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GDPR

DATA PRIVACY NOTICE

 

The Parochial Church Councils (PCCs) of the East Mendip Hills Benefice, which includes: Beacon Trinity, St Mary Magdalene, Chewton Mendip, St Mary the Virgin, Litton and St Mary the Virgin, Ston Easton

 

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 Data Protection Act 2018 and the General Data Protection Regulation (“GDPR”).

 

2. Who are we? 

The PCCs of the EMH Benefice are the data controllers (contact details below).  They decide how your personal data is processed and for what purposes.

 

3. How do we process your personal data?

The PCCs comply with their obligations under 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.

 

The PCCs use your personal data for the following purposes: -

  • To enable them to provide a voluntary service for the benefit of the public within the geographical area of the parishes;

  • To provide pastoral care to parishioners; 

  • To administer membership records; 

  • To fundraise and to promote the interests of the Church; 

  • To manage their employees and volunteers; 

  • To maintain their accounts and records (including the processing of gift aid applications);

  • To inform you of news, events, activities and services running within the parishes and neighbouring parishes;

  • To keep you informed about news in the diocese and events, activities and services that will be occurring in the diocese and in which you may be interested.

 

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

  • Your explicit consent as the data subject so that we can keep you informed about news, events, activities and services and keep you informed about diocesan events.

  • Processing is necessary for carrying out legal obligations in relation to the Electoral Roll, Gift Aid or under employment, social security or social protection law;

  • The legitimate interests of administering the parish churches and their activities such as organising PCC meetings, organising services, cleaning and flower rotas and distributing the parish magazine (unless such interests are overridden by your interests, rights or freedoms);

  • 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]?
The PCCs 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, they 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. 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 any personal data which the PCCs hold about you; 

  • The right to request that the PCCs correct any personal data if it is found to be inaccurate or out of date;  

  • The right to request that your personal data is erased where it is no longer necessary for the PCCs to retain such data;

  • The right to withdraw your consent to the processing of your personal data at any time;

  • The right, where there is a dispute in relation to the accuracy or processing of your personal data, to request that a restriction is placed on further processing;

  • The right to object to the processing of personal data where processing is based on legitimate interests;

  • The right to lodge a complaint with the Information Commissioners Office.

 

8. Further processing

If the PCCs wish to use your personal data for a new purpose, not covered by this Data Protection Notice, then they 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, they will seek your prior consent to the new processing.

 

9. Contact Details

 

To exercise all relevant rights, queries or complaints please in the first instance contact the Benefice Administrator by email admin@emhbenefice.info  

 

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

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