Privacy and Environment Policies

Privacy Policy

Who are we?

Porlock Vale CIC is a Community Interest Comapny, and is a ‘controller’ under the General Data Protection Regulation and the Data Protection Act 2018.

Whose data do we hold?
We may hold data about the following people:

  • Employees
  • Customers and clients
  • Suppliers and service providers
  • Advisers, consultants and other professional experts
  • Complainants and enquirers

Whose data will we collect?

We will only collect information from you that is relevant to the matter that we are dealing with. In particular, we may collect the following information from you which is defined as ‘personal data’:

  • Personal details
  • Business details and circumstances of the person whose details we are processing
  • Financial details

Special Categories

We may also collect information that is referred to as being in a ‘special category’. This could include:

  • Religious beliefs or other beliefs of a similar nature

Basis for processing

The basis on which we process your personal data is one or more of the following:

  • It is necessary for the delivery of or services and products to you
  • It is necessary for us to comply with a legal or regulatory obligations
  • It is in our legitimate interests to do so
    You have given us your consent (this can be withdrawn at any time by advising our data protection officer provided that the data is not being processed or retained to comply with a legal or regulatory obligation

How will we use your data?

We may use our information for the following purposes:

  • Provision of our products and services
  • Promotion of our products and services
  • Provision of education and training to customers and clients
  • Maintaining accounts and records
  • Supporting and managing staff

Who will we share your information with?

We may need to share your information with people who will assist in delivering our services and product to you. This may include:

  • Website hosting providers, data centre operators
  • Couriers
  • Professional consultants
  • Technical support personnel from suppliers
  • Credit and Fraud Prevention Agencies (FPAs) (see below)

Where you authorise us we may also disclose your information to parties or representatives and we may also disclose your information to debt collection agencies if you do not pay our bills.

How long will we keep your information for?

  • We will normally keep your information throughout the period of time that we do work for you and afterwards for a period of at least five years.

Transfers to third countries

  • We will not normally transfer personal data to a country outside the EEA

Security arrangements

  • We shall ensure that all the information that you provide us with is kept secure using appropriate technical and organisational measures
  • More information is available from the data protection officer

What rights do you have?

You have the following rights under the GDPR:

  • Right to be informed
  • Right of access
  • Right of rectification
  • Right to erasure
  • Right to restriction of processing
  • Right to data portability
  • Right to object
  • Rights concerning automated decision – making and profiling

Some of these rights are however subject to an overriding obligation to comply with legal requirements and regulations.

Right of access

  • You have a right to see the information we hold about you
  • To access this, you will need to provide a request in writing to our data protection officer, together with proof of identity
  • We will usually process your request free of charge and within 30 days however we reserve the right to charge a reasonable administration fee and to extend the period of time by a further two months if the request is manifestly unfounded or vexatious and/or is very complex.

Right of erasure

  • You have a right to ask us to erasure your personal data in certain cases (details may be found in Article 17 of the GDPR)
  • We will deal with your request free of charge and within 60 days but reserve the right to refuse to erase information that we are required to retain by law or regulation, or that is required to exercise or defend legal claims
  • To exercise your right to erasure please contact our data protection officer

Who can you complain to?

  • If you are unhappy about how we are using your information or how we have responded to your request then initially you should contact the data protection officer. Please call the office to ask the data protection officer’s name.
  • If your complain remains unresolved then you can contact the Information Commissioner’s Office, details available at www.ico.org.uk

ENVIRONMENTAL POLICY

Porlock Vale CIC recognises that it has a responsibility to the environment beyond legal and regulatory
requirements. We are committed to reducing our environmental impact and continually improving our environmental performance as an integral part of our business strategy and operating methods. We will encourage customers, suppliers and other stakeholders to do the same.

Responsibility

All employees have a responsibility in their area to ensure that the aims and objectives of this policy are met.

Policy aims

We endeavour to:

  • Comply with all relevant regulatory requirements.
  • Continually improve and monitor environmental performance.
  • Continually improve and reduce environmental impacts.
  • Incorporate environmental factors into business decisions.
  • Increase employee awareness and training.

Paper

We will:

  • Minimise the use of paper in the office.
  • Reduce packaging as much as possible.
  • Seek to buy recycled and recyclable paper products.
  • Reuse and recycle all paper where possible.

Energy and water

We will seek to:

  • Reduce the amount of energy used as much as possible.
  • Switch off lights and electrical equipment when not in use.
  • Adjust heating with energy consumption in mind.
  • Take energy consumption and efficiency of new products into account when purchasing them.

Office supplies

We will:

  • Evaluate if the need can be met in another way.
  • Evaluate if renting or sharing is an option before purchasing equipment.
  • Evaluate the environmental impact of any new products we intend to purchase.
  • Favour more environmentally friendly and efficient products wherever possible.
  • Reuse and recycle everything we are able to.


Transportation

We will:

  • Reduce the need to travel, restricting to necessity trips only.
  • Promote the use of travel alternatives such as e-mail or video/phone conferencing.

Maintenance and cleaning

We will:

  • Use cleaning materials that are as environmentally friendly as possible.
  • Use materials in any office refurbishment that are as environmentally friendly as possible.
  • Only use licensed and appropriate organisations to dispose of waste.

Monitoring and improvement

We will:

  • Comply with all relevant regulatory requirements.
  • Continually improve and monitor environmental performance.
  • Continually improve and reduce environmental impacts.
  • Incorporate environmental factors into business decisions.
  • Increase employee awareness through training.
  • Review this policy and any related business issues at regular management meetings.

Culture

We will:

  • Update this policy at least once annually in consultation with staff and other stakeholders where necessary.
  • Involve staff in the implementation of this policy, for greater commitment and improved performance.
  • Provide staff with relevant environmental training.
  • Work with suppliers, contractors and subcontractors to improve their environmental performance.
  • Use local labour and materials where available to reduce CO2 and help the community.