The Parochial Church Council (PCC) of St Paul’s Church Wordsworth Avenue
1. 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”).
2. Who are we?
For the purposes of this document, ‘we’ means the PCC of St Paul’s Wordsworth Avenue, together with the clergy and staff and volunteers carrying out functions in the life of church and of the parish. We are the data controller (contact details below). This means we are responsible for deciding how your personal data is processed by us, and for what purposes.
3. How do we process personal data?
We comply with our 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 personal data for the following purposes: –
a. To inform parishioners and congregation of news, prayer requests, testimonies, events, activities, and services;
b. Occasionally, to ask for the views and opinions of parishioners and congregation members about matters relating to St Paul’s and associated groups;
c. To provide pastoral care to the parishioners and congregation;
d. To manage events, meetings, rotas and volunteers in order to enable us to provide church services, home groups and other ministries, including work for youth, children, and the elderly;
e. To administer membership (including electoral roll) records;
f. To provide a Congregational Register/Directory which enables members of the church to contact one another easily;
g. To fundraise and promote the interests of St Paul’s Church, it’s partners and associated organisations;
h. To maintain our own accounts and records (including the processing of gift aid applications);
i. To comply with our legal obligations to maintain records and registers;
j. To manage our employees and contractors;
k. To manage relationships with outside hirers and suppliers.
4. What is the legal basis for processing your personal data?
We process your data under the following legal basis:
- Legitimate Interest – Most of your personal data that we process is in accordance with our legitimate interests, or the legitimate interests of a third party (such as another organisation in the Church of England). For example, we use your name and contact details to enable us to administer church groups, rotas and run St Paul’s on a day-to-day basis.
- Legal Obligation – Some of our processing is necessary for compliance with a legal obligation. For example, we are required by the Church Representation Rules to administer and publish the electoral roll, and under Canon Law to announce forthcoming weddings by means of the publication of banns. We also have a legislative requirement to process gift aid applications.
- Contract / partnership agreement – We may also process data if it is necessary for the performance of a contract with you, or to take steps to enter into a contract. Examples of this include data we need to carry out the contracts of employment with our staff and venue hire contracts with those hiring our premises. The legal basis for holding this
information is that processing is necessary for carrying out obligations under employment, social security or social protection law, or a collective agreement. - Consent – Where your information is used other than in accordance with one of these legal bases, we will first obtain your consent to that use. Examples would be sending you emails to keep you up to date with news and events, or including your details within a Church Directory. We will only contact you in this way if you have consented for us to do
so by explicitly opting-in.
Religious organisations are also permitted to process information about your religious beliefs to administer membership or contact details.
5. Sharing 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 publish your name and contact details in church rotas or share your data with third parties outside of the parish with your consent.
It is likely that we will have to share your data with some or all of the following (but only
when necessary):
- The appropriate bodies of the Church of England including the other data controllers;
- Our agents, servants and contractors. For example, if we use a third party church database, accounting software who manage our donations, and IT support services such as Google Workplace which acts as our shared drive. We carefully check that they have adequate procedures in place to keep your data safe, and when it is processed outside the European Economic Area (for example in the USA and New Zealand) that it is covered by agreements which ensure that the standards of data protection in the GDPR are delivered;
- Other clergy or lay persons nominated or licensed by the bishops of the Diocese of Sheffield to support the mission of the Church in our parish. For example, our clergy are supported by our Area Dean and Archdeacon, who may provide confidential mentoring and pastoral support. Assistant or temporary ministers, including curates, deacons, licensed lay ministers, commissioned lay ministers or persons with Bishop’s Permissions may participate in our mission in support of our regular clergy;
- Other persons or organisations operating within the Diocese of Sheffield;
- On occasion, other churches with which we are carrying out joint events or activities
6. 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 and current government Disclosure and Barring Service guidance. Specifically, we retain electoral roll data while it is still current; gift aid declarations and associated paperwork for up to 6 years after the calendar year to which they relate; and parish registers (baptisms, marriages, funerals) permanently.
7. 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 Paul’s Church holds about you;
● The right to request that the PCC of St Paul’s Church 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 Paul’s Church to retain such data;
● Where your consent is the legal basis for processing your data, the right to withdraw your consent to the processing at any time;
● Where legally applicable, the right to request that we provide you with your personal data and where possible, to transmit that data directly to another data controller;
● 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;
● Where legally applicable, the right to object to the processing of personal data;
● The right to lodge a complaint with the Information Commissioners Office.
8. Further processing
If we wish to use your personal data for a new purpose, not covered by this Data Protection 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 and whenever necessary, we will seek your prior consent to the new processing.
9. Contact Details
To exercise all relevant rights, queries or complaints please in the first instance contact the Incumbent at St Cecilia’s Vicarage, 98 Chaucer Close, S5 9QE, telephone 0114 296 2320, or by
You can contact the Information Commissioners Office on 0303 123 1113 or via email or at the Information Commissioner’s Office, Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow, Cheshire. SK9 5AF.
