Guidance

Register a charity privacy notice

Published 25 May 2018

This privacy notice explains how the Charity Commission processes personal data when an application is made to register an organisation (‘the organisation’) as a charity (‘an application’).

It is supplemented by our general privacy notice which provides further information and sets out some of your rights and entitlements in respect of that personal data. It is drafted to be as easy to read as possible and does not provide exhaustive detail of every aspect of how we collect or use personal data.

If you require further information in respect of how your personal data is processed, please contact our Data Protection Officer.

What personal data does the Commission collect?

The Commission collects the following types of personal data for the purpose of determining whether an organisation can be registered as a charity:

Who the information is about	Categories of personal data
Person submitting an application for registering a charity	First and last name, company name and address, telephone number, date of birth, email address and IP address
Proposed charity trustees	Legal name (including previous names), home address, telephone number date of birth and email address, other registered charities that they are a trustee of. In certain circumstances details of payment, employment, goods and services provided, property
Contact for the organisation	Legal names, home address, telephone and email address and date of birth
The founder, a person related to a trustee, a person related to the founder, an organisation connected to a trustee and an organisation connected to the founder	Details of name, payment, employment, goods and services provided, property
Owners of property used by the charity	Name and details of agreement

How will the Commission process this personal data?

Processing whilst the application is being determined

Once you complete the application, the data will be transferred from the online form into the Charity Commission’s internal case management system where it will be stored, reviewed and a decision made on whether the proposed charity should be placed on the register of charities.

Processing if the application is not registered

There may be times when the application is closed. This could be for a number of reasons, but the Commission will document the reason why and if applicable the proposed charity can re-apply.

In a case where a decision is made to formally refuse an application there is a 6 month period in which applicants can respond to us to re-apply or appeal.

The Commission may use the contact details provided in an application to register a charity to follow-up closed applications. This is to ensure compliance by trustees with their legal obligation to apply to register a charity and to provide the Commission with the required documents and information under section 35 of the Charities Act 2011.

Processing if the application is granted and the organisation is registered as a charity

If the application is approved and the organisation is registered as a charity:

• the name of the charity and the supplied public contact details will be published on the charity register which is accessible to the public. The names of trustees will also be displayed on the public register, unless we have agreed to dispense with the requirement to publish this information. Governing documents provided to us will also be publicly accessible. Details of the data which is provided on the register is explained further within the application form
• we will use the contact details provided if we need to get in touch with you in order to fulfil our statutory functions
• we will further process personal data received in an application to fulfil our wider statutory functions and objectives

You can find out more about the way we process personal data in our general privacy notice.

Sharing of personal data

As we’ve explained above, certain information will be made public on the charity register unless a dispensation is applied for and granted.

At the application stage, some of the personal data you provide will be shared with other prospective trustees and the charity contact in order to help ensure that correct information is provided in compliance with Section 60(1) of the Charities Act 2011. The personal data that will be shared in this way is marked on the application form and is the minimum necessary in order for us to achieve this purpose.

We may also share your personal data:

• where it is necessary in order to further our statutory objectives or functions
• with other government departments, public authorities and regulators
• where we are legally obliged to in response to requests for information, for example pursuant to the Freedom of Information Act, the Environmental Information Regulations, or our common law powers of disclosure
• with third party processors and service providers
• to a court, tribunal, party or prospective party where the disclosure necessary in order to exercise, establish or defend a legal claim
• where we are ordered to by a court or tribunal or where we are otherwise required to do by law

You can find out more information about data sharing and further processing in the Commission’s general privacy notice.

The legal basis for processing information for registrations

The table sets out the legal basis on which we process the information received in an application.

We may process your data further for a compatible purpose, and more information is contained within the Commission’s general privacy notice.

Retention of your data

We will only retain your personal data for as long as necessary to fulfil the purposes we collected it for, including for the purposes of satisfying any legal, accounting, or reporting requirements.

To determine the appropriate retention period for personal data, we consider the amount, nature, and sensitivity of the personal data, the potential risk of harm from unauthorised use or disclosure of your personal data, the purposes for which we process your personal data and whether we can achieve those purposes through other means, and the applicable legal requirements.

It is important to note that in certain circumstances we retain personal data received in connection with a particular charity even after a person’s involvement with a charity has ended and after the charity is no longer registered. The Commission will delete all applications to register a charity, whether approved or rejected, after a period of 10 years from the date the case is closed.

Your rights

You have a number of rights under the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), including the right to access your data, the right to restrict or object to further processing and the right to complain to the Information Commissioner’s Office.

You can find out more about your rights in our general privacy notice.