The EU Common Provisions Regulations (CPR), in particular Articles 27.4, 54, 56 of the CPR, and Article 6 of the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) regulation require the Ministry for Housing Communities and Local Government (MHCLG), as the managing authority for the programme, to monitor, evaluate and audit ERDF-funded activities.

In order to conduct monitoring, evaluation and audit individual participant data is required.

For the purposes of the Data Protection Act 1998 (and from 25 May 2018, the General Data Protection Regulations) MHCLG is the data controller in respect of personal information processed which relates to participation in the Social Enterprise Exchange project funded by the European Regional Development Fund and which is required for the purposes of monitoring, evaluation and audit of project delivery and outputs including beneficiaries supported. The following personal information may be supplied for each direct or indirect beneficiary where these are individuals:

i. Name of the contact point within a business engaged
ii. Names of individual beneficiaries of support
ii. Address
iii. Postcode
iv. Phone number
v. Email address
vi. Labour market status
vii. Duration of support
viii. Intensity of support

In addition, for the purposes of evidence of outputs and of equal opportunities monitoring the following sensitive personal information may be supplied for individual beneficiaries:

i. Unique Tax Reference (self-employed beneficiaries only)
ii. Age and date of birth
iii. Gender
iv. Ethnicity
v. Disability

Personal information will be stored securely and retained in compliance with the Data Protection Act 1998 (from 25 May 2018, the General Data Protection Regulations).

MHCLG may share some or all of your data with external auditors including persons authorised by the European Commission, the European Court of Auditors and/or the National Audit Office.

MHCLG may share some or all of your data with the national evaluator of the ERDF programme. In some cases, the national evaluator, i.e. independent external contractors, may use the contact details to contact a sample of direct or indirect beneficiaries for the purpose of 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 response rate (for example, telephone survey, written survey, and e-mail survey) – hence the need for a variety of contact details 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 share personal data with any other organisation except for the purpose of evaluation or audit and will instruct them not to use it to contact individuals for any reasons not connected with the evaluation or audit of the ERDF programme 2014-2020 or other matters directly relating to the evaluation or audit. 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.

The data collected is your personal data, and you have the right, subject to lawful data requirements:

• to see what data MHCLG has about you;
• to ask MHCLG to stop using your data;
• to ask MHCLG to delete or correct your data;
• to lodge a complaint with the independent Information Commissioner (ICO) if you think MHCLG is not handling your data fairly or in accordance with the law.

The MHCLG Personal Information Charter sets out the standards you can expect MHCLG to meet in requesting, storing, processing and sharing your personal data. This MHCLG Personal Information Charter is available online at: https://www.gov.uk/government/organisations/ministry-of-housing-communities-and-local-government/about/personal-information-charter

If you are not happy with how MHCLG are using your personal data, you should first contact MHCLG’s Data Protection Officer at dataprotection@communities.gsi.gov.uk

If you are not satisfied with the response or you need independent advice about data protection, privacy and data sharing you can find further information and/or contact the Information Commissioner’s Office at https://ico.org.uk/ or by telephone 0303 123 1113.