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:
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. For some of our funded projects, we are required to retain hard-copies of information. These are stored securely and are only accessible by authorised people.
The information we collect and process
Depending on the project and programme, SEMLEP will collect and process the following personal data:
• Name
• Business address
• Phone number
• Email address
• Age
• Gender
For some projects, such as programmes funded by the European Union, we may request data recognised as sensitive date. 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.
For individuals who would like to sign-up to participate in our Enterprise Adviser Network, we will also require information about criminal convictions or offences in order to send to the Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS). We process this information on behalf of the Careers and Enterprise Company, who are the controller with regards to the processing of this information.
Your personal information – your rights
The data you provide to us is your personal data. You have the right to:
• ask for a copy of the data we hold about you (known as a ‘subject access request’)
• ask us to stop using your data
• ask us to correct your data or restrict how we use your data we have in our files
• subject to lawful data requirements ask us to delete your data
• lodge a complaint with the independent Information Commissioner (ICO) if you think we are not handling your data fairly or in accordance with the law. You can contact the ICO at https://ico.org.uk/ , or telephone 0303 123 1113.
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 mydata@semlep.com, call us on 01234 436100 or write to us at: SEMLEP, Cranfield Innovation Centre, University Way, Cranfield, Bedfordshire, MK43 0BT.
Business engagement and people we work with to deliver projects and programmes
We will use the personal information you provide us for our legitimate business purposes, and to meet the obligations we have with our funding partners. These include:
• informing you of, and supporting your involvement in, SEMLEP projects and programmes
• engaging with local businesses to deliver our role in promoting economic growth and development
• to inform our service improvement and planning, including consultation and project evaluation
• meeting our corporate governance requirements as set out in our Assurance Framework.
SEMLEP may need to share your data with our funding bodies. These include government departments, other publicly funded organisations who SEMLEP work in partnership with to deliver specific programmes and, the European Commission for programmes funded by the European Union. We may also share your information with selected independent auditors.
We will not share your data with any other organisation without your prior authorisation to do so.
We will retain your data for a period of six years following the end of the enquiry or SEMLEP project or programme you are engaged with, unless we are required to retain data for longer under our funding agreements. For any project or business that receives support funded through the European Structural Investment Fund, we are required to retain information in accordance with Article 140(1) of Regulation (EU) No 1303/2013.
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 gender, ethnicity or disability. We ask for this information for statistical purposes only to meet the requirements of our funding agreements.
Why we collect and process your data
SEMLEP’s legal basis for processing your data is Legitimate Interests.
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 and Trade (DBT) 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.
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 gateway team on growthhub@semlep.com or by calling 01604 212696.
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 processing agreements.
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 six years after the end of the funding programme. For businesses who had enrolled on our Velocity Growth Hub ERDF project, your data will be retained until December 2033. See Article 140(1) of Regulation (EU) No 1303/2013.
For businesses who have enrolled on the Growth Hub ERDF project.
The following Privacy Notice is for clients who have previously enrolled onto the Growth Hub project Velocity, 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 Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities (DLUHC) to monitor and evaluate ERDF-funded activities. In order to conduct monitoring and evaluation, individual participant data is required.
The DLUHC 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.
DLUHC will need to share all or some of your data with the national evaluator of the ERDF programme.
The information they may share includes:
• Name of contact point within a business (in some cases property owner) engaged with or individual engaged with;
• Address
• Postcode
• Phone number
• Email address
• Labour market status prior to receiving support and 6 months after receiving support;
• Duration of support
• Intensity of support
• Ethnicity
• Disability
In some cases, the national evaluator, i.e. independent external contractors commissioned by DLUHC, 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.
DLUHC 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. DLUHC 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 DLUHC 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.
DLUHC 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 dclgkia@icasework.fcos.gsi.gov.uk or by telephone 030 3444 0000.
Community Grants Programme
The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) is the national Managing Authority for the European Social Fund in England. The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) is the national Managing Authority for the European Social Fund in England. The Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities are the Managing Authority for European Regional Development Fund. They are the controllers for all personal data required to help deliver the European funding programme under the terms of the Funding Agreement.
The Managing Authorities will be processing personal data, necessary for performing a task that is in the public interest or official function, and for the purposes of programme monitoring and evaluation only.
For more information about how the DWP processes data can be found here: www.gov.uk/dwp/personal-information-charter
Community Grants Project
When you contact SEMLEP regarding the Community Grants Programme, you will be asked to provide us with information. This will include some personal information including your name, email address, phone number and business address. This information may be provided over the phone, via our website form, via email, in person or through our partners.
The Community Grants Programme is co-funded by the European Social Fund (ESF) and the Education and Skills Funding Agency (ESFA) which is an executive agency for the Department of Education (DfE). For the purpose of data protection, the Department for Education (DfE) is the Data Controller and SEMLEP will use your personal information in order to carry out the Programme on behalf of the DfE.
Your personal information will be shared with the DfE, programme co-funders and may also be shared with partners who are working with SEMLEP to deliver the Programme. The DfE may also share your information as necessary to enable them to carry out their functions.
The DfE will not keep your personal data for longer than it needs but as a minimum, will retain data for until 30 December 2030.
You can contact the Data Controller at: Data Protection Officer, Ministerial and Public Communications Division, Department for Education, Piccadilly Gate, Store Street, Manchester, M1 2WD
To read the full privacy notice for the Community Grants Programme, please see the Privacy Notice here.
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.
Enterprise Advisers
SEMLEP is contracted by the Careers and Enterprise Company to co-ordinate Enterprise Advisers working with schools. This means we will share your data with the Careers & Enterprise Company and their associated partners, for full details of how they handle your data, please see their privacy policy.
• We will also use your data to send you a newsletter
• Communicate with you
• Facilitate the DBS checks required to work in schools
• Share your information with selected schools
Media and press relations
SEMLEP is a public-private partnership set up by government in 2011 to help promote local economic growth. We are publicly-funded and responsible for managing investments and projects that are recipients of public funding allocated to us by government. We also support the local delivery of European-funded and other government-funded programmes that aim to support growth.
How we will use your data
We will use the personal information you have provided us, or we have collected from public websites in which you are identified as the key media contact, only for legitimate business purposes. These include:
• informing you of SEMLEP official business that may be of public interest such as investment decisions and updates about projects that have received public funding
• meeting our corporate governance requirements as set out in our Assurance Framework.
• From time to time, this may also include inviting you to SEMLEP-hosted business events and providing additional information on business funding opportunities and availability of publicly-funded business support.
We will not share your information with any other organisation unless we have your express permission to do so.
If you prefer not to receive information from us, please let us know by contacting the SEMLEP communications team on comms@semlep.com.
People who subscribe to our e-newsletters
We use Campaign Monitor to deliver our monthly e-newsletters and occasional e-blasts for SEMLEP, The Growth Hub, EU-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 and is covered by a Data Processing Addendum. 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, Sprout Social to manage our social media interactions. For more information, please refer to their Privacy Notice.
If you send us a private or direct message via social media the message will be stored by Sprout Social for three months. 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, which is based outside of the EU and is covered by a Data Processing Addendum. 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:
• helping us to host an effective event
• sending you information related to the event or which we think you may be interested in afterwards
• We may also send you invitations to other events or workshops related to SEMLEP’s work
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 for our events, we use a third-party provider, Eventbrite, which is covered by a Data Processing Addendum. 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.
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) and is also covered by a Data Processing Addendum. We also use Zoom for some of our meetings and webinars, for more information on their privacy policy, click here (https://zoom.us/privacy/) which is also covered by a Data Processing Addendum.
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 comms@semlep.com.
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.
Changes to this privacy notice
We keep our privacy notices under review. This privacy notice was updated on 30 August 2023.