Privacy Notice for Community Organisations Cost of Living Fund

  1. Funding
  2. Privacy Notice for Community Organisations Cost of Living Fund
Funded by UK Government. Delivered by The National Lottery Community Fund


The Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) has awarded a grant to The National Lottery Community Fund (the Fund) to support delivery of the Community Organisations Cost of Living Fund (the Programme). The Programme has been set up to fund organisations that support people and communities under severe pressure because of the increased cost of living.

Applications to the Programme open on 24 July 2023 and close on 16 October. The Fund will start funding organisations in October 2023, and finish in January 2024. Any grants received under the Programme must be spent by 31 March 2024.

The Fund will collect personal data about grant applicants to enable it to process, manage, monitor and allow evaluation and post-grant assurance activities of Programme grants.

What personal information the Fund will be collecting

The Fund will collect applicant and grant holder personal data. Personal data is any information that relates to a living individual who can be identified from that data. Personal data the Fund collects includes your name, address, date of birth, telephone number, email address and IP address.

What the Fund will do with the information you provide

The Fund may use your personal data to help your organisation apply for grants and to assess its applications. It may carry out checks on your personal data as described below. If a grant is awarded, the Fund may use your personal data to manage and monitor its grant and to check the money is being used appropriately. If you don’t provide this personal data, the Fund may not be able to process your application or award a grant to your organisation.

The Fund may also use your personal data to evaluate and research the impact of its grants and to carry out post grant assurance activities (or enable a third party to do so). We may also use your personal data to let you know about the Fund funding and other activities.

The results of any evaluations or research relating to the Programme may be published by the Fund or DCMS but your personal data won’t be published in the results of the evaluations or research without your agreement.

Sharing your personal data:

The Fund may share your personal data with organisations that help it to carry out its grant making activities. For this Programme, the Fund intends to share your personal data with an evaluator commissioned by DCMS and with any supplier appointed by DCMS to carry out post-grant assurance activities.

The Fund may also share your personal data with organisations which support its IT software and systems. In each case, it will only share personal data needed to carry out relevant work, and will do so subject to appropriate safety measures that are designed to ensure your personal data remains secure and is only used for the intended purpose.

The Fund may also share your organisation’s contact details with your local parliamentary representative as they may want to contact you about the grant.

Legal basis for processing:

The Fund is a public body with a statutory duty to distribute National Lottery and other third party funds for good causes. It processes your personal data as a necessary part of exercising this official authority vested in it.

The Fund will not collect and use personal data for purposes beyond its statutory duties except where it has your consent or has notified you of the relevant legal basis for processing.

How long will the Fund retain your personal information:

The Fund will keep your personal data for no longer than is necessary for the purposes described in this notice or otherwise allowed by law and the Fund’s policy on retaining records. We will keep records of any grants made under the Programme for seven years from the date any grant is made to your organisation, and longer, if needed, for fraud prevention reasons.

The Fund will keep your personal data up to date and store it securely. It will put appropriate technical measures in place to protect it from loss, misuse, unauthorised access and disclosure. The Fund will not collect or retain more personal data than necessary to exercise the official authority vested in it. When the Fund has held your personal data for the maximum period of time required, it will destroy it securely.

Fraud prevention and identity checks

If you apply for a grant or receive a grant from the Fund, it may undertake checks for the purposes of preventing fraud and money laundering and to verify your identity. These checks require the Fund to process personal data you have provided about you and your nominated representatives and data it has received from third parties.

The Fund and fraud prevention agencies may also enable law enforcement agencies, regulators, Government, other National Lottery distributors and other funders to access and use your personal data to detect, investigate and prevent crime.

Fraud prevention agencies can hold your personal data for different periods of time. If you are considered to pose a fraud or money laundering risk, your personal data can be held for up to six years following the date of the outcome of any fraud, money laundering or financial irregularity investigation.

If the Fund, or a fraud prevention agency, determine that you pose a fraud or money laundering risk, it may refuse to award a grant and it may withdraw existing grants.

A record of any fraud or money laundering risk will be retained by the Fund and the fraud prevention agencies and may result in others refusing to provide you with services, financing or employment. If you have any questions about this, please contact the Fund on the details below.

Fraud prevention and identity checks

If you apply for a grant or receive a grant from us, we may undertake checks on your information. The personal information we have collected from you will be shared with fraud prevention agencies who will use it to prevent fraud and money-laundering and to verify your identity. These checks require us to process personal data you have provided about you and your nominated representatives and data we have received from third parties.

We and fraud prevention agencies may also enable law enforcement agencies, regulators, Government, Lottery distributors and other funders to access and use your personal data to detect, investigate and prevent crime. Fraud prevention agencies can hold your personal data for different periods of time. If you are considered to pose a fraud or money laundering risk, your personal data can be held for up to six years.

If we, or a fraud prevention agency, determine that you pose a fraud or money laundering risk, we may refuse to award a grant and we may withdraw existing grants. A record of any fraud or money laundering risk will be retained by us and the fraud prevention agencies. If fraud is detected, you could be refused certain services, finance, or employment.

Further details of how your information will be used by us and these fraud prevention agencies, and your data protection rights, can be found in the fair processing notices for Cifas' databases. Cifas is a fraud prevention service.

If you have any questions about this, please contact us on the details at the end of this page.

Transfer of data abroad

If your personal data is transferred to a country outside of the UK or European Economic Area, the Fund will ensure it is transferred in accordance with this policy and subject to appropriate safety measures. Organisations which receive your personal data from the Fund must accept contractual obligations, or subscribe to international standards, designed to protect your personal data to UK standards.

Automated decision making

Your personal data will not be subject to any automated decision making.

What are your rights?

Your personal data is protected by legal rights. These include the right in certain circumstances to:

  • request a copy of your personal data held by the Fund;
  • ask for your personal data to be erased, for example, if the Fund no longer needs it for the purpose it was collected;
  • request that the Fund suspend the processing of your personal data, for example if you want the Fund to establish whether it is accurate or the reason for processing it;
  • object to the processing of your personal data where the Fund are processing it in the exercise of its official authority.

If the Fund’s processing of your personal data relies on your consent, you also have the right to withdraw your consent at any time and the right to ask for your personal data to be transferred to another organisation (known as the right to data portability).

For more information or to exercise your data protection rights, please contact the Fund’s Data Protection Officer using the contact details below. There are other rights not listed here and exemptions may apply in some circumstances.

If you are unhappy about how your personal data has been used please refer to our complaints policy. You also have a right to complain to the Information Commissioner's Office – contact details below - which regulates the processing of personal data.

Contact details

Contact the Fund’s Data Protection Officer

If you have any questions, queries or complaints, and to exercise your personal data rights, please in the first instance email our Data Protection Officer at data.protection@tnlcommunityfund.org.uk.

Or write to:

The Data Protection Officer
The National Lottery Community Fund
Apex House
3 Embassy Drive
Birmingham
B15 1TR.

Contact the Information Commissioner’s Office

You can contact the Information Commissioner’s Office on 0303 123 1113.

You can find other ways to contact the Information Commissioner’s Office on their website.

Or write to:

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