Your personal data – what is it?

Personal data is any information about a living individual that allows them to be identified from that data (for example a name, photographs, videos, email address or address). 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”).

Who are we?

This privacy notice is provided to you by the Parochial Church Council (PCC) of St Mark’s Church, Harrogate which is the data controller for your data (contact details below). This means it decides how your personal data is processed and for what purposes.

What data do we process?

We will process some or all of the following where necessary to perform our tasks:

• Names, title and aliases, photographs
• Contact details such as telephone numbers, addresses and email addresses
• Where they are relevant to our mission, or where you provide them to us, we may process demographic information such as gender, age, date of birth, marital status, nationality, education/work histories, academic/professional qualifications, hobbies, family composition and dependents
• Where you make donations or pay for activities such as the use of a church room/space, payments for church holidays or events, financial identifiers such as bank account numbers, payment card numbers, payment/transaction identifiers, policy numbers, and claim numbers
• The data we process is likely to constitute sensitive personal data because, as a church, the fact that we process your data at all may be suggestive of your religious beliefs. Where you provide this information, we may also process other categories of sensitive personal data, for example racial or ethnic origin,  mental and physical health, medication/treatment received and criminal records, fines and other similar judicial records.

How do we process your personal data?

The PCC of St Mark’s Church, Harrogate complies with its obligations under the GDPR by keeping personal data up to date and secure; 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 provide a voluntary service for the benefit of the public in a particular geographical area as specified in our constitution;
• To administer our membership records;
• To fundraise and promote the interests of the church and charity;
• To manage our employees and volunteers;
• To maintain our own accounts and records and process a donation that you have made (including the processing of gift aid applications);
• To inform you of news, events, activities and services run by St Mark’s and of any changes to those events, activities and services or changes to our role holders;
• 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 carry out comprehensive safeguarding procedures (including due diligence and complaints handling) in accordance with best safeguarding practice from time to time with the aim of ensuring that all children and adults at risk of harm or neglect are provided with safe environments;
• To minister to you and to provide you with spiritual and pastoral care (such as visiting you when you are gravely ill or bereaved) and to organise and perform ecclesiastical 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 as provided for in the constitutions and statutory framework of the data controller;
• To seek your views or comments;
• To send you communications which you have requested and that may be of interest to you, these may include information about campaigns, appeals and other fundraising activities;
• To process a grant or application for a role;
• To share your contact details with leaders of St Mark’s groups where you have expressed an interest in joining a group

What is the legal basis for processing your personal data?

• Explicit consent of the data subject (i.e. the individual to whom the data relates) 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, for example in relation to Gift Aid or under employment, social security or social protection law, or a collective agreement, or as required by Canon Law e.g. announcing forthcoming weddings by means of publication of banns or by the Church Representation Rules e.g. administering and publishing the electoral roll;
• 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;
• Processing is necessary for our legitimate interests or the legitimate interests of a third party, for example our safeguarding work to protect children and adults at risk;
• Processing is necessary for the performance of a contract with you, or to take steps to enter into a contract e.g. processing your data in connection with the hire of church facilities.

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 where it is necessary for the performance of our tasks or with your consent.

How long do we keep your personal data?

We will keep some records permanently if we are legally required to do so. We may keep some other records for an extended period of time. For example, it is current best practice to keep financial records for a minimum period of 7 years to support HMRC audits. In general, we will endeavour to keep data only for as long as we need it. This means that we may delete it when it is no longer needed.

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 Mark’s, Harrogate holds about you;
• The right to request that the PCC of St Mark’s, Harrogate 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 Mark’s, Harrogate 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);
• 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 Commissioners Office.

Further processing

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

Contact details

To exercise all relevant rights, queries or complaints please in the first instance contact:

The PCC Data Protection Co-ordinator, St Mark’s Church, Leeds Road, Harrogate HG2 8AY

Email:  office@smch.org.uk

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.