Privacy policy

This Privacy Policy was last reviewed in June 2026.

Your privacy

At St Columba’s Hospice Care we are committed to protecting your personal information and privacy. This Privacy Policy describes how we collect and use personal information.

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time so please check back periodically. We will notify you of significant changes by placing a notice on our website. If you have any queries about this Privacy Policy, please contact our CEO Jackie Stone on 0131 551 1381 or email info@stcolumbashospice.org.uk

By visiting our website, using our services or participating in our activities, you agree to your personal information being collected and used in the manner set out in this Privacy Policy.

St Columba’s Hospice Care

In this Privacy Policy, ‘St Columba’s Hospice Care’ means St Columba’s Hospice Care. (Scottish Charity Number SC 003634) and/ or St Columba’s Trading Ltd (Registered Company SC 169588). We are registered with the Information Commissioner’s Office, registration reference ZA119716.

When do we collect personal information?

We collect personal information about you when you interact with us (e.g. by phone or online), use our clinical services, enquire about our activities, make a donation, participate in an event, buy from our shops, apply to work or volunteer with us, visit our website or otherwise provide us with your personal information.

We may also receive information about you from third parties that we work with, for example, the NHS, pension providers, JustGiving or eBay, where you have consented to them sending us your information.

What personal information do we collect?

People supported by our services and those important to them

Personal information we collect about you may include your name, postal address, email address, phone numbers, date of birth, and next of kin. If you are using one or more of our clinical services, we will be required to collect ‘sensitive personal data’ which would form your healthcare record. This information is collected for the purposes of providing care services to those referred to us and could be used and shared between departments within the Hospice as well as with other health and social care service providers under strict

guidelines. We may also receive further information from The NHS which is only shared with us when sharing could improve the delivery of care.

Supporters

Personal information we collect about you may include your name, postal address, email address, phone numbers, date of birth, credit or debit card details, and whether you are a tax payer so that we can claim Gift Aid. We do not collect ‘sensitive personal data’ about our supporters unless there is a legitimate reason for this (e.g. if you participate in an event for which we may need to provide support).

We also collect information about how our website is used and track which pages users visit when they follow links in Hospice emails. We use this information to monitor and improve our website, services and activities e.g. to personalise website presentation or to see which services or events are of most interest. Where possible we use anonymous or aggregated data that does not identify individuals. See further information about cookies below.

Individuals captured by CCTV

St Columba’s Hospice Care has CCTV in operation in our main hospice building, or hospice grounds, our furniture warehouse and some of our charity shops. CCTV will capture images in real time wherever the cameras are pointed. These cameras may capture footage of you whilst you are within our grounds or buildings. There are signs in place to inform you where cameras are in use.

We may capture static or moving images of people but do not deliberatively set out to capture any special category personal data. Footage cameras may be used as evidence regarding criminal offences or related security measures. CCTV data is held for one month.

How do we use personal information?

The lawful basis for processing data is for the legitimate purpose of providing a health and social care service and/ or raising charitable funds to support the delivery of the health and social care service.

We use the personal information collected from users for several purposes, including:

• To provide you with services, products or information you have requested.
• To provide further information about our work, services, activities or products.
• To process donations or payments we have received from you.
• To further our charitable aims, including for fundraising activities.
• To fulfil sales made online or through our shops.
• To invite voluntary participation in research or surveys.
• To register, administer and personalise online accounts.
• To register and administer your participation in events for which you have registered.
• To analyse and improve our work, services, activities, products or information (including our website) or for our internal records.
• To use IP addresses and monitor website use to identify locations, block disruptive use, record website traffic or personalise the way information is presented to you.
• To process your application for a job or volunteer role with us; and
• For fraud prevention, credit risk reduction or otherwise as required by law or regulation.

We may analyse your data for research purposes to improve our services, or to try to understand your preferences in order to contact you in the most appropriate and relevant way.

When you use our secure online donation or payment pages you will be directed to a specialist supplier company, who will receive your credit card number and contact information to process the transaction. We do not retain your credit or debit card details.

Care and support services

If you, a relative, or friend are cared for or supported by St Columba’s Hospice Care, the personal and/or sensitive personal information you provide to us will be used only for the purposes of providing you with services, or training or monitoring the quality of our services. We will not disclose your personal information to any third party without your consent, except in the following circumstances:

• To healthcare professionals and organisations involved in the provision of care.
• Exceptionally, to professional bodies or otherwise as required by law, regulation or codes of practice.

We will not use your information for other purposes without your permission. If you tell us about your own experience with terminal illness or the experience of someone else, we will explain how we will use that information. If you don’t want us to use such information for other purposes or change your mind at any time, it will not affect any services we provide to you.

Your updates and preferences

It is important that we keep your personal information up to date. You can contact us at any time on 0131 551 1381 or info@stcolumbashospice.org.uk if your circumstances change.

It is your choice whether and how you receive information from us about our work, fundraising and ways in which you can get involved. We may use your contact details and personal preferences, about which you have previously told us, which we have derived from cookies (see our section below on cookies), or which we have inferred from your service usage or market research about your profile. (You can stop receiving emails or texts by clicking on the ‘unsubscribe’ link in our marketing emails or sending us an ‘opt out’ text message). 

If you choose to donate to St Columba’s Hospice Care, or take on an event for us, we will thank you for your support and will keep you informed about the work of the Hospice and other selected opportunities to get involved with raising vital funds. We will keep you updated in this way, under the legitimate interest principal of data processing, for no more than 36 months from the time of your last gift.

If we do not hear from you for 36 months from the time of your last gift we will remove you from our fundraising database, unless you wish to be removed sooner.

If you would like to change any details we hold about you, or if you would like to be removed from our database at any time, please get in touch with us by calling the fundraising team on 01315511381 or by emailing fund@stcolumbashospice.org.uk

Alternatively, you can write to us at 15 Boswall Road, Edinburgh, EH5 3RW.

We do not hold personal details of supporters who buy from our charity shops, or who purchase our trading goods, unless freely provided by way of consent. We do try to capture Gift Aid declarations for supporters who donate goods to our charity shops in order to maximise contributions from this source.

Our Fundraising Promise, details our promise to those who kindly support us and who ensure our vital services can continue. It can be found under the Fundraising section of our website. 

We will not use your details for marketing purposes if you tell us not to, however, we will retain your details on our suppression lists to help ensure that we do not contact you.

Registering with the free Telephone Preference Service gives you the opportunity to opt out of receiving unsolicited calls. The Mailing Preference Service will enable you to register to have your name taken off direct mailing lists.

Do we provide information to other parties?

We will never sell your data to any third party. We will not share your details with other charities for marketing purposes. 

We will only share information with other organisations where we have your permission to do so in accordance with this Privacy Policy, where it is necessary for a legitimate reason connected with the services we offer, or where it is required by law or regulation.

Sometimes, we may need to share your information with a small number of trusted partners (services providers, agents and affiliated companies) for the purposes outlined above (e.g. a supplier that produces promotional material or delivers goods for us or a supplier that processes payments securely). Where we use third parties, we require them to adhere to appropriate controls to protect personal information.

We use Microsoft Office products, Cybertill, Cascade, Raiser’s Edge, Sage, Vantage, Better Impact and Kafoodal, which are multi-tenant cloud services, to store data. This means that internal documents and information which are generated at St Columba’s Hospice Care are stored in cloud services which are hosted within the European Economic Area (EEA). 

We use Better Impact for our volunteer services, which is also a multi-tenant cloud services, to store data. The Better Impact servers are based in Canada and so your personal data will be stored and accessed by us in Canada. The European Commission has determined data storage in Canada offers an adequate level of data protection.

Vantage is used to record incidents, complaints and concerns. Whilst the majority of data is stored within the UK and the European Economic Area (EEA), some or all of your data may be stored outside of the EEA. Id data is stored outside the EEA, Vantage Technologies will take all reasonable steps to ensure that data is treated as safely and securely as it would be in the UK and under GDPR guidelines.

Exceptionally, we may use tools or services which process data outside the EEA; in these cases, we require suppliers to ensure adequate protection for personal data e.g. Microsoft may provide us with emergency support for Office 365 from outside the EEA in rare circumstances.

Data Security

St Columba’s Hospice Care is committed to keeping your personal information safe and secure and we have security policies and technical measures in place to help protect your information.

Unfortunately, no data transmission over the internet can be 100% secure. As a result, while we strive to protect your personal information, St Columba’ Hospice Care cannot ensure or warrant the security any information you transmit to use, and you do so at your own risk.

As a user you can help protect the integrity of any data you transmit to St Columba’s Hospice Care by taking common precautions such as ensuring you are running up to date and supported anti-virus software and only transmitting data where ‘https’ appears at the beginning of the page URL (this refers to the security technology Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) and indicates that the data is being transmitted securely).

Cookies

We use these to improve the user’s experience of our website, temporarily store data and understand the parts of the website that users are visiting. If you are registered with us, a cookie will identify you when you visit and help us to personalise our website for you. If you are not registered with us, a cookie will help us gather statistics on the use of our website anonymously. You can set your browser to not accept cookies, but this may affect the functionality of the website.

Right of Access and Complaints

You have the right to ask us for a copy of the personal information we hold about you or ask us to change it if you think it is wrong. Please contact us for more information. If you are unhappy with our use of your personal data, you have the right to complain to the Information Commissioner’s Office. They can be contacted on 0303 123 1113 or at www.ico.org.uk

We would encourage you to contact us in the first instance so we can attempt to resolve any concerns.

Links and third parties

This policy only applies to St Columba’s Hospice Care and its subsidiary companies, so when you go through to our partner companies (e.g. to donate) please read their own privacy policies.