Contact

The church is staffed by volunteers and the church office is open on Wednesdays, Thursdays and Fridays 10am – 1pm

The church office phone number is (01449) 774652 or email office@stowmarketparishchurch.co.uk

The Church of St Peter and St Mary Stowmarket
GENERAL PRIVACY NOTICE June 2018
Your personal data – what is it?
“Personal data” is any information about a living individual which 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.
Who are we?
The Parochial Church Council (PCC) of the Church of St Peter and St Mary Stowmarket
(the Church, we, us) is the principal data controller for your data.
The Church of England is made up of a number of different organisations and office-holders who
work together to deliver the Church’s mission in our community. The PCC works together with:

  • The incumbent of the parish (that is, our vicar Michael Eden);
  • Other churches within the Deanery and their incumbents;
  • The Diocese of St Edmundsbury and Ipswich.
    As the Church is made up of all of these persons and organisations working together, from time to
    time we may need to share personal data we hold with them so that they can carry out their
    responsibilities to the Church and our community. The organisations referred to above are also data
    controllers. This means we are all responsible to you for how we process your data.
    Each of the data controllers have their own tasks within the Church and a description of what data is
    processed and for what purpose is set out in this Privacy Notice.
    What data do the data controllers listed above process?
    They will process some or all of the following where necessary to perform their tasks:
  • Names, titles 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,
    family composition, and dependants;
  • Where you make donations or pay for activities such as use of a church hall, financial
    identifiers such as bank account numbers, payment card numbers, other
    payment/transaction identifiers.
    How do we process your personal data?
    The data controllers will comply with their legal obligations to keep personal data up to date; to
    store and destroy it securely; to not collect or retain excessive amounts of data; to keep personal
    data secure, and to protect personal data from loss, misuse, unauthorised access and disclosure and
    to ensure that appropriate technical measures are in place to protect personal data.
    We use your personal data for some or all the following purposes:
  1. 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);
  2. 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 are provided with safe environments;
  3. To minister to you and provide you with pastoral and spiritual care and to organise and
    perform ecclesiastical services for you, such as baptisms, confirmations, weddings and
    funerals;
  4. 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 constitution and
    statutory framework of each data controller;
  5. To administer the parish records;
  6. To fundraise and promote the interests of the Church and charity;
  7. To maintain our own accounts and records;
  8. To process a donation that you have made (including Gift Aid information);
  9. To seek your views or comments;
  10. To notify you of changes to our services, events and role holders;
  11. To send you communications which you have requested and that may be of interest to you.
  12. To process a grant or application for a role;
  13. To enable us to provide a voluntary service for the benefit of the public in a particular
    geographical area as specified in our constitution.
    What is the legal basis for processing your personal data?
    Most of our data is processed because it is necessary for our legitimate interests, or the legitimate
    interests of a third party (such as another organisation in the Church of England). For example:
  • Where you have signed up for a small group, event or other regular church activity (including
    Little Fishes, St Mary’s Pre-school, Messy Church and Christmas Tree Festival) we will
    communicate with you about that event or group and any other related church activity;
  • Safeguarding work to protect children and adults at risk;
  • Where we need to communicate with you about important information such as changes to
    services or events;
  • A ministry or group that you are involved in as part of a serving team.
    Some of our processing is necessary for compliance with a legal obligation. For example:
  • To administer and publish the electoral roll and;
  • Under Canon Law, to announce forthcoming weddings by means of the publication of banns;
    We may also process data if it is necessary for the performance of a contract with you, or to take
    steps to enter a contract. For example:
  • Processing your data in connection with the hire of church facilities;
  • Managing employees and suppliers.
    Religious organisations are also permitted to process information about your religious beliefs to
    administer membership or contact details.
    Where your information is used other than in accordance with one of these lawful bases, we will
    first obtain your consent to that use.
    Sharing your personal data
    Your personal data will be treated as strictly confidential. It may be necessary to share your
    personal data with third parties outside the Church of England where it is necessary for the
    performance of our tasks (e.g. funeral director, accountant, lawyer, insurance company, IT support)
    or where legally required to do so. In any other circumstance we will seek your prior consent.
    How long do we keep your personal data?
    We will keep some records permanently if we are legally required to do so. Church magazines
    (Grapevine) are considered to be historical records and may be kept indefinitely. 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, and all data relating to
    children’s activities must be kept for 50 years. 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
    You have the following rights with respect to your personal data. When exercising any of the rights
    listed below, in order to process your request, we may need to verify your identity for your
    security. In such cases we will need you to respond with proof of your identity before you can
    exercise these rights.
  1. The right to access information we hold on you
  • At any point you can contact us to request the information we hold on you as well as why we
    have that information, who has access to the information and where we obtained the
    information from. Once we have received your request we will respond within one month.
  • There are no fees or charges for the first request but additional requests for the same data
    may be subject to an administrative fee.
  1. The right to correct and update the information we hold on you;
  • If the data we hold on you is out of date, incomplete or incorrect, you can inform us and
    your data will be updated.
  1. The right to have your information erased;
  • If you feel that we should no longer be using your data or that we are illegally using your
    data, you can request that we erase the data we hold.
  • When we receive your request we will confirm whether the data has been deleted or the
    reason why it cannot be deleted (for example because we need it for our legitimate interests
    or regulatory purpose(s)).
  1. The right to object to processing of your data;
  • You have the right to request that we stop processing your data. Upon receiving the request
    we will contact you and let you know if we are able to comply or if we have legitimate
    grounds to continue to process your data. Even after you exercise your right to object, we
    may continue to hold your data to comply with your other rights or to bring or defend legal
    claims.
  1. The right to data portability;
  • You have the right to request that we transfer some of your data to another controller. We
    will comply with your request, where it is feasible to do so, within one month of receiving
    your request.
  1. The right to withdraw your consent to the processing at any time for any processing of data to
    which consent was sought;
  • You can withdraw your consent easily by telephone, email, or by post (see Contact Details
    below).
  1. The right to object to the processing of personal data where applicable;
  2. The right to lodge a complaint with the Information Commissioner’s Office.
    Transfer of Data Abroad
    Data is normally acquired, stored and processed by us wholly within the United Kingdom. Internet
    and storage/backup facilities are provided by BT and Microsoft respectively, who may convey or
    store the data outside the EU. Our website is also accessible from overseas so on occasion some
    personal data (for example in a newsletter) may be accessed from outside the EU.
    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 necessary, we will seek your
    prior consent to the new processing.
    Contact Details
    Please contact us if you have any questions about this Privacy Notice or the information we hold
    about you or to exercise all relevant rights, queries or complaints at:
    The Data Compliance Officer
    St Peter & St Mary’s Church
    Station Road West
    Stowmarket
    Suffolk IP14 1ES
    Tel: 01449 774652
    Email: stowmarketparishchurch@btconnect.com
    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.
    SPSM Privacy Policy V1.0 19/06/2018