Privacy policy
Your privacy
As a charity that prides itself on being professional, we handle all patient and supporter information with great care and have policies in place to ensure that it is protected.
Your privacy is really important to us and we understand how important it is to you. Our privacy policy tells you about the type of information North West Air Ambulance Charity collects and processes, what we do with it, what we do to keep your information secure, your rights, and how to contact us.
If you would like this privacy statement in print format, please email dataprotection@nwairambulance.org.uk or call 0800 587 4570. We may make changes to this statement from time to time. If we do so, we will post the changes on this page and they will apply from the time we post them. This statement was last reviewed and changed on 23/02/2024.
NWAA is a charity registered in England and Wales (Charity No 1075641.)
We and our affiliate organisations are registered with the Information Commissioner’s Office (www.ico.org.uk) as follows:
NWAA Charity ZA078599, NWAA Promotions ZA078617, Friends of North West Air Ambulance Lottery ZA078607, Friends Of The NW Air Ambulance Lottery Community Interest Company ZB274242
For further information regarding your personal data or about NWAA’s approach to data protection in general please contact our Data Protection Lead (DPL) at:
The Data Protection Lead
North West Air Ambulance Charity
North Mersey Business Centre
Woodward Road
Knowsley
Merseyside
L33 7UY
dataprotection@nwairambulance.org.uk
0800 587 4570
NWAA collects, stores and processes personal data for several purposes, mainly:
- Fundraising
- Personnel administration
- Financial accounting
- Marketing
- The administration of the charity.
NWAA will only process (use) your personal information if we:
- have a ‘legitimate interest’ to do so in order to support our charitable purposes. Our use will be fair and balanced and never unduly impact on your rights;
- have a contract with you that we can only fulfil by using your personal information, e.g. to send you an item that you have requested;
- have asked your consent for us to do so;
- have a legal obligation to use or disclose information about you, e.g. we are required by law to keep records of gifts that are given to us with Gift Aid.
- need to provide you with a medical diagnosis or treatment or if the processing is in your vital interests because your life is in danger.
The table below highlights the types of personal data that we use, what we use them for and the legal basis for processing.
The table below highlights the types of personal data that we use, what we use them for and the legal basis for processing.
| Type of data | Purpose | Legal Basis for processing |
| Donors’ name, contact details, date of birth, and donation history. Where it is appropriate, we may ask for your reason for giving and your specific interests relating to NWAA’s work. | For the administration of donations, and to support your fundraising, including processing gift aid. To provide you with the services, products or information you asked for. To keep a record of your relationship with us. To understand our supporters better so we can tailor our communications and relationship with you and provide a better service. For direct marketing purposes. To identify known donors and those who may have an interest in donating in future. To analyse donation patterns. To verify that you are old enough to play our lottery. | Legitimate interest – this information is necessary for the purposes of collecting donations, administering and maintaining our supporter base and ensuring sustainable fundraising. Legal Obligation – in some cases this data is collected to meet legal requirements – for example we are legally obliged to pass details of your donations to HMRC for tax purposes. |
| Donors’ bank and payment card details. | To process donations, lottery subscriptions and shop purchases. | Contractual purposes. |
| Records of payments for purchases you have made from our online shop or catalogue. | To enable us to follow up any problems, complaints or disputes relating to your order. | Contractual purposes and legal obligations such as Consumer Rights Act 2015. |
| Donor profiles such as social group, age bracket, wealth indicators. | We undertake research and create profiles of our existing and potential donors to help us communicate effectively with them. Please refer to our information about profiling. | Legitimate interest – database segmentation to enable us to undertake effective direct marketing and communications activities. |
| Air ambulance patient records (such as location of accident, details of injuries, treatment provided). | In order that the hospitals we airlift patients to can administer the appropriate medical treatment. | Legitimate interest – safeguarding the health wellbeing of patients. Vital Interests of the patient Medical diagnosis and the provision of medical treatment |
| Information on the state of health of people who want to sign up for active NWAA fundraising events | For health and safety purposes. We need to check whether you have any underlying health conditions that would make it unsuitable for you to participate in an event | Consent |
| Records of fundraising activities you have organised | To record how much income each particular event/method of fundraising generates To keep a record of your relationship with us | Legitimate interest – NWAA has an interest in analysing which types of events raise the most income, and also in identifying those supporters who are best able to help us to organise events and gather donations |
| Your volunteering history (including the activities you have taken part in, number of hours you worked) | To keep a record of your relationship with us, including so we can keep you informed about developments in the charity and improve your volunteering experience To help us identify which types of events/methods of volunteering are most effective | Legitimate interest – NWAA has an interest in analysing which types of activity are most effective and also identifying those volunteers who are best able to help us organise events and gather donations |
| Information relating to your lottery membership | The administration of the NWAA lottery | Contractual purposes and legal obligations imposed under the Gambing Act 2005 |
| Photographs and videos provided to us by you or taken at events you have attended | To promote the cause of NWAA through our marketing channels, digital and print | We only use these where you have given your consent |
| Your marketing preferences | So we know how you prefer to be contacted | Legitimate interests – we collect this information to help us comply with the laws on electronic marketing (the Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulations 2003) |
| Patient stories | To promote the life saving work carried out by our air ambulance crews | We only use these where you have given your consent |
| Details of any complaints you have made against NWAA | To enable us to investigate and resolve your concerns and understand how we can improve our services, products or information | Legitimate interests –this information is necessary for us to identify areas where we can improve the service we provide |
| Employment applications and references | To help us assess your suitability for the role in question | Legal obligations imposed through employment law and contractual purposes |
| Volunteering applications and references. | To help us assess your suitability and identify your skills and strengths so we can find suitable volunteering opportunities for you | Legal obligations imposed through employment law and contractual purposes |
| Gift aid forms | For tax purposes and to enable us to claim Gift Aid back from HRMC | Legal obligation |
| Proof of identification and copies of certificates you have provided to us in connection with applications for employment. | To verify that you have a right to work in the UK To verify that you have the necessary qualifications for the role | Legal obligation and contractual purposes |
| We may record and keep track of conversations you have with us including phone calls, letters, emails, live chats, video chats and any other kind of communication | We use these records to check your instructions to us, assess, analyse and improve our service, and to train our staff | Legitimate interest – this information is necessary for the purposes of collecting donations, administering, and maintaining our supporter base and ensuring sustainable fundraising |
| Website visitors device’s IP address (processed during your session and stored in a de-identified form), device screen size, device type (unique device identifiers), browser information, geographic location (country only), and the preferred language used to display our website | We use Hotjar to better understand our users’ needs and to optimise this service and experience. Hotjar is a technology service that helps us better understand our users’ experience (e.g. how much time they spend on which pages, which links they choose to click, what users do and don’t like, etc.) and this enables us to build and maintain our service with user feedback. Hotjar uses cookies and other technologies to collect data on our users’ behaviour and their devices. Hotjar stores this information on our behalf in a pseudonymised user profile. Hotjar is contractually forbidden to sell any of the data collected on our behalf | Consent – through the acceptance of our Cookie policy |
| We log when someone takes an action on our website | This allows us to measure the effectiveness of our advertising by understanding the actions that people take on our website. It means we can find new supporters and reach people who are more likely to take an action that we care about, such as making a donation | Legitimate interests – this information is necessary for us to identify areas where we can maximise the funding to our Charity |
| We conduct wealth screening, which involves analysing publicly available information (such as company directorships or property records) to understand potential donors’ financial capacity for giving | This research helps us tailor our fundraising conversations and stewardship efforts to provide a more relevant and positive experience | Legitimate interest – to understand our supporters and build stronger relationships. We may occasionally use third-party data suppliers who are GDPR compliant and bound by strict confidentiality agreements. We only share the information necessary to conduct wealth screening activities. You have the right to opt-out of wealth screening at any time |
| We utilise CCTV surveillance systems in certain areas of our premises | For the prevention, detection and investigation of crime and to protect staff, volunteers, visitors, and our organisations assets | Legitimate interest – recordings are retained only for a maximum of 30 days and then securely overwritten. Video footage is only accessed by authorised personnel for specific purposes such as investigating potential incidents |
We will inform you if the provision of personal data is a statutory or contractual requirement, or a requirement necessary to enter into a contract with us and of the possible consequences of failure to provide such data (e.g. in employment and volunteering situations).
NWAA shares personal data with a number of external organisations
| Recipient/Category of organisation | Purpose of sharing |
|---|---|
| IT support companies | We may share fundraising data with an IT support company so they can investigate software issues. |
| Mailing companies | We use mailing companies to post out promotional material to our supporters |
| Solicitors | We may share personal data with solicitors in the course of obtaining legal advice and support. |
| Data protection consultancy | We may share personal data with a data protection consultancy when seeking advice and support on data protection issues |
| Software platform providers | We use external companies to host our air ambulance patient records database and our lottery records database |
| Data agencies | To undertake data cleansing, quality and augementation activities such as data deduplication; screening our data against public registers such as bereavement and deceased, mailing and telephone preference services, fundraising preference services etc., to obtain forwarding addresses for people who move house without informing us, to fill in gaps in our database such as obtaining telephone numbers, names, addresses, interests and profile-based information. |
| Event companies | Where you have informed us that you want to participate in challenge events to raise money for NWAA then we may share your contact details with the event organisers so they can provide you with further information and registration details. |
| Email marketing services | We employ email marketing services to send promotional material to our existing supporters |
| Website provider (Connect Internet Solutions) | We use an external company to develop and host our website, nwairambulance.org.uk. |
| Marketing agencies | We work with marketing agencies who may have access to our email platform, social media, and website to run campaigns for us. |
| Courier price comparison sites and courier companies | We use courier price comparison sites to help us identify the cheapest delivery method for sending items customers have ordered via the online store. This data is then shared with courier companies to facilitate delivery. |
| Secure online payment provider | We use a secure online payment provider to process your card and bank details when you donate to us. |
| External Lottery Manager | We employ an external company to sign up new lottery players on NWAA’s behalf via door to door canvassing. |
| Telephone contact centre | We employ an external call centre to contact current lottery subscribers on NWAA’s behalf to renew lapsed subscriptions or increase the current subscription. |
| HMRC | Where you have made a Gift Aid declaration, we will pass the details to HMRC in order to claim back tax |
| Employment Agencies | For staff recruitment purposes. |
| North West Ambulance Service (NWAS) | To enable the NWAS doctors and paramedics on our air ambulances to administer emergency treatment. |
| NHS Hospitals | We share the personal data of air ambulance patients with the hospitals we airlift them to so the staff there can administer appropriate emergency treatment. |
NWAA will only keep your personal for as long as is necessary to carry out the relevant activity:
We will keep your information only for as long as we need it to provide you with the services, goods, or information you require and to administer your relationship with us.
We are legally required to retain some personal information to fulfil statutory obligations, for example, the collection of Gift Aid or to support certain financial transactions.
Where we are not under a legal obligation to retain your information, we will determine what is necessary by reference to the lawful basis for processing set out above and our legitimate interests.
We have a duty to spend our supporters’ donations wisely, so we use a variety of profiling and screening techniques to ensure communications are relevant, timely, accurate and cost-effective, and to provide an improved experience for our supporters. This includes the use of a system which analyses our donation data to help us determine the most effective ways to communicate with our donors. Aspects of this analysis are undertaken using AI however all recommendations that the AI makes (i.e. which communications to send to you) are reviewed by a member of the NWAA team (a human) who makes the final decision. This is not ‘Automated Decision Making’ because the decision is always made by a human and the decision does not have a legal or similarly significant effect on you.
You have the right to opt-out of this at any time. To opt-out please contact us here.
We may use the details you provide to help us understand your interests, so we can try to predict what other information, products and services you and others like you might be most interested in and also to not send information or offers that is unlikely to be of interest to you. We may also combine this with information available in the public domain and on commercially available data lists.
If you do not want us to process your data in this way, it is easy to opt out. Just contact us here.
We may match your details against other databases to ensure our data is accurate and up-to-date. This includes the National Change of Address database (NCOA) from Royal Mail, which uses data from their redirection service, helping us keep in touch with you if you have moved recently without telling us. Another example is screening against a database of the recently deceased as we know that sending mail to a recently deceased member of a family can be distressing and by running this data matching service we can reduce the possibility of NWAA contacting someone who has passed away.
We analyse how emails are opened and read to see which messages have the highest response rates and whether there are messages that resonate with particular groups of people. We do this by logging whether emails have been opened, deleted and interacted with, for example, by clicking on links within the emails.
We may also match group data against other external databases to understand more about our supporters and their habits or attitudes as a group. For example, knowing which newspapers are most commonly read helps us identify where to advertise to find more people like you, who care about our lifesaving work.
As a registered charity, we are subject to a number of legal and regulatory obligations and standards. This means that we may carry out appropriate due diligence and background checks on potential donors or anyone planning on making a significant donation or gift before accepting it in order protect NWAA from abuse, fraud and/or money laundering.
All the activities above form an important part of raising money to keep our lifesaving work going and providing an air ambulance service to the people of the north west. You can request more information on these activities, or change your preferences, by using the information in the ‘Contact us’ section here.
As a fundraising organisation, we conduct in-house research using publicly available information to identify individuals who we are not already in touch with but may have an affinity to our charity. This research helps us to understand more about potential donors so that we can tailor conversations we have about fundraising, ensuring we provide an experience that is appropriate and bespoke to the individual.
We may on occasions carry out wealth screening, a process which enables us to understand our supporters and their motivations for giving.
We do this to help us understand why people are motivated to support NWAA and to help us create a fuller and better picture of our supporters. This enables us to communicate with our supporters more effectively and to reach out to individuals who may wish to give additional support with a further monetary gift or to volunteer their time/service. We may on occasion use third-party suppliers to undertake these activities on our behalf and provide them with your information to the extent required, but this will only be done with GDPR compliant suppliers who are bound to confidentiality.
You will always have the right to opt-out of this processing. To opt-out please contact us
To raise the money we need every year to keep our HEMS crew ready to respond, NWAA undertakes a wide range of marketing activities to reach new and existing supporters.
You may receive information from NWAA about the goods we provide, fundraising appeals and events, information about our missions, and the other work we do that is part of our charitable mission.
We will only send marketing by email and text where you have given us consent to do so. Every email or text message we send will provide an option to opt-out of receiving future messages if you wish.
We do not give, sell or exchange your information with other organisations for marketing purposes.
You may, at any time, opt-out of receiving marketing from NWAA by contacting us via post, telephone 0800 587 4570, or emailing us at supporterservices@nwairambulance.org.uk
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We may transfer personal data outside of the UK where data subjects’ rights may not be adequately protected or enforceable. Whenever we arrange for international transfers of data overseas, we will ensure the suitable arrangements are in place to provide suitable safeguards for the people whose information we transfer. When we appoint overseas data processors, we check that suitable arrangements are in place such as European Commission Adequacy Decisions, Standard Contractual Clauses, or other permitted mechanisms.
NWAA transfers personal data outside of the United Kingdom to these organisations:
| Organisation | Country | Purpose |
|---|---|---|
| MailChimp | USA | Email marketing mail outs |
| Dataro | Australia | Automate profiling of donor data to help inform communication strategies |
The GDPR provides you with certain rights over the personal data NWAA holds about you.
You have the following rights over your personal data;
| Right of access | You have the right to obtain confirmation from NWAA as to whether or not personal data concerning you is being processed, and, where that is the case, access to that personal data. |
| Right to rectification | You have the right to oblige NWAA to rectify inaccurate personal data concerning you. Taking into account the purposes of the processing, you have the right to have incomplete personal data completed by providing a supplementary statement. |
| Right to erasure (right to be forgotten) | You have the right (under certain circumstances, but not all) to oblige NWAA to erase personal data concerning you. |
| Right to restriction of processing | You have the right (under certain circumstances, but not all) to oblige NWAA to restrict processing of your personal data. For example, you may request this if you are contesting the accuracy of personal data held about you. |
| Right to data portability | You have the right (under certain circumstances, but not all) to oblige NWAA to provide you with the personal data about you which you have provided to us in a structured, commonly used and machine-readable format. You also have the right to oblige NWAA to transmit those data to another controller. |
| Right to withdraw consent | If the lawful basis for processing is consent, you have the right to withdraw that consent which you can exercise by writing to the data protection Lead at the contact details provided above. |
| Right to object to direct marketing | Where your personal data are processed for direct marketing purposes, you have the right to object at any time to processing of your personal data for marketing, which includes profiling to the extent that it is related to such direct marketing. |
| Rights in relation to automated decision making and profiling | NWAA does not perform any automated decision-making based on personal data that produces legal effects or similarly significantly affects you. |
For more information about any of your rights, please visit:
If you wish to exercise any of your rights concerning your personal data, please contact NWAA’s Data Protection Lead at the address shown above. If you are not satisfied with the response you receive you have the right to lodge a complaint with the supervisory authority. In the United Kingdom this is:
Information Commissioner’s Office, Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow, Cheshire, SK9 5AF
(t) 0303 123 1113 (e) casework@ico.org.uk
Personal data processed by NWAA in relation to Covid-19
NWAA collects, stores, and discloses information in relation to the Covid-19 epidemic for the following purposes:
1. safeguarding the health and safety of our staff, volunteers and contractors,
2. safeguarding the most vulnerable among us and helping everybody comply with government guidelines in the current context.
In order to fulfil the above purposes, we may need to process information relating to your health (including for example reports of infections, testing, and medical conditions including mental health) information and details of your movements (including for example recent travel, associations with others, compliance with government “lockdown” and isolation instructions).
Relates to: Employees, Volunteers and Other
Purpose: Disclosing information requested by health professionals in connection with the pandemic or disease
Lawful basis: Art. 9.2(i) GDPR: Public interest in public health
Retention period: Two months following the Government announcement to the end of the pandemic
Relates to: Employees, Volunteers, and Contractors
Purpose: Ensuring the health and safety or our employees, volunteers, and contractors
Lawful basis: Art. 9.2(b) GDPR: Statutory requirement as an employer: Health and Safety at Work Act 1974
Retention period: Until the Government declares an end to the pandemic and we are satisfied that the risks to our employees have been eradicated
Relates to: Employees and Volunteers
Purpose: Monitoring the equality of opportunities and treatment of individuals
Lawful basis: Data Protection Act 2018, Schedule 2 Para. 8: Equality of opportunity or treatment
Retention period: Two months following the Government announcement to the end of the pandemic
Relates to: Employees and those for whom we have a duty of care
Purpose: Monitoring the health of employees and preventative medicine
Lawful basis: Article 9.2(h) GDPR: Health and Social Care
Retention period: Two months following the Government advising that the medical risks to employees have been eliminated
Relates to: Employees and Volunteers
Purpose: Referrals to support systems where there is a need for social care
Lawful basis: Article 9.2(h) GDPR: Health and Social Care
Retention period: Two months following the Government announcement to the end of the pandemic
Consent
Please note that it is not our intention to base processing of personal data or special category personal data on consent for a number of reasons because it is not practical for us to obtain consent in these current circumstances and in reality the processing of personal data for Covid-19 purposes is in the public interest and not optional. You have the right to object to our processing of your personal data for Covid-19 purposes.
Data Sharing and disclosures
NWAA may share data with the following categories of recipients in line with the purposes and lawful bases for processing outlined above:
1. Health professionals, health care services, and occupational health providers
2. Social care services and social care professionals
3. Police and law enforcement services
4. Other individuals where we believe there is a risk to them and the disclosure of information to them outweighs the other individuals’ rights to privacy in relation to their Covid-19 status and/or behaviour (such as compliance with the “lock down” instructions)
5. Appropriate NWAA staff
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