Guidance

Neighbourhood Board membership and place boundary form: privacy notice

Published 12 March 2025

This privacy notice explains your rights and gives you the information you are entitled to under UK data protection legislation.

It only refers to your personal data (for example, your name, address and anything that could be used to identify you or others personally), not the other contents of your Plan for Neighbourhoods programme documentation.

The identity of the data controller and contact details of our data protection officer

The Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG) is the data controller for all Plan for Neighbourhoods programme-related personal data collected with the relevant forms submitted to MHCLG, and the control and processing of personal data.

The data protection officer can be contacted at dataprotection@communities.gov.uk

What personal data we are collecting and why    

District Councils, Unitary Authorities or Town Councils have been designated as accountable bodies for the Plan for Neighbourhoods programme.

As part of the Neighbourhood Board and place boundary confirmation process for the Plan for Neighbourhoods programme, we will be collecting the following data from the accountable bodies:

• names, role and contact details of staff from local authority, or other organisations, submitting Neighbourhood Board information to us (personal data)
• names, role, organisation details and interests of Neighbourhood Board members and observers (personal data)
• Information about those with which the local authority has engaged, which could include names, role, organisation details and interests of participating community groups (personal data)

Your personal data is being collected as an essential part of the Plan for Neighbourhoods programme delivery, so that we can contact you regarding your Neighbourhood Board and assess whether we are content that your Neighbourhood Board membership and management arrangements are in line with the programme’s published guidance.

For example, we may get in touch to:

• discuss your Neighbourhood Board membership/observer list or your boundary change request
• ask for further information or supporting documentation
• confirm that we are content with your Neighbourhood Board membership and observers
• confirm that we are content with your place’s geographic boundary

We may also use it to contact you about matters specific to the programme.

Lawful basis for processing your personal data   

The Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG) will process all data according to the provisions of the Data Protection Act 2018 and the UK General Data Protection Regulation 2018 (UK GDPR) and all applicable laws and regulations relating to processing of Personal Data and privacy, including, where necessary, the guidance and codes of practice issued by the Information Commissioner and any other relevant data protection regulations (together “the Data Protection Legislation (as amended from time to time)”).

The Data Protection Legislation sets out when we are lawfully allowed to process your data.

The lawful basis that applies to this processing is Article 6 (1) (e) of the UK GDPR, that:

• 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
• data being processed belongs to business contacts processed during the routine course of business of a government department

Sharing your personal data

As part of the process of assessment and monitoring of the Plan for Neighbourhoods fund, MHCLG will share your personal data with relevant government departments or arm’s-length bodies, including:

• Wales Office
• Scotland Office
• Northern Ireland Office
• HM Treasury (HMT)
• No. 10 and Cabinet Office
• Department for Business and Trade (DBT)

Depending on the location of your neighbourhood, MHCLG may share data with the devolved governments as part of the process of assessment and monitoring.

We may also share data with contractors for the purposes of assessment, monitoring and evaluation, in which case their contract will set out what they are permitted to do with the data.

MHCLG will use an in-house service called Delta to collect information on Neighbourhood Boards and place boundaries. As a data processor, this organisation shall only process personal information at the direction of the department. They cannot take ownership of the data or any derivatives of it.

There are data processing agreements in place between the department and its data processors to ensure that the processing of your personal data remains in strict accordance with the requirements of data protection legislation.

How long we will keep your personal data  

Your personal data will be held for up to 7 years from closure of the fund in March 2036. We will continue to hold your personal data so that we are able to contact you in order to monitor the progress of the fund and to evaluate the Plan for Neighbourhoods programme.

As part of the monitoring process, we will contact you regularly to ensure our records are up to date.

Your rights

The data we are collecting is your personal data, and you have rights that affect what happens to it. You have the right to:  

• know that we are using your personal data 
• see what data we have about you 
• ask to have your data corrected, and to ask how we check the information we hold is accurate 
• complain to the ICO

In some circumstances you may also have the right to withdraw your consent to us having or using your data, to have all data about you deleted, or to object to particularly types of use of your data. We will tell you when these rights apply. 

Sending data overseas 

Your personal data will not be sent overseas.  

Automated decision making 

We will not use your data for any automated decision making. 

Storage, security and data management 

We use an in-house service called Delta to collect and store data for the Neighbourhood Board membership and place boundary form. For full details, see the privacy policy for Delta.

Where data is shared with third parties, as set out in Sharing your personal data, we require third parties to respect the security of your data and to treat it in accordance with the law. All third parties are required to take appropriate security measures to protect your personal information in line with our policies.

Complaints and more information 

When we ask you for information, we will keep to the law, including the Data Protection Act 2018 and UK General Data Protection Regulation.

If you are unhappy with the way the department has acted, you can make a complaint.

If you want to make a Subject Access Request, another request in relation to your rights, or if you are not happy with how we are using your personal data, you should first contact dataprotection@communities.gov.uk

If you are still not happy, or for independent advice about data protection, privacy and data sharing, you can contact the Information Commissioner’s Office: 

The Information Commissioner’s Office  
Wycliffe House  Water Lane
Wilmslow
Cheshire
SK9 5AF   

Telephone: 0303 123 1113 or 01625 545 745