PRIVACY POLICY

SEMLEP is committed to ensuring that your privacy and the personal data we may collect about you is protected.

This privacy notice tells you what to expect when SEMLEP and the Growth Hub collects personal information. It applies to information we collect about:

  1. People who contact SEMLEP’s Growth Hub > Go to section 
  2. People who subscribe to our newsletters > Go to section
  3. People who visit our websites > Go to section
  4. People who we engage through the European Growth Programme > Go to section
  5. People who we engage through the Resilience Innovation Grant and Growing Innovation Grant  > Go to section
  6. People who interact with us on social media > Go to section
  7. People who respond to our surveys and online feedback > Go to section 
  8. People who sign-up to our events, webinars and meetings > Go to section  


HOW WE LOOK AFTER YOUR DATA

We take all reasonable and appropriate steps to protect your personal information from unauthorised access, loss, misuse, alteration or corruption. We have in place procedures and electronic and physical security measures to safeguard the information you provide to us.

All electronic data stored by SEMLEP is secure and is backed up regularly, retained in the UK or where organisations are outside of the UK we have implemented Standard Contractual Clauses in Data Processing Agreements. For some of our funded projects, we are required to retain hard copies of information. These are stored securely in the UK and are only accessible by authorised people.

THE INFORMATION WE COLLECT AND PROCESS

Depending on the project and programme, SEMLEP and the Growth Hub will collect and process the following personal data:

For some projects, such as programmes funded by the European Union, we may request sensitive category data. This includes ethnicity and disability, and will be used for the purposes of monitoring our performance in equality and diversity. When we request this information, we are acting on the behalf of the funding managing authority who are the controller with regards to the processing of sensitive information. Further information is set out below.

YOUR PERSONAL INFORMATION – YOUR RIGHTS

The data you provide to us is your personal data. You have the right to:

CONTACT SEMLEP

You can contact us to get further information on our privacy and data protection policy which sets out the rules for staff on how to collect, use, protect and delete personal data.

To make a request to SEMLEP about data protection or to make a ‘subject access request’, please email our Data Protection Officer directly on [email protected], call us on 01234 436100 or write to us at: SEMLEP, Cranfield Innovation Centre, University Way, Cranfield, Bedfordshire, MK43 0BT. 

PEOPLE WHO CONTACT THE GROWTH HUB

When you contact SEMLEP’s Growth Hub, you will be asked to provide us with information. This will include some personal information such as your name, email address, phone number and business address. You may provide this data over the phone, via our website form, via email or in person.

Depending on which services you are interested in, we may also ask for some categories of sensitive information, such as ethnicity or disability. We ask for this information for statistical purposes only to meet the requirements of our funding agreements. We will only process sensitive information if you provide a positive opt-in.

WHY WE COLLECT AND PROCESS YOUR DATA

SEMLEP’s legal basis for processing your data is our Articles 6 (1) (f) Legitimate Interest in supplying you with business support in order to grow your business.

Depending on the services we provide you, we may also be required to collect and process information on behalf of our funding bodies. These are government departments, including the Department for Business Energy and Industrial Strategy and for projects part-funded by ERDF, these are Ministry for Housing, Communities and Local Government and the European Commission. For the purposes of data protection, these government departments are the data controllers.  The lawful basis under which we are processing your data in these instances is under Articles 6 (1) (e) public task, we will also collect sensitive information which will use special condition Article 9 (2) (g) public task.

HOW WE WILL USE YOUR DATA

We will use your information for communication purposes so that we can provide business services to you. This will include processing information about the type and intensity of business support we provide and the nature of your business support enquiry. It may also include matching your business data to other data sources to understand more about companies like yours and general business patterns and trends. Your data will not be published in or referred to in any way which identifies an individual or business. We will also use your information for independent project monitoring and evaluation and, for our corporate governance purposes.

To meet our funding obligations, SEMLEP is required to use your data to provide certain business and statistical information about the service we provide to you, to our funding bodies. This may include providing your name and contact details, as well as details about any grant funding provided.

If you enrol on the Growth Hub project, part-funded by the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF), your details will be used to support your participation in the project and for project monitoring and evaluation.  See below for further information about data processing for ERDF.

From time-to-time, we may also send you business-related resources, news and events that are relevant to services we provide you. If you do not want to receive marketing-communications from us, you can let us know at any time by speaking to your allocated business adviser, or by contacting the Growth Hub team on [email protected] or by calling 01234 436123.

WHO WE WILL SHARE YOUR DATA WITH

Your data will be shared with our funding providers as listed above.

We may also need to share your information with our sub-contractors who provide services on our behalf and with other contracted third-parties for the purposes of independent evaluation. When we do this, we will make sure that they keep your data secure and in line with our data-sharing agreements.

This website is using Tawk.to, a chat platform that connects users with the customer support of SEMLEP. We are collecting email addresses/names/names of businesses/postcodes only with the consent of the users, in order to start the chat. The messages and data exchanged are stored within the Tawk.to application. For more information, please refer to their Privacy Policy.

SEMLEP is not making use of these messages or data other than to follow up on users’ registered issues or inquiries. Your personal data will be processed and transmitted in accordance with the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).

We will not share your data with any other organisation without your prior authorisation to do so.

We will use your data only for the length of time required to deliver the service to you and to meet our funding obligations. This is five years after the end of the funding programme. For businesses enrolled on our Velocity ERDF project, your data will be retained until December 2033. See Article 140(1) of Regulation (EU) No 1303/2013.

FOR BUSINESSES SEEKING TO ENROL ON THE GROWTH HUB ERDF PROJECT

The following Privacy Notice is for clients interested in enrolling onto the Growth Hub project, part-funded by the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF).

The EU Common Provisions Regulations (CPR) and Article 6 of the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) regulation require the Ministry of Housing, Communities & Local Government (MHCLG) to monitor and evaluate ERDF-funded activities. In order to conduct monitoring and evaluation, individual participant data is required.

The Ministry for Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG) is the data controller in respect of information processed for your participation in the ERDF project. SEMLEP, is the data processor, acting on their behalf.

The information you give us will be used to provide you with the services agreed, and to report to the European Regional Development Fund Managing Authority for monitoring and evaluation purposes.

MHCLG will need to share all or some of your data with the national evaluator of the ERDF programme.

The information they may share includes:

  1. Name of contact point within a business (in some cases property owner) engaged with or individual engaged with;
  2. Address
  3. Postcode
  4. Phone number
  5. Email address
  6. Labour market status prior to receiving support and 6 months after receiving support;
  7. Duration of support
  8. Intensity of support

In some cases, the national evaluator, i.e. independent external contractors commissioned by MHCLG, may use the contact details to contact a sample of direct or indirect beneficiaries for the purpose of the National Evaluation of the programme. It is likely that the survey methodology will need to incorporate a variety of approaches in order to maximise the survey response rate (for example, telephone survey, written survey, and e-mail survey) – hence the need for a variety of contract details required for each participant.

MHCLG may also need to share with other government departments and the European Commission where this is necessary to test the robustness of the data gathered or to inform the National Evaluation. MHCLG will not give any personal data to any other organisation unless needed for the purpose of the evaluation and will instruct them not to use it to contact individuals for any reasons not connected to the purpose of the National Evaluation of the ERDF programme 2014-2020 or other matters directly relating to the evaluation. If MHCLG has to pass on the data, it will only provide what is needed, and if possible will remove the details that might identify individuals personally.

MHCLG will not keep your personal data for longer than it needs but as a minimum, will retain data for two years after the closure of the 2014-2020 ERDF programme.

For any information on the above, you can contact MHCLG’s Data Protection Officer at [email protected] or by telephone 030 3444 0000.

FOR BUSINESSES SEEKING TO ENROL ON THE RESILIENCE INNOVATION GRANT AND GROWING INNOVATION GRANT

The following Privacy Notice is for clients interested in enrolling onto the Resilience Innovation Grant and Growing Innovation Grant schemes.

The information you give us will be used to provide you with the services agreed to deliver the grant funding.

SEMLEP may need to share all or some of your data with sub-contractors to support delivery of the project and also SEMLEP’s Accountable Body for compliance purposes.

The information they may share includes:

  1. Name of contact point within a business (in some cases property owner) engaged with or individual engaged with;
  2. Address
  3. Postcode
  4. Phone number
  5. Email address

We may request sensitive category data and this may include ethnicity and disability, this be used for the purposes of monitoring our performance in equality, diversity and inclusion.

SEMLEP will not keep your personal data for longer than it needs but as a minimum, will retain data for three and a half years after the closure of the Resilience Innovation Grant and Growing Innovation Grant schemes.

PEOPLE WHO SUBSCRIBE TO OUR E-NEWSLETTERS

We use Campaign Monitor to deliver our monthly e-newsletters and occasional e-blasts for SEMLEPThe Growth HubEU-funding e-blast and the SEMLEP Enterprise Adviser Network.

If you subscribe to our newsletters, you give us your consent to use the information you provide us for this purpose.  SEMLEP will not use your data for any other purpose and you can unsubscribe at any time by clicking on the unsubscribe link at the bottom of the newsletter.

When you receive our newsletter, we record information about email opening and clicks in order to improve the information we provide. Your personal data retained will not be shared with any other organisation.

Campaign Monitor is a third party provider based outside of the European Economic Area, in Australia. When you sign-up to our newsletter, your data will be transferred to Campaign Monitor and processed in accordance with their privacy policy and terms. Campaign Monitor has obligations and responsibilities to comply with EU data regulations. You can read about the measures they are taking to comply with GDPR here.

VISITORS TO OUR WEBSITES

When someone visits www.semlep.com or www.semlepgrowthhub.com we use Google Analytics, to collect standard internet log information and details of visitor behaviour patterns.

We do this to find out things such as the number of visitors to the various parts of the site. This does not collect information from which you can personally identify anyone.

USE OF COOKIES BY THE SEMLEP AND THE GROWTH HUB

To enable Google Analytics to record information about our website visitors, it places universal cookies on your computer. These cookies allow us to record visitor trends including what pages are visited, for how long and where (tracking the ‘town, county or country’) the person is visiting the website from. The cookies collect information in an anonymous form. You can get more information about how Google safeguards your data collected through Google Analytics in their privacy policy.

The information collected through Google Analytics is important to us. We use it to compile reports and to help us improve the site by better understanding what pages people are visiting most.

You can refuse to accept cookies by changing your settings on your browser. This will not impact your experience of our website. 

To opt out of being tracked by Google Analytics across all websites, visit http://tools.google.com/dlpage/gaoptout.

GOOGLE ANALYTICS ADVERTISING

The Growth Hub uses the following Google Analytics advertising features:

Remarketing – this enables The Growth Hub to display advertising to visitors on our website as they move to other sites.

Display Network Impression Reporting – We can use this to understand the impact of adverts displayed on other sites. We will be able to see when someone views an advert elsewhere and then later visits The Growth Hub’s website.

We will retain the information for a period of 23 months before it is automatically deleted by Google.

To opt out of being tracked by Google Analytics across all websites, visit http://tools.google.com/dlpage/gaoptout.

PEOPLE WHO INTERACT WITH US ON SOCIAL MEDIA

If you like or follow any of our social media accounts we will collect information about this. We use this information for legitimate business purposes only. We monitor the data to understand how people use information we publish on social media and occasionally to provide you with more personalised information about SEMLEP and The Growth Hub’s services through social boosts and advertising. You can change your settings within your social media accounts to set how organisations can target social posts to you, through them.

We also use a third party provider, Hootsuite to manage our social media interactions.

If you send us a private or direct message via social media the message will be stored by Hootsuite for three months, their privacy policy can be found here Privacy (hootsuite.com). It will not be shared with any other organisations.

How to change your social media ad preferences:

Facebook https://www.facebook.com/ads/preferences/?entry_product=ad_settings_screen

Twitter: https://business.twitter.com/en/help/troubleshooting/how-twitter-ads-work.html

PEOPLE WHO RESPOND TO OUR ONLINE SURVEYS AND FEEDBACK

Occasionally, on our website, on our social media or via email we may include an online survey in our communications. For this, we use a third party provider, Survey Monkey. For the survey, we may request some personal data. This will depend on what the survey is about. We will only use your data for legitimate business purposes which will be set out in the survey. We will not share your information with any other organisation unless we have your prior consent to do so.

Survey Monkey will save a cookie on your computer to track your progress. For more information about Survey Monkey’s privacy policy, please click here.

PEOPLE WHO SIGN-UP TO OUR EVENTS, WEBINARS AND MEETINGS

SEMLEP and our Growth Hub is publicly-funded. We often host public events to keep people informed of the work and investments we make and to provide business support and networking opportunities. When you sign-up for an event, we record and retain personal data and use this for our legitimate business purposes. This includes:

In some instances we must also use the data you provide us when you attend our events to meet our legal obligations set out in our funding agreements. For example, some of our events are part-funded by the European Union. For these events, we are obliged under our funding agreements to retain information about people who attend until 2033 and some personal data may be transferred to our funding partners for auditing and evaluation purposes only.

Some events may be held in partnership with the local Growth Hub Cluster including SEMLEP, OXLEP, CPCA GH and BBF. Businesses joining events held by the partnership may be from another geographical region and the data collected to attend the event may be shared with the local Growth Hub. This data may include name, phone number, email address. It may also include sensitive data for EED&I reporting purposes but shall be anonymized before data sharing.

To sign-up to our events, we use a third party provider, Eventbrite. For further information about how they process data read their privacy policy.

The personal information you provide us via Eventbrite will also be retained securely on SEMLEP’s internal database.  We retain information only for as long as necessary and review our contacts every 6 months. Your data will not be shared with any other organisation unless we explicitly inform you before you sign-up to the event and you provide your consent for us to do so.

You can contact us at any time and ask us not to send you direct marketing information relating to SEMLEP’s or The Growth Hub’s services and events. Please contact the communications team on [email protected].

MEETINGS AND WEBINARS

We use Microsoft Teams to hold online meetings details of their privacy policy can be found here (https://privacy.microsoft.com/en-GB/privacystatement#mainnoticetoendusersmodule).  We also use Zoom for some of our meetings and webinars, for more information on their privacy policy, click here (https://zoom.us/privacy/).

You can contact us at any time and ask us not to send you direct marketing information and SEMLEP’s or The Growth Hub’s services and events. Please contact the communications team on [email protected].

LINKS TO OTHER WEBSITES

This privacy notice does not cover the links within this site linking to other websites.

We encourage you to read the privacy statements on the other websites you visit.

We keep our privacy notices under review. This privacy notice was updated on 22 June 2023.