4.1  Data Retention

As a general principle, ASTORIA CARE LTD will not keep (or otherwise process) any personal data for longer than is necessary. If ASTORIA CARE LTD no longer requires the personal data once it has finished using it for the purposes for which it was obtained, it will delete the personal data unless it is required by law to retain the data for an additional period of time.

4.2 ASTORIA CARE LTD may have legitimate business reasons to retain the personal data for a longer period. This may include, for example, retaining personnel records in case a claim arises relating to personal injury caused by ASTORIA CARE LTD that does not become apparent until a future date. ASTORIA CARE LTD must consider the likelihood of this arising when it determines its retention periods – the extent to which medical treatment is provided by ASTORIA CARE LTD will, for example, affect the likelihood of ASTORIA CARE LTD needing to rely on records at a later date.

4.3 ASTORIA CARE LTD may be required to retain personal data for a specified period of time to comply with legal or statutory requirements. These may include, for example, requirements imposed by HMRC in respect of financial documents, or guidance issued by UK Visas and Immigration and Immigration Enforcement in respect of the retention of right to work documentation (see the “Underpinning Knowledge” section).

4.4 ASTORIA CARE LTD understands that claims may be made under a contract for 6 years from the date of termination of the contract, and that claims may be made under a deed for a period of 12 years from the date of termination of the deed. ASTORIA CARE LTD may therefore consider keeping contracts and deeds and documents and correspondence relevant to those contracts and deeds for the duration of the contract or deed plus 6 and 12 years respectively.

4.5 ASTORIA CARE LTD will consider how long it needs to retain HR records. ASTORIA CARE LTD may choose to separate its HR records into different categories of personal data (for example, health and medical information, holiday and absence records, next of kin information, emergency contact details, financial information) and specify different retention periods for each category of personal data. ASTORIA CARE LTD recognises that determining separate retention periods for each element of personal data may be more likely to comply with UK GDPR.

ASTORIA CARE LTD may decide, however, that separating its HR records into different elements is not practical, and that it can determine a sensible period of time for which to keep the HR records in their entirety.

The period of time that is appropriate may depend on the likelihood of a claim arising in respect of that employee in the future. If, for example, if ASTORIA CARE LTD is concerned that an employee may suffer personal injury as a result of their employment, they may choose to retain its HR records for a significant period of time. If any such claim is unlikely, ASTORIA CARE LTD may choose to retain its files for 6 or 12 years (depending on whether the arrangement entered into between ASTORIA CARE LTD and the employee is a contract or a deed).

4.6 ASTORIA CARE LTD will consider the following advice and guidelines when deciding for how long to retain HR data. ASTORIA CARE LTD acknowledges that the suggested retention periods below are based on guidance within relevant legislation:

    • Immigration checks – two years after the termination of employment
    • PAYE records – at least three years after the end of the tax year to which they relate
    • Payroll and wage records for companies – six years from the financial year-end in which payments were made
    • Records in relation to hours worked and payments made to workers – three years beginning with the day on which the pay reference period immediately following that to which they relate ends
    • Records required by the Working Time Regulations:
      • Working time opt out – two years from the date on which they were entered into
      • Compliance records – two years after the relevant period
    • Maternity records – three years after the end of the tax year in which the maternity pay period ends
    • Accident records – at least three years from the date the report was made, or potentially longer if deemed appropriate given the possibility of ongoing relevance of the records

4.7 ASTORIA CARE LTD will consider for how long it is required to keep records relating to Service Users.

In doing so, ASTORIA CARE LTD will consider the data retention guidelines provided by the NHS, if applicable. Those guidelines can be accessed by using the link in the “Underpinning Knowledge” section. If the NHS guidelines do not apply to ASTORIA CARE LTD, ASTORIA CARE LTD will determine an appropriate retention policy for Service User personal data. ASTORIA CARE LTD may choose to retain personal data for at least 6 years from the end of the provision of services to the Service User, in case a claim arises in respect of the services provided.

4.8 Irrespective of the retention periods chosen by ASTORIA CARE LTD, they must ensure that all personal data is kept secure and protected for the period in which it is held. This applies in particular to special categories of data.

4.9 ASTORIA CARE LTD must record all decisions taken in respect of the retention of personal data. If the ICO investigates the policies and procedures at ASTORIA CARE LTD, a written record of the logic and reasoning behind the retention periods adopted must be available.

4.10 ASTORIA CARE LTD must implement processes for effectively destroying and/or deleting personal data at the end of the relevant retention period. They must consider whether personal data stored on computers, including in emails, is automatically backed up and how to achieve deletion of those backups or ensure that the archived personal data is automatically deleted after a certain period of time. ASTORIA CARE LTD must also consider circulating guidance internally to encourage staff to regularly delete their emails.

ASTORIA CARE LTD will introduce policies relating to the destruction of hard copies of documents, including using confidential waste bins or shredding them.

4.1 Data Security

ASTORIA CARE LTD must take steps to ensure that the personal data it processes is secure, including by protecting the personal data against unauthorised or unlawful processing and against accidental loss, destruction or damage.

4.12 ASTORIA CARE LTD understands that all health and care organisations, as detailed below, are required to comply with the Data Security and Protection Toolkit. A link to an explanatory guidance note is included in the “Underpinning Knowledge” section. Compliance with the Data Security and Protection Toolkit facilitates compliance with UK

ASTORIA CARE LTD understands that the following types of organisation must comply with the Data Security and Protection Toolkit:

  • Organisations contracted to provide services under the NHS Standard Contract
  • Clinical Commissioning Groups
  • General Practices that are contracted to provide primary care essential services
  • Local authorities and social care providers must take a proportionate response to the new toolkit:
    • Local authorities should comply with the toolkit where they provide adult social care or public health and other services that receive services and data from NHS Digital, or are involved in data sharing across health and care where they process confidential personal data of Service Users who access health and adult social care services
    • Social care providers who provide care through the NHS Standard Contract should comply with the toolkit. It is also recommended that social care providers who do not provide care through the NHS Standard Contract consider compliance with the toolkit as this will help to demonstrate compliance with the ten security standards and UK GDPR

4.13 ASTORIA CARE LTD will implement and embed the use of policies and procedures to ensure that personal data is kept secure. The suggestions below apply in addition to the steps ASTORIA CARE LTD is required to take pursuant to the Data Security and Protection Toolkit, if the toolkit applies to ASTORIA CARE LTD.

ASTORIA CARE LTD will bear in mind the following principles when deciding how to ensure that personal data is kept secure:

  • Confidentiality – ensuring that personal data is accessible only on a need to know basis
  • Integrity – ensuring that there are processes and controls in place to make sure personal data is accurate and complete
  • Availability – ensuring that personal data is accessible when it is needed for business purposes of ASTORIA CARE LTD
  • Resilience – ensuring that personal data is able to withstand and recover from threats

For paper documents, these will include, where possible:

  • Keeping the personal data in a locked filing cabinet or locked drawer when it is not in use
  • Adopting a “clear desk” policy to ensure that personal data is not visible or easily retrieved
  • Ensuring that documents containing personal data are accessible only by those who need to know/review the documents and the personal data contained within them
  • Redacting personal data from documents where possible
  • Ensuring that documents containing personal data are placed in confidential waste bins or shredded at the end of the relevant retention period
  • Minimising the transfer of personal data from outside of business premises and, where such transfer cannot be avoided, ensuring that the paper documents continue to be kept confidential and secure

For electronic documents, the measures taken by ASTORIA CARE LTD will include, where possible:

  • Password protection or, where possible, encryption
  • Ensuring that documents containing personal data are accessible only by those who need to know/review the documents and the personal data contained within them
  • Ensuring ongoing confidentiality, integrity and reliability of systems used online to process personal data (this may require a review of IT systems and software currently used by ASTORIA CARE LTD)
  • The ability to quickly restore the availability of and access to personal data in the event of a technical incident (this may require a review of IT systems and software currently used by ASTORIA CARE LTD)
  • Taking care when transferring documents to a third party, ensuring that the transfer is secure and the documents are sent to the correct recipient

ASTORIA CARE LTD will ensure that all business phones, computers, laptops and tablets are password protected.

ASTORIA CARE LTD will encourage staff to avoid storing personal data on portable media such as USB devices. If the use of portable media cannot be avoided, ASTORIA CARE LTD will ensure that the devices it uses are encrypted or password protected and that each document on the device is encrypted or password protected.

4.14 ASTORIA CARE LTD will implement guidance relating to the use of business phones and messaging apps. ASTORIA CARE LTD understands that all personal data sent via business phones, computers, laptops and tablets may be captured by UK GDPR, depending on the content and context of the message. As a general rule, ASTORIA CARE LTD will ensure that staff members only send personal data by text or another messaging service if they are comfortable that the content of the messages may be captured by UK GDPR and may be provided pursuant to a Subject Access Request (staff should refer to the Subject Access Requests Policy and Procedure at ASTORIA CARE LTD for further details).

4.15 ASTORIA CARE LTD will ensure that all staff are aware of the importance of keeping personal data secure and not disclosing it on purpose or accidentally to anybody who should not have access to the information. To achieve this, ASTORIA CARE LTD will:

    • Provide training to staff where necessary
    • Consider, in particular, the likelihood that personal data (including special categories of data) will be removed from the premises of ASTORIA CARE LTD and taken to, for example, Service User’s homes and residences
    • Ensure that all staff understand the importance of maintaining the confidentiality of personal data away from the premises
    • Take care to ensure that the personal data is not left anywhere it could be viewed by a person who should not have access

4.16 ASTORIA CARE LTD will adopt policies and procedures in respect of recognising, resolving and reporting security incidents including breaches of UK GDPR. ASTORIA CARE LTD understands that it may need to report breaches to the ICO and to affected Data Subjects, as well as to CareCERT if it is required to comply with the Data Security and Protection

4.17 ASTORIA CARE LTD will adopt processes to regularly test, assess and evaluate the security measures it has in place for all types of personal

4.18 Privacy by Design

ASTORIA CARE LTD will take into account the UK GDPR requirements around privacy by design, particularly in terms of data security.

4.19 ASTORIA CARE LTD understands that privacy by design is an approach set out in UK GDPR that promotes compliance with privacy and data protection from the beginning of a project. ASTORIA CARE LTD will ensure that data protection and UK GDPR compliance is always at the forefront of the services it provides, and that it will not be treated as an

4.20 ASTORIA CARE LTD will comply with privacy by design requirements by, for example:

    • Identifying potential data protection and security issues at an early stage in any project or process, and addressing those issues early on; and
    • Increasing awareness of privacy and data protection across ASTORIA CARE LTD, including in terms of updated policies and procedures adopted by ASTORIA CARE LTD

4.21 ASTORIA CARE LTD will conduct Privacy Impact Assessments to identify and reduce the privacy and security risks of any project or processing carried out by ASTORIA CARE LTD. A template Privacy Impact Assessment is available within the Privacy Impact Assessment (Privacy Notice) Policy and Procedure at ASTORIA CARE