Privacy Statement

The privacy statement contained in these pages covers the services provided by the Department for Innovation, Universities & Skills website.

The Data Controller for this website is the Department for Innovation, Universities & Skills.

The purpose of the privacy statement is to inform users of this website, which is managed by the Department for Innovation, Universities & Skills, about:

• What information is collected about them when they visit this site
• How this information is used
• If this information is disclosed
• The ways in which we protect users' privacy.

If this privacy policy changes in any way, we will place an updated version on these pages. Regularly reviewing this page ensures that you are always aware of what information we collect, how we use it and under what circumstances, if any, we will share it with other parties.

October 2007

Information Confidentiality and Security

Any information you provide will be held securely and in accordance with the Data Protection Act 1998. Your personal details will not normally be disclosed to third parties. In some circumstances however we may need to disclose your personal details to a third party so that they can provide a service you have requested, or fulfil a request for information. Any information about you that we pass to a third party will be held securely by that party, in accordance with the Data Protection Act 1998, and used only to provide the services or information you have requested.

You have a right to request a copy of your personal details at any time to check the accuracy of the information held. If you wish to do this, please write (explaining that your interest is in the Department for Innovation, Universities & Skills website) to the:

Data Protection Officer
Department for Business, Enterprise & Regulatory Reform
1 Victoria Street
London SW1H 0ET

Visitor information

Information we collect from visitors

We collect several kinds of information from visitors to the Department for Innovation, Universities & Skills website depending on the part of the site being visited: feedback, email enquiries, email addresses, site usage information and, in a few cases, personal details such as your name and postal details if you order publications from Reports and Publications.

1. Feedback
   If you provide feedback on the Department for Innovation, Universities & Skills web site through our Contact form at we will only use this information to develop and improve the site.
2. Comments and questions
   If you send an enquiry by email to a specific contact on the Department for Innovation, Universities & Skills web site it may not always be possible for the Department to provide the information requested directly. In such circumstances we may pass your enquiry to another government department so that they can fulfil your information request.
3. Email alert services sign up
   If you sign up to receive email alerts we will use the information you give us to provide the service(s) you have requested. We may occasionally contact email alert subscribers to help us evaluate and improve the service that we offer. If you have used an on-line form on the Department for Innovation, Universities & Skills web site to sign up for an email alert service, you can correct, update or remove any personally identifiable information directly, via our Contact form. If you sign up for a subscription email service, we will hold the information you have provided for as long as you require access to the service requested. If you inform us that you wish to cancel a subscription we will remove you from our mailing list and your details will be deleted from our records.
4. Site usage information
   • Cookies Cookies are pieces of data created when you visit a site, and contain a unique, anonymous number. They are stored in the cookie directory of your hard drive, and do not expire at the end of your session. Cookies do not contain any personal information about you and cannot be used to identify an individual user. If you choose not to accept the cookie, this will not affect your access to the majority of facilities available on our web site. Although your browser may be set up to allow the creation of cookies, you can specify that you be prompted before a site puts a cookie on your hard disk, so that you can decide whether to allow or disallow the cookie. Alternatively, you can set your computer not to accept any cookie. Nedstat, an independent measurement and research company, gathers non-personal data regarding the visitors to our site on our behalf using cookies and code which is embedded in the site. Both the cookies and the embedded code provide non-personal statistical information about visits to pages on the site, the duration of individual page view, paths taken by visitors through the site, data on visitors' screen settings and other general information. The Department for Innovation, Universities & Skills uses this type of information, as with that obtained from any other cookies used on the site, to help it improve the service to its users. Further information is contained in Nedstat's privacy statement.
   • Log files Log files allow us to record visitors' use of the site. The Department puts together log file information from all our visitors, which we use to make improvements to the layout of the site and to the information in it, based on the way that visitors move around it. Log files do not contain any personal information about you.