What is this data protection policy template?
Company’s internal document: This data protection policy template sets out the standards that an organisation must meet, and the expectations on its staff, to ensure compliance with data protection law in the UK. The data protection policy template summarises key definitions and principles under data protection law and acts as a reference point for anyone within an organisation, with procedures to follow to ensure UK GDPR compliance.
Importance: Complying with data protection laws in the UK is a particularly important part of the day-to-day running of your business. Done correctly, data protection compliance can breed a better relationship between your business and its customers. So, why is this data protection policy template so important?
- Reputational risk: Mismanaged data protection practices can lose the hard-earned trust of your customer base - having a clear policy in place reduces this risk;
- High-value fines £: In the event of a data breach or other non-compliance with data protection laws, your business could be exposed to multi-million pound fines and legal action - this data protection policy template includes procedures for managing a data breach;
- Regulatory investigations: Data breaches can lead to an ICO (the data protection regulator in the UK) investigation. In the event of an investigation, internal policies and procedures can be key to demonstrating that a business is complying with its obligations under UK data protection laws; and
- Practical steps: Effective data protection policies and procedures can help your organisation to take the practical steps needed to comply with your legal obligations.
Find out more about data protection policies by reading this comprehensive guide.
When to use our data protection policy template: You would use this data protection policy template where you collect any personal information about any living individuals - whether that is your staff, customers, suppliers, shareholders or others. Given that practically speaking all businesses will process some personal data (even if it only relates to their staff), every business should have a data protection policy as a means of helping to demonstrate awareness of data protection requirements within an organisation.
What matters does this data protection policy template cover?
No strict requirements: A data protection policy should include useful information to help a company comply with data protection obligations. However, unlike a privacy policy, a data protection policy doesn’t have a strict list of requirements to meet. Instead, it should cover the key areas of data protection laws in the UK, and include practical steps and procedures to enable a business and its staff to comply with data protection laws.
Source of information for staff: One of this data protection policy template’s main functions is to provide information for staff on the actions they should take to enable the business to be and remain compliant. This might include who to contact if they have questions, how to handle data protection requests, and how long (and where) they should store personal data. It is critical that staff are trained on the policy and the procedures that are contained within it, to ensure the policy is followed and adhered to - simply having the policy in place is not enough!
High-quality model clauses: Docue’s dynamic data protection policy template covers, among other things, the following matters:
- Data protection principles - the key principles of UK data protection laws and how your business can satisfy them;
- How the company processes personal data in a lawful, fair, and transparent manner - to ensure that all processing is carried out using a lawful basis under UK data protection laws;
- Using data for specific purposes - a process for ensuring new data processing activities comply with data protection laws;
- How the company keeps personal data safe - security measures and a process for managing personal data breaches. Find out more about data protection security measures here;
- How the company shares personal data with others - clear processes for sharing personal data, including in relation to transfers outside of the UK and EEA;
- How the company decides what data to delete and when it deletes it - to ensure data is only kept for as long as is necessary and complies with the data minimisation principle under data protection laws;
- What records the business keeps - references to other key internal compliance documents, including records of processing activities, data protection impact assessments and incident records;
- Who to contact with questions about the policy - whether there is a formal data protection officer in place, or another person responsible for data protection compliance within your business; and
- What other relevant data protection related policies the business has - for example, a data breach policy or a data protection requests policy.
Why Docue?
We support you through the drafting: Docue’s platform allows you to create and store a compliant data protection policy at the touch of a button using a lawyer-grade data protection policy template as a starting point and automated guidelines to steer you in the right direction from start to finish.
Easily customisable: You can easily amend Docue’s data protection policy template to fit your organisation's requirements, so that it is adapted to your business operations.
Tags: UK GDPR, data protection policy, data protection policy template, DP policy, internal policies, compliance
