Privacy Policy

This privacy statement only applies to this General Medical Council website at http://www.gmc-uk.org. Links within this site to other websites are not covered by the policy.

This statement outlines how we will use and protect information that you provide us about yourself.

1. How we use your personal data
2. Your rights under the Data Protection Act 1998
3. Our use of cookies
4. Website security: how we protect your information

1. How we will use your personal data

We may collect personal information about you if you take part in a consultation or if you register with us as a doctor.

Registration of doctors

If you provide your details when inquiring about registration or sitting the Professional Linguistic Assessment Board (PLAB) test we will use that information for the following purposes:

• To process your enquiry or application
• To compile statistics
• To send you relevant GMC documents and our newsletter GMCtoday
• We will supply information to the Department of Health, professional, education and training bodies so they can compile statistics
• We may retain details of your application on our files and may disclose that information to overseas regulators in the EEA and elsewhere.

If you subsequently obtain registration from the GMC we will use the information you provide to us for these purposes:

• Update the registers
• Administer and maintain your registration
• Process complaints
• Compile statistics
• Keep you updated with information about the GMC including guidance, news and election material.

We may be asked to provide your registered address to the British Medical Association, medical defence organisations and medical Royal Colleges and faculties so that they can keep their records up to date. We will only do so, where we are satisfied you are already a member. If you would prefer us not to share your registered address with these organisations please let us know either by writing to Registration Update Team, General Medical Council, St James's Buildings, 79 Oxford Street Manchester, M1 6FQ or by sending an email to registrationhelp@gmc-uk.org.

Please note that all registered doctors’ Level 1 information will be published in the List of Registered Medical Practitioners on our website and made available to any enquirer. Level 1 information consists of registered doctors’ reference number, gender, name, any former name, year and place of primary medical qualification, registration status, date of registration and any publicly available fitness to practise history.

We will provide Level 3 Information to the UK health departments, employers and other regulatory bodies. Level 3 information consists of registered doctors’ Level 1 information, date of birth, photograph, passport details, annual retention fee due date, registered address and whether a doctor is subject to investigation under the fitness to practise procedures.

Third Party Service Providers

We have contracts with other organisations (or Third Parties) to carry out certain activities or services on our behalf. If we need to pass any of your personal data to them we will make sure that:

• They are only provided with the information they need to carry out the service
• They agree not to use the information received from us for any other purpose than those specified by us
• They have the proper systems in place to protect personal data

Consultation

We invite feedback from you about the site and, from time to time, we use the site to carry out electronic consultation exercises. If you send comments to us via the site we will collect your comments and your contact details for the purposes of the consultation concerned.

2. Your rights under the Data Protection Act 1998

You may obtain confirmation of the basic information that we hold about you at any time. If it is incorrect we will promptly correct it when we have received the appropriate notice or evidence from you in writing.

You are also able to make a request for all information that we hold about you under section 7 of the Data Protection Act 1998. This request must be made in writing and we make a charge of £10 for each request.

3. Use of Cookies

The GMC website uses cookies. A 'cookie' is a piece of information, like a tag, which some websites create against your computer. The 'cookies' we use log your progress through the site and record how you accessed the site. They do not collect any personal information about you or about the use of your computer or Internet browsing in any way.

If you do not want cookies to be created on your computer, web browsers such as Netscape and Internet Explorer give you the option to disable them. [Please bear in mind that some personalised services on our website may not be available if you choose to disable cookies].

4. Website security: how we protect your information

We are careful to guard the security of your personal data and the details of any transactions you make with us over the Internet.

This we do by putting in place and carefully administering a secure IT infrastructure in accordance with industry standards and good practice. We also arrange for audit of our systems by independent experts.

When you use our website to make payments, for example for a PLAB test, we use a secure server. Any data you enter is encrypted using a 'Secure Socket Layer' (SSL) session. SSL is an industry standard security device and a way to ensure Internet messages are not intercepted. However, older browsers cannot use SSL. To be sure, you will need Netscape version 4.05 or Microsoft Internet Explorer browsers, version 4 or above.

There are a number of things you can do to help protect yourself from Internet fraud:

• When you have finished your session log off the GMC website to prevent your details being seen by anyone else.
• Clear any 'cache' so there is no record of any transactions left on screen - both Netscape and Internet Explorer let you do this.
• Close your browser so that any history of the session is cleared.
• As an extra precaution your session on many areas of our website will terminate if you have not used the site for 15 minutes.

If you have any comments on how we can improve the website, please let us know