Introduction
East Suffolk Economic Development and Regeneration Team have provided this privacy notice to help you understand how we collect, use, and protect your information whilst we provide you with Economic Development, Regeneration, and Funding.
The document below will describe how we may collect and process your personal information.
The purpose of this document is to clearly acknowledge the council’s responsibilities in relation to the UK General Data Protection Regulation (UK GDPR) and the Data Protection Act 2018.
Definitions
Personal data means any information related to an identified or identifiable natural (living) person (‘data subject’) i.e. a person that can be directly or indirectly identified by reference to a name, ID reference number, email address, location data, or physical, physiological, genetic, mental, economic, cultural or societal identifier.
Special personal data, previously known as ‘sensitive personal data’, relates to race, ethnic origin, politics, religion, trade union membership, genetic data, biometric data, health, sex life or sexual orientation. Records of criminal personal data must also be treated in a similar way.
Data Controller determines the purposes and means of processing personal data.
Data Processor is responsible for any operation which is performed on personal data on behalf of the controller, e.g. collection, recording, organisation, structuring, storage, adaption or alteration, retrieval, consultation, use, disclosure by transmission, dissemination or making available, alignment or combination, restriction, erasure or destruction.
Third Party is someone/somebody who is not the Data Controller, the Data Processor or the Data Subject.
Who we are
East Suffolk Council’s Economic Development and Regeneration team reinvigorate the local economy through physical regeneration whilst enhancing the local environment to support economic growth and prosperity. We encourage new and existing businesses to survive, revive and thrive, making our district more attractive to residents, visitors, and investors alike. Our team provide ongoing support to the development of a stronger skill base including skills to future-proof tomorrow’s generation, today.
Our business support service is called ‘East Suffolk Means Business’, which can be found primarily at www.eastsuffolkmeansbusiness.co.uk and also on supporting social media channels.
Our Lowestoft regeneration projects and ambitions can be viewed in further detail through our website Think Lowestoft and supporting social media channels @thinklowestoft.
Two Heritage Action Zone projects in Lowestoft are also being delivered by the Economic Development and Regeneration Team. Details can be found on the Think Lowestoft website, as well as supporting social media channels @LowestoftHAZ.
The council is the ‘data controller’ for the information which is collated and processed [state if this is a shared controller responsibility]. This means we are responsible for deciding how we can use your information. If you want more information regarding the services delivered, please go to our website.
The council regards lawful and correct treatment of personal information as critical to their successful operations, maintaining confidence between the council and those with whom they carry out business. The council will ensure that they treat personal information correctly in accordance with the law. The services we provide are statutory, discretionary and contractual.
The Data Protection Officer for ESC is Siobhan Martin, Head of Internal Audit, and can be contacted at dataprotection@eastsuffolk.gov.uk.
How the law protects you
UK GDPR says that we are allowed to use personal information only if we have a proper reason to do so. More information on how the law protects you can be found on the East Suffolk website.
Our responsibilities
UK GDPR provides us with main responsibilities for processing personal data. All personal information provided by you is held securely and in confidence by us in our computerised and other records. When we process your personal information, we do so in compliance with UK GDPR. For further information on our responsibilities, please see our website.
Your rights
The UK GDPR and DPA 2018 provide you with the following rights:
- The right to be informed: You have the right to be informed about the collection and use of your personal data, and this is outlined in this privacy notice.
- The right of access: You have the right to request access to the personal data we may hold about you. This is undertaken using a Subject Access Request.
- The right to rectification: You have the right to request that inaccurate personal data we hold is rectified.
- The right to erasure: In certain circumstances, you have ‘the right to be forgotten’ and have your personal data erased.
- The right to restrict processing: In certain circumstances, you have the right to request the restriction or suppression of your personal data.
- The right to data portability: In certain circumstances, you have the right to request to obtain your own personal data for your own use or to give to other organisations.
- The right to object: In certain circumstances, you have the right to object to your personal data being collated, stored and processed.
- Rights in relation to automated decision making and profiling: You have the right to request that we do not make our decisions based on solely an automated process, and you can object to an automated decision and ask that a person reviews it in certain circumstances.
- The right to withdraw consent: In our discretionary service provisions, you have the right to withdraw your consent at any time.
- The right to complain: You have the right to complain through our complaints procedure, and then to the Information Commissioner.
Any requests in relation to your rights with regard to the personal data we hold should be made verbally or in writing to the Data Protection Officer.
For further information on your rights, please see the ICO website.
Your responsibilities
You are responsible for making sure you give us accurate and up to date information, and to let us know if any personal information we hold is incorrect.
When do we collect information about you?
We collect information about you from different places, including:
| Personal data | Where this is collected |
|---|---|
| Name | Event and training applications, consultation responses, business enquiries and support requests, grant applications, project evaluations, contact information, contact us form, subscribe to updates and mailing list form, free public Wi-Fi. UK Shared Prosperity Fund and Rural England Prosperity Fund projects, including the Personal Development Service. |
| Email address | |
| Telephone number | |
| Address and postcode (Full or Partial) | |
| Date of birth | |
| Gender | |
| National Insurance number | |
| Photographs | |
| Bank account details | Grant applications, including grant schemes funded by the UK Shared Prosperity Fund and Rural England Prosperity Fund. |
| Bank statements | |
| Age group | Project evaluations, free public Wi-Fi. |
| Country of residence | |
| MAC addresses | Town footfall monitors – this is instantly hashed upon detection and a Unique Identifier is used in its place. |
| Special category data | Where this is collected |
|---|---|
| Ethnic origin | Project evaluations Free Public Wi-Fi (Gender information with your explicit consent) Think Lowestoft/Virtual Creative Hub UK Shared Prosperity Fund projects, including the Personal Development Service |
| Religious belief | |
| Health problems/mental wellbeing/disability questionnaire |
This data may be collected from data subjects who are below the age of 16. In these instances, consent will be obtained from parent or legal guardian.
Cookies: collected on our East Suffolk Means Business and Think Lowestoft websites. For further information, see www.eastsuffolkmeansbusiness.co.uk/privacy-policy or www.thinklowestoft.co.uk/privacy-policy
How do we use your information?
We will be using your information to:
- Contact you, following your enquiry, reply to any questions, suggestions, issues, or complaints you have contacted us about
- Process grant applications (which may include needing to share information with funders who are delivering grants with East Suffolk Council such as Government (Department for Leveling Up, Housing and Communities), Suffolk County Council and Arts Council England, our consultants, and New Anglia Local Enterprise Partnership (NALEP)/Creative:Unlimited representatives)
- Inform consultations and update you of developments relating to these consultations
- Research and monitoring projects measuring business and tourism impacts in connection with Sizewell C development in accordance with the Council’s statutory funding requirements under the Planning Act 2008
- Process event applications which allows the facilitation of events on East Suffolk Council’s land
- Process applications and registration on a consensual basis for training events
- Contact you regarding volunteering and Economic Development initiatives that you consensually signed up for
- Evaluate the success of the projects that are run by the Economic Development and Regeneration Team
- Monitor and provide reports to Government on all individuals and organisations that benefit from grants awarded as part of the UK Shared Prosperity Fund
- Monitor and provide reports to Government on all individuals and organisations that benefit from grants awarded as part of the Rural England Prosperity Fund
- Send information to you that we believe will be in your interest
- Create a user account for free public Wi-Fi services, further information can be found in the Wi-Fi End User License Agreement (EULA) and Privacy Statement
- Update our Cultural Sector newsletter and other mailing lists. Our email service provider captures the IP address of all emails sent. The Council uses this information to ascertain whether an email was bounced, received, or opened.
- Contact you via email about events and offers only if you consent to receive them when signing up to the free public Wi-Fi
- Produce anonymised statistics about the usage of the free public Wi-Fi service
- To collect anonymised data on footfall in our towns so that statistical analysis and reporting can be produced to enable us to understand town usage and inform town recovery strategies.
We will not use your personal data for other purposes other than for what it was collated unless we have obtained your consent or for other lawful purposes (e.g. detection and prevention of fraud).
We do not use systems to make automated decisions about you.
How long do we keep your information?
We will hold your personal information in line with the council’s policies:
- Financial Data – 6 years plus current or longer if required by grant / financial regulation (when providing financial data you will be informed if your data is to be held longer than the time stipulated above).
- Personal Data – 3 years plus current for inactive data or longer if required by contractual or legislative regulations (when providing your personal
data you will be informed if your data is to be held longer than the time stipulated above). - Personal Data in relation to the UK Shared Prosperity Fund projects – 10 years as per the requirement set by HM Government.
- Personal Data in relation to projects and grant funding required under the Sizewell C Deed of Obligation – 14 years as per the requirement set by HM Government.
- Personal Data in relation to the Cultural Sector Newsletter and other mailing lists are retained until you request removal from future updates.
- After the specified data retention policies expire, we will delete your personal data. If we need to hold your data after this period of time, we will ensure that we have a lawful reason to hold this.
You can request that your personal information is deleted at any time.
Data sharing
We will share your personal information with:
- Event application information shared on a consensual basis with Event Consultation Groups, to ensure the Health and Safety integrity of events that are run on East Suffolk Council’s land
- Consultation’s responses information shared on a consensual basis with Project Consultation Delivery Partners, to allow members of the public to express their views on particular projects
- Business enquiry and support requests shared on a consensual basis with partner organisations to assist with aiding business enquiries and support requests
- Grant application data shared on a consensual basis with grant application providers as requirement for achieving grant funding
- Project evaluation data shared on a consensual basis with project evaluators to assess the success of that project
- Name and contact information shared on a consensual basis with training providers Contact information shared on a consensual basis with third party mailing software companies, such as Mail Chimp, to allow for easy circulation of information from East Suffolk Economic Development and Regeneration team that would be of interest to the individual.
- Free public Wi-Fi provider Proximity Futures (Elephant Wi-Fi), further information can be found in the End User License Agreement (EULA) and Privacy Statement
- Our appointed provider who manages the Wi-Fi marketing email services on our behalf, only if you consent to register to receive information about events and offers by email.
- Think Lowestoft/Virtual Creative Hub data shared with project funders Suffolk County Council and Arts Council England.
- HM Government’s Department for Levelling-Up, Communities and Housing as required under the UK Shared Prosperity Fund requirements.
- HM Government’s Department for Levelling-Up, Communities and Housing and Department for Environment Food and Rural Affairs as required under the Rural England Prosperity Fund requirements.
- Personal Development Service, and other skills programmes (funded by UK Shared Prosperity Fund) information will be shared with Suffolk County Council as required by HM Government.
Use of Artificial Intelligence (AI)
The Council uses Artificial Intelligence (AI) tools to assist with certain tasks and improve efficiency in service delivery. These tools are designed to support staff and enhance processes, not to replace human decision-making.
- No automated decisions are made about you. All decisions involving your personal data are made by council staff.
- Your personal information is not used to train AI systems. AI tools operate using pre-configured models and do not learn from or store your personal data.
- Your personal information remains secure. Data related to AI is stored securely in council managed environments.
The council is committed to protecting your privacy and ensuring compliance with data protection laws. For more details on how we process your information, please refer to the relevant sections of this Privacy Notice.
Transferring your information overseas
Currently, we do not transfer any personal information outside of the European Economic Area (EEA).
National Fraud Initiative (NFI)
We may share information provided to us with other bodies responsible for auditing, or administering public funds, or where undertaking a public function, in order to prevent and detect fraud. For further information, see the East Suffolk website.