Privacy policy
At the Association of Anaesthetists we respect the privacy of our members and visitors to our website. This policy explains how we collect, manage, use and protect your personal information and relates to our use of any personal information you provide to us via our website, by phone, SMS, email, in letters and other correspondence, and in person. We are committed to complying with privacy and data protection laws and being transparent about what we are doing.
We may change this document from time to time to reflect the latest view of what we do with your information. Please check back frequently; you will be able to see if changes have been made by the date it was last updated.
Refer to the sections below for more details on how and why we use your personal information.
If you have any questions regarding our privacy policy, please contact [email protected]
1. Who we are
The The Association of Anaesthetists represents the medical and political views of over 10,000 anaesthetists in the UK, Ireland and internationally.
Membership is open to those doctors practising or training in anaesthesia, or allied medical disciplines, principally intensive care and pain medicine.
In this policy references to the Association, or to ‘we’ or ‘us’ are to the Association of Anaesthetists of Great Britain and Ireland which is registered as a company limited by guarantee in England 1888799 at 21 Portland Place, London W1B 1PY.
This also includes our charity the AAGBI Foundation, registered as a company limited by guarantee no. 1963975 (England), as a charity in England & Wales no. 293575 and in Scotland no. SC040697.
We are registered as data controllers and act as joint data controller under registration numbers:
Z6149947 Association of Anaesthetists of Great Britain and Ireland
Z3485809 AAGBI Foundation
2. Who we collect personal data about
We collect personal data about our:
- Prospective members, members, ex-members
- Course and event attendees
- Education faculty/speakers
- Donors
- Job applicants, employees and past employees
- Volunteers – past and present
- Press and media contacts
- Customers
- Our business contacts, corporate partners and suppliers
- Trustees and directors
- Committee and working party members
3. Why we collect personal data
We collect and use personal data for the following purposes:
- Processing membership applications and ongoing membership administration including renewals
- Providing services under your membership contract
- Events and courses registration and management, including producing delegate lists and recording attendance
- Providing online learning and education
- Providing Community, an online member network and forum
- Awarding grants, honours or awards
- Managing abstract submissions
- Fundraising, processing donations and communicating with donors
- Research undertaken through surveys
- Sending information about the Association, our activities, and campaigns (including social media channels)
- Processing purchases
- Responding to public and general enquiries
- Security
- Health and safety
- Employee recruitment and HR administration
- Volunteer recruitment and management
- Governance
- Direct marketing
- Building profiles of our members and registered users on our website
- Equality, diversity and inclusion monitoring and reporting
- Quality assurance and improvement processes
4. The personal data that we collect
We only collect personal information that we genuinely need.
This may include:
- Contact details such as name, address, email address and phone numbers
- The nine protected characteristics of the Equality Act 2010: age (date of birth), disability, sex, gender reassignment, marriage and civil partnership, pregnancy and maternity, race (ethnicity), religion or belief and sexual orientation.
- Qualifications
- Nationality
- Bank details
- Dietary requirements where this is required for catering
- In respect of job applicants and employees, we may also collect:
- your bank account details, tax and residency status
- references from previous employers or educational institutions
- contact details for your family members and next of kin
- information concerning your health and medical conditions
- information about your race, ethnicity and sexual orientation
- details of criminal convictions
5. Our legal basis for processing personal data
Processing membership applications, ongoing membership administration and providing membership services
When you join as a member of the Association of Anaesthetists we use your personal information to provide the services that you have paid for and subscribed to for the lifetime of your membership. By registering on our website an online account will be created for you linked to the email address you registered with. We will send you publications such as the Anaesthesia and Anaesthesia Report journals and Anaesthesia News and membership communications relating to the core member services you have paid for. This might include information about events and conferences, patient transfer insurance, renewal reminders, notice of any Annual General Meeting, elections and voting, membership surveys and other membership benefits and services. We will register you with Community, our online member network and forum. Our legal basis for using your personal information in this way is for the performance of a contract.
Events and courses registration and management and providing online education.
If you sign up to one of our events or courses, we will use the information that you provide to us to process your registration and enable you to attend the event or course. Our legal basis for using your personal information in this way is for the performance of a contract.
We may use third party suppliers for event badging and our event app and we may share your details with them for the purpose of providing these services.
We will need your explicit consent to hold and use information about any disabilities or impairments you may have.
If you choose to provide us with your dietary requirements, we may share them with third parties that we use to provide catering at our events.
Awarding grants, honours or awards
We collect, record and hold your personal data if you enter for or are nominated for one of our awards, apply for a grant or are given an award. Our legal basis for using your personal data for these purposes is legitimate interest.
Managing abstract submissions
We collect, record and hold your personal data if you submit an abstract for one of our conferences. Our legal basis for using your personal data for these purposes is legitimate interest.
Fundraising, processing donations and communicating with donors
If you kindly donate to us, we will use your personal information to collect your donation, maintain a record of our supporters and meet our fundraising objectives and we may contact you about your donation. Our legal basis for using your personal information for this purpose is to fulfil our legitimate interest.
Research through surveys
We support and undertake research, sometimes collecting personal information through surveys, to develop evidence-based practice and policy. If you choose to take part in one of our surveys, we will use the personal information that you provide to process the results of the survey and undertake analysis. We may use a third party supplier to manage our surveys and your data may be shared with them specifically for that purpose. Survey results will be anonymised before being shared or published. Our legal basis for processing this personal data is legitimate interest.
Sending information about the Association of Anaesthetists, our activities, and campaigns (including social media channels)
We may use your personal data to send you marketing information about the Association and our work. Our legal basis for using your personal data in this way is legitimate interest. We believe that the recipients of our marketing information have a reasonable expectation that the Association will store and process their personal data in this manner.
We will only send you marketing communications by email or SMS if you have opted in to receiving these, or have attended one of our events and not opted out of receiving our communications which we believe will be of interest to you.
If you no longer wish to receive these emails, you can unsubscribe at any time by following the instructions in the relevant communication.
We may monitor whether you open and/or click on any links in such emails and we use various tracking techniques to measure the effectiveness of our email campaigns and tailor our communications to your interests.
We will hold information about your preferences for being contacted by us. You can update these at any time through the ‘My Profile’ area on our website.
Processing purchases
If you choose to make a purchase from our website, we will use the information you provide to fulfil your purchase and record details of the transation. Our legal basis for using your personal information for this purpose is for the performance of a contract.
We will share relevant information with our suppliers to deliver your purchase. We may occasionally also use your contact information to email you information about similar products that you might be interested in. You can choose to unsubscribe from receiving these communications at any time.
Responding to your enquiries
If you contact us with an enquiry, your personal information will be used to respond to your enquiry and provide information that you have requested. Our legal basis for processing your personal data in this way is legitimate interest.
Security
If you visit us at our offices at 21 Portland Place, London W1B 1PY your image may be recorded on our CCTV cameras which we use for security purposes. Our legal basis for processing this personal data is legitimate interest.
Health and safety
We reserve the right to maintain a ‘wellness register’ onsite at our events. Activities involved in creating a wellness register may include (but are not limited to): asking attendees to self-identify as non-contagious ahead of the event; submission of a negative COVID-19 test and or proof of vaccination; temperature checks for all attendees on arrival; submission of delegate names and contact details to the venue including locations where the delegates are arriving from and/or quarantine details.
Any data collected will be securely stored for 28 days post-event in order to identify risks and will be used for contacting attendees post-event if there appears to have been a viable risk of transmission of infectious diseases. Our legal basis for processing this personal data is consent.
Employee recruitment and administration
We will process personal information of our employees to fulfil our contract with them. This includes payroll processing and the provision of training. We are required by law to share some financial information with the HMRC. We may also need to share some personal information with other organisations, for example solicitors, pension providers, etc.
If you provide us with information about yourself, such as a curriculum vitae, in connection with a job application or enquiry, we may use this information to process your enquiry. We will not store this information for any purpose other than that relating to your application. Our legal basis for using your information in this way is for our legitimate interest.
Volunteer recruitment and management
When you volunteer for the Association we will keep you up to date with the work that we are doing and events we are involved with. We will also let you know of any changes that might affect you volunteering with us and which you need to be aware of. We will only use this information in relation to your volunteering with us and whilst you remain a volunteer with the Association. If you provide us with information about yourself, such as a curriculum vitae, in connection with a volunteer application or enquiry, we may use this information to process your enquiry. Our legal basis for using your information in this way is for our legitimate interest.
Governance
We process relevant personal information about existing and potential trustees, directors and committee members for governance purposes, including elections. This might include undertaking DBS and other checks to identify any criminal and other activity we need to be aware of to ensure that we select appropriate trustees, directors and committee members. Our legal basis for this processing is to meet our legal obligations with the Charity Commission and Companies House.
Ensuring and monitoring equality, diversity and inclusion
We collect and process personal information about our members, and course and event participants to support our Equity, Diversity, and Inclusivity policy. The aim of our policy is to eliminate discrimination and in particular on grounds of the nine protected characteristics as defined in the Equality Act 2010: age (date of birth), disability, gender reassignment, marriage and civil partnership, pregnancy and maternity, race (ethnicity), religion and belief, sex and sexual orientation.
In particular we need to capture and process data to:
- Eliminate discrimination
- Reflect diversity in the composition of our governance bodies and workforce
- Ensure that there is equity of access to our services
- Ensure that we are responsive to the needs of the diverse population of patients and health professionals
- Highlight particular services relevant to members based on their age, e.g. wellbeing initiatives
- Provide resources that are more relevant for different career stages e.g. resources for those in training or approaching retirement
- Provide a more personalised learning platform with tailored education and resources
- Ensure that our speakers are representative of our membership
- Inform membership surveys and our campaigns
Our legal basis for processing data relating to disability, pregnancy and maternity, race, religion and belief is explicit consent.
Our legal basis for processing data relating to age and sex is legitimate interest.
If a member, event or course participant chooses to provide their data to us it will be used to support our Equity, Diversity, and Inclusivity policy.
Data such as age and sex may also be processed to identify information and resources most likely to be relevant and of interest to members, course and event participants, if they have given permission for it to be used for this purpose.
Building profiles of members
We may use the information you provide about yourself in the ‘My Profile’ area of our website to build a profile. Profiling and gaining an insight into the background of our members and registered users helps us target our resources more effectively, send you relevant communications that are of interest to you and thus provide a better service for our members. Our legal basis for processing your personal data in this way is for our legitimate interest.
6. Note on legitimate interests
Broadly speaking, legitimate interests means that we can process your personal information if we have a genuine and legitimate reason to do so and we are not harming your rights and interests. Where we rely upon legitimate interest as the legal basis for processing personal data, we have completed legitimate interest assessments (LIA) to carefully consider and balance any potential impact on you and your rights. When you provide your personal details to us we use your information for our legitimate business interests to carry out our work to promote and advance education, safety and research in anaesthesia, as well as the professional aspects of the specialty and the wellbeing of individual anaesthetists.
7. Sharing your personal data
We have procedures in place to ensure that when we need to share personal data with other organisations we do so securely. We disclose information to third parties or individuals when obliged to by law, for purposes of national security, taxation and criminal investigations and the following:
- We may use other companies to provide services on our behalf e.g. mailing or delivering orders, sending mail and emails, providing a community forum, event badging and providing an event app, carrying out surveys or research, customer analysis, assessment and profiling and processing credit/debit card payments. We only pass personal information to these third parties if they have signed a contract which requires them to abide by data protection legislation requirements, use the information for our purposes only and treat your information as carefully as we do.
- If we receive a complaint about any content you have posted or transmitted to or from one of our sites, to enforce or apply our terms and conditions or if we believe that we need to do so to protect and defend the rights, property or personal safety of the Association, our websites or our visitors or for other lawful purposes.
- We may disclose aggregate statistics about our site visitors, members, customers and sales to describe our services and operations to prospective partners and other reputable third parties and for other lawful purposes, but these statistics won’t include any personally identifying information.
- If we run an event in partnership with other named organisations your details may need to be shared. If you attend an event that is sponsored by named organisations, we may share your name and hospital (data that is already in the public domain) with these sponsor organisations. We may share your contact details only with your explicit consent. We will be very clear what will happen to your data when you register and you can choose to opt out at any time.
We will never sell or rent your personal information to other organisations.
8. Transferring personal data outside of the EEA
All the personal data we process is processed by our staff in the UK and for the purposes of IT hosting and maintenance is usually situated within the European Economic Area (EEA). On occasions when our suppliers run their operations outside the European Economic Area - this may include a country which may not be subject to the same data protection laws as companies based in the UK. In these circumstances, we will take steps to make sure they provide an adequate level of protection in accordance with UK data protection law, and appropriate safeguards are in place.
9. Retaining your personal data
We hold your personal data only for as long as we need it or are legally required to. Personal information held in our electronic and paper filing systems is securely destroyed or deleted when it is no longer required.
10. Your details on the web: our cookie policy
Our website uses cookies - please see our cookies policy for more details.
We use cookies to compile visitor statistics such as how many people have visited our website, what type of technology they are using, how long they spend on the site, what page they look at, etc. This helps us to continuously improve our website. These analytics programs also tell us, on an anonymous basis, how people reached this site (e.g. from a search engine) and whether they have been here before, helping us to develop our services for you. Our site uses Google Analytics.
11. Your data subject rights
At any point while we are processing your personal data, as a data subject you have the following rights:
- Right of access – you have the right to request a copy of the personal information that we hold about you free of charge
- Right of rectification – you have the right for your personal data to be corrected if it is inaccurate or incomplete
- Right to be forgotten – in certain circumstances you can ask for the personal data we hold about you to be erased from our records
- Right to restriction of processing – you have the right to ask us to restrict the processing of your personal data
- Right of portability – you have the right to have the data we hold about you transferred to another organisation
- Right to object – you have the right to object to certain types of processing such as direct marketing and automated processing and profiling
12. Links to other websites
On occasion our website will contain links to other websites. This privacy policy only applies to the Association’s website. When you link to other websites you should read their own privacy policies.
13. Changes to our privacy policy
We keep our privacy policy under regular review and we will place any updates on this web page. This privacy policy was last updated on 16 September 2024.
14. How to contact us about your rights, or to make a complaint
If you would like to change the way you hear from us or no longer wish to receive direct marketing communications then email [email protected] or click the unsubscribe link on the email communication. You can also manage your contact preferences through the 'My Profile' area on our website.
If you do not wish your personal data to be used in any of the ways described in this policy or have questions about this, then please email [email protected]
If you wish to contact us with respect to your data subject rights or make a complaint about how your personal data is being processed by the Association of Anaesthetists, please contact our Data Protection Representative:
Director of Business Support & Deputy CEO, 21 Portland Place London W1B 1PY
Email: [email protected]
Telephone 020 7631 1650
If you are unhappy with how your complaint has been handled you have the right to lodge a complaint directly with the ICO.