On 25th May 2018 the General Data Protection Regulation came into legal force. This is binding upon virtually every organisation in the UK and places greater obligations on how organisations handle personal data. SLTSC must comply with the Regulation. A vital part of GDPR is that we must set out the personal information that you supply to us and we must also explain to you how we use that information and safeguard it. This is what the Members’ Privacy Policy does.

If you are a member of SLTSC then you are obliged to provide certain personal information so that we can manage your membership and give you the benefits for which you contract with the Club as a member. Because you provide that information, GDPR makes it necessary for us to inform you of our policy in holding, using and securing that information.

The GDPR applies to ‘personal data’, which means any information relating to you as an identifiable person who can be directly or indirectly identified as a particular person by reference to that identifying data. This might include your name, telephone number, address, or your photographic image, for example. We set down in the Privacy Policy how we collect, use, hold, and share your personal data.

GDPR requires us to communicate and apply a policy to all members from the effective date of 25th May 2018. This isn’t a choice made by us but an obligation on all of us who as members together constitute the Club. The Members Privacy Policy has been approved by both the Managing Committee of the Club and the board of our limited company.

Your relationship with the Club as a member is contractual. You pay your subscription and other related fees and in return the Club is obligated to provide certain services to which you are entitled. As obtaining certain information from you to allow us to fulfil our obligations to you as a member is necessary and contractual we are unable to allow you a general opt-out. You can certainly opt-out of some aspects, as explained in the Policy. But without certain vital information we cannot perform core functions of the mutual contract that exists between you and the other members of the Club and also our captive limited company which provides services to us all.

Many organisations with whom you may only have a distant relationship but who hold your personal data do under GDPR have to provide you with a fresh opt-in opportunity, so-called explicit “consent.” For example, a retailer from whom you purchased something once in the distant past may certainly be obligated to provide you a fresh opt-in. But those with whom you have an active relationship governed by a contract which you have entered into in an informed manner will not do so. An example might be your bank or your utility supplier, where running your account is absolutely core to the service you have contracted for with them. Just as those organisations will have done, in our Members’ Privacy Policy we have set down the lawful bases of processing your personal data which we use. But neither we nor they need ask you explicitly to opt-in under GDPR.

Because we have over-riding responsibilities in certain very rare cases where we are legally obligated to do so, or where our general legal duty of care to an individual requires it. This would only be done in very specific circumstances where personal data was provided in this way about a single individual member, or perhaps a very small number of individual members, where they or others were deemed to be at risk under our general legal duty of care or the LTA Safeguarding policy. This would only be done under the guidance of trained Safeguarding Officers.

Certainly it can be amended. GDPR is a very complex piece of new regulation and we expect that our Policy may well require some refinement over time. If you have any specific suggestions or concerns please contact the Administrator as set down in the Policy.

There are several aspects of the Policy which do allow you to opt-out of our using or retaining certain of your personal data. How you may do this is set down in the Policy. However, the Policy in its broad terms will apply to you as a member of the Club and you accept it as a condition of membership. If you do not feel able to accept this then in the first instance please contact the Administrator as set down in the Policy.