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Privacy policy

Durham Ambitious Business Startups (DABS) website

1. Who we are and what we do

Business Durham engages with the business community across County Durham and also manages a range of externally funded business support schemes, including Durham Ambitious Business Start-ups (DABS). DABS is an ERDF funded scheme delivered by TEDCO, UMi Commercial Ltd and Candle Learning Ltd, on behalf of Business Durham.

For more information, see www.businessdurham.co.uk.

2. What type of personal information do we collect and how do we collect it?

We collect the following types of personal data:

  • Your name and contact details including email and postal address.
  • Any other comments/images you send us.

We collect the above personal information from you in the following ways:

  • Online enquiry form
  • Telephone enquiry
  • Email
  • Face to face meetings
  • Business cards
  • Online & in person, registration
  • Mailing list

3. What is our power to obtain and use the personal data?

When we collect and use your personal information we rely on the following lawful basis:

  • Processing is necessary for the performance of a task carried out in the public interest or in the exercise of official authority vested in the controller.
  • Legitimate Interests – the processing is necessary for the purpose of legitimate interests.
  • Article 6 the data subject has given consent to the processing of his or her personal data for one or more specific purposes. Any communication sent after that point will include a link to withdraw consent.

4. What is your personal information used for?

We use your information to enable us to run our business and manage our relationship with you effectively, lawfully and appropriately. We collect information for the following reasons:

To deliver business support services to you

The information we collect is necessary for us to deliver the business support services that you have registered for. We will check your eligibility and if applicable provide support and advice to your business.

As a government funded service, we also need to collect and monitor some baseline and impact data about your business and retain details for audit purposes. ​

To pursue our legitimate business interests

We will also use your information to:

  • Let you know about other business support opportunities and events, but only where we feel that these will benefit your business;
  • Measure the quality of our services and improve them, through customer satisfaction, feedback and evaluation;
  • Help us to service customers’ needs more effectively;
  • Better understand the local business market;
  • Analyse our impact on the wider economic development of County Durham;
  • Ensure we meet our targets and other contractual commitments;
  • Notify you about changes to our services;
  • Prevent and detect fraud and irregularity;
  • Advise businesses on starting up or relocating to the county;
  • Give further information on the Durham Ambitious Business Start-ups programme;
  • Provide ongoing information relevant to the Durham Ambitious Business Start-ups programme.

You can contact us at any time if you want to be removed from our marketing lists, and in certain circumstances you may also be able to object to our other legitimate uses.

5. How do we keep your personal information secure?

The security of your personal information is important to us. This is why we follow a range of security policies and procedures to control and safeguard access to and use of your personal information. DABS programme sub-contractors (TEDCO Business Support Ltd, UMI Commercial Ltd and Candle Learning Ltd) will only use your information for the purposes of administering this programme. Individual privacy policies are:

TEDCO Business Support LTD – https://www.tedco.org/privacy-policy/
UMi Commercial LTD – www.weareumi.co.uk/about-us/privacy-policy
Candle Learning LTD – https://www.candle.digital/privacy-policy/

We may disclose your information to the following types of organisations:

  1. Funders, auditors, advisers and authorities, including Business Durham, ERDF auditors and the Ministry for Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG)
  2. Programme delivers including TEDCO, UMi Commercial Ltd, Candle Learning Ltd
  3. Successors

6. How long will we keep your personal information?

After we deliver a service to you, we have to keep your information as a business record of what was delivered. The type service will determine how long we have to keep it. Our corporate retention guidelines show how long we keep it for different services However, TEDCO Business Support Ltd, UMI Commercial Ltd and Candle Learning Ltd will keep your personal information for as long as it useful for delivering the DABS programme. Business Durham will need to keep your information in storage (from the DABS programme) until December 2033 as part of the ERDF guidelines.

7. Is your personal information processed overseas?

We do not you send personal information outside the EU to be processed.

8. Marketing (if applicable)

We will only contact you with further information if you have given your explicit written consent when you submit the website form. Any communication sent after that point will include a link to withdraw consent. Your information will not be sold onto any other parties and will only be used by the DABS programme sub-contractors (TEDCO, UMi Commercial Ltd, and Candle Learning Ltd) to notify you with information relating to the DABS project.

9. What are your information rights?

Your Information Rights are set out in the law. Subject to some legal exceptions, you have the right:

  • to have any inaccuracies corrected
  • to have your personal data erased
  • to place a restriction on our processing of your data
  • to object to processing
  • to request your data to be ported (data portability)

If you wish to exercise your information rights, please contact the Data Protection Officer at DPO@durham.gov.uk or alternatively write to:

DPO Room
143-148 Floor 4
County Hall
Durham County Council
DH1 5UF

You also have the right to request a copy of the personal information council holds about you.

To learn more about these rights please see the Information Commissioner’s Office website.

If something goes wrong with your personal information, or you have questions about how we use it, please contact the Data Protection Officer at DPO@durham.gov.uk.

If we have not been able to deal with your complaint, you can also contact: Information Commissioner’s Office Wycliffe House Water Lane Wilmslow Cheshire SK9 5AF Telephone: 0303 123 1113 (local rate) or 01625 545 745 Fax: 01625 524 510