Privacy policy

Effective 4 November 2026. Replaces the policy of 27 August 2024, which covered only Christmas tree sales.

The 77th Bristol Scout Group is the data controller for the information described here.

Our contact details

77th Bristol Scout Group
Cotham Parish Church, Cotham Rd, Cotham, Bristol BS6 6DR
[email protected]

Please use the email address for anything to do with your information. It reaches the group rather than one person, so it still works when volunteers change.

The personal information we collect

When you join the waiting list, through the form on this website:

  • About the child: first and last name, date of birth, gender, home address, and whether they already have a brother or sister in the group.
  • About you, the parent or carer: name, relationship to the child, email address, mobile number, whether you are happy to be texted, your address if different from the child's, and your answer about helping on two evenings a term.
  • About a second parent or carer, if you choose to add one: the same details.
  • About an emergency contact: name, relationship to the child, phone number and, if you give one, an email address.
  • Anything you write in the "anything else we should know" box.

We do not ask for medical, allergy or dietary information on this website. The form says so and we mean it. Those details are collected later, through Online Scout Manager's Parent Portal, once a place is offered.

When you use the contact form or the volunteer form: your name, email address and whatever you write to us.

When you buy a Christmas tree: your name, postal address and email address. Card details are handled by Stripe and never reach us.

Why we have it, and the lawful basis

  • The waiting list: to offer your child a place when one comes up, and to contact you about it. Lawful basis: legitimate interests. You asked to join the list and we cannot run it without these details. Where the information is about a child, we act on the parent or carer's instruction.
  • The emergency contact: so we can reach someone if we cannot reach you. Lawful basis: vital interests.
  • Texts and WhatsApp from leaders: only if you tick the box, and you can untick it at any time. Lawful basis: consent.
  • Contact and volunteer enquiries: to reply to you. Lawful basis: legitimate interests.
  • Christmas tree orders: to fulfil your order and keep accounting records. Lawful basis: contract and legal obligation.

Where your information goes

We use a small number of outside services to run the website and the waiting list. We do not sell your information to anyone, and we do not use it for advertising.

  • Online Scout Manager (Online Youth Manager Ltd), the membership system the Scouts use. When you complete the waiting list form, the details go straight into our Waiting List there.
  • Resend sends the confirmation email to you and the notification to our leaders.
  • Cloudflare hosts the website and runs the "I am human" check that keeps spam off our forms.
  • Stripe takes payment for Christmas trees. We never see or hold your card number.
  • Google provides our group email account, where enquiries and notifications arrive.

How long we keep it

  • Waiting list: we remove a child's record two years after they join the list if no place has been taken up, unless you ask us to keep them on it. You can ask to come off at any time before that.
  • Children who join a section: their record moves from the waiting list into their section in Online Scout Manager and is kept for as long as they are a member, then in line with The Scout Association's retention guidance.
  • Contact and volunteer enquiries: kept in the group email account while we deal with them and for a reasonable period afterwards.
  • Christmas tree orders: six years, in our Stripe account, to meet accounting obligations.

Coming off the waiting list

Email [email protected] and ask, and we will remove the record. You do not need to give a reason, and it will not affect any future application.

Your data protection rights

Under data protection law you have the right to:

  • Access, ask for copies of your personal information.
  • Rectification, ask us to correct information you think is wrong, or complete information you think is missing.
  • Erasure, ask us to delete your personal information, in certain circumstances.
  • Restrict processing, ask us to limit how we use it, in certain circumstances.
  • Object, object to us using it, in certain circumstances.
  • Data portability, ask us to pass it to you or another organisation, in certain circumstances.

You do not have to pay to exercise any of these rights. If you make a request we have one month to reply. Email [email protected].

How to complain

If you are unhappy with how we have used your information, please tell us first at [email protected] so we can put it right.

You can also complain to the Information Commissioner's Office: Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow, Cheshire SK9 5AF. Helpline 0303 123 1113. ico.org.uk