Privacy notice - COVID-19 Business Support Grants

We use online applications to collect the information directly from you that we need to process your claim. This includes:

• Name of business (including name of applicant)
• Postal and email addresses
• Contact telephone number
• Category of your business
• Bank account details for payment
• Dates of trading

When we capture and use personal data, we rely on ‘public task’ as our legal basis where we have a legal power that allows us to provide financial assistance under the Coronavirus Act 2020 and where we follow Government instructions and guidance. We also use personal data to meet our ‘legal obligations’ to protect public funds under the Local Government Act 1972 and the Accounts and Audit (England) Regulations 2011.

The personal data that we gather will be used to check your eligibility for Covid-19 Business Support Grants, process your application, make payments to you, and to provide you with advice about any other local support that may be available to you. We may also use your personal data to undertake checks for fraud.

Your information may be shared with the Department for Business Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) for monitoring and evaluation purposes and with other bodies responsible for auditing, administering public funds, or where they undertake a public function in order to prevent and detect fraud. This may include Police, law enforcement agents, and the Cabinet Office which administers the National Fraud Initiative.

We use the following measures to ensure that your personal data is secure: data protection and security policies, information security incident reporting, data and device encryption, system and data access controls, user accounts and passwords, physical and environmental security, staff vetting practices, staff training and awareness, data back-ups, ICT network penetration testing, and business continuity and disaster recovery plans. Any data that we send or receive to other organisations is encrypted and protected.

We keep personal data only for as long as is necessary. For more information about how long we keep data, please search for our Records Retention and Disposal Schedule on our website.

We do not send any data for the COVID-19 Business Support Grant scheme overseas.

We will never use the data provided for these schemes for marketing.

Your Information Rights are set out in law and, subject to some exceptions, you have the:

• Right to rectification - to ask for information to be corrected
• Right to erasure - to have your personal data deleted
• Right to object - to how your data is used
• Right to restriction - to request limits on how your data is used
• Right to portability - to request that we move your data to another organisation
• Right of subject access - to request a copy of data the Council holds about you

If you have a concerns about the way we are collecting or using your personal data, you should raise your concern with us in the first instance or directly to the Information Commissioner's Office. Visit the website of the Information Commissioner's Office.

If you would like to discuss anything in this privacy notice or your information rights, please contact:

The Data Protection Officer
Middlesbrough Council
PO Box 500, Middlesbrough, TS1 9FT
Phone: 01642 245432
Email: dataprotection@middlesbrough.gov.uk