Privacy notice – Economic growth business support programmes service

The council’s Data Protection Officer information 

We are committed to protecting your privacy when you use our services.

This privacy notice informs business owners who sign up to receiving information and/or apply and access support from the economic growth business support programmes service, how we will use your personal information and how we protect your privacy in compliance with our obligations under the Data Protection Act 2018 and the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) 2018.  

This notice explains what information we hold about you and your business, the reasons for holding it, the third parties whom may also be involved in data collection and processing when carrying out our services, and any other activity involving our use of your personal data, such as collecting, storing, sharing, and destroying.

Under the UK General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR) and Data Protection Act 2018 an individual has the right to be informed. This means that we must provide “fair processing information” usually through a privacy notice. This addresses the need to be transparent as to how we use personal data. This economic growth business support programmes privacy notice is in addition to the Ealing Council Privacy Notice and information about the types of personal data that we may collect about you when you apply for support and contact us. It also explains what we will do with that data and how we will keep it safe. 

Ealing Council is the data controller for the personal data we collect. We are registered with the Information Commissioners Office and our registration number is Z5696801. 

Personal information can be anything that identifies and relates to a living person. This can include information that when put together with other information can then identify a person. For example, this could be your name and contact details. We collect this information from business representatives via application forms, evaluation forms, email correspondence, in follow-up phone calls and while providing a service to you. We will only collect this information if you consent to give it to us, but some information will be required to provide a service to you.

The economic growth and inward investment service aims are to deliver key objectives, outputs and outcomes as set out in Ealing’s Plan for Good Jobs, which is the council’s commitment to deliver actions to rebuild and grow Ealing’s local economy. Our goal is to better support our established business community and create the right environment for new businesses and aspiring entrepreneurs to start-up and grow. 

In order to deliver business support programmes and services the economic growth and inward investment service uses information about Ealing based businesses to ensure projects, programmes and support services are delivered in accordance with the support services as required. This is to ensure that we can provide relevant, effective and tailored support to businesses that require it. Support services are delivered in accordance with funding available to provide such services. Some examples of services delivered in the last 12 months include: 

  • Ealing’s Additional Restriction Grant (ARG) Funded Business Support Programmes
    A range of free support provided for small and medium-sized businesses based in Ealing, including one-to-one support, diagnostics, business networking, advice sessions and a series of webinars on a wide range of business topics aimed at supporting businesses impacted by COVID-19.
  • Ealing’s Additional Restriction Grant (ARG) Funded Pioneers Grant Programme
    A programme of targeted innovation grants to businesses in the borough able to demonstrate a good prospect of accelerated growth and job creation. Focussed on specific sectors which include: Aviation (including supply chain and logistics), Creative & Media, Retro-Fit and Food – that have a significant footprint in the borough and job creation potential. 

This policy explains the council’s specific arrangements for collecting, storing, using and sharing your information. This can include personal data or confidential or commercially sensitive information. It provides details on how we use this information to support our ability to fund, support and connect innovative businesses and encourage sustainable economic growth for the UK.

What kind of information do you collect about me?

Information is collected for the purposes of delivering the service to you and to ensure the support is reaching wide range of businesses and reflecting the demographics of the Ealing community. This information is collected from:

  • Application forms when registering to receive support
  • Additional information you provide
  • Correspondence you send us
  • Information collected by our staff on the phone or in face-to-face meetings
  • Third party agencies (e.g. Business Improvement Districts, Business Support Providers we may have commissioned to deliver specific support).
  • Other council teams (e.g. Business rates, street trading, licensing and regulatory services)
  • External referrals to the council
  • This information is provided to us by you and shared with your consent

From these, we would collect and process general data about your business as well as some personal and special categories information such as:

  • Personal information for the owner of the business (such as name, address (if the business owner operates from a residential address) age, gender, ethnicity and disabilities)
  • History of business and details of any government funded support your business may have previously accessed  
  • Characteristics (such as language and eligibility for grant funding)
  • Information about business turnover and the impact the COVID-19 pandemic has had on your business and staff

It is not mandatory for customers/participants to complete the monitoring information.

What do you do with information about me?

Information is required to for the purpose of delivering the service to you, to offer you support on the relevant programmes, to record attendance of our services, enable tailored services to be provided to you, identify the categories that have benefited from the programme, ensure we are reaching out to a diverse audience, to assess monitoring and evaluation outcomes and to provide ongoing support.

  • Information collected is retained on file as confidential and will be managed by the external suppliers and Ealing Council project officers. Any new data will be added to our database and filed centrally.
  • No personal individual data is collected only sensitive data.    
  • Data collected will assist with reports, evaluation and assessment of our programmes. 
  • We can retain your data for future opportunities that the council will be offering.
  • We want to ensure the best possible service for everyone and your information will help show us if we can improve the way we work.  But all of the questions are voluntary.  You do not have to give us any of the information but everything you do tell us will help us to shape and improve our services.

How do I know the information about me is kept safely?

All the information we collect is stored securely on our IT systems and manual filing systems. We have strict procedures for the way this is done. All information about you is treated as confidential and with respect. There are also clear rules and guidance about storing, recording and sharing information which staff receive training on. We take information sharing very seriously. Any member of staff who is found to be breaking the rules will be dealt with through appropriate disciplinary procedures. 

For how long are records held? 

Records are kept only for as long as necessary, this is either by law or good practices. For more information regarding records retention, please see the corporate Privacy Notice.

Don't you need my permission to keep and share information about me?

At the start of the programme we will issue a privacy notice and request consent for collecting and processing your information. 
We may need to share your information in the following circumstances:

  • To prevent or detect a crime
  • To comply with a legal obligation

You can withdraw your consent by contacting economic growth and inward investment team via email on Regeneration@ealing.gov.uk.

Are there any laws applicable in the processing and protection of my information?

There are a number of laws which allow for the protection, collection and processing of your personal information for this purpose, such as:

  • UK General Data Protection Regulation and The Data Protection Act 2018
  • Learning Act 2009.
  • The Common Law Duty of Confidence
  • The Human Rights Act 1998

Can I see the information you have collected about me?

Yes, you can request a copy of the information held. This is called a subject access request under the Data Protection Act 2018 and UK General Data Protection Regulation which contain certain rights of individuals and their personal data. 
For more information regarding your rights, please see the corporate Privacy Notice.

Who should I contact if I want further information or to complain about the use of my personal information?

More information on how we use your information.

The council’s data protection officer is Mrs L Cox, whom you can contact on: dataprotection@ealing.gov.uk or telephone 0208 825 5124 during office hours.