Who We Are
QuitRight is a stop-smoking service delivered in partnership with Queen Mary University of London (QMUL). QMUL acts as the data controller for the personal information collected through this website and our booking system.
What We Collect
When you book a consultation, we collect: your name, email address, phone number, date of birth, gender, ethnicity, home address, GP practice name, any health conditions you tell us about, and any notes you provide about your smoking habits. This information is necessary to deliver our service safely and effectively, and some of it (ethnicity and health conditions) is used to make sure your care is appropriate to your circumstances.
Why We Collect This Information
Stop smoking services like ours are commissioned by local authorities under their public health duties (Health and Social Care Act 2012), and each piece of information we ask for has a specific reason behind it:
- Name, email, phone — so we can confirm, remind you about, and if needed rearrange your appointment.
- Date of birth — to confirm you're eligible for the service and that any medication offered (e.g. nicotine replacement therapy, varenicline) is safe and correctly dosed for your age.
- Health conditions — so your advisor can check a treatment is safe for you (for example, some stop-smoking medications aren't suitable during pregnancy or with certain heart conditions) and refer you back to your GP if that's the safer option.
- GP practice name — so we can, with your knowledge, keep your GP informed or refer you back to them if something needs following up.
- Home address — to arrange a face-to-face appointment at the right location, and to confirm you live in an area our service actually covers.
- Ethnicity — not used in your individual care. Local authorities and the NHS require anonymised ethnicity reporting across all stop-smoking services nationally, to check that people from every community are able to access support and quit successfully at similar rates, and to target outreach where they aren't.
- Your notes about your situation — so your advisor can prepare for a conversation that's actually relevant to you, rather than starting from nothing.
Our Legal Basis for Processing
We process your name, contact details and booking information because it's necessary to provide the service you've asked for (UK GDPR Article 6(1)(b), and Article 6(1)(a) consent where you've actively opted in, e.g. progress tracking).
Your ethnicity and any health conditions are “special category data” under Article 9, which receives extra legal protection. We collect this with your explicit consent (Article 9(2)(a)), given when you submit the booking form, and only use it to provide safe, appropriate care for you — never for any other purpose. You can withdraw this consent at any time by contacting us, though this may limit how well we can safely tailor your care.
How We Use Your Data
We use your personal data solely to:
- Manage your booking and appointment
- Provide smoking cessation support and advice appropriate to your circumstances
- Send appointment reminders and follow-ups
- Track your progress (with your consent)
- Report anonymised statistics to our commissioners (e.g. local councils), never in a way that identifies you
We do not use any automated decision-making or profiling that produces legal or similarly significant effects on you. We never share your data with third parties for marketing purposes.
Who We Share Your Data With
To run this service, some of your information is processed by:
- Microsoft Outlook/365 — to schedule your appointment on our clinical team's shared calendar
- Cloudways — who host this website and its booking system, on servers based in the UK
- Your GP practice, only if a referral or update is clinically necessary, and only with your knowledge
These providers are bound by contracts requiring them to protect your data and only use it as we instruct.
International Transfers
Your booking and health data stays with UK-based providers. Our website analytics (Google Analytics, below) is provided by Google, which may process data outside the UK; where this happens, Google relies on legal safeguards such as Standard Contractual Clauses to protect it.
Cookies & Analytics
This website uses essential cookies to remember your cookie consent choice. We also use Google Analytics to understand how visitors use our site (pages viewed, general location, device type) — this only runs if you accept it via the cookie banner, and Google's own privacy policy governs how they handle that data. You can withdraw consent at any time by clearing your cookies and revisiting the banner.
Data Retention
We retain your booking and consultation records for up to 2 years after your last appointment, after which they are securely deleted. You can request earlier deletion at any time.
Security
This site is encrypted (HTTPS/SSL) so your information is protected in transit, and access to booking records is restricted to staff who need it to provide your care.
Your Rights Under GDPR
You have the right to:
- Access - request a copy of the data we hold about you
- Correct - update any inaccurate information
- Delete - request we erase your data
- Restrict - limit how we process your data
- Object - object to processing based on our legitimate or public interest
- Portability - receive your data in a machine-readable format
To make a request, email clinicbookings@qmul.ac.uk. We'll respond within one month.
Contact & Complaints
QuitRight Service Privacy Contact: clinicbookings@qmul.ac.uk
QMUL Data Protection Officer: data-protection@qmul.ac.uk, Queen Mary University of London, Mile End Road, London, E1 4NS
If you're not satisfied with our response, you have the right to complain to the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO): Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow, Cheshire SK9 5AF — 0303 123 1113 — ico.org.uk.