Who is collecting and using your personal data?

Devon County Council will act as a ‘data controller’ for any personal data that you provide to us. As such, we will ensure that the data given to us is processed in line with our organisation’s data protection policies and in line with your rights under the EU General Data Protection Regulations and associated data protection laws currently applicable in the UK.

Should you wish to find out more about Devon County Council’s data protection policies please contact our Data Protection Officer.

Please note that failure to provide your personal data will result in us not being able to use the information you provided. It will also mean you will not be informed about future support and funding opportunities.

Why are we collecting your personal data?

We are collecting your personal data for the following purposes:

To enable your participation in the Engaging Rural Micros Trial
To monitor the change in your organisation for the duration of the trial to inform future programmes.
To better understand your business and personal needs and barriers.
To inform existing and future business support programmes and engagement activities.
To better address Devon’s rural micro business growth needs.
To contact you in future about business support and development opportunities and potential funding opportunities you may wish to access.

Devon County Council relies on the lawful conditions of processing outlined in article 6(1)(e) of the General Data Protection Regulation to use your personal data.

Who will we share your personal data with?

To deliver services to you it may be necessary for us to share your personal data with key business support stakeholders such as:

central government
organisations subcontracted to complete the activities of the Engaging Rural Micros Trial
District councils offering business support programmes
Devon, Somerset and Torbay Trading Standards Business Support Service
Business support and advice providers in Devon
The funding provider and their fund partners Innovate UK and the Innovation Growth Lab at Nesta.

The funding provider will have access to the data collected as part of this project, e.g. survey data, unique identifiers, and contact details of participants. Unique business identifiers may include:

companies house registration numbers
VAT/PAYE number
unique tax reference number
business name
address
SIC code

Data may be linked with other administrative data sources (e.g. HMRC data) for long term economic impact analysis, and further evaluation activity, to inform future policy making. This data may also be shared with an external contractor to conduct this analysis on the funding providers behalf. The funding provider will also have access to contact information, in the event of re-contacting participants for further research (e.g. follow up surveys). In limited circumstances the continuum of data will potentially transcend to sole traders.

This project will also produce a final report, which will conclude findings of the project and will be publicly available. All businesses and participants will be anonymised in the report, unless they have given permission for their personal data to be included.

How long will we hold your personal data?

We will retain your personal data for six years (plus the current year).

Exercising your rights

Under the Data Protection Act 2018 and the EU General Data Protection Regulations you have the following rights:

The right of access to your own personal data.
The right to request rectification or deletion of your personal data.
The right to object to the processing of your personal data.
The right to request a copy of the information you provide us in machine-readable format.
The right to withdraw your consent to any processing that is solely reliant upon your consent.

Should you wish to exercise any of your rights, you should contact the Data Protection Officer.

Your right to complain

If you wish to complain about the way that your personal data has been handled by Devon County Council, you should write to the Data Protection Officer and clearly outline your case. Your complaint will then be investigated in accordance with the Council’s customer feedback procedure. If you remain dissatisfied with the way your personal data has been handled, you may refer the matter to the Information Commissioner’s Office whose contact details are below:

Information Commissioner’s Office
Wycliffe House
Water Lane
Wilmslow
Cheshire
SK9 5AF

Email: casework@ico.org.uk