Effective from 11 April 2017
OUR COMMITMENT TO DATA PROTECTION & PRIVACY
The privacy of the information provided to us is important and this statement is intended to inform and reassure the users of this website and/or the West of Morecambe Fisheries Ltd of our commitment to respecting privacy. A link to this policy appears on our homepage and all other top-level pages. Along with our business and internal computer systems, this website and the West of Morecambe Fisheries Ltd Company aim to comply with the relevant national and international legislation with regards to data protection and user privacy.
GENERAL INFORMATION
The West of Morecambe Fisheries (WOMF) was a ‘not-for-profit’ Company which became non-operational in 2020. This Data Protection and Privacy Policy was prepared to demonstrate how we met the legislation in our routine communications and practice with contacts and clients. It was our policy to conduct our activities in line with current data protection policies. Since we had to subscribe to a high standard of business accounting this approach extended to our financial transactions also. We always aimed to make our Data Protection and Privacy Policy and process as transparent as possible. This policy covered the main activities we undertake in organising the services provided by West of Morecambe Fisheries Ltd, i.e.
- Managing donations from the Offshore Wind Farm owners
- Organising and developing Fishing Community Projects
- Accounting and financial dealings
- Publicising successful Fishing Community Projects
- Routine office activities
MANAGING DONATIONS FROM THE OFFSHORE WINDFARMS
Donations made by the Offshore Wind Farms to the West of Morecambe Fisheries Ltd Company (WOMF) were typically made under the governance of legally binding contracts signed by the relevant signatories. The content of such contracts remain confidential and are not disclosed to third parties, except where required to do so by law. Such a contract will generally specify who may be eligible to apply for funding for Fishing Community Projects, when applications for funding can be made, how much funding is available and a termination date for that contract. A contract would also typically stipulate the ‘terms and conditions’ that governed the selection and evaluation processes with regard to ‘applications for funding’.
ORGANISING AND DEVELOPING FISHING COMMUNITY PROJECTS
WOMF developed and organised Fishing Community Projects in line with the underlying contract that governed the associated Donation. The donating offshore wind farm typically made donations to fund initiatives that were of a wide benefit to the affected fishing communities. Only under special circumstance did we fund an initiative with more narrow community benefits. The contracts and their associated Donations fell into two categories:
- Voluntary Donations made by the Offshore Wind Farms
- Agreed Donations made by the Offshore Wind Farms
Some further explanatory details about these Donations is provided below.
VOLUNTARY DONATIONS MADE BY THE OFFSHORE WIND FARMS
Voluntary Donations were usually donated as recognition of the good cooperation that may exist between the fishing communities and the offshore wind farm. Voluntary Donations were used to support a range of initiatives that have wide benefits to fishing communities affected by the offshore wind farm. For Voluntary Donations, there was typically one or more ‘calls for proposals’ during which time the fishing communities could submit applications for funding for community projects.
CALLS FOR PROPOSALS FOR FISHING COMMUNITY PROJECTS
We advertised ‘Calls for Proposals’ for Fishing Community Projects using this website. Application forms to our ‘Calls for Proposals’ could be periodically downloaded from our website and necessarily required the applicant to disclose some basic personal information (name, phone number, email, contact address) to allow us to identify and contact the applicant. The applicant also needed to provide a description of their project proposal, costing and level of support it had from the local fishing industry etc. For some applications, it was necessary for the applicant to provide evidence that they fished commercially in the relevant area, i.e. typically be proof of landings from that location and fishing licence / registration. Applicants sometimes were also required to provide further details on their project proposal in order to progress its evaluation. West of Morecambe Fisheries Ltd advised if such further information was required during the evaluation process on a case-by-case basis. All applications to our ‘Calls for Proposals’ were typically evaluated by invited specialist advisers from the local fishing communities, a representative from the donating offshore wind farm and the director of West of Morecambe Fisheries Ltd. All applicants were required to sign and agree to the above evaluation process if they wish an application to be considered for funding. We did not further share the information contained on an application form with any other bodies, other than described above, except as may be required by law, a court of competent jurisdiction or any governmental or regulatory authority. Applicants that were successful in receiving funding were required to participate in promotional activities and details of their project that was posted on this website.
AGREED DONATIONS MADE BY THE OFFSHORE WIND FARMS
Some funds were donated to WOMF, which were part of formal agreements between specified fishermen and the wind farm owners. These were known as Agreed Donations. These formal agreements and Agreed Donations were established for example; when there may be a need for spatial clearances of fishing gear /fishing activities, required for pre-construction surveys /construction or for on-going co-existence agreements. An agreement took the form of a legal document that underpinned the Agreed Donation. It necessarily contained personal information such as names and addresses of the signatories. We did not further share the information contained within the agreement with any other bodies, except as may be required by law, a court of competent jurisdiction or any governmental or regulatory authority. Most commonly, an Agreed Donation through WOMF was made after an agreement is reached between the wind farm owner and a large fishing community group, such as Fish Producer Organisations, Fishing Cooperatives or Fishermen’s Associations etc. The Agreed Donation was subsequently used to fund initiatives, which were of specific benefit to that particular fishing community who are signatories to the agreement. Agreed Donations were made as an alternative to direct financial payments by the offshore wind farm to the fishing industry. The recipients of Agreed Funding were requested to participate in promotional activities and details of their project were typically posted on this website, where they agreed.
SINGLE BUSINESS AGREED DONATION
Occasionally an Agreed Donation was made with an independent individual fishing business /operator. This was known as a Single Business Agreed Donation. In this case the donation was used to fund an initiative, which was of benefit to their business only. The agreement took the form of a legal document that underpinned the Agreed Donation. It necessarily contained personal information such as names and addresses of the signatories. We did not further share the information contained within the agreement with any other bodies, except as may be required by law, a court of competent jurisdiction or any governmental or regulatory authority. Single Business Agreed Donations were made as an alternative to direct financial payments by the offshore wind farm to the fishing industry. The recipients of Agreed Funding were requested to participate in promotional activities and details of their project were posted on this website, where they agreed.
ACCOUNTING AND FINANCIAL DEALINGS
We maintained records of our financial transactions with all of our donors, recipients of awards and of our operating costs. These financial transactions were made by BACS transfer, debit card or by cheque. In this regard these were subject to standard accounting procedures not least the need to retain transaction/account records for several years. We did not issue, receive or process any payments made by credit card. We requested the bank details of recipients of awards, so that we could make payments of an award to them. We did not divulge this data further and these bank records are have now all been deleted. As an alternative to a BACS payment, we issued a cheque made payable to the recipient of an award if this was preferred.
PUBLICISING SUCCESSFUL FISHING COMMUNITY PROJECTS
We aimed to publicise as many of the successfully funded Fishing Community Projects as possible. The Fishing Community Projects were publicised through this website and also in periodically printed booklets. The photographs and testimonials detailed on this website were supplied on a voluntary basis and with the consent of the individuals concerned. Not all successfully funded Fishing Community Projects were publicised. The West of Morecambe Fisheries Ltd Company reserved the right to not publicise or to withdraw such promotional material from its website at any time.
ROUTINE OFFICE ACTIVITIES
Our business activities fell into two main categories: routine contacts with donors, recipients of awards and business associates, and publicising photographs and testimonials from successful Fishing Community Projects. In this regard we followed procedures that ensure a high level of security on our computing activities as well as offline storage of information in a secure location. The data involved was not used for any other purposes.
TRACKING OF VISITORS TO OUR WEBSITE
Like most websites, we use Google Analytics (GA) to track user interaction. We use this data to determine the number of people using our site, to better understand how they find and use our web pages and to see their journey through the website. Although GA records data such as your geographical location, device, Internet browser and operating system, none of this information personally identifies you to us. GA also records your computer’s IP address, which could be used to personally identify you, but Google do not grant us access to this. We consider Google to be a third party data processor. GA makes use of cookies, details of which can be found on Google’s developer guides. Disabling cookies on your Internet browser will stop GA from tracking any part of your visit to pages within this website.
COOKIES
Cookies are small text files that help you to navigate through a website. This site uses cookies to store information on your computer and they are essential to make our site work for you. They do not involve or use personal information in any way. You can prevent and delete cookies on your computer by using the relevant settings in your browser options. The Help menu on the toolbar of your browser will tell you how to prevent your browser from accepting cookies but this may affect the performance that you experience on our website.
PERSONAL DATA
We did not collect personal data directly through this website, however if you applied for funding for a Fishing Community Project you were required to complete an application form and typically submit the completed application form by mail to our PO Box. West of Morecambe Fisheries Ltd did not share or sell personal information about contacts or customers with third parties for the purposes of marketing.
RISK ASSESSMENT
From our understanding of the current regulations the data we hold with regard to our contacts would be a ‘low risk’ in relation to our contacts.
DATA BREACHES
We did not experience any unlawful data breach of this website’s database, the database(s) of any of our third party data processors during our operational period.
INQUIRIES
We sought to respond to any inquiries under the regulations including:
- Your right of access to personal information records
- Your right to correct data
- Your right to be forgotten, for records to be deleted
- Your right to withdraw your consent for processing at any time
CHANGES TO OUR PRIVACY POLICY
This privacy policy changed from time to time inline with legislation or industry developments. We did not explicitly inform our clients or website users of these changes. Instead, we recommend that you check this page occasionally for any policy changes. Specific policy changes and updates are mentioned in the change log below.
LOG OF CHANGES TO OUR PRIVACY POLICY
13 November 2016 – Privacy policy instigated
11 April 2017 – Privacy policy reviewed and updated
DISCLAIMER
West of Morecambe Fisheries Ltd assumed no responsibility or liability for any injury, loss or damage incurred as a result of any use or reliance upon the information and material contained within this website. West of Morecambe Fisheries Ltd alway took considerable care in preparing information contained within this website, however, West of Morecambe Fisheries Ltd is unable to provide any warranty concerning the accuracy or completeness of any information contained herein.