Growing Kent and Medway Stakeholder Privacy Notice

In summary

• Taking part is voluntary

• You can withdraw at any time

• Your responses will be anonymised

• Your data will be handled securely and deleted when no longer needed

Main Privacy Notice

Wavehill has been commissioned to undertake a formal independent evaluation of the Growing Kent & Medway programme, including an interim evaluation and a final summative evaluation. Growing Kent & Medway (GKM) was initially a 5-year programme delivered between 2020-25, though has now been extended until late 2026. The programme supports businesses in advanced horticulture, fresh produce packaging, and the food and drink processing sector with the aim of growing the local economy.

Your information was given to us by the Growing Kent & Medway team as someone who may have been involved in the management or delivery of the programme or as an external stakeholder with an interest in the programme.

• Your experience of delivering, managing or working with the programme.

• The successes of the programme.

• Legacy of the programme.

NIAB is the Data Controller for the purposes of this research. Wavehill is acting as a Data Processor on behalf of NIAB, undertaking research and evaluation activities in accordance with NIAB’s instructions.

The research findings will be included in our final evaluation report which will help to inform potential future programme delivery. Your Participation in this research is completely voluntary. However, your views and experiences are important in order to help inform future support delivery.

The contact for this research at Wavehill is Ioan Teifi

E-mail address: ioan.teifi@wavehill.com

Telephone number: 07557 387061

PRIVACY NOTICE

What personal data do we hold and where do we get this information?

Personal data is defined under the UK General Data Protection Regulation (UK GDPR) as ‘any information relating to an identifiable person who can be directly or indirectly identified by reference to an identifier’.

Niab has provided your contact details (name, email address, telephone number and address) to Wavehill so that we can conduct the interviews.  

What type of information is collected through the Interview? 

The personal data we may collect includes:

• Contact details (name, email address, telephone number, organisation).

• Professional role and relationship to the programme.

• Views, opinions, and experiences shared during interviews.

• Audio recordings and transcripts (where applicable).

Findings will be reported in anonymised form. Quotations may be used in reports but will not be attributed to individuals by name. In some cases, broad descriptors (e.g. ‘local authority representative’) may be used.”

What is the lawful basis for using your data?

Consent and legitimate interest. Participation is completely voluntary. Research studies such as this are important for Niab to collect information and actionable evidence about the performance and outputs of the programme. This will help with possible delivery of support programmes in the future. Your participation is voluntary and if you do not wish to take part or be sent reminders at any stage of the research then please reply to the invitation email and your details will be removed.

Wavehill will only use your email address and telephone number for the purposes of this research.

If you choose to provide additional personal data in your interview response, we will try not to identify you from, or link your identity to, the responses you provide.

How secure is your personal data?

Personal information provided to Wavehill is always stored on a secure server. The data can only be accessed by a limited number of researchers working on this project. Wavehill will only use this data for research purposes. Wavehill has Cyber Essentials certification.

Wavehill has procedures to deal with any suspected data security breaches. If a suspected breach occurs, Wavehill will report this to Niab who will notify you and any applicable regulator where we are legally required to do so.

Wavehill will use the information gathered to produce a report. This report will not include any information that could be used to identify individual participants.

How long do we keep your personal data?

We will keep your identifiable personal data only for as long as necessary for this research. Identifiable data will be deleted within six months of the end of the contract. Anonymised data may be retained for reporting and audit purposes.

Individual rights

Under UK GDPR, you have the following rights in relation to the personal information you provide as part of this research project, specifically you have the right:

• To access a copy of your own data;

• For us to rectify inaccuracies in that data;

• To object to or restrict processing (in certain circumstances);

• For your data to be ‘erased’ (in certain circumstances); and

• To lodge a complaint with the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) who is our independent regulator for data protection.

The contact details for the Information Commissioner’s Office are: Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow, Cheshire, SK9 5AF. Phone: 0303 123 1113. Website: www.ico.org.uk

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