Privacy Policy

The Parochial Church Council (PCC) of St. Peter’s, Harold Wood

1. Your personal data – what is it?

Personal data relates to a living individual who can be identified from that data.  Identification can be by the information alone or in conjunction with any other information in the data controller’s possession or likely to come into such possession. The processing of personal data is governed by the General Data Protection Regulation (the “GDPR”).

2. Who are we?

The PCC of St. Peter’s, Harold Wood is the data controller (contact details below).  This means it decides how your personal data is processed and for what purposes.

3. How do we process your personal data?

The PCC of St. Peter’s, Harold Wood complies with its obligations under the “GDPR” by keeping personal data up to date; by storing and destroying it securely; by not collecting or retaining excessive amounts of data; by protecting personal data from loss, misuse, unauthorised access and disclosure and by ensuring that appropriate technical measures are in place to protect personal data.

We use your personal data for the following purposes: –

  1. To inform you of news, events, activities and services at St. Peter’s or one of our partner churches;
  2. Pastoral Care and Prayer;
  3. Administration (e.g. preparation of rotas, distribution of address details to other members, attendance registers for youth and children’s groups, training completion);
  4. To provide statistical analysis to gain better understanding of church demographics;
  5. To administer membership records;
  6. To maintain our own accounts and records (including the processing of gift aid applications)

4. What is the legal basis for processing your personal data?

Explicit consent of the data subject so that we can keep you informed about news, events, activities and services and process your gift aid donations and keep you informed about diocesan events.
Processing is necessary for carrying out obligations under employment, social security or social protection law, or a collective agreement;
Processing is carried out by a not-for-profit body with a political, philosophical, religious or trade union aim provided: –
the processing relates only to members or former members (or those who have regular contact with it in connection with those purposes); and
there is no disclosure to a third party without consent.

5. Sharing your personal data

Your personal data will be treated as strictly confidential and will only be shared with other members of the church in order to carry out a service to other church members or for purposes connected with the church. We will only share your data with third parties outside of the parish with your consent.

6. How long do we keep your personal data[1]?

We keep data in accordance with the guidance set out in the guide “Keep or Bin: Care of Your Parish Records” which is available from the Church of England website [see footnote for link].
Specifically, we retain electoral roll data while it is still current; gift aid declarations and associated paperwork for up to 6 years after the calendar year to which they relate; and parish registers (baptisms, marriages, funerals) permanently.

7. How do we store your personal data?

On the main church database
From Feb 2023 – The church database is provided to us by website called Church Suite. Access to any personal information is restricted by individual passwords to church members (in accordance with the St. Peter’s privacy settings).The actual physical building in which the website and database reside has 24/7 security monitoring. Neither St. Peter’s Church nor Church Suite will share data subjects’ information with any other parties without data subjects’ consent.Church Suite will not use data subjects’ information as a mailing list for any purpose and will not resell or otherwise distribute data information. For more details please see https://churchsuite.com/gdpr/

In hard copy or on computer
All offices containing personal data of any form shall be locked when unoccupied by a staff member. All computers are password protected and documents containing personal data will also be password protected where necessary/appropriate. When destroying personal data, paper documents will be shredded and CD-ROMs will be physically destroyed.

8. Your rights and your personal data

Unless subject to an exemption under the GDPR, you have the following rights with respect to your personal data: –

  • The right to request a copy of your personal data which the PCC of St Peter’s, Harold Wood holds about you;
  • The right to request that the PCC of St. Peter’s, Harold Wood corrects any personal data if it is found to be inaccurate or out of date;
  • The right to request your personal data is erased where it is no longer necessary for the PCC of St. Peter’s, Harold Wood to retain such data;
  • The right to withdraw your consent to the processing at any time
  • The right to request that the data controller provide the data subject with his/her personal data and where possible, to transmit that data directly to another data controller, (known as the right to data portability), (where applicable) [Only applies where the processing is based on consent or is necessary for the performance of a contract with the data subject and in either case the data controller processes the data by automated means].
  • The right, where there is a dispute in relation to the accuracy or processing of your personal data, to request a restriction is placed on further processing;
  • The right to object to the processing of personal data, (where applicable) [Only applies where processing is based on legitimate interests (or the performance of a task in the public interest/exercise of official authority); direct marketing and processing for the purposes of scientific/historical research and statistics]
  • The right to lodge a complaint with the Information Commissioners Office.

9. Further processing

If we wish to use your personal data for a new purpose, not covered by this Data Protection Notice, then we will provide you with a new notice explaining this new use prior to commencing the processing and setting out the relevant purposes and processing conditions. Where and whenever necessary, we will seek your prior consent to the new processing.

10. Contact Details

Our Data Protection Co-ordinator, the St. Peter’s Church Centre Manager, is responsible for ensuring compliance with the Act.  Any questions or concerns about the interpretation or operation of this policy should be taken up in the first instance with them.

This policy is not part of any contract of employment but it is a condition of employment that employees and others who process personal data will adhere to the rules of the policy.  Any breach of the policy will be taken seriously.  Any volunteer or employee who considers that the policy has not been followed in respect of personal data about themselves or others should raise the matter with the Data Protection Co-ordinator in the first instance.

You can contact the Information Commissioners Office on 0303 123 1113 or via email https://ico.org.uk/global/contact-us/email/ or at the Information Commissioner’s Office, Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow, Cheshire. SK9 5AF.

[1] Details about retention periods can currently be found in the Record Management Guides located on the Church of England website at: – https://www.churchofengland.org/more/libraries-and-archives/records-management-guides