Privacy Policy

The ‘Start with NBSL’ website is owned and managed by Northumberland Business Service Ltd (NBSL – we, our, us) – we are committed to protecting your personal information.

This Privacy Policy contains important information about the personal information we collect; what we do with that information; who we may share it with and why; and your rights when it comes to the personal information you have given us.

We may make changes to this Privacy Policy from time to time, so please check this page for updates.

This Privacy Policy was last updated on the 24/06/2022.

Who we are

We are Northumberland Business Service Ltd. Our registered address is:

6 Esther Court, Wansbeck Business Park, Rotary Parkway, Ashington, NE63 8AP

The company is registered in England and our company registration number is: 4121893

How to contact us

If you have any questions about our Privacy Policy or the information we collect or use about you, please contact;

Data Protection Officer

Northumberland Business Service Ltd

6 Esther Court,

Wansbeck Business Park,

Rotary Parkway,

Ashington,

NE63 8AP

Or email [email protected] with ‘FAO the Data Protection Officer’ as the subject line.

The information we collect

The majority of the information we collect and process is about a business rather than an individual. We do however, collect some personal information:

Information about who you are e.g. your name, contact details, etc.
Information about your contact with us e.g. meetings, phone calls, emails/letters, etc.
Information about use of our website collected through cookies. You can read our Cookie Policy here.

Where we could collect your information from

We may collect your personal information directly from you, from a variety of sources, including:

application forms for a grant or other service that we provide.
phone conversations with us.
emails or letters you send to us.
meetings with a member of our staff or a third party acting on our behalf.
at an event organised by us or a third party.
on our websites or other web applications.

How we use your information

Your privacy is extremely important to us and we take our responsibilities very seriously. We will only collect and process your personal information when it is necessary and lawful to do so:

when you have applied for a grant or other service that we provide, we need to collect and process your personal information in order to contact you for the duration of the grant or service we provide and for the duration for which we are obliged by our funders to hold your information for audit purposes.
when you have given us permission to send you information about our grants and services; similar grants and services offered by other local enterprise agencies; free or fully funded local events and other relevant support available to help you to grow your business. This will normally take the form of an email newsletter that you can unsubscribe from at any point.
when it’s necessary for us to meet any legal or statutory obligations.

If you do not consent to us collecting and using your personal data, it is unlikely that we will be able to offer any of our grants or support services to your organisation.

Who we might share your information with

We may choose to share your information with third parties, when it is necessary for the delivery of one of our grants or other services that you have asked for.

These third parties include:

Companies who provide services on our behalf, such as workshops or events.
Companies that provide services to us such as bespoke software, web applications, etc.
Companies who conduct research on our behalf.
The bodies who provide your funding, for reporting, monitoring and evaluation purposes.

We will only ever provide the information required by the third party to carry out whatever we have asked them to do, i.e. we will not provide your phone number to a third party if we have not asked them to contact you by phone.

We will provide your information to law enforcement agencies if obliged to do so.

We will never sell your personal information to anyone and whenever we share your personal information, we will do so in line with our obligations to keep your information safe and secure.

Where your information is processed

The majority of your information is processed in the UK. All of our web servers are located in the UK and our offices are also located in the UK.

A small amount of information is stored/processed outside of the UK. This information is held on servers that are certified against the Privacy Shield Framework, meaning the data is stored in line with the same regulations as if it was in the UK/EU.

How we protect your information

We are committed to ensuring that your information is secure. In order to prevent unauthorised access or disclosure, we have put in place suitable physical, electronic and managerial procedures to safeguard and secure the personal information we collect.

How long we keep your information

We will only keep your information for as long as it is necessary to provide you with the grant or service you have asked us to provide.

In some instances, we may be obliged to keep your information in order that the funder who provided your assistance can audit our delivery of the programme.

Your individual rights

Under the General Data Protection Regulations, you have a number of rights in relation to how we use your information. They are:

The right to be informed

You have a right to receive information on what personal information we have, why and who we share it with – we do that in this document.

The right of access

If you would like to receive a copy of the personal information we hold on you, you can make a data subject access request (DSAR).

The right to rectification

If your personal information is inaccurate, you can request that it is rectified.

The right to erasure

You can ask us to delete your information if there is not a legitimate reason for us to continue to have it.

The right to restrict processing

You can ask us to restrict the processing of your personal information for certain reasons.

The right to data portability

You can ask for a copy of your personal information in a structured, commonly used format.

The right to object

You can object to us processing your personal information when it’s based on our legitimate interests; for direct marketing or if we are using it for scientific/historical research.

How to make a complaint

If you do not believe that we have managed your information in line with this document, in the first instance, please email [email protected] with ‘FAO the Data Protection Officer’ as the subject line or write to: