Who we are
The Climate Change Committee (CCC) is an independent non-departmental public body, set up under the Climate Change Act.
The CCC will handle personal information in compliance with data protection law. Any questions about the way that personal data is used by the CCC can be directed to the following address in the first instance:
Climate Change Committee
Alternatively the Committee’s Data Protection Officer can be contacted using the following details:
Data Protection Officer
Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy
1 Victoria Street
London
SW1H 0ET
dataprotection@beis.gov.uk
Our standards for requesting or storing your personal information
When we ask you for personal information, we will:
- make sure you know why we need it;
- only ask for what we need, and not to collect too much or irrelevant information;
- protect it and make sure nobody has access to it who shouldn’t;
- let you know if we share it with other organisations to give you better public services – and whether you can say no; and
- make sure we don’t keep it longer than necessary.
We won’t make your personal information available for commercial use without your permission.
What personal data we collect and why
| What we collect | Why | Our legal justification |
| Details you submit using the ‘contact us’ form on our website | So we can respond to your enquiry | Your consent |
| Details you submit when you make a Freedom of Information request | So we can process and respond to your request
|
Fulfilling a legal obligation (under the Freedom of Information Act or Environmental Information Regulations) |
| Details you submit when you subscribe to our newsletter | So we can send you the newsletter | Your consent |
| Contact details for journalists, MPs, stakeholders and peers | So we can keep you informed about our research, publications and other activities | It is necessary for the performance of our public task (notably s.39(4) of the Climate Change Act) |
| Details you submit when you respond to an invitation to attend an event | So we can organise the event and ensure that you receive joining instructions | Your consent |
| IP addresses and hostnames of website users | So that we can maintain statistics on use of our website (see the note below) | It is necessary for the performance of our public task (notably s.39(4) of the Climate Change Act) |
Who we share your information with
We will not normally share personal information with other individuals or organisations without your permission, unless:
- failure to do so would be likely to prejudice a criminal investigation or prosecution;
- we are otherwise legally obliged to disclose the information, e.g. by court order.
In the case of Freedom of Information requests, you should be aware that occasionally requests are discussed between public authorities. This is so that issues that might not be obvious to individual organisations (such as public safety or national security risks) can be raised. As far as possible such discussions avoid the processing of personal data such as the identity of the applicant, but it is not always possible to avoid this. Where this happens, it is necessary for the performance of our public task to conduct such discussions.
Our newsletter is administered using MailChimp under contract. Details you submit will be stored in the USA on MailChimp’s servers. MailChimp have signed up to the Privacy Shield scheme. Companies signed up to this scheme are viewed as providing adequate protection for personal information by the European Commission. You can find out more about the safeguards that MailChimp provide on their website at https://mailchimp.com/legal/privacy/
Personal data processing activity
Privacy notices outline the way we process your personal data. Please contact us at enquiries@theccc.org.uk to request a copy of the relevant Privacy Notice.
The Privacy Notices available are:
- Personal Data
- Finance
- Procurement
How long your information is kept for
Identifiable personal information about enquiries and Freedom of Information requests will be retained for no longer than three years. Contact details will be retained until individuals unsubscribe or object to receiving communications, or until the service is terminated, whichever is sooner.
Your rights
Where you have consented to us contacting you, you always have the right to withdraw your consent. The easiest way is to click on the unsubscribe link that is included in all communications, but you can also contact us at any time to ask us not to send you communications. You also have the right to ask us:
- for a copy of your personal information;
- to correct information we hold about you;
- not to continue processing information about you.
Any individual can complain to the Information Commissioner if they believe that CCC has failed to properly protect their personal information, or to comply with these rights. The Information Commissioner can be contacted as follows:
https://ico.org.uk/concerns/handling/
Information Commissioner’s Office
Wycliffe House
Water Lane
Wilmslow
Cheshire
SK9 5AF
Cookies
Depending on your browser’s security settings, websites may be allowed to create and store small files called ‘cookies’ in a specific directory on your computer to help with the functionality of the site. Cookies cannot harm your computer in any way. Only the website that created the cookie can subsequently reuse it.
There are two types of cookies:
- A persistent cookie remains on your computer for a period of time to allow a website to recognise you when you return and present you with the appropriate customised pages.
- Session-specific cookies are deleted when you shut down your browser. These are used on sites where you log in; the cookie ensures that you stay logged in throughout that visit.
The Climate Change Committee uses both types of cookie for Google Analytics. However, the site can still be used if cookies are refused by your browser.
This website uses the following cookies to record usage:
| Name | Description | Length |
| _ga | Used to distinguish users | 2 years |
| _gid | Used to distinguish users | 24 hours |
| _gat | Used to throttle request rate | 1 minute |
Where comments are enabled on a page, a further cookie is set to help save your contact details to prevent you having to re-populate the comment form each time you leave a comment.
IP addresses and hostnames
An IP address is the numeric address of a computer. The IP address recorded on website log files is the address provided by your internet service provider’s equipment and not your own personal computer’s address.
Hostnames are similar in appearance to the domain names you see in URLs and email addresses. The hostnames recorded on website log files are those of the internet service provider’s equipment that you are using to access the internet, and not your own computer’s name or location.
Your internet service provider will keep records of which customer is using any IP address or hostname at any given time, and so it is theoretically possible to trace back activity shown on any website log file to a specific individual. In practice, this can only be done with the explicit involvement of the internet service provider, and such a trace would therefore only take place in the event of serious criminal misuse of the internet and would be carried out by the police.
The Climate Change Committee will not attempt to associate IP addresses and hostnames with individuals. In the event of serious criminal misuse of the website, the matter would be referred to the police for investigation.
