Privacy Policy

This privacy notice outlines the policy of the Food Safety Professionals Association ( A.K.A. FSPA)  concerning the Personal Information ( as defined in the text below) it collects , processes and stores.

This notice explains how the FSPA collects, uses and shares your personal data.  This document also explains your rights in relation to the personal data the FSPA hold.

This policy and associated procedures have been developed by the FSPA in order to ensure that any interaction you  have with the FSPA is handled in a secure and professional manner  in compliance with the General Data Protection Regulation and all other regulatory body rules or codes of conduct that apply to our type of organisation. 

Our aim is to maintain your trust and confidence in the manner you expect.

Who we are:

The Food Safety Professionals Association is an association of Food Safety Trainers, Consultants and Auditors which has four core functions

1. A network for members, honorary members, associate members and Corporate members some of whom  pay an annual subscription
2. A  source of food safety consultancy
3. A full service food safety training provider offering programmes leading to QQI awards on the National Framework of Qualifications at levels 4,5,6. as well as bespoke

FSPA food safety training programmes mapped to FSAI levels 1,2,3

• A provider of the Food Safety Assurance Award (FSAA) for food businesses in many areas of the Food Sector in Ireland

The Food Safety Professionals Association registered office is Upper Kinturk, Ballyheane Castlebar Co Mayo F23 HE03

What personal information does the FSPA collect and why?

The FSPA processes personal information for the purposes associated with the administration of

• Membership of the Association, staff , auditor or evaluator recruitment
• Food Safety Assurance Award  client / auditor/ FSPA relationship
• Training for FSPA programmes and as a QQI provider  for learners, client companies and trainers
• To administer & record Programme bookings, attendance, assessment and record academic achievements, also to evaluate learner and trainer feedback.
  
• To facilitate quality assurance for QQI and ISO requirements, centre self evaluation and audit purposes.  
• To administer the appeals procedures for the training centre, membership or the Food Safety Assurance awards.
• Newsletter subscribers and Social media accounts
• To enable the FSPA communicate with you and / or conduct surveys
• In order to meet any educational or contractual requirements.
• For financial purposes, i.e. payment of advertising, membership, learner registrations, programme bookings and FSAA administration.
• To facilitate historical achievements of academic achievements.
• To facilitate requests made under data protection legislation.

These are a list of the legitimate and lawful purposes that the FSPA  collects, processes, stores and destroys any personal data that the association collect.
The above methods are required in order for the Association to deal with members, FSAA clients and Learners effectively and efficiently in delivery of service.
The FSPA only collects, processes and retains personal data for these purposes.
The FSPA only shares membership data with corporate members FSAA information with internal auditors, the audit panel and ISO auditors. Learner information is shared internally with tutors and evaluators for completion of programme verification and validation purposes also for ISO accreditation purposes.
The Food Safety Professionals Association lawful and legitimate basis for collecting and processing personal data is as follows

1. Any information collected is given by consent by the data subject for membership types, FSAA purposes and part of a training programme or for newsletter and social media purposes.
2. processing of this information /data is necessary in order to fulfil contractual  agreements be for training or FSAA purposes.
3. Processing of data is required by a regulatory body for their purpose i.e. QQI certification.

How does the FSPA collect personal information?

The Food Safety Professionals Association  collects personal information/ data in many ways

1. Membership registration & renewal process, membership surveys, meeting attendance, CPD records
2. Newsletter  sign up on line
3. Food Safety Assurance Award process
4. Directly from you by fax, e mail, phone, registration forms.
5. Food Safety Training Centre processes from registration, phone or electronic queries, assessment, course feedback, web site queries,
6. From third parties such as employers or state funded bodies ( i.e. Skillsnets, CE schemes etc.)

What type of information is collected & processed from you by the Food Safety Professionals Association?

For Association membership or renewal

For Food Safety Assurance Award

As a learner on an FSPA run training programme

For the purposes of administering a training programme and issuing certification  the Food Safety Professionals collects the following data:

• Name
• Home and Work Address if applicable ( to contact you and send your certificate to)
• PPS Number (only for QQI registered and certified programmes as this is a QQI requirement)
• Date of Birth
• Nationality
• Next of kin ( in case anything should happen you whilst attending a programme)
• Telephone No.
• E-mail address
• Relevant life, educational and work experience ( for access to QQI programmes)
• Assessment evidence, verification reports, External authenticators reports and results.
• Certificate number for all FSPA certificates issued ( in case you need a duplicate of certificate)

Who has access to your personal data/ information

In order to complete your training with the FSPA  or have your Food Safety Assurance Award audit verified the FSPA may disclose your personal data to third parties such as

1. QQI as an awarding body  for registration and certification purposes.
2. Tutors and FSPA members acting as cross moderators, internal verifiers
3. External Authenticators and External evaluators reviewing assessment and centre procedures
4. ISO auditors to prove systems are effective)
5. Food Safety Assurance Award auditors, shadow auditors and review panels.
6. Funding bodies who may have sponsored the programme or your attendance on the training programme, also the Department of Social protection to verify employment status and payment of fees for eligible learners
7. Employers who may receive copies of attendance and certificates when they pay for an employee to attend training
8. Other training bodies to facilitate transfer and progression to further education or for attendance or licensing purposes. i.e. EHAI, QQI, NHP.
9. Membership committee of the FSPA
10. FSAA committee  of the  Food Safety Professionals
11. Media outlets, FSPA web site and FSPA Facebook, FSPA Whats app and twitter feed for award winner photographs and certificate recipients.

This list is not exhaustive, but disclosures are only made to third parties where there is a legitimate reason for doing so.

How Long do the FSPA retain your personal data?

The Food Safety Professionals Association training centre retain basic data in hard and soft copy  indefinitely for the purposes of re issuing certificates should the need arise.  
A copy of all validation documentation and assessment results from QQI are kept in hard copy in a secure location indefinitely for analytical and statistical reference and for queries from learners in relation to lost or missing certificates.

This information is also retained should learners require the data for the purposes of gaining employment or accessing further education in the future.

Assessment evidence, feedback forms, registration forms, booking forms from learners are shredded by a confidential shredding company two  QQI cycles after issuing certification for the learners involved.  Shred-it are the company the FSPA currently employ and shredding happens on site at the FSPA office.  FSPA programme assessment, registration, feedback forms are also shredded at the same time.

In  the case of membership data and FSAA data the procedure is

Accessing your information!

If you wish to know what information the FSPA holds on you please contact us in writing or by e-mailing the Food Safety Professionals Association , admin@thefspa.ie  providing us with enough information to identify you and a telephone number that we can contact to confirm the request.  The Association will only send the information to you at the postal address you provided once it has been verified the validity of he address.

Removing or correcting information.

Any person may contact the FSPA in writing or by e-mail and upon proof of identity may have their data removed or amended in the FSPA records.

Security of your data

the Food Safety Professionals Association employ security measures to protect the data you provided from unauthorised access and against unlawful processing.

Marketing:

The Food Safety Professionals Association may contact learners, clients, members and newsletter subscribers from time to time with information which may be of interest to you.
The Food Safety Professionals Association will not make learner personal data available or sell this data to third parties.
Membership data such as name, address, phone number  and e-mail is made available to corporate members.
FSAA recipient details are circulated to all members corporate members, other recipients and the media.

This policy will be reviewed annually by the Board of Management and revised and updated as required

The next scheduled review is 22nd May 2019