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UK Community Renewal Fund privacy notice

We keep this privacy notice under regular review. It was last updated on 29 March 2021.

Kent County Council respects your privacy and is committed to protecting your personal data. This privacy notice will inform you as to how we look after your personal data and tell you about your privacy rights and how the law protects you.

This privacy notice relates to the administration and management of the UK Community Renewal Fund in Kent.

Who we are and the legal basis for our use of your personal information

Kent County Council collects, uses, and is responsible for certain personal information about you.

When we do so we are regulated under the provisions of the Data Protection Act 2018 and the UK General Data Protection Regulation 2018 (UK GDPR) and all applicable laws and regulations relating to processing of Personal Data and privacy, including, where necessary, the guidance and codes of practice issued by the Information Commissioner and any other relevant data protection regulations (together “the Data Protection Legislation (as amended from time to time)”).

The Data Protection Legislation sets out when we are lawfully allowed to process your data.

We rely on Article 6 (1)(e) of the UK GDPR i.e. processing is necessary for the performance of a task carried out in the public interest or in the exercise of official authority vested in the controller.as the lawful basis on which we collect and use your personal data.

We rely on Article 9(2)(j) condition ‘necessary for archiving / scientific / historical research or statistical purposes’ in accordance with Article 89(1) in the Data Protection Act 2018 to process your special category data.

Kent County Council is responsible as ‘controller’ of that personal information.

Kent County Council’s Data Protection Officer is Benjamin Watts. The Data Protection Officer can be contacted at dpo@kent.gov.uk.

The personal information we collect and use

Person information collected by us

Kent County Council will collect only the personal information we need to perform our duties as the lead authority for the UK Community Renewal Fund in Kent.

We will collect this personal data:

  • Applicant’s name
  • Bid Manager’s name and position
  • Contact Telephone Number(s)
  • Email address(es)
  • Postal address(es)
  • Senior Responsible Officer’s name and contact details
  • Any other personal data contained within the UK Community Renewal Fund Application Form.
  • Any personal data contained within the financial accounts submitted by private, charitable, voluntary and community sector applicants.
  • Any personal data about project deliverers and/or project beneficiaries contained within the monitoring and evaluation reports.

We also collect the following ‘special category data’ (personal data which is more sensitive and is treated with extra care and protection) when you provide it to us:

  • We will encourage project applicants to anonymise project beneficiaries’ data in their evaluation activities. Yet monitoring and evaluation reports could contain information relating to the employment status and groups with protected characteristics. This could include special category data, e.g. race, ethnicity, health data, as well as age and gender, as we are required to evaluate the impact of funding on the target groups.

This privacy notice only refers to your personal data (as shown above), not the other contents of the UK Community Renewal Fund application form, or the financial accounts submitted.

How we use your personal information

Kent County Council will use your personal information in order to fulfils its duties as the lead authority for the administration and management of the UK Community Renewal Fund in Kent.

We use your personal information to contact you:

  • about the Fund workshops;
  • about your submitted bid;
  • about the lead authority assessment process;
  • to inform you if your bid was shortlisted by the lead authority;
  • to advise you if the UK Government will award the Fund to your bid or not;
  • to enter into a grant funding agreement if your bid is successful;
  • to be able to monitor and evaluate your bid if it is successful;
  • to discuss publicity, branding and communication requirements if your bid is successful; and/or
  • to discuss matters specific to the Fund

How long your personal data will be kept

Should your bid be successful, we will hold your personal data and special category data for up to two years from the closure of the bidding process. This is currently estimated to be July 2023. As part of the monitoring process, we will contact you regularly to ensure our records are up-to-date.

Should your bid be unsuccessful, we will erase your personal and special category data two months after the UK Government’s announcement regarding the funding award. This is currently estimated to be in September 2021.

Who we share your personal information with

Kent County Council will share the personal and special category data information contained within the UK Community Renewal Fund Application Forms with:

  • The UK Government, via then Ministry for Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG). View the UK Government’s Privacy Notice.
  • The consultancy appointed by Kent County Council to undertake the independent technical evaluation of the project bids.

The contract between Kent County Council and consultancy will set out what they are permitted to do with personal data. The contract will stipulate that the consultancy must respect the security of your data and to treat it in accordance with the law. The consultancy will not be allowed to share or sell your personal data with any third party, and must only use it for the purpose of their role within the UK Community Renewal Fund assessment process.

  • The local stakeholder evaluation panel that will be consulted to ascertain the evidence of local support for the project bid and alignment with local provision.

In addition to representation from the lead authority, the local stakeholder evaluation panels may include representation from: the district council, the higher and further education sectors, the local community, the local business groups, the local LEP board, the Growth Hub, the Kent Environment Board, and the local Member of Parliament. The final panel composition will be determined after applicants have submitted their bids to ensure any conflicts of interest are avoided or appropriately managed.

If you are from the private, charitable, voluntary or community sector, your personal data may also be shared with financial credit check organisations and other regulatory and statutory bodies, as Kent County Council has the duty to ensure the applicant’s organisation is legally constituted and can receive public funds. We will be undertaking due diligence checks on the organisation to prevent crime or fraudulent activity before we enter into any funding agreement.

We will share personal information with law enforcement or other authorities if required by applicable law or in connection with legal proceedings.

We will share personal information with our legal and professional advisers in the event of a dispute, complaint or claim. We rely on Article 9(2)(f) where the processing of special category data is necessary for the establishment, exercise or defence of legal claims or whenever courts are acting in their judicial capacity.

Your personal data will not be sent overseas.

We will not use your data for any automated decision making.

Your rights

Under the GDPR you have a number of rights which you can access free of charge which allow you to:

  • know what we are doing with your information and why we are doing it
  • ask to see what information we hold about you
  • ask us to correct any mistakes in the information we hold about you
  • object to direct marketing
  • make a complaint to the Information Commissioner’s Office.

Depending on our reason for using your information you may also be entitled to:

  • object to how we are using your information
  • ask us to delete information we hold about you
  • have your information transferred electronically to yourself or to another organisation
  • object to decisions being made that significantly affect you
  • stop us using your information in certain ways.

We will always seek to comply with your request however we may be required to hold or use your information to comply with legal duties. Please note: your request may delay or prevent us delivering a service to you.

For further information about your rights, including the circumstances in which they apply, see the guidance from the UK Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) on individuals’ rights under the General Data Protection Regulation.

If you would like to exercise a right, please contact [the Information Resilience and Transparency Team at data.protection@kent.gov.uk.

Your Right to Withdraw your Consent

Where we rely on your consent to process your personal information, you can withdraw your consent to our use of your data at any time.

You can do this by emailing UKCommunityRenewalFund@kent.gov.uk

Keeping your personal information secure

We have appropriate security measures in place to prevent personal information from being accidentally lost or used or accessed in an unauthorised way. We limit access to your personal information to those who have a genuine business need to know it. Those processing your information will do so only in an authorised manner and are subject to a duty of confidentiality.

We also have procedures in place to deal with any suspected data security breach. We will notify you and any applicable regulator of a suspected data security breach where we are legally required to do so.

Who to Contact

Please contact the Information Resilience and Transparency Team at dpo@kent.gov.uk to exercise any of your rights, or if you have a complaint about why your information has been collected, how it has been used or how long we have kept it for.

You can contact our Data Protection Officer, Benjamin Watts, at dpo@kent.gov.uk or write to Data Protection Team, Kent County Council, Sessions House, County Hall, Maidstone, ME14 1XQ.

The General Data Protection Regulation also gives you the right to lodge a complaint with a supervisory authority. The supervisory authority in the UK is the Information Commissioner. Go to the Information Commissioner's website, telephone 0303 123 1113 or write to The Information Commissioner’s Officer, Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow, Cheshire, SK9 5AF.

For further information read our corporate privacy statement.