Article 13 Privacy Notice under GDPR: Blue Belt Programme

The Joint Nature Conservation Committee (JNCC) is providing you with this information so you know how we collect personal data (information) about you, what we do with it and why. This document – 'Article 13 Privacy Notice under GDPR: Blue Belt Programme' – will tell you about our processing and about the rights you have in relation to how we use your data. It will also provide you with the details of who to contact if you have any questions or concerns.

Who are we?

JNCC is the public body that advises the UK Government and devolved governments on UK-wide and international nature conservation. Originally established under the Environmental Protection Act 1990, JNCC was reconstituted by the Natural Environment and Rural Communities (NERC) Act 2006.

JNCC is an Associate partner of the UK Government’s Blue Belt Programme (BBP). Funded by the UK Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO), the Programme is delivered by the Marine Management Organisation (MMO), the Centre for Environment, Fisheries and Aquaculture Science (Cefas), and other partners.

What is the Blue Belt Programme?

The UK Overseas Territories (UKOTs) play a vital role in global ocean conservation. Though small in land area, they hold a large percentage of the UK’s biodiversity and are home to some of the most unique, fragile and irreplaceable marine ecosystems on the planet.

Since 2016, the Blue Belt Programme (BBP) has partnered with the UKOTs to protect and sustainably manage these critical ocean spaces – pairing UKOT leadership and stewardship with world-class scientific and technical expertise.

The BBP is central to the UK Government’s ambition of leading action to tackle the serious global problems of overfishing, species extinction and climate change.

The UKOTs that are currently engaged in the BBP are: Anguilla, Ascension, British Antarctic Territory (BAT), Cayman Islands, Montserrat, Pitcairn, South Georgia & the South Sandwich Islands, St Helena, Tristan da Cunha and the Turks and Caicos Islands.

What are we collecting and using your information for?

The legal basis for the collection of personal data within the Blue Belt Programme is “public task”, reflecting the role of the Blue Belt Programme delivery partners in supporting the FCDO to deliver the Programme.

We will only collect and process your personal data when it is necessary for Programme delivery and related activities. This may include delivering training and capacity-building activities, stakeholder and public consultations, monitoring, evaluation and learning (MEL) and event organisation.

The personal data we collect may include, but is not limited to, your name, email address, organisation, occupation, age range, gender. We will only process the information required for the specific purpose for which it is collected.

Where are we storing your information?

Once we receive your data it will be stored in restricted access folders in the UK on JNCC’s secure internal network, which can only be accessed by permitted staff.

Sharing your personal data with third parties

To ensure the effective delivery, functioning and governance of the Blue Belt Programme, we may share your data with our delivery partners where necessary for programme administration, delivery or governance. Any sharing of personal data will be undertaken in accordance with applicable data protection legislation and only where appropriate technical, organisational and contractual safeguards are in place. Current delivery partners include bodies in the UK such as the MMO, Cefas and FCDO, and bodies in the UK Overseas Territories.

How long will we keep your personal data?

The Blue Belt Programme is currently scheduled to run until 31 March 2029. We will regularly review the retention of your personal data and will keep it no longer than required. Under ‘public task’ we can hold your data for up to 7 years for auditing purposes.

Your rights and our contact details

You are entitled to access any of your personal data which we hold. If you wish for us to send you a copy, please contact dataprotection@jncc.gov.uk with as much detail as possible on the information you would like us to provide and we will respond within one month.

You have the right to object to the processing of your personal data. You also have the right to request that we restrict or stop processing, rectify or delete your personal data.

If you have any concerns about how your personal data is being used, or want to progress any of your rights, please contact dataprotection@jncc.gov.uk . You have the right to lodge a complaint with the Information Commissioner's Office. You also have the right to an effective judicial remedy against decisions of the Information Commissioner’s Office, or against JNCC.

The contact details for the Data Protection Officer responsible for monitoring that JNCC is meeting the requirements of Data Protection legislation are as follows:

Email: defragroupdataprotectionofficer@defra.gov.uk

Address: Defra Group Data Protection Officer, Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, SW Quarter, 2nd floor, Seacole Block, 2 Marsham Street, London SW1P 4DF

Changes to this policy

We keep this privacy notice under review, and we reserve the right to update this privacy notice at any time. Any changes to this Policy will apply to you and your data immediately. If these changes materially affect you, or how your personal data is processed, we will take reasonable steps to let you know.

Version 1, published 24 August 2026