Gain a practical understanding of UK data protection law, including what counts as personal data, how data must be handled, and the rights and responsibilities that apply when things go wrong.
This course equips people working in housing, construction, and related sectors with a practical understanding of UK data protection law. It covers what counts as personal data, the legal framework behind data protection, the principles that govern how data must be handled, and the rights and responsibilities that apply when things go wrong. The course is aligned to the UK GDPR, the Data Protection Act 2018, and the Data (Use and Access) Act 2025, and is designed to support compliance at every level of an organisation.
This course equips people working in housing, construction, and related sectors with a practical understanding of UK data protection law. It covers what counts as personal data, the legal framework behind data protection, the principles that govern how data must be handled, and the rights and responsibilities that apply when things go wrong. The course is aligned to the UK GDPR, the Data Protection Act 2018, and the Data (Use and Access) Act 2025, and is designed to support compliance at every level of an organisation.
This lesson explores what counts as personal data under UK GDPR, including information that could identify a living person either on its own or in combination with other data. You'll learn to distinguish personal data from non-personal data in everyday workplace scenarios, understand why special category data - such as health information, ethnicity, religious beliefs, biometric data, sexual orientation, and political opinions - carries additional legal protections, and recognise how even seemingly harmless data points can be combined to build detailed profiles of individuals.
This lesson introduces the legal framework that underpins UK data protection, built on three key instruments: the UK GDPR, the Data Protection Act 2018, and the Data (Use and Access) Act 2025. You'll understand the roles of data subject, data controller, and data processor, learn how the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) operates as the independent regulator, and recognise that your day-to-day decisions about recording, sharing, and retaining data form part of your organisation's legal obligations.
This lesson covers the seven data protection principles set out in UK GDPR - lawfulness, fairness and transparency; purpose limitation; data minimisation; accuracy; storage limitation; integrity and confidentiality; and accountability - which are legal requirements, not optional guidance. You'll also learn about the six lawful bases for processing personal data (consent, contract, legal obligation, vital interests, public task, and legitimate interests), understand the real-world consequences of non-compliance, including significant fines from the ICO, and know when to stop, consult your manager, and verify the lawful basis before collecting or sharing data.
This lesson brings together the eight enforceable rights individuals hold over their personal data under UK GDPR - including the right to be informed, the right of access, the right to rectification, the right to erasure, and protections around automated decision-making - alongside your practical responsibilities when something goes wrong. You'll understand what a personal data breach is, how to recognise one, why it must be reported to your manager or data protection lead immediately rather than handled alone, and how the formal breach response process works, including the 72-hour reporting window to the ICO.
