Privacy Notice | Cornwall & Isles of Scilly

Who will control my data?

The Data Controller for all the information you provide to the Growth Hub is Cornwall Council, New County Hall, Treyew Road, Truro TR1 3AY.

Data Protection Registration Number: Z1745294

There’s something I don’t understand

If you need help accessing our services, downloading documents or completing forms, please contact us on 01209 708660 or on our website www.ciosgrowthhub.com between 9am - 5pm Monday to Thursdays. Phone lines are open 10am to 3pm Monday to Thursday, except Bank Holidays. Outside of working hours, you can email us via [email protected] or you can contact us via the webform on the website.

Why do you need my information?

You wish to access business support via or from the Growth Hub so we need information about your business/organisation and/or your proposed project. This will allow us to assess the most appropriate support available to you and your eligibility for grants, for example how well your business proposal/project will contribute to the objectives of the relevant grant scheme. Without this we will not be able to make an accurate assessment on what support is available to you and/or whether you are eligible for a grant.

How is your data collected?

Direct interactions – for example you may give us your contact and business details by filling in an online form, survey or by corresponding with us by post, phone, email, text or otherwise or attending one of our events in person or online.
Via the Growth and Skills Hub website through:

Filling in the registration forms including when you:
- create an account on our website;
- apply for our services;
- request marketing to be sent to you;
- give us some feedback.
Automated technologies or interactions - as you interact with our website, we may automatically collect Technical Data about your equipment, browsing actions and patterns. We collect this data by using cookies, Google Analytics and Facebook Pixel.
Google Analytics: When someone visits the website we use a third party service, Google Analytics, to collect standard internet log information and details of visitor behaviour patterns. We do this to find out things such as the number of visitors to the various parts of the site. This information is only processed in a way which does not identify anyone. We do not make, and do not allow Google to make, any attempt to find out the identities of those visiting our website. For more information on Google Analytics cookies, see the official Google Analytics page ( https://policies.google.com/technologies/cookies?hl=en-US)
Cookies:
- Cookies are small text files that are placed on your computer by websites that you visit. They are widely used in order to make websites work, or work more efficiently, as well as to provide information to the owners of the site. Some examples of cookies could be:
  - storing information to personalise the website to your chosen requirements
  - cookies can be used to record users’ behaviour on a website, for example to record the pages they have viewed
- There are two different types of cookie that can be placed in your browser by a website:
  - Session cookies are only used for the period you use the website and are deleted when you close your web browser. A new cookie would then be placed in your web browser if you were to visit the same website again in the future
  - Persistent cookies remain in your browser once you have left the site and closed your web browser. The next time you visit the site the information in the cookie will be used to ensure the website works as set up at the previous visit. For example, to display certain things on the homepage. Persistent cookies will expire if the website that set them is not visited again within a certain timescale.
- We use a number of different cookies on the website and sub-domains and third party systems we run. Examples include:
  - Google Analytics cookies on our website and all our online systems record website usage. We collect this information in a way which does not identify anyone, we do not make any attempt to find out the identities of those visiting any of our websites and we do not share this information with anyone.
  - Account related cookies: If you create an account with us then we will use cookies for the management of the signup process and general administration. These cookies will usually be deleted when you log out however in some cases they may remain afterwards to remember your site preferences when logged out.
  - Email newsletters related cookies: This site offers newsletter or email subscription services and cookies may be used to remember if you are already registered and whether to show certain notifications which might only be valid to subscribed/unsubscribed users.
  - Forms related cookies: When you submit data to through a form such as those found on contact pages or comment forms cookies may be set to remember your user details for future correspondence.
  - Managing cookies on your PC: Most web browsers allow some control of most cookies through the browser settings. To find out more about cookies, including how to see what cookies have been set and how to manage and delete them, visit https://www.aboutcookies.org
  - You can choose to block the cookies that are set by the Growth and Skills Hub website, however you must be aware that doing so may mean that parts of the site will not work correctly.
  - Changes to the way websites use cookies: The law that controls how cookies are used on websites has changed.
  - Facebook Pixel: We use the Facebook pixel to collect information to provide measurement services and targeted advertising on Facebook as described in their Data Policy. You can find out more, including how to opt-out of the collection and use of information for advertisement targeting on their website at https://www.facebook.com/policies/cookies

How we will use the information about you

The information you provide to us over the telephone, email, webchat, webform, application form(s), supporting documentation or in face-to-face Teams or physical meetings will be used to assess the most appropriate business support available to you and assess your application for grant funding, if applicable. Your data will also be used for reporting the progress both your project and the CIOS Growth Hub project to the Shared Prosperity Fund, Cornwall Council and the Department of Business and Trade. Our contracts with the Department of Business and Trade and Shared Prosperity Fund, require special characteristics to be collected, to show compliance with the Equalities Act 2010. Where-ever possible, data will be anonymised.

We will also ask if you would like to be kept updated on new or changing business support options that are relevant to your areas of interest or outputs related to the support you are receiving, this will be with your consent, and you will be able to unsubscribe from these updates at any time.

As part of the UK Government’s Levelling Up agenda, Cornwall and Isles of Scilly was allocated £132 million for local investment through the Shared Prosperity Fund 2022-2025

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/uk-shared-prosperity-fund-prospectus

Further funding of £47.3 million has been allocated under UK Shared Prosperity Fund 2025-2026

Your information will be processed by Cornwall Council (the controller) under UK GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation) Article 6(1)(e) for the performance of a task carried out in the public interest or in the exercise of official authority vested in the controller.

Who else will we share your information with?

We will only use this information in conjunction with our business support service and/or your application for grant. This will include staff within the Sustainable Growth and Place Directorate (such as the Grant Management Team) in order to process and assess your application, process grant claims and provide support.
We may share your contact details and an outline of your business needs with identified external business support providers to facilitate a referral to their service but we will gain your consent before any data is shared.
Your contact details and details of your business and of the service you received from us may be shared with the evaluators of this scheme and the evaluators of the National Shared Prosperity Fund. The evaluators may contact you directly for further information and your feedback on the service. Current evaluators of the UKSPF include BMG Research (BMG-Privacy-Notice_May_2023_V7.pdf (bmgresearch.co.uk)) and Frontier Economics (Legals | Frontier Economics (frontier-economics.com)). Evaluation of the Growth Hub project is being undertaken by Genecon (https://www.genecon.co.uk/privacy-policy)

How will we look after your data

Your data will be entered and held within an externally secured Customer Relationship Management (CRM) database whose premises will not be outside of the UK/EEA (European Economic Area). Access to your information on the portal will only be made to authorised members of staff who are required to process it for the purposes outlined in this privacy notice.
Once submitted your data will be held within Zoho Datacentres and is subject to their security practices, policies and infrastructure (see https://www.zoho.eu/security.html) and Cornwall Council’s secure network and premises. Your data will not be processed outside of the UK/the EEA. Access to your information will only be made to authorised members of staff who are required to process it for the purposes outlined in this privacy notice.
We use Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) certificates to verify our identity to your browser and to encrypt any data you give us.

How long do we keep your data for?

Cornwall Council will not retain your personal/business information for longer than necessary. The information you provide to access UK Government funded business support including, not limited to, the Growth Hub which is part of the 2022-2025 and 2025-2026 Shared Prosperity Fund (SPF) Programme, will be retained and the data will be used to assess your eligibility and fit against criteria to the programme. We will retain data from funding applications (including supporting documents and correspondence) for 7 years from your project completion. The 2025-2026 UK Shared Prosperity Fund is currently following the same retention periods as the 2022-2025 scheme.

If legally required, or if it is reasonably necessary to meet regulatory requirements, resolve disputes, prevent fraud and abuse, or enforce our Terms and Conditions, Cornwall Council may also retain your information for a limited period of time as required, even after your application is closed or it is no longer needed to provide the Services to you.

With funding applications through the SPF Programme, there may be instances when Cornwall Council is contractually required to hold onto your data for a set period for monitoring purposes. You will be informed of this should you be successful in applying for funding.

How is Growth Hub using AI?

AI products and services provided by Microsoft: Copilot 365, Copilot Studio, Copilot Chat, Teams Premium and Azure AI Foundry/Services

We use AI products and services provided by Microsoft within the Growth Hub and Cornwall Council IT systems to enhance staff productivity and efficiency. It is important to note that these generative Artificial Intelligence (AI) tools are not used to make decisions about service users.

Instead, Microsoft AI products assist our staff with tasks such as:

Meetings: Copilot assists with meetings by taking minutes, producing summaries and actions, and helping staff catch up on missed meetings.
Writing: Copilot helps with writing documents and emails, such as suggesting ways to word something, helping to creating drafts and formatting documents.
Presentations: Copilot is used to speed up the time it takes to create PowerPoint presentations.
Data analysis: Copilot is used to analyse and visualise data, identify trends, and creating reports and graphs.

Staff review any outputs generated by Microsoft AI products before sharing or publishing.

Growth Hub and council data, used with Microsoft AI products, is stored within secure Microsoft tenants, which are held within the UK. The data is under the control of the council and Croft Communications Ltd as Growth Hub IT provider, and is not used to train or improve Microsoft, or third party AI models.

Where the council uses service user personal data with Microsoft AI products, this is processed under the lawful basis of ‘public task’ or to fulfil our legal and statutory duties under the legislation cited within our privacy notices.

Where Microsoft AI products are used to assist the council with meetings involving members of the public, we may collect video recording or transcripts of conversations. These are used for the purposes of accurate minute taking and are automatically deleted after 60 days.

We recognise that the potential uses of Microsoft AI products may evolve over time. Any new applications will be carefully considered and aligned with our commitment to data privacy and security.

To ensure responsible AI usage, the Council has an approved Generative AI Policy and have established an AI Services Working Group to consider and implement staff training and guidance, privacy, security and ethical governance.

What are my data rights?

The information you provide to access business support service and, in the application form(s), supporting documents and correspondence belongs to you and you have the right to:

be informed of how we will process it.
request a copy of what we hold about you and in commonly used electronic format if you wish (if you provided this to us electronically for automated processing, we will return it in the same way).
have it amended if it is incorrect or incomplete.
have it deleted (where we do not have a legal requirement to retain it).
withdraw your consent if you no longer wish us to receive marketing information from us.
restrict how we process it.
object to us using it for marketing or research purposes.
object to us using it in relation to a legal task or in the exercise of an official authority.

How do I exercise these rights?

If you would like to access any of the information we hold about you or have concerns regarding the way we have processed your information, please contact: Data Protection Officer, Cornwall Council, County Hall, Truro, TR1 3AY, Tel: 01872 326424, Email: [email protected].

What if I don’t agree with something?

We would prefer any complaints to be made to us initially so that we have the opportunity to see if we can put things right. However, if you are unhappy with the way we have processed your information or how we have responded to your request to exercise any of your rights in relation to your data, you can raise your concerns directly with the Information Commissioner’s Office Tel No. 0303 123 1113 https://ico.org.uk/concerns.

Review of this privacy policy

We may update this privacy notice from time to time as necessary. The terms that apply to you are those posted on our website, www.ciosgrowthhub.com. We advise you to print a copy for your records.

Updated on 28 July 2025 (v4.5)