Guidance

Business Support Service privacy notice

Published 28 March 2024

The service is a free government-funded business support and signposting service provided on behalf of the Department for Business and Trade (DBT).

This privacy notice sets out:

• how we process the personal data of callers to the service
• the rights you have under the UK General Data Protection Regulation (UK GDPR)

The data controller is DBT.
The data processor is the Business Support Service supplier.

Your data

We will process the following personal data:

• customer name and business name
• contact details
• postcode
• gender
• age

We will process the following special category data:

• ethnicity
• disability

Purpose and lawful basis for processing

Our basis for processing your personal data is your freely given explicit consent at the time you provided your personal data to us. We will process your personal data on behalf of DBT to provide support to your business, in addition to reporting, evaluation and monitoring purposes. This may include matching to other data sources to understand more about organisations like yours and general patterns or trends. The data will not be published or referred to in a way which identifies any individual or business.

If you have any questions in relation to how the data will be processed and disclosed please contact enquiries@businesssupportservice.co.uk. Your personal data will not be processed unless you have provided your freely given explicit consent for us to do so.

Recipients

Where permission has been granted, the personal data you provide will be shared with:

• DBT for reporting, evaluation and monitoring purposes
• the relevant upper tier local authority, mayoral combined authority or county combined authority for providing access to local business support

Your data will not be disclosed to any other party without your consent.

International transfers

The data you provide will not be transferred outside of the UK or European Economic Area (EEA).

Retention

The personal information you provide will be retained for up to 6 years.

Your rights

You have the right to:

• request information about how your personal data are processed, and to request a copy of that personal data
• request that any inaccuracies in your personal data are rectified without delay
• request that any incomplete personal data are completed, including by means of a supplementary statement
• request that your personal data are erased if there is no longer a justification for them to be processed
• in certain circumstances (for example, where accuracy is contested) request that the processing of your personal data is restricted
• object to the processing of your personal data
• withdraw your consent at any time by contacting enquiries@businesssupportservice.co.uk

A full list of your rights under the UK General Data Protection Regulation (UK GDPR) is available on the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) website.

Automated decision making

The information you provide is not used for automated decision making (making a decision solely by automated means without any human involvement) or profiling (automated processing of personal data to evaluate certain things about an individual).

Contact us or make a complaint

You can contact the DBT Data Protection Officer at:

Data Protection Officer

Department for Business and Trade
Old Admiralty Building
Admiralty Place
London
SW1A 2DY

Email data.protection@businessandtrade.gov.uk

If you consider that your personal data has been misused or mishandled, you may make a complaint to the Information Commissioner, who is an independent regulator. The Information Commissioner can be contacted at:

Information Commissioner’s Office

Wycliffe House
Water Lane
Wilmslow
Cheshire
SK9 5AF

Email casework@ico.org.uk

Telephone 0303 123 1113

Textphone 01625 545860

Monday to Friday 9am to 4:30pm

Any complaint to the Information Commissioner is without prejudice to your right to seek redress through the courts.