Guidance

Community Ownership Fund: privacy notice

Updated 14 March 2024

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This publication is available at https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/community-ownership-fund-privacy-notice/community-ownership-fund-privacy-notice

The following is to explain your rights and give you the information you are entitled to under data protection legislation.

Note that this section only refers to your personal data (your name, address and anything that could be used to identify you personally, not the other contents of your Community Ownership Fund application).

1. The identity of the data controller and contact details of our Data Protection Officer

The Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities (DLUHC) is a data controller for all Community Ownership Fund related personal data collected with the relevant forms submitted to DLUHC, and the control and processing of Personal Data.

The Data Protection Officer can be contacted at dataprotection@levellingup.gov.uk.

2. Why we are collecting your personal data

Your personal data is being collected as an essential part of the Community Ownership Fund bidding process, so that we can contact you regarding your bid and for monitoring purposes.

For example, we may get in touch to:

  • remind you of the deadline if you have an application in progress close to the submission date
  • collect feedback if you start but do not submit an application

We may also use it to contact you about matters specific to the Fund.

The DLUHC will process all data according to the provisions of the Data Protection Act 2018 and the UK General Data Protection Regulation 2018 (UK GDPR) and all applicable laws and regulations relating to processing of Personal Data and privacy, including, where necessary, the guidance and codes of practice issued by the Information Commissioner and any other relevant data protection regulations (together “the Data Protection Legislation (as amended from time to time”)).

The Data Protection Legislation sets out when we are lawfully allowed to process your data.

The lawful basis that applies to this processing is Article 6 (1) (e) of the UK GDPR; that processing is necessary for the performance of a task carried out in the public interest or in the exercise of official authority vested in the controller; and data and contacts being processed are necessary during the routine course of business of a government department.

4. With whom we will be sharing the data

As part of the process of selecting and monitoring the Community Ownership Fund, DLUHC will share your personal data with relevant government departments including:

  • His Majesty’s Treasury (HMT)
  • Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS)
  • Cabinet Office
  • Office of the Secretary of State for Scotland
  • Office of the Secretary of State for Wales
  • Northern Ireland Office
  • Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS)
  • Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

DLUHC may share data with governmental departments in the devolved administrations (as part of the appraisal process and to offer other support or funding to applicants); and contractors where they are used for supporting Community Ownership Fund applicants and successful projects, for the assessment of applications, or for the monitoring and evaluation of the Fund. Their contract will set out what they are permitted to do with organisational data.

5. For how long we will keep the personal data, or criteria used to determine the retention period

If your bid is successful, your personal data will be held for up to 7 years from the closure of the fund in March 2026. We will continue to hold your personal data so that we are able to contact you in order to monitor the progress of your project and to evaluate the Community Ownership Fund programme.

As part of the monitoring process, successful projects will be contacted regularly to ensure our records are up to date, both during and after project delivery subject to the timescales above.

If your bid is unsuccessful, we will retain your data until the end of the COF programme in March 2025 and then it will be fully deleted and destroyed.

6. Your rights, e.g. access, rectification, erasure

The data we are collecting is your personal data, and you have considerable say over what happens to it.

You have the right to:

a. know that we are using your personal data

b. see what data we have about you

c. ask to have your data corrected, and to ask how we check the information we hold is accurate

d. complain to the ICO (see below)

7. Sending data overseas

Your personal data will not be sent overseas.

8. Automated decision making

As part of the full application stage, we will not use your data for any automated decision making.

As of 6 March 2024, the application and assessment process of the fund’s Expression of Interest (EOI) stage includes an element of automated processing. All EOI results undergo a regular quality assurance exercise, to ensure that the automated aspects of the EOI form are functioning correctly. Applicants will be contacted if any inconsistencies in the automated processing are found.

9. Storage, security and data management

Your personal data will be stored in a secure government IT system. Where data is shared with third parties, as set out in section 4 above, we require third parties to respect the security of your data and to treat it in accordance with the law. All third parties are required to take appropriate security measures to protect your personal information in line with our policies.

10. Complaints and more information

If you are unhappy with the way the department is using your personal data, you can make a complaint.

You have a right to lodge a complaint with the independent Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) if you think we are not handling your data fairly or in accordance with the law. You can also contact the ICO for independent advice about data protection, privacy and data sharing. The ICO’s contact details are provided below.

If you are not happy with how we are using your personal data, you should first contact dataprotection@levellingup.gov.uk.

If you are still not happy, or for independent advice about data protection, privacy and data sharing, you can contact:

The Information Commissioner’s Office
Wycliffe House
Water Lane
Wilmslow
Cheshire
SK9 5AF

Telephone: 0303 123 1113 or 01625 545 745

https://ico.org.uk/

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