Fhunded

To comply with the UK General Data Protection Regulation (UK GDPR), where personal data relating to a data subject is collected, Lancashire County Council would like to provide you with the following details.

Identity and contact details of the data controller

  • Lancashire County Council, PO Box 78 County Hall, Fishergate, Preston, Lancashire, PR1 8XJ

Contact details of the data protection officer

  • Our Data Protection Officer is Joanne Winston. You can contact him at dpo@lancashire.gov.uk or Lancashire County Council, PO Box 78 County Hall, Fishergate, Preston, Lancashire, PR1 8XJ

Reasons for processing your personal data

Fhunded is Lancashire County Council’s dedicated early-stage investment initiative. It aims to connect local founders, funders, and intermediaries to support the growth of innovative businesses across Lancashire.

The programme facilitates equity investment, offers investment readiness support, and strengthens the county’s wider innovation ecosystem through curated events and partnerships.

Legal basis for processing personal data

The legal basis for processing your personal data, in accordance with the UK GDPR is:

(e) Public Task: the processing is necessary for us to perform a task in the public interest or for our official functions, and the task or function has a clear basis in law. We will cite the applicable task/function and its' basis in law if we wish to rely on this basis for processing.

Used when processing is necessary for the council to perform a task in the public interest or in the exercise of official authority.

Applies to activities such as:

    • Supporting regional economic development.
    • Facilitating investment readiness and business growth.
    • Engaging with founders and investors through public programmes

(f) Legitimate Interests: pursued by us or by a third party.

Legitimate Interests may be relied on where LCC has a requirement to process personal data for administrative or support functions intended to support Fhunded activities.

Legal basis for processing special categories of personal data

The legal basis for processing special categories of personal data relating to you, in accordance with the UK GDPR is:

(g) Processing is necessary for reasons of substantial public interest.

Special category personal data may be captured for the following purposes:

    • Health information (accessibility needs)
    • Ethnic origin or other demographic data (for equality monitoring or anonymised research)

If it is, LCC will rely on the following lawful basis to process it:

Data Protection Act (2018) Schedule 1 Part 2 (8) Equality of opportunity or treatment

Data Protection Act (2018) Schedule 1 Part 2 (16) Support for individuals with a particular disability or medical condition

Information we process about you

As part of the Fhunded programme, Lancashire County Council may collect and process the following categories of personal data:

  • Identity and Contact Details: such as name, email address, phone number, business name, and job title.
  • Business and Investment Information: including pitch materials, funding requirements, investment readiness status, and business sector.
  • Engagement Data: such as event registrations, participation records, feedback, and communication preferences.
  • Investor Information (where applicable): including accreditation status, investment interests, and network membership details.
  • Technical Data: such as IP address and usage data when interacting with online platforms related to the programme.

Recipients of the personal data that we process about you

Personal data collected through the Fhunded programme may be shared with:

  • Accredited investors and investment networks
  • Business support organisations and intermediaries
  • Event delivery partners and facilitators
  • Technology providers supporting programme platforms
  • Other public bodies or third parties, where legally required

Any transfers to another country

  • No

Retention periods

Lancashire County Council will only store your information for as long as is legally required or in situations where there is no legal retention period they will follow established best practice.

File type Description Security Retention period

Founder Registration Data

Contact details, business name, pitch deck, investment readiness status

Stored securely on council systems and partner platforms with access controls

Retained for up to 6 years from last contact

Investor Registration Data

Accreditation status, investment preferences, network membership

Encrypted and access-restricted; shared only with authorised programme staff

Retained for up to 6 years from last engagement or withdrawal

Event Participation Records

Attendance, feedback, session notes

Stored securely with limited access

Retained for 3 years from event date

Communications and Feedback

Emails, surveys, correspondence

Stored securely on council email and CRM systems

Retained for 3 years from last interaction

Dealroom Platform Data

Business profiles, investor interactions, deal tracking

Hosted on secure third-party platform with data protection agreements

Retained for up to 6 years, subject to platform terms

Technical Data (Web Interactions)

IP address, usage logs from online forms and microsites

Protected by firewalls and monitoring systems

Retained for 12 months

Your rights

You have certain rights under the UK General Data Protection Regulation (UK GDPR), these are those rights:

  • to be informed via Privacy Notices such as this.
  • to withdraw your consent. If we are relying on your consent to process your data, then you can remove this at any point.
  • of access to any personal information the council holds about yourself. To request a copy of this information you must make a subject access request in writing. You are entitled to receive a copy of your personal data within 1 calendar month of our receipt of your subject access request. If your request is complex then we can extend this period by a further two months, if we need to do this, we will contact you. You can request a subject access request, either via a letter or via an email to Information Governance Team, address below.
  • of rectification, we must correct inaccurate or incomplete data within one month.
  • to erasure. You have the right to have your personal data erased and to prevent processing unless we have a legal obligation to process your personal information.
  • to restrict processing. You have the right to suppress processing. We can retain just enough information about you to ensure that the restriction is respected in future.
  • to data portability. We can provide you with your personal data in a structured, commonly used, machine readable form when asked.
  • to object. You can object to your personal data being used for profiling, direct marketing or research purposes.
  • in relation to automated decision making and profiling, to reduce the risk that a potentially damaging decision is taken without human intervention.

If you want to exercise any of these rights, then you can do so by contacting:

Information Governance Team
Lancashire County Council
PO Box 78
County Hall
Preston
PR1 8XJ

Email: dpo@lancashire.gov.uk

To ensure that we can deal with your request as efficiently as possible you will need to include your current name and address, proof of identity (a copy of your driving licence, passport or two different utility bills that display your name and address), as much detail as possible regarding your request so that we can identify any information we may hold about you, this may include your previous name and address, date of birth and what council service you were involved with.

Further information

If you would like more information about this specific service, then please contact Info@fhunded.co.uk.

For more information about how we use personal information see Lancashire County Council's full privacy notice.

If you wish to raise a complaint on how we have handled your personal data, you can contact the Information Governance team who will investigate the matter.

Lancashire County Council, PO Box 78 County Hall, Fishergate, Preston, Lancashire, PR1 8XJ or email: dataprotection@lancashire.gov.uk

If you are not satisfied with our response or believe we are processing your personal data not in accordance with the law you can complain to the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO).