Waterford Institute of Technology (Register of Users)

Updated: May 2018

Does your organisation use the PPSN at present?

Yes.

If so, for what purpose?

The PPS No. is obtained for all employees of the Institute. It is obtained by Human Resources prior to or shortly after a person is set up and is paid in payroll.

It is also used for the students of the Institute. It is provided to the Institute via the following routes:

• CAO (provided to the CAO via the State Examinations/applicant – non LC)
• By the student (Direct Entry Programmes, Postgraduate Programmes etc.)
• By SOLAS for Apprentices
• By PAC for our taught and non-funded research postgraduate applicants

The uses are as follows:

• Assists in verifying the identity of individuals and prevents the existence of duplicate records.
• Supplied for all enrolled students and graduates, with the sole exception of 'Occasional' students to the HEA in the Annual Student returns. Note that as of the HEA SRS March 2018 return the PPS number is now mandatory for all Irish domiciled students and graduates. The proposal by the HEA is that this will become a mandatory field for all students and graduates regardless of their domicile in the immediate future.
• Supplied to the DEASP in October of each academic year.

Does your organisation exchange the PPS number with any other body? If so please name the relevant bodies and the purpose(s) of the exchange?

We may actually on occasion liaise with SUSI. SUSI provides the PPS no's of students to WIT (on files loads to WIT) for which we may use to assist in matching that SUSI approved student to a WIT Student record. There are many fields that we cross reference i.e. Name, Address DOB etc. We do not supply PPS no's to SUSI but on occasion if we have a SUSI approved file with reference to a student that we cannot find on our system then we may engage with SUSI to determine if we can match the said student.

QQI FE when entering students results for all QQI FE programmes run by the Institute on the QQI FE portal.

The PPS number is exchanged with:

• Revenue Commissioners – included on all P45 and P35 returns where possible
• Department of Social Protection – used in all correspondence with this body
• Paymaster General – forwarded as they are the authority for paying the pensions to retired WIT staff
• HETAC QQI – requested on annual returns to this body
• HEA – requested on annual returns to this body
• Department of Social Protection

Does your organisation have any other plans involving the use of the PPS number?

No.

There is a duty to ensure compliance with the principles of processing personal data which are set out in Article 5(1) and 5(2) of the GDPR. These principles are summarised as follows

• obtain and process the information fairly
• keep it only for one or more specified, explicit and lawful purposes
• process it only in ways compatible with the purposes for which it was given to you initially
• keep it safe and secure
• keep it accurate, complete and up-to-date
• ensure that it is adequate, relevant and not excessive
• retain it no longer than is necessary for the specified purpose or purposes
• give a copy of his or her personal data to an individual, on request

Have you measures in place to ensure that the Public Service Identity data you hold/collect whether in electronic or written format is in line with the GDPR Principles described above?

‘Yes, WIT under GDPR regulations, will keep personal data only for specified and lawful purposes, will obtain and process the data fairly, if storing the data will keep it accurate and up-to-date and will process it only in ways compatible with the purposes for which it was initially given. A number of policies have been created nationally relating to data protection to ensure processes and procedures are followed by all those who manage and handle data.’