Privacy Policy

Privacy Policy & Cookies

Our policy is to respect and protect the privacy of anyone who visits this website and we are committed to protecting the privacy of your data. We wish to be clear when we collect your data, respect any personal information you share with us, and keep your data safe.

Please read this Privacy Policy carefully to understand our practices and how we collect, use and store your personal data. If there are significant changes to our Privacy Policy, we will inform those people with whom we are in regular contact, such as email subscribers.

 This privacy statement explains:

  • what information we may collect about you;
  • how we will use information we collect about you;
  • when we may use your details to contact you;
  • whether we will disclose your details to anyone else;
  • your choices regarding the personal information you provide to us; and
  • the use of cookies on our website and your choices in relation to those cookies.

Who we are

We are the Buckinghamshire & Milton Keynes Natural Environment Partnership (“the NEP”). We are a partnership organisation made up of partners from local government, business, environment and conservation, and non-governmental bodies.

We manage the project “Bucks Buzzing” which is a community pollinator awareness project. We host the “Conservation Directory”, which collates opportunities and events from a variety of third-party organisations.

When you provide your data to the NEP, the data controller for the purpose of the Data Protection Act 1998 and the General Data Protection Regulation will be the NEP.

Our address is County Hall, Walton Street, Aylesbury, HP20 1UX.

Why we collection your information

We collect your information to allow us to provide you with the service you have requested from us; to provide you with information which you have requested; to understand how people use our website; and to improve how we communicate with you and how we operate generally.

What information will the NEP collect from me?

We may collect and process data about you in the following circumstances:

  • when you enter a Bucks Buzzing promotion or competition;
  • when you submit a Bucks Buzzing case study;
  • when you register your details with our Conservation Directory;
  • when you subscribe to receive any of our services, for example subscribing to our newsletter or to receive updates from Bucks Buzzing;
  • when you use our website, we may collect data to help us personalise our website with your preferences;
  • when you visit our website, we may collect information about your usage of the website;
  • when you respond to a survey;
  • when you log in to the Members’ Area;
  • when you report a problem with our website; or,
  • if you contact us, we may keep a record of that correspondence.

The information we collect may be your name, email address, and postcode.

We may collect information about your computer, including where available your operating system and browser type, for system administration and to report aggregate information internally. This is statistical data about our users’ browsing actions and patterns, and does not identify any individual.

We do not seek to collect ‘sensitive personal data’ – that is, data relating to:

  • race or ethnic origin
  • political opinion
  • religious or other similar beliefs
  • trade union membership
  • physical or mental health
  • sexual orientation
  • criminal records

How will the NEP use the information it collects?

We use information held about you in the following ways:

  • to ensure that content from our website is presented in the most effective manner for you and for your computer;
  • to provide you with information, products or services that you expressly request from us or, where you have consented to be contacted for such purposes, which we feel may interest you;
  • to notify you about changes to our service;
  • to carry out any obligations or provide you with any other services, functionality or content which you specifically agree to on our website;
  • to invite you to participate in surveys or research about the NEP, Bucks Buzzing, or the Conservation Directory (participation is always voluntary and only where your consent to be contacted has been expressly given); and
  • for internal record-keeping and administration purposes.

We may also use and disclose anonymised information in aggregate (so that no individuals are identified) for strategic development and reporting purposes.

What personal data will the NEP hold

We only retain personal identifying information about you if you request to be added to our mailing list, in which case we will retain only your Forename, Surname, Email Address, and (where relevant) Bucks Buzzing Supporter Type and Organisation. We may also retain records of your correspondence with us.

If you provide photographs and/or a story to our Bucks Buzzing Case Studies, that information may be used on our website, on social media, and held on our network.

If you sign up to receive the “free wildflower seeds” promotion, we will not retain your address after the seeds have been posted and we will not contact you again by post.

Will the NEP send me newsletters or marketing material?

We will only send you newsletters by email if you have agreed to it. When we collect your email address from you, we will ask you if you would like the NEP to contact you with news and/or updates.

You may opt-in/opt-out of such communications at the time you provide your information or at any time after providing your information by contacting nep@buckscc.gov.uk, or for email newsletters, by clicking ‘unsubscribe’ on a newsletter email sent to you from us.

Will the NEP share my information with anyone else?

Your information will only be used for the purposes indicated when you gave us the information, and those purposes set out in this privacy statement. We may pass your information to our service providers, agents and associated organisations, in order to complete tasks and provide services to you. These providers will not retain your information.

We will not sell or share any information about you or your activity on our website to third parties for marketing purposes.

We may allow our staff, consultants and/or external providers acting on our behalf to access and use your information for the activities we have described above (e.g. to deliver mailings, to post requested products). We only permit them to use it to deliver the relevant service and only if they apply equivalent levels of protection that we do.

We may also need to disclose your information where disclosure is required or permitted by law, or if we have your permission to do so.

We take appropriate measures to ensure that the personal information disclosed to us is kept secure, accurate, and kept only for so long as is necessary for the purposes for which it is used.

Our website contains links to and from the websites of our partners and affiliates. If you follow a link to any of these websites, please note that these websites have their own privacy policies and that we do not accept any responsibility or liability for these policies. Please check these policies before you submit any personal data to these websites.

The information we collect from you may be transferred to, shared and/or otherwise processed at a destination outside the European Economic Area (“EEA”). If we do we will take reasonable steps to ensure that the recipient implements appropriate measures to protect your information. However, the transmission of information via the internet unfortunately is not completely secure. We will do our best to protect your personal data, but we cannot guarantee the security of your data transmitted to our site and any transmission is at your own risk.

How do I update the information the NEP holds about me?

If you would like to update any of the information we hold about you, such as your email address or your newsletter preferences, please contact nep@buckscc.gov.uk.

Your right of access

Except in limited circumstances, you have a legal right to request a copy of the information we hold about you and to have inaccuracies corrected. If you wish to exercise these rights, contact nep@buckscc.gov.uk.

In some circumstances, you have a right to require us to stop processing your personal data in a particular way, or for your data to be erased from our database. If it is not necessary for the purpose you provided it to us for (e.g. providing you with an item you have requested) or we do not otherwise require the data to be archived for future reference, we will do so.

The legal basis that we rely on for processing your data is either where:

  • You have provided your consent
  • It is within our legitimate interests
  • It is necessary in connection with the performance of a contract with you
  • It is necessary to for compliance with a legal obligation to which we are subject.

You can also opt-out of receiving all or some of our communications or request that we stop processing data about you for certain purposes at any time by contacting nep@buckscc.gov.uk or using the ‘Unsubscribe’ link at the bottom of our newsletter.

If you are unhappy with the way in which we have handled your personal data please contact us. You have a right to ask for a copy of the information we hold about you. If you want to access your information, please send a description of the information you want to see and proof of your identity to nep@buckscc.gov.uk.

You are also entitled to make a complaint to the Information Commissioner’s office, and for further information see the Information Commissioner’s guidance here: https://ico.org.uk/for-the-public/personal-information.

Data Retention

We keep data for only as long as there is a need in connection with the purposes for which it was collected (eg: if you sign up for seeds through Bucks Buzzing, your address information will not be retained once the seeds have been posted).

We may keep your personal data after a particular matter or exchange has concluded but purely for record keeping purposes and to be able to respond to queries.  In some cases, we are obliged to retain your personal data to comply with legal or statutory obligations.

In the event that you ask us to stop sending you marketing communications, we will retain certain details, to help us ensure that you are not contacted again.

Changes to our privacy statement

Any changes we may make to our privacy statement in the future will be posted on this page. This policy was last updated March 2020.

Contact

Questions, comments and requests regarding this privacy statement should be addressed to nep@buckinghamshire.gov.uk.

Cookies on the NEP’s website

What is a cookie?

We want to ease any concerns you may have about Cookies on this website.

A cookie is a small text file that’s sent to your computer when you visit a website. When you visit the website again, the cookie allows that site to know that you’ve visited it before and in some cases tailors the website content to take account of that fact. Cookies are anonymous and do not contain personal information, and we cannot use them to find out who you are.

A cookie typically contains the name of the website it’s from, the lifespan of the cookie and a value. The value is usually a unique code that will only make sense to the website that has issued it.

How does the NEP use cookies on our website?

We use cookies to help improve your experience of using the NEP website. We use cookies that are strictly necessary to enable you to move around the site or to provide certain basic features. We use cookies to enhance the functionality of the website, for example by storing your preferences. We also use cookies to help us to improve the performance of our website to provide you with a better user experience.

We don’t sell the information collected by cookies, nor do we disclose the information to third parties, except where required by law (for example to government bodies and law enforcement agencies).

Functionality cookies record information about choices you’ve made and allow us to tailor the website to you. Cookies are anonymous and cannot be used to identify you personally. They allow the site to ‘remember’ you so that your preferences and settings are retained, either through the duration of your visit (using a ‘session cookie’) or for repeat visits (using a ‘persistent cookie’).

Cookies which help us improve the site

Some cookies help us to see how people are using the website. These are known as ‘analytics cookies’ or ‘tracking cookies’. This information is anonymous and we don’t collect anything that would identify a user. We use this data to inform us on how the website is being used, which content is popular, and where improvements could be made.

We use Google Analytics to help us to analyse how users use the site. It counts the number of visitors and tells us things about their behaviour overall, such average number of pages visited or the duration of user visits. This information is anonymous.

The NEP website may also carry occasional embedded content and ‘share’ buttons to enable users of the site to easily share articles through a number of social networks, such as Facebook or Twitter. These sites may set a cookie. The NEP does not control these cookies and you should check the relevant third party website for more information about their policies.

How to manage cookies

If you wish to restrict or block web browser cookies on your device then you can do this through your browser settings; please use the Help function within your browser to tell you how. Alternatively, you can visit www.aboutcookies.org for more detailed information on how to control and/or delete cookies.

The NEP website will work without cookies, but you may lose some features and functionality if you choose to disable cookies.