Privacy Policy

1. About this policy

This policy applies to personal information about living individuals. It covers information collected through this website and information we receive by telephone, email, post, in person or from another appropriate source while arranging or providing our services.

Data protection law does not generally treat information about a person who has died as personal data. We nevertheless handle information about deceased people with dignity, confidentiality and care. Information connected with a deceased person may also identify or concern living relatives, representatives or other people and will then be protected under this policy.

2. Who we are

Wealden Funeral Services Ltd is the data controller for the personal information described in this policy. This means that we decide why and how that information is used.

Legal name

Wealden Funeral Services Ltd

Company number

12670306, registered in England and Wales

ICO registration number

ZA862228

Contact address

2–3 Browning Road, Heathfield, East Sussex, TN21 8DB

3. Information we collect

The information we need depends on your relationship with us and the help or service you request. It may include:

• your name, postal address, email address, telephone number and preferred method of contact;
• your relationship to the person who has died and details of other family members, representatives or contacts;
• information needed to arrange a funeral, burial, cremation, ceremony, transport, obituary, floral tribute or other requested service;
• information and content needed for an online funeral notice or tribute, charitable donations, music, a visual tribute, a funeral webcast, a service recording or a keepsake where one of these services is requested. This may include names, contact details, funeral details, photographs, video, messages, music choices and the chosen charity;
• correspondence, meeting notes, instructions, decisions, feedback and complaint records;
• billing, payment and transaction information, although we do not ask you to put payment-card details into our website contact form;
• identity, authority or legal documents where reasonably needed to confirm instructions, administer an estate, prevent fraud or meet a legal requirement;
• information about religious or philosophical beliefs, health, disability, accessibility or family circumstances where this is relevant to your wishes or the service;
• website and technical information such as an IP address, browser type, device information, pages requested, timestamps and security or error logs;
• where you allow Google Analytics, page views, interactions, referral information, approximate location, browser and device characteristics, timestamps and a pseudonymous browser identifier; and
• any other information you choose to give us or that we reasonably need to provide the requested service.

Information submitted through our contact form

Our contact form asks for your name, email address, an optional telephone number, the subject of your enquiry and your message. We use this information to review and respond to the enquiry. The form also uses short-lived technical information to protect it against misuse and retain your entries temporarily if validation fails.

Information you provide about another person

If you give us personal information about another living person, please make sure that you are entitled to do so and, where appropriate, that they understand how their information may be used. We may provide privacy information to them directly where the law requires it and it is reasonable to do so.

4. How we receive information

We may receive personal information:

• directly from you or someone acting with your authority;
• from a relative, executor, administrator, solicitor or other representative involved in the arrangements;
• from hospitals, hospices, care homes, medical professionals, registrars, coroners or local authorities;
• from crematoria, cemeteries, places of worship, officiants and suppliers involved in the requested funeral;
• from payment providers, insurers, professional advisers and regulatory or professional bodies; and
• from publicly available sources where this is necessary and proportionate for a legitimate purpose.

5. How and why we use information

We must have a lawful basis for each use of personal information. The bases most relevant to our work are: taking steps at your request before entering a contract, performing a contract, complying with a legal obligation, pursuing legitimate interests and, in limited cases, consent.

Where we rely on legitimate interests, we consider whether the use is necessary and balance our interests against your rights and reasonable expectations. You may ask us for more information about that assessment.

We do not use information submitted through our general contact form for unrelated marketing. If we ask whether you would like to receive marketing in future, we will provide a clear choice and you may opt out at any time.

When information is required

You do not generally have to give us personal information when making an initial enquiry. However, some information is needed for us to enter into or perform a funeral arrangement, receive payment, follow lawful instructions or meet legal requirements. If required information is not provided, we may be unable to provide all or part of the requested service.

Automated decision-making

We do not make decisions about people using solely automated processing where the decision would have a legal or similarly significant effect.

6. Sensitive information

Some information about living people is given additional protection under data protection law. This is known as special category data and includes information about health, racial or ethnic origin, religious or philosophical beliefs and sexual orientation.

Funeral arrangements may occasionally reveal this type of information. We collect only what is relevant and use it only when both a lawful basis and an additional special-category condition apply. Depending on the circumstances, this may be your explicit consent, the establishment, exercise or defence of legal claims, vital interests where consent cannot be given, or another condition permitted by law.

Where the information concerns the deceased person alone, it is not generally special category personal data under the UK GDPR. We nevertheless handle it sensitively.

7. Who we share information with

We share only the information reasonably needed for the relevant purpose. Depending on the arrangements, recipients may include:

• crematoria, cemeteries, burial grounds, local authorities, registrars, coroners and medical professionals;
• ministers, celebrants, places of worship, venues, musicians and other ceremony participants;
• coffin, floral, printing, transport, catering, memorial and other funeral-service suppliers chosen for the arrangements;
• banks, payment providers, accountants, insurers, solicitors and other professional advisers;
• the National Association of Funeral Directors and appropriate complaint or dispute-resolution bodies;
• website hosting, email, communications, document, security and other technology providers acting on our behalf;
• Funeral Guide, operated by Funeral Zone Limited, which supplies the independent review carousel displayed on our Reviews page;
• MuchLoved, where a family asks us to create or help administer an online funeral notice, tribute page or charitable-donation facility;
• Obitus, operated by Vivedia Limited, and the relevant funeral venue where music, photographs, video, a visual tribute, webcast, service recording or keepsake is requested;
• Google, where you consent to Google Analytics 4, for website measurement and reporting;
• police, courts, regulators, HM Revenue & Customs and other public authorities where disclosure is required or permitted by law; and
• another organisation involved in a business sale, restructuring or transfer, subject to appropriate confidentiality and data-protection safeguards.

Some recipients act as independent data controllers and use information under their own legal responsibilities. Service providers acting as our processors are required to protect information and use it only for the agreed service.

Named funeral and memorial-service providers

The role of a provider can depend on the particular service. It may process information on our instructions, under its own legal responsibilities, or in both capacities for different parts of the service.

• Funeral Guide: the live carousel on our Reviews page is supplied by Funeral Zone Limited. When it loads, the visitor’s browser connects directly to Funeral Guide and may send technical information such as the IP address, browser and device information and the page being viewed. Funeral Guide is responsible for the reviews and its own handling of information. See the Funeral Guide Privacy Policy .
• MuchLoved: if an online tribute, funeral notice or donation facility is requested, we may provide the information needed to establish or administer it. Information entered directly by tribute visitors, contributors and donors is handled by MuchLoved under its own terms, including the privacy choices available for tributes and donations. See the MuchLoved Privacy Policy .
• Obitus: where available at the selected venue, Obitus may provide music, visual tributes, webcasting, recordings and keepsakes. We and the venue may provide service information and family-supplied photographs, video, music choices or contact details needed to deliver the selected service. Access details for a private webcast should be shared only with the people invited to view it. See the Obitus Privacy Policy .

We do not sell or rent personal information to third parties.

8. International transfers

Some technology providers or their support services, including Google when Analytics is allowed, may process personal information outside the United Kingdom. Where this involves a restricted transfer, we require an approved transfer mechanism and appropriate safeguards, such as UK adequacy regulations, the UK International Data Transfer Agreement or the UK Addendum to approved standard contractual clauses, as applicable.

Funeral Guide, MuchLoved and Obitus may use their own service providers or transfer information as described in their respective privacy policies. Where a provider acts under our instructions, we take reasonable steps to ensure that any restricted transfer is protected appropriately. Where it acts as an independent controller, it is responsible for explaining and safeguarding its own transfers.

You may contact us to ask for further information about the safeguards relevant to your personal information.

9. How long we keep information

We keep personal information only for as long as reasonably necessary for the purpose for which it was collected, including any legal, accounting, insurance, professional or reporting requirement.

Our usual retention periods are:

• general enquiries that do not become arrangements: normally up to two years after the last substantive contact;
• funeral arrangement and client service records: normally seven years after the arrangement and account are completed;
• invoices and core accounting or tax records: normally six years after the end of the relevant financial period;
• complaint, incident, insurance and legal-claim records: normally six years after closure, or longer where a continuing claim, legal hold or regulator requires it;
• records of requested tribute, donation, music, visual tribute, webcast, recording and keepsake services: normally retained with the funeral arrangement record; content held by MuchLoved, Obitus or a funeral venue is retained under that provider’s terms and privacy policy;
• consent records, including Analytics choices, and requests not to receive marketing: for as long as needed to demonstrate and respect your choice;
• website security, diagnostic and session information: for a short operational period unless it is needed to investigate misuse, a fault or a security incident;
• Google Analytics user-level and event-level information: up to 14 months; standard aggregated reports may remain available for longer without identifying individual visitors; and
• the Analytics cookies stored on a device: up to two years unless consent is withdrawn or the cookies are deleted sooner.

We may keep particular information for a different period where the nature of the record, a legal requirement, a dispute or safeguarding concern makes that necessary. When information is no longer required, we securely delete or anonymise it.

10. How we protect information

We use proportionate organisational and technical safeguards intended to protect personal information against accidental loss, unauthorised access, alteration or disclosure. These include access controls, secure systems and communications, staff confidentiality, supplier checks, backups and procedures for responding to suspected data breaches.

No website, email service or internet transmission can be guaranteed completely secure. Please telephone us rather than using the general contact form when you need to provide particularly sensitive documents or information.

11. Your data-protection rights

Depending on the circumstances and the lawful basis used, you may have the right to:

• be informed about how we use your personal information;
• request access to the personal information we hold about you;
• ask us to correct inaccurate or incomplete information;
• ask us to erase information in certain circumstances;
• ask us to restrict how information is used in certain circumstances;
• receive certain information in a portable format;
• object to processing based on legitimate interests;
• object at any time to the use of information for direct marketing;
• withdraw consent at any time where consent is the basis for processing, without affecting earlier lawful use; and
• not be subject to certain decisions based solely on automated processing.

These rights are not absolute and exemptions may apply. We may need to confirm your identity and clarify your request before acting. We will not normally charge a fee, although the law permits a reasonable fee or refusal in limited circumstances.

To exercise a right, use the contact details in section 13. We aim to respond within one month, subject to any lawful extension for a complex request.

12. Cookies and website use

Our website uses cookies or similar technologies that are necessary for functions such as form security, session handling and recording your cookie choice. If you select “Allow analytics”, it also uses Google Analytics 4 cookies to measure website use. Analytics remains disabled if you reject it.

Our Reviews page includes a live Funeral Guide carousel. When this third-party content loads, the visitor’s browser connects to Funeral Guide. Funeral Guide may receive technical information and may use cookies or similar technologies under its own privacy and cookie information. This is separate from the information families give us when arranging a funeral.

Our Cookie Policy explains what the website uses, why it is used, how long it lasts and the choices available to you. You can withdraw Analytics consent at any time through the “Cookie settings” link in the website footer.

13. Contact and complaints

Please contact us first if you have a question, wish to exercise a data-protection right or are concerned about how we have used your information. We will take the concern seriously and try to resolve it promptly.

You also have the right to complain to the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO), the UK regulator for data protection. You can contact the ICO through its data-protection complaints service or telephone 0303 123 1113. We would appreciate the opportunity to consider your concern before you approach the ICO, but you are not required to contact us first.

Changes to this policy

We may update this policy when our services, website, suppliers or legal obligations change. The effective and review dates at the top of the page show when this version took effect. If a change materially affects how we use existing personal information, we will take reasonable steps to bring it to the attention of affected people.