Privacy Policy

of The Parochial Church Council (PCC) of St Michael le Belfrey, York

At St Michael le Belfrey Church, we are committed to maintaining the trust and confidence of people who share their data with us.

We store your data primarily in an online database called ChurchSuite. You can log in to My ChurchSuite at any time to change and update your personal information and communication preferences, or contact us here and we will do this for you. We store some data in Mailchimp, which is the platform we use to send our email newsletters. We also store some data in the St Michael le Belfrey Google Suite, which is the cloud-based document storage and email system we use. On each of these platforms, your data is visible to the relevant members of staff or volunteers (e.g. service administrators and rota managers) who need to be able to communicate with you or co-ordinate administration. Access by these groups on each platform is reviewed regularly.

St Michael le Belfrey will never share email lists with third parties, and we will only contact you with important or relevant information. If you are on a rota then your contact details may be visible to other people so swaps can be made, depending on the communication preferences you have selected within ChurchSuite.

If you have any questions do get in touch with us at the email address at the bottom of this Policy.

Your personal data – what is it?

Personal data relates to a living individual who can be identified from that data.  Identification can be by the information alone or in conjunction with any other information in the data controller’s possession or likely to come into such possession. The processing of personal data is governed by the General Data Protection Regulation (the GDPR).

Who are we?

The data protection officer for St Michael le Belfrey is the Operations Manager. They are responsible for how your personal data is processed and for what purposes.

How do we process your personal data?

St Michael le Belfrey complies with its obligations under the 'GDPR' by keeping personal data up to date; by storing and destroying it securely; by not collecting or retaining excessive amounts of data; by protecting personal data from loss, misuse, unauthorised access and disclosure and by ensuring that appropriate technical measures are in place to protect personal data. We use your personal data for the following purposes: -

  • To enable us to provide a voluntary service for the benefit of the public;

  • To administer membership records;

  • To fundraise and promote the interests of the church;

  • To manage our employees and volunteers;

  • To maintain our own accounts and records (including the processing of gift aid applications);

  • To inform you of news, events, activities and services run by The Belfrey.

What is the legal basis for processing your personal data?

  • Explicit consent of the data subject so that we can keep you informed about news, events, activities and services.

  • Processing is necessary for carrying out legal obligations in relation to Gift Aid or under employment, social security or social protection law, or a collective agreement;

  • We have a legal obligation to hold certain data for the purpose of Safeguarding and protecting children and vulnerable adults;

  • We do not disclose your data to a third party without consent unless required to do so by law.

Sharing your personal data: 

Your personal data will be treated as strictly confidential and will only be shared with other members of the church in order to carry out a service to other church members or for purposes connected with the church. We will only share your data with third parties with your consent.

How long do we keep your personal data?

We keep data in accordance with the guidance set out in the guide “Keep or Bin: Care of Your Parish Records” which is available from the Church of England website. Specifically, we retain gift aid declarations and associated paperwork for up to 6 years after the calendar year to which they relate; incident and attendance registers for children and youth for 25 years and registers for baptisms, marriage and funerals permanently.

Your rights and your personal data: Unless subject to an exemption under the GDPR, you have the following rights with respect to your personal data: -

  • The right to request a copy of your personal data which St Michael le Belfrey holds about you;

  • The right to request that St Michael le Belfrey corrects any personal data if it is found to be inaccurate or out of date;

  • The right to request your personal data is erased where it is no longer necessary for St Michael le Belfrey to retain such data;

  • The right to withdraw your consent to the processing at any time

  • The right to request that the data controller provide the data subject with his/her personal data and where possible, to transmit that data directly to another data controller, (known as the right to data portability), where applicable;

  • The right, where there is a dispute in relation to the accuracy or processing of your personal data, to request a restriction is placed on further processing;

  • The right to object to the processing of personal data, (where applicable);

  • The right to lodge a complaint with the Information Commissioner's Office.

Further processing: If we wish to use your personal data for a new purpose, not covered by this Data Privacy Policy, then we will provide you with a new policy explaining this new use prior to commencing the processing and setting out the relevant purposes and processing conditions. Where and whenever necessary, we will seek your prior consent to the new processing.

Contact Details: To exercise all relevant rights, queries or complaints please in the first instance contact the Data Protection Officer at amber.boydell@belfrey.org

April 2021