- NECs are normally only issued to people who are resident in Scotland as many services are only available to Scottish residents; cards are issued by local councils on receipt of a valid application for a service that uses the NEC.
- The NEC Common Glossary defines some of the words and phrases associated with the NEC Scheme and can be downloaded from the Privacy page.
- If you want to check that the details the NEC Scheme holds for you are correct, the easiest way is to check with your local council, or if you live in the SPT area, SPT. They will also be able to help make changes to your address, etc. If you wish to exercise any of your data protection rights, including the right to see a copy of all the relevant personal data held by the NEC scheme, you should make a subject access request to your local council who is the lead Data controller for your data. Further details of Data Controllers can be found in this document.
There is a short number printed on the back of cards produced from 23rd February 2022 to help our supplier in getting the card to you as quickly as possible. The number is made up of a number identifying the production batch the card belongs to and a sequence number showing where the card belongs in the batch. It means the supplier knows where to find an individual card as it goes through the different stages required from printing to being put in the envelope without having to use personal data to find it. The number is only used by the supplier; it's not shared with your Council or anyone else.
- Yes. Certain services, such as Scotland-wide concessionary travel, are only available to qualifying holders of the National Entitlement Card (NEC). Other services such as library or leisure memberships may offer a choice of using the NEC or not; it is up to the provider to decide what can be used to access the service.
- If you use your phone to pay, it is the person whose bank details are associated with the relevant app that is paying. When you use your NEC for concessionary travel, it is Transport Scotland or your local council who will be asked to pay for the journey. They require that the bus driver checks your photograph on your card to make sure that only the person entitled to concessionary travel is using the card. In common with many other schemes that require a photo to be checked, we are hoping an easy-to-use and secure means of accessing services via a mobile phone will become available; this will allow us to continue to protect public funds against fraud.
- Your NEC is designed to give you and you alone access to services. The photo helps those giving you services such as librarians or bus drivers check that your card isn't being used by someone else.
- The microchip securely holds the minimum information needed to manage the services that use the card. This includes basic personal details (i.e. name and date of birth) and in some cases information needed by the services the cardholder has applied for (e.g. library card number and leisure card number). More detail can be found in the NEC Data Protection Impact Assessment, which can be downloaded from the Privacy page.
- Only the data required for the provision of the relevant service is made available to the required service provider. For example, if you access both library services and concessionary travel using the NEC, the bus cannot read any information about your library membership.
- The cardholder's name and photo will be printed on the front of the card, along with a unique reference number for each card. There may also be symbols to indicate what travel concessions the cardholder is entitled to. Young Scot branded cards, optional branding for 11-25 year olds, also carry the cardholder's date of birth for proof of age purposes.
- No. The central database used for producing and maintaining the physical cards, known as the Card Management System (CMS), does not receive details of what you have done using your NEC. The Scottish Government does not have access rights to the CMS. Access is restricted to those administering the card on your behalf. This would normally be authorised representatives of your local council, the NEC Programme Office at Dundee City Council (who act as administrators of the Scheme on a national basis) and the suppliers who are contracted to provide card management and production services. The only personal information held by the CMS is that detail necessary to print or re-print a card for an individual and deliver it. More detail can be found in the NEC Privacy Impact Assessment, which can be downloaded from the Privacy page.
- Each service provider chooses how they record the transactions carried out with the card. For example, Transport Scotland records details of journeys made using a NEC in order to reimburse transport operators; however, they do not need to hold your personal details to do this, only the fact that a valid NEC was used. Transport Scotland does not share the details of individual journeys made.
- All Library systems are required to record the personal details of who has taken out their stock regardless of whether or not the borrower has used the NEC, and will be required to protect that information accordingly.Other service providers may not even record the fact that you have used a particular NEC, for example if showing the NEC Young Scot card for a retailer discount.
- saltirecard is a brand that indicates a card could be used for commercial smart travel Scotland-wide in the future. As well as being available as a NEC, the saltirecard brand is also appearing on transport operators’ commercial smart cards as well as on student and staff cards issued by some college and universities. If at some time in the future you want to use your NEC for commercial, non-concessionary smart travel Scotland-wide as well, it needs to carry the saltirecard brand. More information can be found on the Smart Travel website.
- You can use your NEC for commercial, non-concessionary smart travel Scotland-wide as long as it carries the 'saltirecard' branding on it. When booking travel online you will be asked to input an 'ITSO' number from your NEC to link your card to the journey, this is the long number on your NEC to the right of the circular blue 'ITSO' logo. For more information please visit the Smart Travel Scotland website.
- To make it easier for you to demonstrate who you are, your local council allows you to use details from your NEC to verify information you may have provided to myaccount when registering for their services.