How we use your personal information

The West Midlands Combined Authority (WMCA) has established the West Midlands Local Nature Investment Hub (WMNIH) as a regional match-making platform to unlock action and investment for the natural environment—connecting funders, landowners, charities and communities through a single front door to nature-based solutions.

We will process personal data you provide us in order to provide you with West Midlands Nature Investment Hub services you have requested. Please see “what we will do with your information” for details.

What is your “Personal Data”?

Personal data is information which is about you, and which identifies you as an individual. This means it could be used to make decisions which have a direct impact on you. The purpose of this notice is to explain how we will use the information you give to us, and what we will use it for.

Data protection law sets down the rules for data controllers (such as the Combined Authority), and rights for the people (known as “data subjects”) whose information is held by them (such as you).

As a data subject, you have rights under the Data Protection Act 2018 and   the UK General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).

In line with these rules, we are registered with the Information Commissioner as a ‘data controller.’ Our registration number is Z5897556.

How and why, we collect your personal information

We collect your data where the law allows, where we have your consent to do so or where we have a legal obligation. We may also receive your data from third parties, including other government departments.

Your personal information is collected to enable us to conduct the functions of the WMCA (WMNIH). The lawful basis for collecting and using your personal information will depend on the service and will normally be:

• where we have a contractual obligation
• where we need to for the purposes of WMCA functions
• where we have your consent to do so
• where we have a legal obligation.

Personal data collected from you directly.

We may collect information from you:

• Via the West Midlands Nature Investment Hub website.
• face-to-face like when you fill in a form or survey.
• over the telephone like when you contact our helpdesks.
• in correspondence that you send to us, like emails, letters, and social media posts.

We may use personal data we collect directly from you to:

• send you information about our work
• improve the services we offer to you
• operate our complaints policy
• contact you for feedback on the services we provide
• ensure the protection of public funds
• prevent and detect fraud.

Personal data collected from WMCA websites and social media channels

We may collect and process the following information:

• details of your visits to our website including the resources that you access, weblogs and other communication data
• subscriptions to our mailing lists.

We may use personal data we collect from websites and social media channels to:

• ensure that our website content is presented in the best way for you
• provide you with information, products, or services that you request from us or which we feel may interest you, where you have given us your consent
• allow you to participate in interactive features of our service when you choose to do so and notify you about changes to our website or services.

What information will we collect

We may require from you the following categories of information:

• Your name
• Contact number
• Postal address
• Email address
• Project information: The details of each project will be collected through an online form, the Project Submission Form (Form 3). Delivery partners will receive a secure link through which to enter their project information. This form will identify which information fields will be made publicly visible on the Hub, and which will be held privately in accordance with the Privacy Policy.
• Details about the delivery of Nature Investment Hub Programme to you
• Your views and comments on the services provided to you.
• Amount of funding committed to projects on Nature Investment Hub

What will we do with your information.

Specifically for the Hub we will use your contact details to:

• Facilitate the operation of the Hub.
• To contact or share your details with relevant third-party organisations where this is necessary to facilitate introductions, partnerships, opportunities, or services you have expressed interest in. (see ‘Who do we share your personal information with’.
• Keep you up to date with the progress of the Hub.
• To send you newsletters, promotions, and information about our products, services, or events.
• Conduct research and analysis to better understand user needs, improve our services, and develop new offerings. This may include surveys, feedback requests, and data analysis.

When deciding what personal information to collect, use and hold, we are committed to making sure that we:

• Only collect, hold and use personal information where it is necessary and fair to do so.
• Keep your personal information secure and safe.
• Securely dispose of any personal information when it is no longer needed.
• Be open with you about how we use your information and who we share it with.
• Adopt and maintain high standards in handling any personal information.

Who do we share your personal information with.

We may share your personal information with other services run by the WMCA, and other organisations, where the law allows it, or we have a legal obligation to do so. Specifically for the Hub, we may share your personal information:

• with a third-party trusted delivery partner if you have submitted an enquiry to fund their specific project.
• with a third-party funding provider where they have shown an interest in funding your project.

We will not share your information with anyone except:

1. Where we have your permission.
2. Where required for the delivery of any services we are providing you.
3. If permitted to share by data protection legislation. 

Sharing will only take place under strict contractual agreements and/or sharing agreements. 

How long will we keep your personal information?

Personal information which you choose to share with us will be treated as confidential. Your data will be processed by our staff, who are all based in the UK. The data we process may be held internally on our own managed systems, externally on cloud-based services or on the systems of trusted delivery partners who we have shared with in order to provide services to you.

We will take the necessary steps to keep your information safe. It will then be securely destroyed when it is no longer needed.

We will only keep your personal data for as long as we need it. WMCA has a disposal schedule for personal data based on the needs and the law.

We may need to keep your personal information indefinitely for research and statistical purposes. We will put in place the necessary measures to safeguard this information.

Your data protection rights

Under the Data Protection Act 2018 and the UK GDPR, you as the Data Subject, have the following rights. Each request will be reviewed and actioned wherever possible. However, you should be aware that, due to the reasons that WMCA may be processing your information we may not be able to comply with some requests due to legal obligations. You have the right to:

• ask for access to information about you that we hold
• have your personal data rectified if it is inaccurate or incomplete
• request the deletion or removal of personal data where there is no compelling reason for its continued processing
• restrict our processing of your personal data (i.e., permitting its storage but no further processing)
• object to direct marketing (including profiling) and processing for the purposes of scientific/historical research and statistics
• not to be subject to decisions based purely on automated processing where it produces a legal or similarly significant effect on you.

If we are processing your personal information using your consent, you can withdraw your consent at any time.