Privacy notice | academy.scot

Advice Direct Scotland (ICO registration Z9035412) (“ADS”) takes your privacy very seriously. This privacy notice sets out your rights and answers any questions you may have about your personal data when you use academy.scot.

Who we are

academy.scot is the learning and development service of Advice Direct Scotland, a Scottish charity (SC034473) and a company limited by guarantee registered in Scotland (SC225689). Our registered office is Mercantile Chambers, 39–69 Bothwell Street, Glasgow G2 6TS. Advice Direct Scotland is the controller of your personal data. You can contact our Data Protection Officer at DPO@advice.scot.

How do we collect information from you?

We collect personal data from you:

when you visit our website
when you phone or email us, or send us a message using the form on our website
directly from you when you undertake training provided by academy.scot

When you visit our website

Our website is hosted by Microsoft. When you visit, your device’s IP address and basic browser details are processed so that the pages you ask for can be sent to you and the site can be protected from misuse.

Use of cookies

Our website does not use cookies and does not store anything else on your device. We do not use analytics, advertising or social media tracking, and the site does not load content from other organisations’ websites. If this changes, we will update this notice and ask for your consent where the law requires it.

When you phone, email or message us

If you call us on 0808 800 0501, email enquiries@academy.scot or send us a message using the form on our contact page, we use the details you give us, such as your name, contact details, organisation and the reason for your enquiry, to respond to you and, if you choose to go ahead, to enrol you on a course.

What information is collected from me as a learner?

The following types of personal information are collected when you undertake training with us:

name
Scottish Candidate Number
address
contact details
sex
date of birth
training session recordings
any personal data contained within course submissions

Testimonials and photographs

Some pages of this website show the names, job titles, photographs and comments of people who have studied with or work for academy.scot. We publish these with the agreement of the people involved. If you appear on our website and want your details changed or removed, email DPO@advice.scot and we will do this promptly.

How do we use this information and what is the legal basis for this use?

We process the data described above for the following purposes:

Purpose	Lawful basis
To respond to enquiries made by phone, email or our website contact form	Legitimate interests (UK GDPR, Article 6(1)(f)): we need to process your data to answer your enquiry
To enrol candidates on their qualification with Qualifications Scotland (QS). Information is also retained for portfolio work.	Legitimate interests (UK GDPR, Article 6(1)(f)): we need to process your data to provide you with our services
To forward relevant course information, qualification results and other documents required for training to be completed	Legitimate interests (UK GDPR, Article 6(1)(f)): we need to process your data to provide you with our services
Protecting ADS’s legitimate business interests and legal rights, including but not limited to use in connection with legal claims, compliance, regulatory and investigative purposes (including disclosure of such information in connection with legal process or litigation)	Legitimate interests (UK GDPR, Article 6(1)(f)): we need to process your data to protect our organisation
To monitor use of our websites and online services	Legitimate interests (UK GDPR, Article 6(1)(f)): we may use your information to help us check, improve and protect our products, content, services and websites, both online and offline
To monitor any trainee account to prevent, investigate and/or report fraud, terrorism, misrepresentation, security incidents or crime	Legitimate interests (UK GDPR, Article 6(1)(f)) and legal obligation (UK GDPR, Article 6(1)(c)): we are legally obliged to process data for this purpose
To comply with applicable law and legislation	Legal obligation (UK GDPR, Article 6(1)(c)): we are legally obliged to process data for this purpose

With whom and where will we share your personal data?

Qualifications authorities who administer the qualifications offered by the service (for example, Qualifications Scotland).
Microsoft, which hosts this website and our email, acting on our instructions.

How long do we keep your personal data?

We will not keep your personal information for any purpose for longer than is necessary and will only retain the personal information that is necessary in relation to the purpose. We are also required to retain certain information as required by law or for as long as is reasonably necessary to meet regulatory requirements, resolve disputes, prevent fraud and abuse, or enforce our terms and conditions.

We will retain your data for a short time beyond the specified retention period, to allow for information to be reviewed and any deletion to take place. In some instances, laws may require Advice Direct Scotland to hold certain information for specific periods other than those listed below.

Retention period	Data type
Three weeks on completion of the course (whether the result is a pass, fail or withdrawal). The exception is if an external verifier requests a visit within the retention period: the data is then retained only until after the visit has taken place.	candidate evidence name Scottish Candidate Number address contact details sex date of birth training session recordings any personal data contained within course submissions
Three years	Misconduct investigation reports and evidence
Six years	Reports and evidence involving a potential criminal prosecution or civil claim

What are your rights in relation to your personal data?

Under data protection law, you have the following rights:

Your right of access: you have the right to ask us for copies of your personal information.
Your right to rectification: you have the right to ask us to rectify your personal information if you think it is inaccurate, and to complete information you think is incomplete.
Your right to erasure: you have the right to ask us to erase your personal information in certain circumstances.
Your right to restriction of processing: you have the right to ask us to restrict the processing of your personal information in certain circumstances.
Your right to object to processing: you have the right to object to the processing of your personal information in certain circumstances.
Your right to data portability: you have the right to ask that we transfer the personal information you gave us to another organisation, or to you, in certain circumstances.

You are not required to pay any charge for exercising your rights. If you make a request, we have one month to respond to you in most cases. Please contact us at DPO@advice.scot if you wish to make a request.

Complaints

If you are not happy with our response or require further information about data protection rules and regulations, you can contact the Information Commissioner’s Office at ico.org.uk.

Other websites

The academy.scot website may contain links to websites controlled by other organisations. This privacy notice only covers our own website, so we strongly advise that you read the privacy notices of other sites, even if you reach them using links on our website.

Review

This privacy notice is kept under regular review.

Latest update: November 2026 (website version of the academy.scot Privacy Notice, version 5).