Guidance

Countryside Stewardship Facilitation Fund privacy notice

Updated 13 November 2024

Applies to England

The Countryside Stewardship Facilitation Fund helps facilitators (individuals or organisations) bring groups of land managers together, enabling collaboration to improve the natural environment at a landscape rather than single-farm scale.

Who collects your personal data

The data controller is Natural England at:

Foss House
Kings Pool
1 to 2 Peasholme Green
York
Y01 7PX

Send questions about how Natural England uses your personal data and your associated rights to the Natural England Data Protection Manager at [email protected] or:

Natural England
County Hall
Spetchley Road
Worcester
WR5 2NP

The Data Protection Officer for the Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs (Defra) group is responsible for checking that Natural England complies with legislation. You can contact them at [email protected] or:

Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs
SW Quarter
2nd floor
Seacole Block
2 Marsham Street
London
SW1P 4DF

What personal data is collected and how it’s used

To carry out Natural England’s responsibilities in the operation of the fund, the following data is collected:

• facilitator’s name
• facilitator’s contact details
• facilitator’s single business identifier (SBI)
• details of group members’ holdings and SBI

The personal data will be used for:

• assessing applications
• scheme monitoring
• providing technical advice and best practice guidance

The Best Practice Network distribution list is a means of providing best practice guidance to facilitators and interested others by email.

The following data is used:

• facilitator’s name
• facilitator’s email address

The following data is collected from other interested persons requesting to be part of the network:

• name
• email address

The data is used by Natural England to provide best practice guidance, to communicate about the Facilitation Fund Best Practice Network’s news.  This could be about webinars, access to grants and campaigns and other best practice guidance and information.

The Best Practice Network external SharePoint site is an information hub for the Best Practice Network.

The following data is collected from persons who request to opt-in to access the site:

• name
• email address

The data is used to allow site access. The data is used by Natural England to provide best practice guidance, to communicate about the Facilitation Fund Best Practice Network’s news.  This could be about webinars, access to grants and campaigns and other best practice guidance and information.

The legal basis for processing your personal data

Processing is necessary for the performance of a task carried out in the public interest. This is to carry out Natural England’s role in the fund in:

• assessing applications
• technical advice to aid agreement management
• scheme monitoring
• best practice guidance

The processing of your personal data in relation to our Countryside Stewardship Facilitation Fund Best Practice Network distribution list and our Facilitation Fund Best Practice Network External SharePoint site is based on consent.

Consent to process your personal data

The processing of your data in relation to the Countryside Stewardship Facilitation Fund scheme is not based on consent. You cannot withdraw it.

The processing of your personal data in relation to our Countryside Stewardship Facilitation Fund Best Practice Network distribution list and our Facilitation Fund Best Practice Network External SharePoint site is based on consent.

You can withdraw consent at any time by emailing [email protected] or [email protected].

Who Natural England shares your personal data with

For the operation of the Fund and the Best Practice Network Distribution email list

Natural England may share your personal data with Defra, Rural Payments Agency, Environment Agency and Forestry Commission in order to fulfil our responsibilities in assessing applications, scheme monitoring and providing technical advice and best practice guidance, as well as with other public bodies with a vested responsibility for the public good and the environment.

The Facilitation Fund Best Practice Network External SharePoint site

Access to the site is on an opt-in basis on the understanding that some information will be seen by other visitors to the site and therefore, may appear in the public domain.

Your email address and full name will be displayed in the ‘site permissions’ settings and this will only be visible to site users who are staff members within the following group of Defra organisations:

• Natural England
• Core Defra
• Rural Payments Agency
• Environment Agency
• Animal Plant and Health Agency
• Marine Management Organisation
• Climate Change Committee

Other details

There will opportunity to display email addresses on the site to encourage collaboration and share news of groups’ insights and achievements. Any details you choose to supply about yourself and your organisation, or any personal data you submit to the site, is provided at your own discretion. These will be available to other users of the site.

MS Teams recorded webinars of our monthly meetings will be available on the site. At the start of meetings attendees will be advised that the meeting will be recorded for sharing with invitees and members of the network. Some attendees’ profile IDs (initials, profile picture, part of name) will be listed on the right of the screen and captured in the recording, furthermore, if you come off camera or speak, your likeness or comments (or both) will also be captured. Please be aware that once a meeting has been recorded, we will be unable to delete your personal information or comments from the recording.

Natural England respects your personal privacy when responding to access to information requests. We only share information when necessary to meet the statutory requirements of the Environmental Information Regulations 2004 and the Freedom of Information Act 2000.

How long Natural England holds personal data

Natural England will keep your personal data for at least 7 years from the end of the agreement for those accepted onto the scheme.

Recordings of MS Teams meetings will be kept for as long as the material is necessary or useful (or both) for the purposes of the Network.

In respect to the contact details for the Best Practice Network distribution list and access details to the SharePoint site, Natural England will keep your personal data until you request otherwise. When we contact you, we will include details of how you can stop receiving communications.

What happens if you do not provide the data requested

Natural England will be unable to contact you with information about best practice information through the Countryside Stewardship Facilitation Fund Best Practice Network.

You would not be able to access the Facilitation Fund Best Practice External SharePoint site.

Use of automated decision-making or profiling

The information you provide is not used for:

• automated decision-making (making a decision by automated means without any human involvement)
• profiling (automated processing of personal data to evaluate certain things about an individual)

Transfer of data outside the UK

Natural England will only transfer your data to another country that is deemed adequate for data protection purposes.

Your rights

Find out about your individual rights under the UK General Data Protection Regulation (UK GDPR) and the Data Protection Act 2018 (DPA 2018).

Complaints

You have the right to make a complaint to the Information Commissioner’s Office at any time.

Natural England’s personal information charter

Natural England’s personal information charter explains more about your rights over your personal data.