Privacy

NHS National Services Scotland fully respects your right to privacy when using our website. On this page you will find details of our privacy practices in connection with this website and what we do to maintain your right to privacy.

Data Protection

Any personal information which you supply to ARHAI Scotland, NHS National Services Scotland, will be treated with the highest standards of security and confidentiality, in strict accordance with the Data Protection Act, 1998.

ARHAI Scotland, through its parent body NHS National Services Scotland (NHS NSS) is registered under the legal name Common Services Agency for NHS in Scotland. NHS NSS has an entry in the Information Commissioner's Register of Data Controllers (accessible from the Information Commissioner's website) which lists the types of personal information we process, our purposes for processing the information and the people and organisations with whom we share personal information.

Further information on data protection in the NHS NSS can be found on the NHS NSS website.

Collection of personal information through website

NHS National Services Scotland, does not collect any personal data about you on this website, apart from information that you volunteer, either by emailing us or by submission using the online registration and enquiry forms.

Use of personal information collected via this website

Any information, which you provide via this website is not made available to any third parties. Any information provided would only be used by NHS National Services Scotland for the purpose of processing your information requests.

Collection and use of technical information

Technical details in connection with visits to this website are logged, collected and used by our website host, Scottish Health on the Web (SHOW).

NHS National Services Scotland will make no attempt to identify individual users. You should be aware, however, that access to web pages will generally create log file entries in the systems of your Internet Service Provider (ISP) or network services provider. These entities may identify the client computer equipment used to access a page. Such monitoring would be done by the provider of network services and is outwith the responsibility or control of NHS National Services Scotland.

Log files are maintained and analysed of all requests for files on NSS servers. Aggregated analyses of these log files are used to monitor website usage. These analyses are used to allow us to monitor and evaluate the effectiveness of our websites. All log file information collected by NSS is kept secure and is not provided to any third parties.

For more detailed guidance, read Scottish Health On the Web's privacy policy.

Cookies

Use of Cookies

Due to changes in EU legislation, which came into force on 26 May 2012, we need to inform you about cookies we store on your device.

To allow us to meet the legislation we have implemented an 'implied consent' solution. You will see a bar across the top of the site informing you that cookies are used, and inviting you to acknowledge the message by clicking 'OK'. You do not need to click OK and the site will continue to function as expected. If you click OK the information bar will be removed on all pages and on subsequent visits to this site.

What Are Cookies?

Cookies are small files stored in your browser and are used by most websites to help personalise your web experience. This website sets one functional cookie and a number of Google Analytics cookies. The purpose of these is described below.

For additional information on cookies please see the Information Commissioner's Office.

All the cookies we set on this site are deemed to be minimally intrusive in terms of your privacy. By continuing to use this site you imply that you consent to these cookies being set.

Compliance Cookies

This is a small cookie used to store your cookie preferences.

Analytics Cookies

We use the Google Analytics service on this website. The information generated by the cookie about your use of our website (including your IP address) will be transmitted to and stored by Google on servers in the United States. Google will use this information for the purpose of evaluating your use of our website, compiling reports on website activity and providing other services relating to website activity and internet usage. Google may also transfer this information to third parties where required to do so by law, or where such third parties process the information on Google's behalf. Google undertakes not to associate your IP address with any other data held by Google.

Third Party Cookies

We use a number of tools and external applications, in particular Google Analytics and Google Custom Search, to enhance visitor interaction on our site. These services will set a cookie called 'PREF' which Google uses to track user preferences from one site to another.

Functional Cookies

These cookies are used on some sites when completing online forms, logging in to the site or using other functions. They do not contain any personal information and for the most part are automatically deleted when you close your browser.

More information about cookies, including how to block them or delete them, can be found at AboutCookies.org.

Cookies used by this website

This website is compliant with the Information Commissioners Office (ICO) Guidance on the rules on use of cookies and similar technologies and the related Privacy and Electronic Communications (EC Directive) Regulations 2003.

ASP.NET_SessionId

Purpose
This cookie is used to ensure proper communication between your browser client and the web server, it generates a unique id that is used to identify you during your current session. It is non-persistent and will be removed by your browser at the end of your session. Removal of this cookie may results in some of the site functionality not working correctly.

Expiry
At end of session

__utmb 

Purpose
Google Analytics cookie. This stores the domain name (hash code) of site, pages viewed this session, current time.

Expiry
30 minutes

__utmc 

Purpose
Google Analytics cookie. This stores the domain name (hash code) of site.

Expiry
30 minutes

__utma

Purpose
Google Analytics cookie. This stores the domain name (hash code) of site, a unique visitor id (randomly generated number), time of first visit, time of previous visit, current time, number of sessions since first visit.

Expiry
2 years

__utmz

Purpose
Google Analytics cookie. This stores the domain name (hash code) of site, time when cookie last set, total number of visitor sessions, number of different channels or sources through which this site was reached, source of the last cookie update, search hit tag identifier (or just 'organic' if reached via normal search hit), search medium, keyword phrase used to find site.

Expiry
6 months

PREF

Purpose
Saves the user's Google identifier, time of first receiving this cookie, last time when preferences were set, checksum for data integrity. This third-party cookie is placed by Google to track a user's preferences from one Google site to another.

Expiry
2 years

cookie_bar_hide

Purpose
Saves the user's acknowledgement of the cookie message displayed at the top of each page. This means that the message will be hidden on subsequent visits to the site.

Expiry
1 year

Enquiries

Privacy and data protection enquiries relating to this website may be made by email to NHS National Services Scotland.