Privacy Policy

1. Who we are and the scope of this privacy notice

This is a privacy policy notice of Futuresmiths Business Support Ltd, a limited company registered in England & Wales, registered company number 14756118, trading as The Future Smiths (TFS).

The Future Smiths are committed to ensuring that your privacy is protected and Futuresmiths Business Support Ltd is registered on the Data Protection Public Register of the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO).

This privacy notice explains what personal data we collect, why and how we collect it, what we do with it and how long we keep it for.

For the purposes of applicable data protection legislation, The Future Smiths is the data processor of the personal data you provide through the Business Fit For Future’s application, as part of the business support delivery awarded to TFS by Wiltshire Council.

Personal data is any information about you which can be identified or identifiable. We only collect your personal data in line with applicable laws.

2. What data we collect

In order to deliver public sector funded programmes, including financial and non-financial support, to businesses and social enterprises we may collect some, or all, of the following data:

– Name, telephone numbers, email address, contact address, job title.
– Demographic information such as postcode
– Personal information such as age, gender, ethnicity, disability, skills, experience, education.
– Company name, business email address, contract telephone numbers, company size, ownership, registration, financial data, location, information relating to directors and employees including employment information.
– Information relating to compliments or complaints.

Data held may also include correspondence, documents and any data you have passed to us to provide a service to you as part of this programme.

We may take photographs or film events and therefore we may have your image in our records. We will always inform attendees of our intention to photograph or film events and give attendees the opportunity to give or refuse permission. Webinars may also be recorded.

We ask for equal opportunities monitoring information about the leadership of organisations and will collect this data where provided, consistently with the provisions of the Data Protection Act 2018 for collecting personal data for the promotion of equal opportunity or treatment.

3. How we collect personal data

The personal data governed by this policy will originate from:

– The application form which you submit to enrol onto the business support programme and supplement in the process of applying for grant funding.
– When you register for information or newsletters from our website.
– A quality survey.
– TFS may also collect and use publicly available information about you and your organisation.

4. How we use your personal data

In delivering business support programmes on behalf of public sector bodies, your personal data will be used by us for the following purposes:

– To deliver services and advice as per our contractual obligations,
– Business support programme reporting and supply of data to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG), formerly the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities (DLUHC) and local councils, if applicable,
– To send you relevant information about services which may be of interest to you as part of the public sector funded programme,
– To provide customers with an improved service,
– To request your participation in evaluation questionnaire,
– To complying with our legal and regulatory requirements.

5. Sharing your personal data

We will only pass your personal data, provided by you, to third parties in the context of managing public sector funded programmes including grant applications to trusted third parties that help us to deliver efficient and quality services.

Where we do share your personal data, we do so with the following categories of recipients:

– Public sector partners. In the course of delivering public sector funded support, allocated from the UK Shared Prosperity Fund (UKSPF) to invest in communities and support local businesses, data collected in the delivery of this service, may be shared with the UK Government and the relevant local authority, for the purposes of monitoring, reporting and evaluation.

– In the process of carrying out public sector funded support alongside delivery partner organisations, data will be collected and shared only for the purposes of delivering public sector support.

– We may share personal information with any relevant law enforcement agency and authority without notice, where we are required to do so to meet a legal or regulatory obligation.

– We use a number of carefully chosen companies who could also have a copy of some of your data, including:
– Microsoft (for email & documents)
– Mailchimp (for email)
– Eventbrite (for event registration)
– JotForm (for online forms)
– Kajabi (for data hosting)
– HubSpot (for data management)

We never sell your personal data to other organisations such as direct marketing agencies.

6. Security of your personal data

We are committed to ensuring that your information is secure and take all appropriate information security, technical, storage and organisational measures to protect the personal data we collect.

We store almost all of the personal information we collect from you on servers within the European Economic Area (EEA). In any other circumstance in which your data is stored or transferred outside the EEA, we will take steps to ensure this data is securely handled and processed as safely as it would in the UK.

7. The lawful basis for processing your personal data

We may rely on the following legal basis to collect and use personal data in the delivery of our services:

1. Consent: you give clear consent for us to process your personal data when you provide such data to us.
2. Contract: the processing of your personal data is necessary to fulfil our contractual obligations to our clients and public-sector partners.
3. Legitimate interests: the processing of personal data is necessary for reason of legitimate interests, including but not exclusive to:
– Administering business support programmes.
– Promoting the programme to suitable applicants, including the delivery of industry news we believe would be of interest to those that have engaged with support programmes.
– Quality surveys and feedback used to improve future services.

The basis of legitimate interest will not apply where there is a good reason to protect a person’s data which overrides these interests.

8. How long do we keep your data for

We will retain your personal data only for as long as it is necessary to fulfil the purposes for which it was collected. This includes:
– The duration of the business support service contract,
– Any contractual obligations,
– Auditing and compliance purposes,
– Legal and reporting requirements.

9. What your rights are for your personal data

You have a variety of rights in respect of the data which we hold about you. These rights are outlined below.

– Your right to be informed: to be informed about the collection and use of your personal data.
– Your right of access: to ask to access and receive a copy of your personal data.
– Your right to rectification: to ask us to have inaccurate personal data rectified or completed if it is incomplete.
– Your right to erasure: to ask us to have personal data erased.
– Your right to restrict processing: to ask us to limit how we use your personal data.
– Your right to object to processing: right to object to the processing of your personal data.
– Your right to data portability: to ask to obtain and reuse your personal data for your own purposes.
– Your right to withdraw consent: When we use consent as our lawful basis you have the right to withdraw your consent at any time.

Any questions, comments or requests regarding this privacy policy should be addressed to: IT@thefuturesmiths.co.uk

10. Changes to this Privacy Policy

We may make changes to this privacy notice. Any changes will be posted on this page, please check regularly to see any updates or changes.

Lasted Updated: May 2025