Privacy Notice

THE CHURCH COUNCIL OF ST AUGUSTINE OF CANTERBURY

NORTH SPRINGFIELD

DATA PRIVACY NOTICE Updated May 2024

Introduction

St Augustine of Canterbury Church is a local ecumenical partnership (LEP) consisting of Anglican, Methodist, United Reformed Church (URC) and Roman Catholic communities who share the same church building. The Anglican, Methodist and URC communities form a single congregation. The Roman Catholic Community has its own services and its own policies relating to the General Data Protection Regulations 2016 (GDPR) as implemented by the Data Protection Act 2018 (DPA).

The Church Council has adopted the Anglican Church policies and procedures. In a purely Anglican setting its roles would be carried out by the Parochial Church Council (PCC) and the priest in charge. However, in order to enable all the partners to participate fully in the life of the church and its decision making the PCC has delegated its functions to the St Augustine North Springfield Church Council (the Church Council) except for those matters where the law prescribes otherwise.

The legislation contains a general exemption for non-profit making religious organisations from the need to register with the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO). However, the Church Council is required to register with the ICO as we have CCTV in the church building and the car park operated solely for the purpose of security of property and premises, preventing and investigating crime and the security of lone workers.

A considerable amount of data can be processed as part of normal church management without the need for consent from the data subject provided it is for a “legitimate purpose” relating to members or former members of the church and provided there is no disclosure to a third party without specific consent of the data subject.

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 controllers’ possession or likely to come into such possession. The processing of personal data is governed by the General Data Protection Regulation 2016/679 (the “GDPR”) and the Data Protection Act 2018, (the “DPA”).

2. Who are we?

This Privacy Notice is provided to you by the Church Council. The Church Council works together with the priest in charge (that is, our Vicar).

As the church is made up of church council members, clergy, ministers, together with associated lay volunteers and administrators all working together, we may need to share

personal data we hold with them, so that they can carry out their responsibilities to the Church and our communities. The Church Council and the priest in charge referred to above are joint

data controllers (this means they decide how your personal data is processed and for what purposes), which means we are all responsible for how we process your data.

In the remainder of this Privacy Notice, we use the word “we” to refer to any or all of the above data controllers, as appropriate.

3. How do we process your personal data?

The Church Council and the priest in charge comply with their obligations under the GDPR and DPA 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:

To enable us to meet all legal and statutory obligations (which include maintaining and publishing our electoral roll in accordance with the Church Representation Rules).
To minister to you and provide you with pastoral and spiritual care (such as visiting you when you are gravely ill or bereaved) and to organise and perform services for you, such as baptisms, confirmations, weddings and funerals.
To deliver the Church’s mission to our community and to carry out any other voluntary or charitable activities for the benefit of the public in the parish.
To enable us to provide a voluntary service for the benefit of the public in our parish.
To administer records of our employees, ministers, office-holders and volunteers.
To fundraise and promote the interests of our Church and communities.
To maintain our own accounts and records.
To process any donations that you have made to us (including the processing of Gift Aid information).
To seek your views or comments.
To notify you of our services, events and office-holders.
To send you communications which you have requested and that may be of interest to you. These may include information about campaigns, appeals, other fundraising activities;
To process a grant or application for a role.
To carry out safeguarding procedures in accordance with best safeguarding practice from time to time with the aim of ensuring that all children and vulnerable adults are provided with safe environments.
To share your contact details, when necessary, with the Chelmsford Diocesan Board of Finance, the Chelmsford Methodist Circuit and the Eastern Synod of the United Reformed Church (URC), each of which is responsible for the financial and administrative arrangements for its own churches in its area.

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

The legal basis for processing varies depending on the purpose:

Most of our data is processed because it is necessary for our legitimate interests, or the legitimate interests of a third party (such as the Chelmsford Diocesan Board of Finance). An example of this would be holding office-holder’s personal data to support the day-to-day communications needed to run our churches (this applies to roles such as churchwarden and church council secretary). We will always take into account your interests, rights and freedoms.
Some of our processing is necessary for compliance with a legal obligation. For example, we are required by the Church Representation Rules to administer and publish the electoral roll, and under Canon Law to announce forthcoming weddings by means of the publication of banns.
We may also process data if it is necessary for the performance of a contract with you, or to take steps to enter into a contract. An example of this would be processing your data in connection with a contract for maintenance of our buildings or equipment or hire of the church hall
For other purposes we will process your data with your explicit consent. An example of this would be regular email newsletters providing information about our services and activities in the parish.

5. Sharing your personal data

Your personal data will be treated as strictly confidential. It will only be shared with third parties where it is necessary for the performance of our tasks or where you first give us your prior consent. It is likely that we will need to share your data with some or all of the following (but only where necessary):

Other clergy or lay persons nominated or licensed by the bishops of the Diocese of Chelmsford, the Methodist Conference or the URC Eastern Synod to support the mission of the Church in our parish. For example, our clergy are supported by our area dean and archdeacon, who may provide confidential mentoring and pastoral support. Assistant or temporary ministers, including curates, deacons, licensed lay ministers, commissioned lay ministers or persons with Bishop’s Permissions may participate in our mission in support of our regular clergy.
The Chelmsford Diocesan Board of Finance.
Other persons or organisations operating within the Diocese of Chelmsford including, where relevant, the Chelmsford Diocesan Board of Education.
Our agents and contractors (such as maintenance contractors, printers and architects).
On occasion, other churches or community organisations with whom we are carrying out joint events or activities.
Other Church Bodies in accordance with national policy where safeguarding concerns exist or arise.

6. How long do we keep your personal data?

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[1]. 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.

We will keep some records permanently if we are legally required to do so. In general, we will endeavour to keep data only for as long as we need it. This means that we may delete or destroy it when it is no longer needed.

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 your personal data which the Church Council holds about you;
The right to request that the Church Council correct 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 Church Council to retain such data;
The right to withdraw your consent to the processing at any time;
The right to request that the data controllers provide you with your personal data and where possible, to transmit that data directly to another data controller, (known as the right to data portability), where applicable.
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.
The right to lodge a complaint with the Information Commissioner’s Office.

When exercising any of the rights listed above, in order to process your request, we may need to verify your identity for your security. In such cases we will need you to respond with proof of your identity before you can exercise these rights.

8. Further processing

If we wish to use your personal data for a new purpose, not covered by this Data Protection

Privacy Notice, then we will provide you with a new notice explaining this new use prior 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.

9. Contact Details

To exercise all relevant rights, queries or complaints, please in the first instance contact the Local Information Officer who is Douglas Hayton either by emailing him at ([email protected]) or by phoning him on 07545 628668. He is responsible for ensuring compliance with the GDPR or:

you can contact the Information Commissioner’s 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