Privacy Policy

Privacy Policy

What service is being provided?

South East Business Hub (SEBH) (the ‘Growth Hub’) is a business support service operating in the local authority areas of East Sussex, Essex, Kent, Medway, Southend and Thurrock.

SEBH comprises of Business East Sussex, Business Essex, Southend and Thurrock (BEST) and Kent & Medway Growth Hub.

Why do we need to use your personal information?

Service Delivery and improvement.

If we cannot use your data, we would be unable to deliver the service. Our legal basis for using your personal data is a public task in the public interest (Article 6e). 

Where processing includes limited special category information, our legal basis for using your personal data is explicit consent Substantial Public Interest (Article 9g. DPA 18 Sch1 8 (1)).

Marketing

Marketing is based on your consent, and recipients of marketing communications have the opportunity to opt out of receiving communications from the Growth Hub every time we contact you. You have the right to withdraw your consent at any time by contacting us at hello@southeastlep.com.

What personal data do we collect from you?

• contact name and address details including post code and local authority located in (both individuals and businesses), position within the business
• contact details including phone numbers and email addresses (both individuals and businesses)
• age bracket and gender for equality and diversity monitoring both of which are optional
• business name, business registration date, legal status and ownership details
• description of the business, maturity of the business, sector and SIC code
• website address
• reason for contacting the Growth Hub, how you heard about the Growth Hub / source of referral
• companies house number, VAT registration number, HMRC unique taxpayer reference (UTR), HMRC employers PAYE reference number
• evidence of eligibility as an SME to receive support, including current and projected turnover and number of employees
• State Aid provided received during the last 3 (three) fiscal years
• data to demonstrate Gross Value Added (i.e. annual sales, net profitability, depreciation costs, employment costs, tangible fixed assets and the number of employees) in the most recent, completed fiscal year and forecast for the current financial year

How much information are we collecting about you?

We will only collect and use personal information that we require in order to provide business support services.

We only collect information about you that we need in order for you to get the best service from us. We respect your privacy and will keep what we collect to a minimum.

When visiting our websites, you may also be providing us with certain information through our use of website ‘cookies’.

We don’t sell your personal information to anyone else.

Who will be using your personal data?

The Data Controller is Essex County Council who are the Accountable Body for the South East Local Enterprise Partnership (SELEP). The Data Protection Officer for Essex County Council can be contacted at dpo@essex.gov.uk.

Growth Hubs (Business East Sussex, BEST, Kent & Medway) are equally Data Controllers supporting this purpose. For more information please visit East Sussex County Council, Read our Privacy Policy : Kent & Medway Growth Hub (kentandmedwaygrowthhub.org.uk), Southend-on-Sea Borough Council Privacy Notice – April 2021

Who else might we share your data with?

We appreciate you have provided your information to us and may not want us to share it with others. However sometimes it is necessary for us to do so.

The Growth Hub service is a fully funded service and therefore, it is necessary that we share the details you provide to us with our funders; the Department for Business, Energy and industrial Strategy (BEIS) and the South East Local Enterprise Partnership (SELEP) for research and evaluation purposes. This is a condition of using the fully funded service. The use of this information may include matching to other data sources to understand more about organisations like yours and general patterns and trends, although the business’s data will not be published or referred to in a way which identifies any individual or business.

We may also share the details you provide us with our delivery partners and your local authority economic development team, where you have requested us to do so.

Information Sharing Protocols

There is Information Sharing Protocol in place between the Essex County Council and Lead Authorities responsible for delivery of the Growth Hub service: East Sussex County Council, Southend-on-Sea Borough Council, Kent County Council and Medway Council.

This information may be used in the following ways:

• to facilitate the delivery and management of business support services to small to medium sized enterprises (SME) in the East Sussex, Essex, Kent, Medway, Southend and Thurrock area provided by SELEP under the name of SEBH, supported by its third-party delivery partners (including relevant local authorities)
• to enable selected delivery partners to contact SMEs who have received business support services from SEBH. Any such contact with an SME by a delivery partner shall be solely for the purpose of:
• profiling business support activity in the relevant local authority area
• contacting the SME to arrange face-to-face meetings
• responding to a specific request made by an SME
• to report effectively on the performance of the SEBH to BEIS
• to enable the SELEP to report key metrics back to BEIS in relation to evaluating customer satisfaction of the scheme
• to enable the selected delivery partners to undertake statistical analysis and/or compile reports of the business support services provided by the SEBH and its other delivery partners
• to allow SEBH to track the progress of specific SMEs who have received business support services
• to provide evidence that State Aid provided to the SMEs through the SEBH is in accordance with European Community regulation 1998/2006
• to respond to specific queries submitted via email or feedback forms
• to compile reports about businesses in the East Sussex, Essex, Kent, Medway, Southend and Thurrock areas with the help of selected third-party delivery partners (including relevant local authorities). The intention of these reports is to better understand demand for and target business support resources
• to improve the content of our site, customise our site to your preferences and ensure that content from our site is presented in the most effective manner for you and for your computer
• for the purpose of consultation, statistical analysis, profiling and administration of the SEBH
• for our marketing and research purposes

We are careful to minimise such sharing; whenever we share your information, we do everything we can to make sure it is protected.

Will your data be stored in or accessible from countries with no UK-equivalent Privacy Law protections?

No

How long will your data be kept?

Your data will be deleted 6 years after you stop using the Growth Hub service.

Your Rights

Our use of your data will be subject to the following legal rights:

• Your Right to be Informed
• Your Right to Access your personal data
• Your Right for us to Rectify your personal data
• Your Right to have your personal data Erased
• Your Right to Restrict our processing of your personal data
• Your Right to Data Portability
• Your Right to Object to how we use your personal data
• Your Right to object to Automated decision making and Profiling

You can exercise these rights by contacting DPO@essex.gov.uk

Visit the following links for more information about Privacy Law, our obligations and your Rights:

Guide to the UK General Data Protection Regulation (UK GDPR) | ICO

Your data matters | ICO

 

Concerns

If you have concerns over the way we are asking for or using your personal data, please raise the matter with our Data Protection Officer, see details below:

Email

dpo@essex.gov.uk

Postal Address:

Data Protection Officer,
Information Governance Team,
Essex County Council,
County Hall,
Market Road,
Chelmsford, Essex,
CM1 1QH

Phone Number:
0333 013 9824

Escalating concerns

If you still have concerns following our response you have the right to raise the matter with the Information Commissioner’s Office:

Postal Address:

Information Commissioner’s Office,
Wycliffe House,
Water Lane,
Wilmslow,
Cheshire
SK9 5AF

Online form:

Raise a concern via the ICO’s website here.

Phone Number:
0303 123 1113

Providing a better experience for website users (via Cookies)

To make this website easier to use, we sometimes place small text files on your device (for example your iPad or laptop) called cookies. Most big websites do this too.

They improve things by:

• remembering the things, you’ve chosen while on our website, so you don’t have to keep re-entering them whenever you visit a new page
• remembering data, you’ve given (for example, your address) so you don’t need to keep entering it
• measuring how you use the website so we can make sure it meets your needs

By using our website, you agree that we can place these types of cookies on your device. We do not use the type of cookies that collect information about your visitation of other websites what other websites you visit (often referred to as privacy intrusive cookies). Our cookies are not used to identify you personally. They’re just here to make the site work better for you. You can manage and/or delete these files as you wish.

To learn more about cookies and how to manage them, visit AboutCookies.org.

Monitoring how our website is used (via Google Analytics)

We use Google Analytics to collect information about how people use our website. We do this to understand the effectiveness of the website’s content and the experience of the user using the results and data to optimise the website for a better user experience and to meet the needs of the user.

Google Analytics stores information about how users interact with the website;

• how they came onsite
• which pages were visited
• duration of different aspects of their journey through the website
• where a reader left the site
• interactions with content and/or specific functionality (e.g. clicked to download a pdf)

We do not collect or store any other personal information (e.g. your name or address) so this data cannot be used to identify who you are.