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 the data controller’s possession.  The control and processing of personal data is governed by the General Data Protection Regulation 2016 (as retained and modified in UK law), the Data Protection Act 2018 and the Data (Use and Access) Act 2025, (together the “Data Protection Laws”). 

2 Who are we?

The Friends of St Mary’s Ashwell Hertfordshire (“the Friends”) is a Registered Charity whose charitable aim is to raise money for the maintenance of the fabric and contents of St Mary’s, Ashwell, Hertfordshire. The Board of Trustees of the Friends is the controller of personal data and decides how your personal data is processed and for what purposes. The Board’s contact details for the purposes of this Notice are set out below. 

3 How do we process your personal data?

The Friends comply with our obligations under the Data  Protections Laws by keeping your personal data up to date; by storing it securely; by destroying it securely when the purpose  for which we have collected the data has ended; 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 comply with the Friends’ charitable object of raising money for the maintenance of the fabric and contents of St Mary’s Church, Ashwell, Hertfordshire by holding fundraising events and seeking regular donations from people with an interest in those charitable objectives. 

• To administer our membership records.

• To promote the interests of the charity and to record these.

• To manage our trustees and volunteers.

• To maintain our own accounts and records (including recording gifts, membership subscriptions and the processing of gift aid applications)

• To comply with our administrative and legal obligations.

• To inform you of our news, and fund-raising events.

• To enable us to operate our website and any social media accounts concerned with our charitable objectives.

4 What is our legal basis for processing your personal data?

• Processing with your explicit consent as the data subject.

• Processing your data to enable us to comply with our legal obligations. 

• Processing that is necessary for us to perform our contracts.

• Processing that is necessary to protect vital interests.

• Processing that is necessary to protect legitimate interests. 

5 Sharing your personal data

Your personal data will be treated as strictly confidential and will only be shared with third parties on the legal basis set out at (4) above.

6 How long do we keep your personal data for?

We shall keep your data for the minimum legal period required for our charitable purposes. Please note: we retain details of our income and sources of income, together with gift aid declarations and associated paperwork, for at least 6 years after the calendar year to which they relate. 

7 Your rights and your personal data

Unless subject to an exemption under the Data Protections Laws, you have the following rights with respect to your personal data:

• The right to request a copy of your personal data which the Friends hold about you.

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

• The right to request that your personal data be erased when it is no longer necessary for the Friends to retain such data.

• The right to withdraw your consent to the Friends processing your data at any time.

• The right to request that the Board of Trustees, as data controller, provide you, as the data subject, with your personal data and where possible, to transmit that data directly to another data controller. This will only apply where the processing is based on consent or is necessary for the performance of a contract with the data subject and in either case where 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, where appropriate, to object to the processing of personal data.

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

8 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.  When necessary, we will seek your prior consent to the new form of processing.

9 Contact details

To exercise all relevant rights, queries or complaints please in the first instance contact the Board of Trustees of the Friends at friendsstmarysashwell@gmail.com.  

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.