Privacy Notice – Ill Health and Infectious diseases

Responding to the advice from the Government is an obligation on all schools in England.

The development of the NHS ‘Track and Trace’ scheme was a key part of the government plan to manage Coronavirus.

As  pupils have returned to our schools, the safety and wellbeing of pupils, staff and their families is a priority.  

We hold a lot of data, and it may be necessary for us to again share data on request from NHS Track and Trace workers or the public health organisation.  If this becomes necessary we will do this and will play our part in making this process as effective as possible.

It is likely that we will be asked to provide details if a case of an infectious disease arises in our school.

We will be sharing data on the basis that this is a Public Duty (see below) and that in the case of any health data it is necessary for the public interest, as set out.  Please be assured that we will keep a record of information that we share.

This Privacy Notice should be read in alongside the other GDPR and Data Protection on our website.

If you have any questions please contact the school office.

The law

The law on protecting personally identifiable information, known as the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), allows Public Health England to use the personal information collected by NHS Test and Trace.

The section of the GDPR that applies is:

Article 6(1)(e) ‘processing is necessary for the performance of a task carried out in the public interest or in the exercise of official authority vested in the controller’

As information about health is a special category of personal information, a further section of the GDPR applies:

Article 9(2)(i) ‘processing is necessary for reasons of public interest in the area of public health, such as protecting against serious cross-border threats to health or ensuring high standards of quality and safety of healthcare’

Public Health England also has special permission from the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care to use personally identifiable information without people’s consent where this is in the public interest. This is known as ‘Section 251’ approval and includes the use of the information collected by NHS Test and Trace to help protect the public from coronavirus. The part of the law that applies here is Section 251 of the National Health Service Act 2006 and the associated Health Service (Control of Patient Information) Regulations 2002.