Electoral Roll Application

Notes, Guidance and Privacy Notice

General matters

• The only Churches at present in communion with the Church of England are other Anglican Churches and certain foreign Churches, as listed in the Supplementary Material to the Canons (but note Rule 83(3) of the Church Representation Rules, which provides for any question as to whether a particular Church is in communion with the Church of England to be decided by the Archbishops of Canterbury and York acting jointly).
• Membership of the electoral roll is also open to members in good standing of a Church not in communion with the Church of England which subscribes to the doctrine of the Holy Trinity where those members are also prepared to declare themselves to be members of the Church of England.
• Every six years a new roll is prepared and those on the previous roll are informed so that they can reapply. If you are not resident in the parish but were on the roll as a habitual worshipper and have been prevented by illness or other sufficient cause from worshipping for the past six months, you should complete declaration 2B or 2C as follows (a) delete the first set of words in square brackets and (b) at the end of the second set of words in square brackets, briefly state the reason for not having worshipped as mentioned.
• If you have any problems with this Form, please approach the clergy or lay people responsible for the parish, who will be pleased to help you.
• In this Form ‘parish’ means ecclesiastical parish.

Use of email addresses and other personal data

• You do not have to provide an email address on the paper copy of this Form, however on this electronic version, in order to confirm receipt of your application we need an email address. In providing your email address the Parochial Church Council and the electoral roll officer are entitled to use that email address to communicate with you in connection with the maintenance or revision of the Roll or the preparation of a new Roll or with elections to or membership of the Council.
• The Church Representation Rules impose certain requirements for your name and address to be given to a third party, such as the diocesan electoral registration officer, in connection with elections to or membership of a deanery synod, diocesan synod or the House of Laity of the General Synod. If you provide an email address on this Form, it will be given to the third party along with your postal address.
• A third party to whom your name and address have been given under the Church Representation Rules is in certain cases required by the Rules to pass them on to another person, such as the presiding officer in a synodical election. If you provide an email address on this Form, that email address will be given to the other person along with your postal address.
• Any person to whom your email address or other personal data is given under the Church Representation Rules is required by those Rules to hold the data securely. Furthermore, if you do provide an email address on this Form, that does not give anybody the right to use it for any purpose other than those permitted by the Rules; so it cannot, for example, be used for social matters or fundraising.
• The roll is published after each annual revision and after the preparation of a new roll. The published roll will include your name (as well as the name of every other person on the roll) but none of your other personal data (as defined by the Data Protection Act 2018) will be made public as a result of your inclusion on the roll.

Electoral Roll Privacy Notice

Who are we?

Mrs Louise Hicks, Electoral Roll Officer, Blackburn Cathedral, is the data controller (contact details below). This means it decides how your personal data is processed and for what purposes.

Why do we process your personal data?

We use the personal data you provide on the electoral roll application form to enable us to manage, maintain and publish the electoral roll in accordance with Church Representation Rules (CRR) to:

• Determine eligibility for attendance and participation at the Annual Parochial Church Meeting and for election to the Parochial Church Council, deanery, diocesan and general synods where applicable;
• Calculate the number of representatives who may be elected to each of these synods in the following year;
• Undertake a review and revision of the electoral roll as necessary; and
• Publish your name and address, by exhibiting the roll in the parish church or the church website.

What is the lawful basis for processing your personal data?

• Processing for the purpose of determining eligibility, creating the electoral roll and use of the roll to calculate numbers for election to synod is necessary for compliance with a legal obligation. The processing is a statutory requirement imposed by the Church Representation Rules, which means that you must give us this information if you want to be included on the electoral roll.
• Processing for the purpose of determining eligibility and creating or revising the electoral roll is carried out in the course of our legitimate activities, as this relates solely to members the Church of England in connection with its purposes.
• Processing for the purpose of publishing the electoral roll relates to personal data which are manifestly made public by the data subject. When you apply to have your name added to the church electoral roll, the automatic legal consequence as stated in the CRR, (Part I Formation of the Roll 1(8) and Revision of Roll and Preparation of New Roll 2(1), 2(3) and 2(7)) is that your name and address will be published, and by submitting your application form you are making that data public.

Sharing your personal data

Your personal data will be shared within the institutional Church of England and with the general public.

How long do we keep your personal data?

We keep your personal data for 6 years after a complete review of the electoral roll.

Your rights and your personal data

Unless subject to an exemption you have the following rights with respect to your personal data:

• The right to request a copy of your personal data which we hold about you;
• The right to request that we correct any personal data if it is found to be inaccurate or out of date;
• The right to request your personal data be erased where it is no longer necessary for us to retain such data;
• The right, where there is a dispute in relation to the accuracy or processing of your personal data, to request that a restriction is placed on further processing;
• The right to object to the processing of your personal data for direct marketing and to have that processing stopped;
• The right to lodge a complaint with the Information Commissioners Office.

Contact Details

Electoral Roll Officer: Mrs Louise Hicks
Email: [email protected]
Address: Blackburn Cathedral, Cathedral Office, Blackburn, BB1 5AA

Further Information

You can contact the Information Commissioners Office on 0303 123 1113 or via email or at the Information Commissioner’s Office, Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow, Cheshire. SK9 5AF.