RBDS Appendix 2: Additional Information for Applicants

Appendix 2  Additional Information for Applicants

Contents in this section

1 Publication of Data

2 Data Protection Act

3 Freedom of Information Act

4 Equality

5 GDPR

1.         Publication of Data

If your application is successful and your project is awarded funding, please note that DAERA may publicise details of all financial support awarded/paid out to beneficiaries. This will include the name of the beneficiary, their postal town, their post code and the total amount of financial support received by the beneficiary from the Department of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs.

Details of all applications (successful and unsuccessful) will be submitted to your local Council and applicant details will be published as part of the Council report, which are accessible to the public.

2.         Data Protection Act

We will use the information you give us on the application form during assessment and for the life of any grant we award you to administer and analyse grants and for our own research.

All information submitted in your application form, supporting documentation and any future claim will be made available to the funding organisation, the Department of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs, and the administrative organisation – your local Council.

We may give copies of this information to individuals and organisations we consult when assessing applications, when monitoring grants and evaluating the way our funding programmes work and the effect they have.  These organisations may include accountants, external evaluators, external auditors and other organisations or groups involved in delivering the project.

We may also share information with other government departments, including Invest Northern Ireland, organisations providing match funding and other organisations and individuals with a legitimate interest in applications and grants, or for the prevention or detection of fraud.

We might use the data you provide for our own research. We recognise the need to maintain the confidentiality of vulnerable groups and their details will not be made public in any way, except as required by law.

 3         Freedom of Information Act

The Freedom of Information Act 2000 gives members of the public the right to request any information that we hold, subject to certain exemption that may apply. This includes information received from third parties, such as, although not limited to, grant applicants, grant holders and contractors. If information is requested under the Freedom of Information Act we will release it, subject to exemptions; although we may consult with you first. If you think that information you are providing may be exempt from release if requested, you should let us know when you apply.   For further information please visit the Information Commissioner’s Office at www.ico.gov.uk

4          Equality Considerations

Section 75 of the Northern Ireland Act (1998) and Equality Monitoring

Under Section 75 of the Northern Ireland Act (1998) DAERA has a statutory obligation to promote equality of opportunity between: persons of different religious belief, political opinion, racial group, age, martial status or sexual orientation; men and women; persons with a disability and persons without; and persons with dependents and persons without.

The Act also requires DAERA to take into account the promotion of good relations between persons of different religious belief, political opinion or racial group.

To meet its statutory obligations, DAERA has to continuously monitor and assess the equality uptake and outcomes of its policies and programmes, to determine if there are any adverse effects or consequences. And if there are, to look at ways to lessen these.

This equality monitoring is done through the completion of an equality monitoring on-line questionnaire by project beneficiaries once the funding has been awarded.  DAERA is legally required to conduct this monitoring, but it is voluntary for beneficiaries to complete the questionnaire, which will be anonymous and confidential.

The information collected will only be used for Equality Monitoring purposes and in compliance with The Data Protection Act. The details on this form will not be used in the decision to award funding to any person/group who applies to the Scheme, nor will this form be linked in any way to details of individual participants.

All beneficiaries are encouraged to complete the form as it will greatly help DAERA comply with its statutory duty and in its assessment of the equality uptake and outcomes of the Scheme across different groups of people.

5        General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR)

 When you apply for Rural Business Development Capital Grant Scheme we will ask for some personal information because, for example, your personal email address or telephone number is used on the applicant organisation’s behalf. When you provide this information it is processed in adherence with the GDPR, Data Protection Act 2018 as well as the scheme’s Terms and Conditions to enable us to communicate with you about the application.

DAERA and our delivery agents take data protection and freedom of information issues seriously. We take care to ensure that any personal information supplied is dealt with in a way which complies with the requirements of the Data Protection Act 2018 and the General Data Protection Regulation. This means that any personal information you supply will be processed principally for the purpose for which it has been provided.  However, DAERA may also use it for other legitimate purposes in line with the Data Protection Act 2018 and Freedom of Information legislation. These include:

• Occupational health and welfare;
• Compilation of statistics;
• Disclosure to other organisations when required by law to do so;
• Disclosure under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 or the Environmental Information Regulations 2004 where such disclosure is in the public interest;
• The prevention and detection of fraud or maladministration (e.g. The Comptroller & Auditor General and HM Revenue & Customs).

For further details on your privacy see the DAERA Privacy Statement www.daera-ni.gov.uk/daera-privacy-statement