Privacy & cookies

Who we are

Birkenhead Spiritualist Church® is a religious charity registered in England and Wales, charity number 1160045. Our address is Mount Grove, Birkenhead, Wirral, CH41 2UJ. The church is responsible for the personal information it uses to deal with enquiries and run its activities.

For questions about your information or this notice, email webmaster@bscwirral.uk, write to the church, or use our enquiry form.

This notice covers our website, enquiries, membership applications, event bookings and donations. We handle personal information under UK data protection law, including the UK GDPR and Data Protection Act 2018, as amended.

Information we use

The information involved depends on how you contact or take part in the church. It may include:

• Your name, contact details and the contents of enquiries or correspondence.
• Information you provide when applying for membership, booking an event or arranging a ceremony.
• Donation and transaction records needed to administer payments and keep financial records.
• Information you choose to share about your circumstances or support needs.
• Technical information such as your IP address, browser and requested pages, recorded when the website or an external service is used.

Please provide only information relevant to your request. Do not send payment-card details or unnecessary sensitive information in an ordinary message. If you provide information about someone else, make sure you are entitled to share it and that they know how it will be used.

Why we use information

We use enquiry and contact information to respond to requests, explain our services and communicate about church activities. Our legitimate interests are running the church, supporting its community, dealing with correspondence and keeping the website secure. These interests must be balanced against your rights.

Where you ask us to arrange a paid service or booking, the information necessary to make and fulfil that arrangement is used to take steps at your request or perform the agreement. Financial and other records may also need to be kept to meet legal obligations.

Where consent is needed, including for optional communications or particular uses of sensitive information, you can withdraw it by contacting us. Withdrawal does not affect processing that was lawful before you withdrew consent.

Membership and sensitive information

Church membership and participation information can reveal religious or philosophical beliefs. Information about health or support needs can also require special protection.

For legitimate religious activities involving members, former members and people in regular contact with the church, the law provides a condition for not-for-profit religious bodies, subject to safeguards. Information handled under that condition must not be disclosed outside the body without the individual’s consent. It is not a general permission to use or publish everyone’s sensitive information.

Other circumstances may require explicit consent or a different lawful condition. Contact us before sending sensitive information if you are unsure how it will be used. Publication of a person’s name, photograph or story requires separate consideration; participation alone should not be treated as permission to publish it.

Service providers and information sharing

Our website is built and hosted by Chew Digital®. Enquiry, membership and donation buttons lead to hosted forms. Providers supporting the website, email, forms or payments may process information to supply those services. Payment providers may also have their own legal responsibilities and privacy notices.

Information may need to be shared where required by law, to protect someone’s safety, or to establish, exercise or defend legal rights. Sensitive information requires an appropriate additional legal condition where applicable.

External services can involve processing outside the UK. Where the church arranges a restricted international transfer, a permitted transfer mechanism and any required safeguards must be used. An external website or platform that you choose to visit explains its own arrangements in its privacy notice.

How long information is kept

Retention depends on the purpose of the record. Relevant factors include whether an enquiry remains open, an event or service has been completed, a membership relationship continues, financial record-keeping duties, safeguarding needs and any unresolved complaint or legal claim. Information should be deleted or anonymised when it is no longer needed.

You can ask us about the retention period or criteria applying to a particular record. Access should be limited to people who need the information for their role. No online communication or storage system can be guaranteed completely secure.

Cookies and external website features

The website uses its existing cookie-preference service to provide cookie choices. The Google map and Facebook feed are embedded in the website and load automatically. These features send technical information to their providers and may allow them to use cookies or similar technologies. The website also provides ordinary directions and Facebook links.

The footer date-and-time display runs locally in your browser without connecting to an external clock provider. This website loads Google reCAPTCHA v3, a service used for security and abuse prevention. Google may process technical and interaction information when the service is used. Linked forms have their own security and cookie controls. Please review the information shown by those services before using them.

Using the website or continuing to browse is not, by itself, consent to optional cookies. Use the cookie controls to change your preferences, and your browser settings to inspect or remove stored cookies. The current cookie details and durations should be shown by the cookie-preference service when available.

Provider information: Google privacy, Meta privacy and Google terms.

Your rights and concerns

Depending on the circumstances and lawful basis, you may be able to ask for access to your information, correction, deletion, restriction of use or a portable copy, or object to certain processing. These rights are not absolute. You can also withdraw consent where processing relies on it.

Contact webmaster@bscwirral.uk to make a request. We may need information to verify your identity. The normal response period is one month, with extensions permitted in some circumstances.

If you are unhappy with the handling of your information, please contact the church. You also have the right to complain to the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO).

Changes to this notice

We may update this notice when the website or our arrangements change. Additional privacy information may be provided with a particular form or activity. Last updated: 21 October 2026.