This notice, sometimes called a privacy policy, explains in ordinary words what New Inn Congregational Church does with personal information. The full Data Protection Policy is available from the church on request.
Who we are
We are New Inn Congregational Church (NICC), Pontypool. The church is the data controller for the personal information it holds. If you have any question about your information, contact the Honorary Treasurer at info@newinncongregationalchurch.org.uk. The Treasurer is the church’s Data Contact.
What we hold and why
We keep the information that church life needs, and no more:
- Contact and pastoral details of members, attenders and friends of the church. That means names, addresses, phone numbers, email addresses, and pastoral notes where care is being given. We use them for the day-to-day life of the church: keeping in touch, pastoral visits, rotas, and telling you about church activities and events.
- Giving records, where you give to the church, including Gift Aid declarations, which tax law requires us to keep.
- Employment records for those the church employs.
- Safeguarding records, where safeguarding requires them, kept confidentially under our Safeguarding Policy.
- Minutes and registers that record the church’s governance.
Because this is a church, most of what we hold says something about religious belief. The law allows a not-for-profit religious body to hold that kind of information about its members and regular contacts, in the course of its work. That is the basis on which we hold it.
What we do not do
We treat your information as private and confidential. We do not sell it.
We do not pass it to anyone outside the church, with four exceptions:
- where the law requires it, for example Gift Aid records to HMRC or a safeguarding referral
- where it is necessary to protect someone from harm
- to trusted providers who process it on our instructions
- at your own request, or with your consent
Within the church, information is shared only with those who need it.
How long we keep it
Only as long as it is needed. Some records have legal retention periods: Gift Aid and payroll for six years, and safeguarding allegation records indefinitely. Our Data Protection Policy sets out the periods in its Appendix A, the Retention Schedule, and is available on request.
Your rights
You can ask to see what we hold about you. You can ask us to correct it, and usually you can ask us to delete it or to stop using it. Where we rely on your consent, you can withdraw it at any time.
Ask the Data Contact at info@newinncongregationalchurch.org.uk and we will respond within a month. If you are unhappy with our answer you can complain to the Information Commissioner’s Office at ico.org.uk or 0303 123 1113. We would hope to put things right ourselves first.
Website
Our website, newinncongregationalchurch.org.uk, keeps the technical logs any web server keeps. If you use the contact form, we receive your name, your contact details and your message. We use them only to reply.
The site embeds a Google map and links to our YouTube and Facebook pages. Using those brings Google’s and Meta’s own cookies and privacy terms rather than ours.
The site also uses cookies for analytics and to keep our sermon and events pages current. The analytics is Google Analytics and it runs only if you accept it. Cookie consent is managed by a CookieYes banner offering Customise, Reject All and Accept All. The Cookie Policy that the banner links to carries the detail.
