Privacy Policy
PRIVACY POLICY
Northern Design Awards Limited
Last updated: 20 August 2026
Northern Design Awards Limited respects your privacy and is committed to protecting your personal information. This Privacy Policy explains how we collect, use, share and protect personal information when you visit our website, register for or enter the Northern Design Awards, act as a judge, attend an event, work with us as a sponsor or supplier, or otherwise contact us.
This policy is intended to provide the privacy information required by the UK General Data Protection Regulation (UK GDPR), the Data Protection Act 2018 and, where relevant, the Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulations 2003 (PECR).
1. Who we are
Northern Design Awards Limited is the data controller responsible for deciding how and why your personal information is used.
Company name: Northern Design Awards Limited
Company number: 15322185
Registered office: Ash Tree Farm, Lower Mountain Road, Penyffordd, Chester, Wales, CH4 0EU
Website: www.northerndesignawards.com
Privacy contact: info@northerndesignawards.com
2. The personal information we collect
Depending on how you interact with us, we may collect the following information:
Identity and contact information, including your name, job title, email address, telephone number, postal address, town or city and postcode.
Professional and business information, including your company or organisation, website, role, industry, professional biography and business relationships.
Account information, including your username, password credentials and account preferences. Passwords are managed through our platform provider and are not visible to us in plain text.
Award entry information, including the category entered, project title, location, completion date, project description, your contribution, project partners, supporting documents, images, captions, photographer or rights credits and declarations made as part of an entry.
Information about project partners and other people named in an entry. If you provide another person’s information, you must have authority to do so and should make them aware of this policy.
Judging information, including judge contact details, biographies, category assignments, confidentiality and conflict declarations, abstentions, scores, comments and decisions.
Payment and transaction information, including the amount paid, payment status, invoice details and transaction reference. Card details are processed by Stripe and are not stored by Northern Design Awards Limited.
Event information, including ticket and guest details, attendance, seating requirements, accessibility needs, dietary requirements and event communications.
Sponsor, supplier and business-contact information, including contact details, correspondence, contracts, deliverables and payment records.
Marketing preferences, including whether you have chosen to receive Northern Design Awards news and marketing communications and records of any unsubscribe request.
Communications, including emails, enquiries, feedback, complaints and records of our correspondence with you.
Technical and usage information, including IP address, browser type, device information, pages viewed, referral information, dates and times of access, cookies and similar technologies.
3. How we collect personal information
We collect personal information:
directly from you when you register, enter an award, make a payment, attend an event, subscribe to marketing, contact us or enter into a business relationship with us;
from another entrant, employer, colleague or project partner who names or nominates you;
from judges, sponsors, suppliers, venues and professional advisers;
automatically when you use our website or AwardStage platform, through cookies, logs and similar technologies; and
from publicly available professional sources, such as company websites, Companies House, professional directories and public business profiles, where appropriate.
4. How and why we use your information
We use personal information only where we have a lawful basis. The principal purposes and lawful bases are:
To create and manage entrant, judge and administrator accounts, administer entries, take payment and deliver the awards service. Lawful basis: performance of a contract or steps taken at your request before entering into a contract.
To review eligibility, moderate entries, allocate entries to judges, manage conflicts, record scores, select finalists and winners, and communicate results. Lawful basis: performance of a contract and our legitimate interests in running fair and credible awards.
To identify and credit entrants, project partners, finalists, winners and judges in event materials, our website, social media, press releases, photography, video and other awards communications. Lawful basis: performance of a contract and our legitimate interests in recognising achievement, promoting the awards and maintaining an historical record.
To process payments, issue invoices and receipts, maintain financial records, prevent fraud and meet tax, accounting and legal requirements. Lawful basis: performance of a contract, compliance with legal obligations and our legitimate interests in protecting our business.
To plan and deliver awards ceremonies and related events, including guest management, seating, accessibility and dietary arrangements. Lawful basis: performance of a contract, legitimate interests, and explicit consent where special category information is provided and consent is the appropriate condition.
To respond to enquiries, provide support, manage complaints and protect our legal rights. Lawful basis: performance of a contract, legitimate interests and compliance with legal obligations.
To manage relationships with sponsors, suppliers, venues, judges, media and other industry contacts. Lawful basis: performance of a contract and legitimate interests in operating and developing our business.
To improve our website, platform, services, communications and user experience, and to monitor security and prevent misuse. Lawful basis: legitimate interests, with consent for non-essential cookies where required.
To send Northern Design Awards news and marketing communications where you have actively opted in, or where another lawful PECR route applies. Lawful basis: consent, or legitimate interests where permitted. You can unsubscribe at any time.
To comply with laws, regulatory requests, court orders and the establishment, exercise or defence of legal claims. Lawful basis: compliance with legal obligations and legitimate interests.
5. Award entries, judging and public recognition
Award entries are shared with authorised Northern Design Awards administrators and the judges assigned to assess the relevant category or judging round. Judges are required to treat entries confidentially and to declare conflicts or abstain where appropriate.
Entry information is used for judging and awards administration. If an entry becomes a finalist or winner, we may publish the entrant’s name, company, project title, credited project partners, submitted images, category, result and approved project information on our website, social media, event materials, press releases and other promotional channels.
Judging scores and comments are not routinely published. We may use aggregated or anonymised information for reporting and to improve the awards.
6. Marketing communications
Marketing consent is optional and is separate from the service communications needed to manage your account, entry, payment or attendance. You can register and enter the awards without consenting to marketing.
You can withdraw marketing consent at any time by using the unsubscribe link in an email or contacting info@northerndesignawards.com. Withdrawing consent does not affect the lawfulness of earlier processing. We may retain a minimal suppression record so that we can respect your request not to receive further marketing.
7. Cookies and similar technologies
Our website and awards platform may use cookies and similar technologies. These may include:
strictly necessary cookies required for security, authentication, payments and core website or platform functions;
functional cookies that remember settings and preferences; and
analytics or marketing cookies that help us understand use of our services or measure communications.
Where consent is required, non-essential cookies should not be placed until you have made a choice. You can also manage cookies through your browser settings. Blocking some cookies may affect how parts of the website or platform work.
8. Who we share information with
We may share personal information where necessary with:
AwardStage, which provides the awards entry and judging platform;
Stripe and related payment providers, which process entry and other payments;
website, hosting, cloud-storage, email, CRM, analytics and IT-support providers;
judges, event staff, venues, production teams, photographers, videographers and other suppliers involved in delivering the awards;
sponsors, media partners and public-relations providers where this is necessary for agreed awards recognition or promotion;
accountants, insurers, solicitors and other professional advisers;
public authorities, regulators, courts, law-enforcement bodies or other parties where disclosure is required or permitted by law; and
a purchaser, investor or successor organisation if our business or assets are sold, reorganised or transferred.
Our service providers may use personal information only for the agreed services and must protect it appropriately. We do not sell personal information.
9. International transfers
Some service providers may store or access personal information outside the United Kingdom. Where a restricted international transfer takes place, we will use an approved legal mechanism, such as UK adequacy regulations, the UK International Data Transfer Agreement, the UK Addendum to approved standard contractual clauses, or another lawful safeguard or exception. You may contact us for further information about the safeguards used.
10. How long we retain information
We retain personal information only for as long as reasonably necessary for the purpose for which it was collected, including legal, accounting and dispute requirements. Our usual retention periods are:
entrant accounts, unsuccessful entries and routine judging records: normally up to 24 months after the relevant awards ceremony;
finalist and winner records: retained as part of the continuing public and historical archive of the Northern Design Awards, subject to periodic review and legitimate objections;
payment, invoice, tax and accounting records: generally six years from the end of the relevant company financial year, or longer where lawfully required;
marketing information: until consent is withdrawn, an objection is made, or the record has been inactive for 24 months, after which it will be reviewed or deleted, with a minimal suppression record retained where necessary;
general enquiries and correspondence: normally up to two years after the matter is closed;
accessibility, dietary and similar event information: normally deleted or anonymised within 90 days after the event unless it is needed for a complaint, legal claim or another lawful reason; and
website and security logs: normally up to 12 months, unless required for an investigation or legal purpose.
We may anonymise information so that it can no longer identify an individual. Anonymised information may be retained for statistical, historical or business-analysis purposes.
11. Security
We use appropriate technical and organisational measures designed to protect personal information against accidental or unlawful loss, alteration, disclosure, access or destruction. Access is limited to people who need the information for their role. Our providers use their own security controls and contractual protections. However, no online system can be guaranteed to be completely secure.
12. Your data-protection rights
Depending on the circumstances and lawful basis, you may have the right to:
request access to your personal information;
request correction of inaccurate or incomplete information;
request deletion of your information;
request restriction of processing;
object to processing based on legitimate interests and object at any time to direct marketing;
request transfer of information you provided to us in a structured, commonly used and machine-readable format;
withdraw consent at any time where we rely on consent; and
complain to the Information Commissioner’s Office.
These rights are not absolute and may not apply in every case. We may need to verify your identity before responding. To exercise a right, email info@northerndesignawards.com. We normally respond within one month.
Your right to object: You have the right to object at any time to our use of your personal information for direct marketing. You may also object to processing based on legitimate interests. We will stop processing unless we can demonstrate compelling legitimate grounds or the processing is required for legal claims.
13. Automated decision-making
We do not use solely automated decision-making that produces legal or similarly significant effects. Award results are determined through human judging and awards administration.
14. Children
The Northern Design Awards entry service is intended for people aged 18 or over. We do not knowingly collect personal information from children through the entry platform. If you believe a child has provided information to us, please contact us so that we can investigate and take appropriate action.
15. Complaints
Please contact us first if you have concerns about how we use personal information, so that we can try to resolve the issue.
You also have the right to complain to the Information Commissioner’s Office, the UK regulator for data protection. Information about making a complaint is available at www.ico.org.uk.
16. Changes to this policy
We may update this policy to reflect changes to our services, providers or legal obligations. The latest version will be published on www.northerndesignawards.com and the ‘Last updated’ date will be revised. Where a change is significant, we may also notify registered users by email or through the awards platform.
17. Contact us
For questions about this policy or our use of personal information, contact:
Northern Design Awards Limited
Email: info@northerndesignawards.com
Registered office: Ash Tree Farm, Lower Mountain Road, Penyffordd, Chester, Wales, CH4 0EU