third party service helps maintain the security and performance of our website. To deliver this service it processes the IP addresses of visitors to our website. The third party service also powers our website findings search. No user-specific data is collected by us.

COOKIES
A cookie is a small file which asks permission to be placed on your computer's hard drive. Once you agree, the file is added and the cookie helps analyse web traffic or lets you know when you visit a particular site. Cookies allow web applications to respond to you as an individual. The web application can tailor its operations to your needs, likes and dislikes by gathering and remembering information about your preferences.

We use traffic log cookies to identify which pages are being used. This helps us analyse data about web page traffic and improve our website to tailor it to customer needs. We only use this information for statistical analysis purposes and then the data is removed from the system.

Overall, cookies help us provide you with a better website, by enabling us to monitor which pages you find useful and which you do not. A cookie does not give us access to your computer or any information about you, other than the data you choose to share with us.

You can choose to accept or decline cookies. Most web browsers automatically accept cookies, but you can usually modify your browser setting to decline cookies if you prefer. However, this may prevent you from taking full advantage of the website.

Most web browsers allow some control of most cookies through the browser settings. To find out more about cookies, including how to see what cookies have been set and how to manage and delete them, visit www.aboutcookies.org or www.allaboutcookies.org.

LINKS TO OTHER WEBSITES
Our website may contain links to enable you to visit other websites of interest easily. However, once you have used these links to leave our site, you should note that we do not have any control over that other website. Therefore, we cannot be responsible for the protection and privacy of any information which you provide whilst visiting such sites and such sites are not governed by this privacy statement. You should exercise caution and look at the privacy statement applicable to the website in question.

SECURITY AND PERFORMANCE
The Tribunal uses a third party service to help maintain the security and performance of the Tribunal website. To deliver this service it processes the IP addresses of visitors to the Tribunal website.

JOB APPLICANTS
All information you provide during any recruitment process will only be used for the purpose of progressing your application, or to fulfil legal or regulatory requirements if necessary. The information you provide will be held securely. We will use the contact details you provide to us to contact you to progress your application. We will use the other information you provide to assess your suitability for the role you have applied for.

If we make a conditional offer of employment you will be asked to provide:-
• Proof of your identity
• Proof of your qualifications
• You will be asked to complete a criminal records declaration to declare any unspent convictions.
• We will contact your referees, using the details you provide in your application, to obtain references

If we make a final offer of employment, we will also ask you for the following:-
• Bank details – to process salary payments
• Emergency contact details – so we know who to contact in case you have an emergency at work

If you are successful, the information you provide during the application process will be retained by us as part of your employee file for the duration of your employment plus 6 years following the end of your employment. If you are unsuccessful at any stage of the process, the information you have provided until that point will be retained for 6 months from the closure of the recruitment process.

EMPLOYEES
When we employ a person, we make up an employee file containing the details of the employee. This contains criminal records declarations, fitness to work information, records of any security checks and references. It also contains personal information such as name, address, date of birth, copies of identification documents, email address, emergency contacts, bank details, pension details, national insurance number, salary and tax codes. We will retain your employee file for the duration of your employment and the following six years. Personal data will be processed by payroll, our accountants and our pension provider for purposes directly relevant to the individuals’ employment. We have a duty to retain for a period of time for statutory or legal reasons but also for other purposes such as being able to provide references, or for financial reasons, for example relating to pensions and taxation. If employees take part in virtual tribunals, their data may be processed by the video conferencing provider in accordance with their data protection policy.

TRIBUNAL MEMBERS
When a Tribunal member is appointed, they are asked to provide a brief biography for the website. This is to allow Tribunal users to identify Tribunal members. It allows for early identification of conflicts of interest and transparency in the Tribunal’s decision-making. The biography is publicly available. When a person ceases to be a member of the Tribunal, their biography is removed from our website. Tribunal members' contact details and bank details are processed by the Tribunal Office. Tribunal members’ personal data is processed by video conferencing providers when taking part in virtual tribunals.

If you would like to become a member of the Tribunal, the Tribunal Office will take a note of your email address and contact you at the next recruitment opportunity. The Tribunal Office maintains a register of interest for this purpose. Email addresses are removed from the register in accordance with our retention policy. This means that your email address will be removed from our register once you have been notified of a current recruitment opportunity.

You have the right to access the personal data which we hold about you by making a “Subject Access Request” in writing. You can read more about your rights on the ICO website. There are some exemptions to providing personal data in response to a subject access request. More information about these can be found on the ICO website.

The ICO website also gives details of some of the exemptions which may apply to the Tribunal when considering a subject access request.

We may ask you to provide suitable evidence confirming your identity before providing you with such details. If you believe that any information we are holding on you is incorrect or incomplete, please make us aware of that as soon as possible. The Tribunal and SSDT Administration Limited can be contacted at enquiries@ssdt.org.uk or in writing to:-

Scottish Solicitors’ Discipline Tribunal
Unit 3.5,
Granary Business Centre
Coal Road
Cupar, Fife
KY15 5YQ

The Tribunal is not subject to Freedom of Information legislation.

Data processors are third parties who process data on our behalf. We have contracts, protocols and agreements in place with our data processors. This means that they cannot do anything with your personal information unless we have instructed them to do it. They will not share your personal information with any organisation apart from us. They will hold it securely and retain it for the period we instruct.

From time to time, the Tribunal may use video conferencing facilities to hold “virtual” tribunals. Personal data will be processed by those providers in accordance with their data protection policies. Members of the public and media are asked to join virtual tribunals without using video or audio to protect personal data. All users will be asked to consent to the platform’s use of personal data on first use. Please ensure that you are familiar with their terms of use.

We keep our privacy notice under regular review. This privacy notice was last updated on 6 October 2023.

If you wish more information or need to contact us, please email us at enquiries@ssdt.org.uk or write to:
Scottish Solicitors’ Discipline Tribunal
Unit 3.5, Coal Road
Cupar, Fife
KY15 5YQ