Our Privacy Notice
The United Reformed Church takes your privacy very seriously. We are committed to safeguarding the privacy of our website visitors and service users. We have set out how we deal with your personal data, your privacy, and other various rights you have, when you use this website or supply information to us.
1. Your personal data – what is it?
Personal data relates to living persons, who can be identified or who are identifiable, either directly from information held by the data controller, or indirectly from that information in combination with other information.
This privacy notice aims to give you information, on how the data controller collects and processes your personal data, through your use of our offline services provided and our website, (including any data you may provide through this website for our online services, such as signing up to our newsletters or events, taking part in competitions or purchasing products in our online store, to name a few activities). This privacy notice also describes how we collect and use personal information about you, during and after your working relationship with us, in accordance with UK Data Protection laws, known as the Data Protection Act 2018 and the UK General Data Protection Regulation (UK GDPR).
It is important that you read this privacy notice together with any other privacy notices or fair processing notices we may provide on specific occasions when we are collecting or processing personal data about you so that you are fully aware of how and why we are using your data.
2. Who are we?
This privacy notice explains how the United Reformed Church and the United Reformed Church Trust (collectively referred to as “the URC,” “we,” “us,” or “our”) jointly process your personal data. As joint data controllers, we are committed to protecting your privacy and ensuring that your personal data is handled in accordance with applicable UK Data Protection laws. We will let you know which entity will be the controller for your personal data when you utilise any of our services. If at any time you have any concerns or questions about your personal data, please do not hesitate to contact us.
3. What is data protection law?
We will comply with data protection law. This says that the personal information we hold about you must be:
- Used lawfully, fairly, and in a transparent way.
- Collected only for valid purposes that we have clearly explained to you and not used in any way that is incompatible with those purposes.
- Relevant to the purposes we have told you about and limited only to those purposes.
- Accurate and kept up to date.
- Kept only as long as necessary, for the purposes we have told you about.
4. How do we process your personal data?
The URC collects personal data, to fulfil our charitable objectives and to fulfil our contracts of agreement with our staff, workers, volunteers, service users and trustees.
We will use your personal data, for the following purposes, though this is not an exhausted list:
- To maintain internal record keeping and for general administrative purposes, when completing your ministerial application or other documents associated with your service of the Church.
- To complete identification verification when you contact us.
- To maintain and update the URC yearbook, department directories, synod directories and the annual church returns.
- Recruitment to appointments and volunteer posts within the URC, including pre-employment checks.
- Determining the terms on which you work for us.
- Assisting Assembly appointed Ministers, in supporting the work of the Pastoral, Welfare and Reference committee.
- Conference/events management.
- To enable you to operate our website
- Completion of due diligence/background checks with the Disclosure and Barring Service.
- Issuing and arranging the distribution of publications, mailings, and newsletters.
- Registration within Children’s and Youth, Education & Learning, Church Related Community Workers (CRCW) and other Ministry activities and events.
- Completing statistical analysis, conducting surveys and research, regarding activities in the URC
- Administering the candidate process and training of student ministers
- Recruitment and Administration of staff and mission personnel
- Training course administration, enabling you to effectively carry out your duties.
- Archiving for research purposes
- To respond to general enquiries
- To comply with legal requirements relating to safeguarding.
- To ensure the performance of internal and external functions.
- To process your purchases from our online store
- To maintain our relationship with you, in areas such as training, performance and discipline.
- Arranging your accommodation and/or meals during overnight stays
- To contact your next of kin, if necessary
- To monitor equal opportunities
- Managing sickness absence, annual leave, requests for unpaid leave, sabbatical, maternity, and paternity leave.
- Financial services:
- Payment of expenses/invoices
- Payment of stipends/wages
- Administering income
- Fulfilling obligations under Health & Safety legislation
- Conducting performance reviews, managing performance, and determining performance requirements.
- Gathering evidence for possible grievance or disciplinary hearings, as well as personal injury and compensation claims.
- Monitoring your use of our information and communication systems to ensure compliance with our IT policies
We may collect, use, store and transfer various kinds of personal data about you which we have grouped together. Data may include, but not be limited to:
Identity Data includes first name, maiden name, last name, username or similar identifier, marital status, title, date of birth, photograph, Biographical information, National Insurance number and gender.
Contact Data includes your synod, address, email address and telephone numbers.
Financial Data includes bank account, payroll records, tax status and payment card details.
Transaction Data includes details about payments to and from you and other details of products and services you have purchased from us.
Categorical Data includes employment history, employment records, education, and training details,
Technical Data includes internet protocol (IP) address, your login data, browser type and version, time zone setting and location, browser plug-in types and versions, operating system and platform, and other technology on the devices you use to access this website.
Profile Data includes your username and password, purchases or orders made by you, your interests, preferences, feedback, and survey responses.
Usage Data includes information about how you use our website, products, and services.
We may also collect, store, and use special category of particularly sensitive personal information. Special category data is information about your health, racial or ethnic origin, sexual orientation or religious or philosophical beliefs. They therefore require higher levels of protection.
We may use the following sensitive personal information, for safeguarding purposes, in monitoring equal opportunity, for employment purposes, to attend conferences/events, upon application to become a minister, to hold an office in our churches or where required by law.
- Information about your race or ethnicity
- Your religious or other beliefs of similar nature
- Your lifestyle and social circumstances
- Information about your health, including any physical or mental health conditions.
5. What is the legal basis for processing your data?
We will only use your personal data when the law allows us to. Most commonly, we will use your personal information in the following circumstances:
- Where we need to perform the contract, we have entered with you.
- Where we need to comply with a legal obligation.
- Where it is necessary for legitimate interest pursued by us, or a third party and your interests and fundamental rights do not override those interests.
- Where we need to protect your interests (or someone else’s interests).
- Where it is needed in the public interest or for official purposes.
Special category of personal data, can only be collected, stored, and used by us, where we have further justification to do so. Processing these types of special categories of personal data is permitted under data protection law, where:
- You have given us explicit written consent.
- The processing is carried out by a religious entity, during its legitimate activity.
- Processing is needed in the public interest, such as for equal opportunities monitoring.
- Processing is necessary to protect you or another person from harm.
Less commonly, we may process this type of information where it is needed in relation to legal claims or where it is needed to protect your interests (or someone else’s interest) and you are not capable of giving your consent, or where you have already made the information public.
6. How is your personal data collected?
We collect most of your personal information directly from you, through subscriptions to our services and events, and electronic and paper-based application forms. We also collect your personal information from various third parties, such as URC synods, your local church, background check providers, employment agencies and former employers. In situations concerning under 18-year-olds, their personal information will be provided to us by a parent/guardian.
7. Sharing your personal data
Your personal data is mainly processed by our staff at Church House. For the purposes of IT hosting and maintenance, your personal data is located and backed up onto our servers, which are within the UK. No third parties (apart from those specified in this Notice) have access to your personal data unless, the law allows them to do so.
We require third parties to respect the security of your data and to treat it in accordance with the law.
Why we might share your personal information with third parties
We will share your personal information with third parties where required by law, where it is necessary to administer the working relationship with you or where we have another legitimate interest in doing so.
Which third party service providers process your personal information
Where required, we will share your personal information with the following third-party service providers, for the purposes we have mentioned in this Notice.
URC Synod staff
URC Church staff
URC Committees (including, but not limited to: Assembly appointed Ministers, Assembly Pastoral, Welfare and Reference)
Staff secretaries or equivalent of the main committees and task groups cross the denomination
Current, past, and prospective employers
Employment and recruitment agencies
Financial organisations
Healthcare, social and welfare organisations
Education and examining bodies
The Disclosure and Barring Service
Property and venue owners, goods, and services providers
Leaders of Children’s and Youth, Education & Learning, CRCW and Ministry activities
URC Resource centre staff
Property hirers
Ecumenical partners
Preact limited
We require all third parties to respect the security of your personal data and to treat it in accordance with the law. We do not allow our third-party service providers to use your personal data for their own purposes and only permit them to process your personal data for specified purposes and in accordance with our instructions.
8. Cookies
We use cookies on our website. Insofar as those cookies are not strictly necessary for the provision of our website and services, we will ask you to consent to our use of cookies when you first visit our website.
You can set your browser to refuse all or some browser cookies, or to alert you when websites set or access cookies. If you disable or refuse cookies, please note that some parts of this website may become inaccessible or not function properly. For more information about the cookies we use, please see below.
9. Change of purpose
We will only use your personal data for the purposes for which we collected it, unless we reasonably consider that we need to use it for another reason and that reason is compatible with the original purpose. If you wish to get an explanation as to how the processing for the new purpose is compatible with the original purpose, please contact us.
If we need to use your personal data for an unrelated purpose, we will notify you and we will explain the legal basis which allows us to do so.
Please note that we may process your personal data without your knowledge or consent, in compliance with the above rules, where this is required or permitted by law.
It is important that the personal data we hold about you is accurate and current. Please keep us informed if your personal data changes during your relationship with us.
10. Transferring information outside the UK
We do not transfer your personal data outside of the UK; however, if requested for the purpose of providing references and/or visa information, we will transfer your personal data outside of the UK.
11. Data security
We have put in place measures to protect the security of your information. Details of these are available upon request.
Third parties will only process your personal information on our instructions and where they have agreed to treat the information confidentially and to keep it secure.
We have put in place appropriate security measures to prevent your personal information from being accidentally lost, used, or accessed in an unauthorised way, altered, or disclosed. In addition, we limit access to your personal information to those employees, workers, and other third parties who have a business need to know. They will only process your personal information on our instructions, and they are subject to a duty of confidentiality.
We have put in place procedures to deal with any suspected personal data breach and will notify you and any applicable regulator of a breach where we are legally required to do so.
12. Data retention
How long will you use my personal data for?
We will only retain your personal data for as long as reasonably necessary to fulfil the purposes we collected it for, including for the purposes of satisfying any legal, regulatory, tax, accounting or reporting requirements. Details of retention periods for various aspects of your personal data are available in our retention schedule, which you can request by contacting us: United Reformed Church House, 86 Tavistock Place, London, WC1H 9RT.
To determine the appropriate retention period for personal data, we consider the amount, nature and sensitivity of the personal data, the potential risk of harm from unauthorised use or disclosure of your personal data, the purposes for which we process your personal data and whether we can achieve those purposes through other means, and the applicable legal, regulatory, tax, accounting, or other requirements.
13. Your legal rights
Under certain circumstances, you have the following rights under Data Protection laws in relation to your personal data. If you wish to exercise any of the rights set out above, please contact us.
- Right to be Informed: You have the right to be informed about the collection and use of your personal data. This includes information about the purposes of processing, retention periods, and who it will be shared with.
- Right of Access: You can request access to your personal data and obtain information about how it is being processed.
- Right to Rectification: If your personal data is inaccurate or incomplete, you can request that it be corrected or completed.
- Right to Erasure (Right to be Forgotten): You can request the deletion of your personal data under certain circumstances, such as when it is no longer necessary for the purposes for which it was collected.
- Right to Restrict Processing: You can request the restriction of processing of your personal data in specific situations, such as when you contest the accuracy of the data.
- Right to Data Portability: You can request to receive your personal data in a structured, commonly used, and machine-readable format, and you have the right to transmit that data to another controller.
- Right to Object: You can object to the processing of your personal data based on legitimate interests or for direct marketing purposes.
- Rights Related to Automated Decision Making and Profiling: You have rights related to automated decision-making, including profiling. This includes the right to not be subject to a decision based solely on automated processing, including profiling, which produces legal effects or similarly significantly affects you
No fee usually required
You will not have to pay a fee to access your personal data (or to exercise any of the other rights). However, we may charge a reasonable fee if your request is clearly unfounded, repetitive, or excessive. Alternatively, we could refuse to comply with your request in these circumstances.
What we may need from you
We may need to request specific information from you to help us confirm your identity and ensure your right to access your personal data (or to exercise any of your other rights). This is a security measure to ensure that personal data is not disclosed to any person who has no right to receive it. We may also contact you to ask you for further information in relation to your request to speed up our response.
Time limit to respond
We try to respond to all legitimate requests within one month. Occasionally it could take us longer than a month if your request is particularly complex or you have made several requests. In this case, we will notify you and keep you updated.
14. Our contact details
If you have any concerns, enquiries or complaints about matters affecting your privacy or any other general data protection issue, please do not hesitate to contact us. You can contact us via email or post; our contact details are as follows:
Email: [email protected]
Postal address:
United Reformed Church House
86 Tavistock Place
London
WC1H 9RT
15. Your right to complain
We would like you to know that you also have the right to complain to the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO), at any time. The ICO is the UK’s independent body set up to uphold information rights in the public interest, to promote openness by public bodies and data privacy for individuals. You can contact the ICO via their helpline number: 0303 123 1113 (Monday to Friday from 9am to 5pm) or online: ico.org.uk