The documents in this section are offered to help churches comply with the General Data Protection Regulation which comes into force on 25 May 2018.

It cannot cover comprehensively everything that any church might ever do with data but churches following this guidance should be well on their way to compliance.

You will have heard a lot of concern about the need to obtain consent from data subjects. There are legal bases for processing data, other than consent, which have been included in the template Data Privacy Statement, and wherever possible it is recommended that the need to obtain consent is avoided. However if you wish to collect or process Special Category Data you will need to obtain consent. A template consent form is included for this purpose.

Further guidance is still expected from the Information Commissioners Office and this guidance will be added to or amended as becomes necessary.

• Hints and tips (pdf)
• Establishing Good Data Protection Practice in Your Church - Checklist (Word)
• Consent Template (Word)
• Privacy Notice Template (Word)
• Top five tips from the Information Commissioner (pdf)

For committees

• Committee Member Undertaking  (Word)
• Committee Leaver Declaration  (Word)