Privacy policy
Our privacy policy tells you how Home Energy Scotland uses your personal information.
Call us on: 0808 808 2282
Our privacy policy tells you how Home Energy Scotland uses your personal information.
We are a leading and trusted organisation helping people save energy every day. Our experts speak with millions of householders every year, deliver first class programmes for governments and provide consultancy to UK businesses and international companies. All our work is underpinned by our pioneering world-renowned research.
Energy Saving Trust does not make cold calls (we do not sell insulation or solar panels etc). If you are receiving cold calls from an organisation, the Information Commissioner’s Office has some useful advice and, if you haven’t already, it may be worth considering registering with the Telephone Preference Service.
To contact our data protection officer please write to Energy Saving Trust England, 223-231 Pentonville Road, London, England, N1 9NG or email DataProtectionOfficer@est.org.uk
When Energy Saving Trust or the advice services collect information about you we will tell you at least:
Some of this may be provided to you through this privacy policy which will be updated from time to time. We will always provide detail of how to access our privacy policy.
We might collect:
Some of this information may, in some cases, be considered as not being personal data e.g. information purely about your property: property type or energy saving measures.
We will ask for your contact details so that we can:
We will ask for information about you and your property so that we can:
We will ask for financial information so that we can:
Home Energy Scotland will most commonly collect your personal data in the following ways:
You may contact or interact with Home Energy Scotland in the following ways:
We sometimes use other companies and organisations (third parties) to process personal information for us. For example we use third parties to:
Some of your information may be shared:
Where we make use of third parties to process personal information, we will ensure that they have adequate security measures in place and that they comply with this privacy policy.
We share information, for analysis and reporting purposes, with government departments and bodies (including the devolved nations) that provide funding to Energy Saving Trust or have an interest in our activities.
We will also share information about you when we are required to so by law or if we have your permission to do so.
Energy Saving Trust will only send you direct marketing information if you have agreed to receive this information when you provided your contact details, or when you have specifically asked us to send you direct marketing.
We may occasionally present a promotion that is sponsored by a third-party company or organisation. To qualify for entry, we may ask you to provide personal information – if we intend to share that information with the sponsors, we will make this clear and provide you with the opportunity to prevent this
You have the right to stop us using information about you for direct marketing purposes. You can do this at any time even if you previously consented to receive direct marketing. If you wish to change your marketing settings either select the unsubscribe link included in emails or contact us directly to let us know. We will change your setting as soon as we are able and at least within 28 days.
Energy Saving Trust has implemented the following Google Analytics Advertising features:
Remarketing – this enables Energy Saving Trust to display advertising to visitors on our website as they move to other sites.
Display Network Impression Reporting – Energy Saving Trust can use this to understand the impact of adverts displayed on other sites. We will be able to see when someone views an advert elsewhere and then later visits Energy Saving Trust’s website.
Demographics and Interest Reporting – this allows us to obtain anonymous information about the users of our website. For example, we will be able to see how many visitors we had to our site in a particular age range. Find out more about how Google obtains this information.
If you have agreed to receive direct marketing from us via email, we may use social media platforms to provide you with our targeted energy advice and information. This is done by matching the contact details you have given us with the contact details you have also given to social media providers.
If you engage with any of our social media accounts (such as like, share or follow), we will collect information about this. We will use this information to provide you with more personalised advertising and to inform how the information we publish on social media is received.
You can find more information on how targeted advertising works and how you can adjust your settings by visiting the relevant social media platforms listed below:
Energy Saving Trust will keep your information for:
(this list will be added to regularly)
Where Energy Saving Trust is being funded to deliver a project, Energy Saving Trust will comply with all document retention requirements specified by the funder. This may require us to save all supporting documents in relation to expenditure, personal data or procurement for a period in excess of 7 years.
The General Data Protection Regulation will change the rights you have with regards to the personal data we hold and use about you. Your new rights are described in the guidance below. If you have any questions or concerns about how we use your personal information please contact our Data Protection Officer*. You can also find useful information on the Information Commissioner’s Office’s website.
*Data Protection Officer details for Energy Saving Trust:
Write to: Energy Saving Trust England. 223-231 Pentonville Road, London, England, N1 9NG
Email: DataProtectionOfficer@est.org.uk
If you feel that we have not responded appropriately to any requests to use your rights you have the right to complain to the Information Commissioner’s Office (as detailed above).
For any request relating to your information we will ask for proof of identity to make sure we are talking to the right person, and to avoid disclosing information that belongs to another person. This may be done through asking questions (such as your address, telephone number, email address and reference number, should you have one) or sometimes we might ask for other evidence.
If you are asking about information relating to another person, a relative for example, we need to be sure you have the authority to act on that person’s behalf. Normally this can be done through evidence of a ‘Power of Attorney’ or similar document.
Accessing information we hold about you
If you think we hold information about you, you can ask us about that information. You do not have to make this request in writing, however we will always ask questions to make sure we know who you are or we might ask for further proof of identity. This additional proof may take the form of recent utility bills or we may request to see photographic identification such as a current driving licence.
We will let you know if we are using your information and let you have access to it. We may ask you to let us know exactly what information you are looking for if we hold a large amount of information about you.
We will give you the following information:
What we are using your information for (including the details of any credit check carried out if you applied for loan funding through us), What sort of information about you that we hold, Who we have shared your information with, If we didn’t get your information from you, we will tell you where we got it from, How long we are likely to keep your information.
Right to object to direct marketing
See section regarding direct marketing.
Research
You may have agreed to be part of some research that we are carrying out – for example, into changing behaviour. If you change your mind about being part of any research, please let us know and we will stop using your personal information and remove your details from the research.
Automated Decisions
You have rights relating to any automated decisions that we may take about you.
We use a credit checking service when you apply to receive loan funding us. The service provider does not give a ‘pass’ or ‘fail’ answer when we use their services. Instead we are given a ‘score’ based on your information held by them. We have used our knowledge to decide what ‘score’ is needed for people to be eligible for the loan.
If you do not meet the requirements, we will give you an opportunity to appeal this decision, by giving us some additional information. It may be that the information held by the credit checking service is incorrect – you can contact them to find out what they hold and make any corrections if needed.
We will always carry out a credit check if you apply for a loan and this forms part of the conditions of the funding.
Profiling
We may use your information to map the way people use energy in their homes, to get an understanding of how energy efficiency measures can change the amount of energy used in homes or to get a better picture of the housing stock of the UK.
When we use your information in this way, we will always make sure your information is kept secure. We will use modelling techniques and data minimisation to make sure that you are not able to be identified from any reports produced.
Additionally, only certain types of organisations will be able to access this information. When we do so we will make sure there is a contract in place restricting the use of the information. We will only release information at level that will ensure no individual can be identified. Organisations will only be able to use the information for specific reasons related to improving the efficiency of buildings and reducing the impact of climate change.
If we have agreed to restrict the use of your personal information, we will only use it with your agreement, to defend any legal action, to protect the rights of another person or in the public interest.
We will let you know if we intend to remove any restriction on using your personal information, for example when we have found your personal information to be correct.
If we have shared your information with other organisations, we will let them know about any corrections, deletion or restriction of use of your personal data.
Data Portability
You have the right to obtain the data you have given us through the Home Energy Check. This is because you provided the information through our online tool which automatically provides you with information about your property and ways you can improve the energy efficiency of your home.
If you would like us to do this for you, we will do this free of charge and in a way that should be able to be understood by the other organisation’s computer systems. They will be able to use this information to provide you with their services. In some cases we may be able to transfer this information directly to the other organisation – but this will depend on their systems being able to work with ours and allowing the transfer of information.
We will in most cases be able to provide you with your information within a month, but we may need longer than this if your request is complicated or if you have asked for many (up to two months). We will let you know if we need longer to give you your information and we will explain why we can’t give you the information more quickly.
Please contact us if you wish to take advantage of this service and we will be happy to help you.
Right to Object
You can object to our use of your personal information. This is because we will have either obtained you permission to use your personal information, or we will have provided you with a condition known as a ‘legitimate interest’. A ‘legitimate interest would be where, for example, you had asked us to send you a loan application form. In order to complete this request we need to know and be able to use some of your personal information.
We will always let you know you have this right when we first take your information.
In some cases, we will be unable to carry out your instruction to stop using your information. This will be when we are carrying out a legally required task (for example information relating to the Energy Performance Certificate Register).
We will provide you with information about the action we have taken in one month of receiving your request to delete your information and having received any proof of identity asked for. In some cases we may require additional time to provide you with a response. We will only do this if the request is complicated or there is more than one request submitted. We will always keep in touch and let you know the status of your request.
Restricting the use of your personal information
You have the right to restrict our use of your personal information where:
In some cases we may have received permission to use your image in our marketing material, on our website and/or through our social media sites when you were a child (either from you or your parents/guardian). Please let us know if you would like to withdraw this permission and we will remove your images as requested. We will additionally contact the providers of our advice service to make sure your image is no longer used by them.
Refusing your request
We may refuse a request to delete your information if the use of your information is:
Charges and refusing requests for personal information
We will normally not request payment to give you a copy of your personal information. However, we may make a charge if you have already recently requested the same information. In some very rare cases where numerous requests for the same information have been made we may refuse to provide the information again. Where we can, we will always clearly explain any decision to refuse to provide you with your personal information.
If the information you have requested includes the personal information of another individual we will (depending upon the circumstances) remove information that identifies that person.
Correcting information
If we hold information about you that is wrong you have the right to have this corrected. If we agree that the information is incorrect we will always correct this information quickly or complete information where appropriate. If we do not agree that the information is wrong we will record that you have raised a request to have the information altered and that it is in dispute.
Removing information
You can request that we delete, remove or that we erase the information we hold about you. We will do this if any of the following is true and if no legal reason to keep your personal information exists:
Please visit here for information about cookies.
Find out more about cookiesAs part of our role to provide secretariat services for the Cross Party Group on Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency (SPREEE), Energy Saving Trust will collect the personal data of SPREEE members.
What information will we collect from you?
Why do we ask for this information?
We collect and maintain this information to notify you about forthcoming SPREEE meetings and to share any other SPREEE related information.
Sharing information about you
Retention and Disposal
The personal information we collect (listed in "Why do we ask for this information?") from members of SPREEE will be retained for as long as membership of the group is held. When notification is received from an individual that they wish to leave the group this information is deleted.
Security
We regularly review our privacy policy to keep it up-to-date. Any changes that we make will be posted on our website.
This privacy policy was last updated 12/04/2024.