RHS Privacy Policy

We are the Royal Horticultural Society (RHS), a charity registered in England and Wales (Reg. No. 222879) and Scotland (SC038262). This notice also applies to the RHS’s trading companies which are wholly owned subsidiaries of the RHS and “we/us/our” means the RHS, RHS Enterprises Limited (Reg. No. 01211648) and RHS Special Events Limited (Reg. No. 03119017).

Our registered address is 80 Vincent Square, London, SW1P 2PE.

If you have any questions about this privacy policy or to exercise your rights in relation to your personal data, please contact our Data Protection Officer.

The Data Protection Officer
Royal Horticultural Society
80 Vincent Square
London
SW1P 2PE
[email protected]

For any changes to your Marketing preferences including opting out of or opting into Marketing RHS communications, please log into My RHS.

Using personal data allows us to develop a better understanding of, and engage with, our stakeholders and in turn provide you with relevant and timely information about the work that we do.

The purpose of this policy is to explain why we process your personal data and your rights in relation to your data. We are committed to respecting and protecting your personal data and being transparent about what we do with it, in accordance with your reasonable expectations and applicable laws and regulations.

This privacy policy was updated on 6 March 2026. We will update this privacy policy from time to time with regard to our activities and in accordance with applicable laws and regulations and will post any changes here on our website. When you use our services, the latest privacy policy posted will apply so please check back regularly to ensure that you have seen our most up to date notice.

We appreciate your support and the trust you give us when you provide us with your personal data.

We will only use your personal data if we have a legal basis to do so.  This means that we will only use personal data where we have your explicit consent, where it is necessary in order to perform a contract with you, to comply with a legal duty or right, to protect your vital interests, or where the processing of your personal information is in our legitimate interest and not overridden by your legal rights.

There are generally three legal bases under which we may process your data:

• Consent: When consent is required we will always ask for your explicit consent to processing your personal data.
• Contract: When you make a purchase from us or become a member, you are entering a contract with us.  We need to process and store your data in order to perform this contract.
• Legitimate interests: In some situations we collect and process your personal data for purposes that are in our legitimate organisational interests.  In doing so we consider that there is no overriding prejudice to you and that you would reasonably expect us to use your data in this way.

• CCTV: means closed circuit television.
• Cookies: means small text files which our website places on your computer's hard drive to store information such as activity on our website. When you visit the website again, the cookie allows that site to recognise your browser. Cookies may store your preferences and other information. Learn more by reading our detailed policy on cookies.
• Drone: means an unmanned aircraft or autonomous unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) that is controlled by an operator from the ground with a camera which can capture still images or video.
• Malware and viruses: means malicious software (such as viruses) which can gain access to your computer or device and be used for criminal activity.
• Member: means a person who has a current membership with the RHS.
• Membership: means membership of the RHS following payment of an annual fee.
• Personal data: means any information that identifies you or that could identify you either alone or when combined with other information.
• Processing: means anything that is done to, or with, personal data (including simply collecting, storing or deleting those data).
• Third Party Marketing: means marketing or other communications about non-RHS events, products and services that are sent by or on behalf of a third party (and not the RHS).
• We/us: means The Royal Horticultural Society a charity registered in England and Wales (Reg. No. 222879) and Scotland (SC038262), and its wholly owned subsidiaries, RHS Enterprises Limited, RHS, Special Events Ltd, the Trustees of the RHS (1974), Pension Scheme (“RHS”).
• Website: means the website located at rhs.org.uk and any other websites operated by the RHS.

Members

We use your personal data to administer your membership and to communicate important information to you about your membership. Our legal basis for this processing is our membership contract with you. This includes notifying you by email of an election or poll conducted by postal and/or electronic ballot, inviting you to vote at any meeting of the Society, election or poll (such as, changes to our Bye-Laws), which you are entitled to under your membership contract. Only members over the age of 18 only are entitled to one vote. Please see our membership terms & conditions and membership rules for more information.

As part of your Membership benefits, we will send you emails about your benefits including – your RHS Member newsletter, information on events at our RHS Gardens and RHS Partner Gardens, reduced-rate tickets to RHS Flower Shows and our courses, RHS Gardening Advice, RHS Member Seed Scheme and how your membership supports our work and more. We rely on our legitimate interest to send you these communications. We will only send you emails that you would reasonably expect to receive as a member with minimal impact on your privacy. We may also rely on our Legitimate Interests to send you information via post on our latest fundraising appeal or plant and retail offers.

Fundraising and retail marketing emails will only ever be sent when you have given us your consent to receive them.

As a charity the ability to claim Gift Aid income has become more important to us. We or our appointed third-party Gift Aid calling company, acting on our behalf may call you asking if you would like to sign up for Gift Aid if you didn’t previously sign up at the time of becoming a member. If you wish to not be contacted regarding Gift Aid, please contact our Membership Department on [email protected]. We may also call you about Gift Aid where you have not given.

Please see our RHS Members FAQs for more information on your RHS Membership Benefits and Gift Aid.

As a charity, the RHS relies on donations, gift pledges and legacies. To help us better understand the type and level of support we may appropriately request from you, we may analyse the personal information we hold about you. This activity is known as profiling. It may include analysing your postcode, publicly available wealth information, philanthropic history, indicators of affluence, your relationship history with the RHS, and your personal or professional networks.

We may also use this information to send tailored invitations to RHS events.

This analysis may involve contracted third-party organisations who provide limited insights about our Members, carried out under our legitimate interests.

If you wish to opt out of this activity, you may do so by contacting the Data Protection Officer.

Please see the section below on other ways we may use your personal data.

As a member we may collect the following information about you:

• Name
• Address and postcode
• Email address
• Telephone numbers
• Bank and/or credit card details
• Date of birth

We may also create information about you that becomes your personal data such as:

• Your membership number
• Membership history
• Visits to RHS Gardens and Shows
• Payments and donations you have made to us.

Please also see the section below regarding sensitive personal data.

As an RHS member, your personal data such as your name, postal or email address is stored on our systems for the purposes of providing you with your membership benefits of which the RHS Gardening Advice service is one. This is kept on our membership system for three years following the termination of your membership. This personal data is managed in line with our Privacy Policy. Enquiries to the RHS Gardening Advice Service are permanently stored on our systems in an anonymised form for the purposes of scientific research.

The RHS retain membership data of former members for three years (from last interaction with the member) on our membership database, after which only the name and contact details of the former member is retained and archived for 20 years (all other data on the member's record is deleted). The archived data is not used for marketing or for contacting the former member unless the member has consented to receiving marketing communication from the RHS.  
 
As a charity, the RHS depend heavily on donations, gift pledges and legacies from our members and supporters, majority of the donations, gift pledges and legacies we received are from our former members, which is received over a 20 year period. For this reason the RHS archive and retain only the name and contact details of former members for 20 years, this is to enable us to recognise former members who contact us to pledge a Gift in a will or a donation. The RHS rely on our Legitimate Interest as our lawful basis under the Data Protection Act for retaining former member’s name and contact details.

We aim to communicate with you about the work that we do in ways that you find relevant, timely and respectful.

You can change your preferences at any time by visiting our Preference Centre. You can also object to the way we process your data, including the way we communicate with you at any time using the contact details at the end of this policy. In the case of marketing emails, we will always provide you with an option to unsubscribe in every email that we send you.

Customers (Shows, Events, Garden Visits, Retail and Journal Subscribers)

When you purchase goods or services from us such as; plants or other retail products, RHS Journal subscriptions, Shows, Events and Garden tickets, we use your personal data to provide the goods or service and our legal basis for this processing is our customer contract with you.   

We may also rely on our legitimate interest to communicate our work with you. We aim to send communications that you would reasonably expect to receive as a customer with minimal impact on your privacy; this may be postal information on our latest fundraising appeal or an email with similar retail or show offers where you have previously bought goods or tickets from us.

When you buy Show or Event tickets from us, your personal data may be processed by our Official Partners, including Sodexo Limited and AXS, to arrange for your tickets to be dispatched to you, provide you with goods or services that you may have ordered (such as; booking a restaurant at our Show), and to send you such information as may be helpful for you to have in order to attend the Show or Event.

Fundraising and marketing emails (where you haven’t shopped with us before) will only ever be sent when you have given us your explicit consent to receive them.

Please see the section below on other ways we may use your personal data.

As a customer we may collect the following information about you:

• Name
• Address and postcode
• Email address
• Telephone numbers
• Bank and/or credit card details
• RHS Membership number (if applicable)

We may also create information about you that becomes your personal data such as:

• Visits to RHS Gardens and Shows
• Payments and donations you have made to us

Please also see the section below regarding sensitive personal data.

If you buy membership as a gift for someone, join as a family or are the parent of one of our younger supporters, we will record your contact and payment details, the contact details of the recipient or child and your relationship to that person.

If you have been given an RHS Membership as a gift, you will need to activate it and provide your name and contact details to us to allow us to administer your membership.

In some cases, we will obtain potential indicators of interest based on postcodes. This information is not specific to the individual but will indicate probable characteristics based on postcode. We may use postcode analysis to send every postcode in an area special offers or invitations to events.

This is known as profiling and our legal basis for the processing is our legitimate interest to build a more personalised relationship through our understanding of your profile and interests.

You have the right to object to this profiling and may do so at any time. If you would like to object please contact the Data Protection Officer.

We aim to communicate with you about the work that we do in ways that you find relevant, timely and respectful.

You can change your preferences at any time by visiting our Preference Centre. You can also object to the way we process your data, including the way we communicate with you at any time using the contact details at the end of this policy. In the case of marketing emails, we will always provide you with an option to unsubscribe in every email that we send you.

More information on how your personal data is used for marketing purposes is below.

Donors and RHS Patrons

As a charity, the RHS relies on donations, gift pledges and legacies. To help us better understand the type and level of support we may appropriately request from you, we may analyse the personal information we hold about you. This activity is known as profiling. It may include analysing your postcode, publicly available wealth information, philanthropic history, indicators of affluence, your relationship history with the RHS, and your personal or professional networks.

We may also use this information to send tailored invitations to RHS events.

This analysis may involve contracted third-party organisations who provide limited insights about our Major Donors and Patrons, carried out under our legitimate interests.

If you wish to opt out of this activity, you may do so by contacting the Data Protection Officer.

As an RHS Patrons, your personal data will be used for the administration and management of your Patron membership. The names of Patrons joining or leaving the programme and the names of Patrons attending events may be shared with senior staff and volunteers. If you attend an RHS event, we may share some of your personal data when we brief our senior staff and volunteers on the guests who will be attending.

When you make a donation, a pledge or become an RHS Patron we use your personal data to record that you have given us financial support. Our legal basis for this processing is our legitimate interest to recognise your valuable contribution and send communications and invitations in appreciation.

We aim to send communications that you would reasonably expect to receive as a donor with minimal impact on your privacy; this may be postal information on our latest fundraising appeal or an email with retail offers where you have previously brought goods or tickets from us. You can unsubscribe from the, emails or phone calls at any time.

However, if you are an RHS Patron we may still contact you about your voting rights and other non-marketing important information you need to know as an RHS Patron.

As a donor we may collect the following information about you:

• Name
• Address and postcode
• Email address
• Telephone numbers
• Bank and/or credit card details
• Date of birth

We may also create information about you that becomes your personal data such as:

• Your membership number
• Membership history
• Visits to RHS Gardens and Shows
• Payments and donations you have made to us, including amount and frequency

As a donor, we may also combine the personal information we hold with publicly available information (such as directorships listed at Companies House or publicly available sources like news reports). This is known as profiling.

Please see below section on ‘Personal information we collect from other sources’ and ‘Other ways we may use personal data’ for more information on profiling.

Also, we are required by law under the money laundering regulations and our Gift Acceptance Policy to carry out due diligence on donors who are likely to make a significant donation to the RHS to assess the financial soundness, credibility, reputation and ethical principles of donors. We do this using basic minimum information publicly available.  

Fundraising and marketing emails (where you haven’t shopped with us before) will only ever be sent when you have given us your explicit consent to receive them. We may also call you about our work but we will always get your prior consent to do so.

You can change your preferences at any time by visiting our Preference Centre. You can also object to the way we process your data, including the way we communicate with you at any time using the contact details at the end of this policy. In the case of marketing emails, we will always provide you with an option to unsubscribe in every email that we send you.

More information on how your personal data is used for marketing purposes is below.

The RHS is approved by Ofqual, Qualifications Wales and CEA (Northern Ireland) to award horticultural qualifications.

RHS Approved Centres provide us with information about candidates they are registering on our qualifications. We gather and process the following personal data for the purpose of furthering our legitimate interests in creating qualifications and issue certifications:

• Candidate full name
• Candidate address details (if necessary)
• Gender
• Date of Birth
• Unique Learner Number (if applicable)
• Email address
• Ethnicity 

In some cases additional information, which may include sensitive data relating to health, will also be collected to support requests for access arrangements, reasonable adjustments and/or special consideration. Such personal data will be supplemented by the results of examinations and assessments undertaken by candidates.

A candidate’s personal data will only be collected by an approved RHS Centre or by RHS Qualifications for the purposes of registering candidates on qualifications for examination entry and certification purposes.

Personal data is processed for the purposes of external verification, marking, issuing of examination results and providing candidates with results.

Personal data, including data within the candidates’ work will be collected and processed by RHS Qualifications for the purposes of external verification, marking, issuing of examination results and providing candidates with access to Quartz Web to obtain results.

In order for RHS Qualifications to achieve some of its activities, some personal information will be transferred to sub-contracted parties such as examiners.

Personal data and achievements will be retained indefinitely for the purposes of confirming a candidates achievements or where a certificate replacement is requested. All data will be stored for identification purposes and confirming the individual’s achievement.

On some occasions, we may use a candidates email address to ascertain feedback about the course they have completed in order to help us improve our service and qualifications to ensure they remain current and meet the needs of our audience. Responses will be anonymous at all times unless consent is provided by the individual to contact them about their feedback.     

We use reasonable measures to strive to safeguard and secure all Personal Data shared with us. All RHS approved organisations delivering qualifications will register individuals for the relevant qualification(s) using the personal data you provided to the approved organisation via a secure online database, Quartz Web. Quartz Web is not linked to any other third party organisation.

As a regulated Awarding Organisation, RHS Qualifications are required to share candidate personal data (candidate name, RHS identification number and qualification achieved) with educational agencies such as Department for Education, The Skills Funding Agency, Learning Records Service and Regulators. This information is shared in order for these educational agencies to fulfil their statutory functions, statistical and policy development purposes or to update a candidate’s personal learning record. All data transferred is carried out using secure online systems.

For students completing the Level 3 Horticultural Investigation qualification with the RHS School of Horticulture centre, your details will be processed in line with the above, in addition to being shared with shared parties such as virtual learning and survey platforms.

The School of Horticulture student course data will be retained for a period of five years.
 
Personal data, including full name, email address, year of birth and postcode, will be held for Alumni purposes, this may include surveys relating to Alumni programmes. We rely on our Legitimate Interests to hold this data. To support the needs of the scheme, Alumni data is held for 70 years. You can object to us holding or processing your personal data for Alumni purposes anytime. Please see ‘You are in control’ below for more information on your rights.

The MHort team retains the name and email addresses and of individuals who have requested an application pack securely on our system for 2 years. We rely on the lawful basis of Legitimate Interests for retaining this personal data for the purposes of dealing with any queries about the programme from potential applicants and to contact potential applicants about their enquiry and interest in the programme. After this period these details are deleted from our database.

The MHort is recognised by the Education Reform Act 1988 and is a degree level equivalent.

We collect the vast majority of the personal data directly from you, through the application process. We may collect and generate additional information about you throughout the period of your study for the purpose of delivering the MHort course and issuing certifications. Our lawful basis for collecting and storing your personal data for MHort is the ‘contract’ we have with you for delivering the course and for purposes of meeting our legal obligations as set out in the Education Reform Act 1998. We collect and process the following personal data:

• Full name
• Address details
• Gender
• Date of Birth
• Email address
• Ethnicity 
• Religion

In some cases, additional information, which may include sensitive data relating to health, learning difficulties and disabilities will also be collected to support requests for access arrangements, reasonable adjustments and/or special consideration.

In order for RHS MHort team to achieve some of its activities, some personal information will be transferred to sub-contracted parties such as tutors, internal and external moderators and verifiers.

Personal data and achievements will be retained permanently for the purposes of confirming a graduate’s achievement or where a certificate replacement is requested. All data will be stored for identification purposes and confirming the individual’s achievement.

On some occasions, we may use a candidates email address to ascertain feedback during and at the end of study about the course they have completed in order to help us improve our service and award, to ensure it remains current and meet the needs of our audience.

Personal data, including full name, email address, year of birth and postcode, will be held for Alumni purposes, this may include surveys relating to Alumni programmes. We rely on our Legitimate Interests to hold this data. To support the needs of the scheme, Alumni data is held for 70 years. You can object to us holding or processing your personal data for Alumni purposes anytime. Please see ‘You are in control’ below for more information on your rights.

All personal data will be held on a secure database. Third parties that process personal data on our behalf will do so only on our instructions and where they have agreed to keep it secure. Third parties may include virtual learning and survey platforms.

Exhibitors

RHS Shows are pivotal in meeting our charitable aim of promoting horticulture throughout Britain as it provides opportunities and a platform to those involved in horticulture to promote and showcase their skills, businesses, community projects, work and activities at a popular national gardening event.

RHS Shows promote the very best of horticulture through garden designs, expert speakers, plant nurseries, floral designs, horticultural trade and educational exhibits. They are essential events for all those involved in horticulture, whether they are a garden designer, grower or retailer.

We rely on our legitimate interest to obtain and contact potential exhibitors, who are existing horticultural businesses, gardening community groups, individuals and graduates/students about the opportunities available to them at RHS Shows and to gain content for the shows from these businesses, community groups and individuals (garden designers, growers, trade stands, speakers etc).

The purpose of obtaining the contact details is to contact them to inform them about the opportunities at the shows to promote and exhibit their businesses, work, projects and activities at the shows.

We collect and hold the following information on potential exhibitors:

• Full name of an individual contact or the business trade name
• Email address
• Postal address
• Telephone number

We obtain this information from the following sources in the public domain, such as internet searches, LinkedIn, online business directories, Instagram and Facebook.

We also contact universities and colleges so that the universities and colleges can convey exhibiting opportunities to their students and graduates. The students and graduates are expected to apply or contact the RHS directly regarding exhibiting at the shows.

As an RHS Shows Exhibitor, we will share your contact information (name, address, email and telephone number) with our media partner the BBC so that the researchers working on the BBC Flower Show programmes can get in touch with you directly for further information and to arrange any filming. If you do not wish for us to share your contact information with the BBC, please email [email protected] within 14 days of signing the contract.
 
We will also share your contact information with our RHS Media Sales team to offer and sell you advertising space in our RHS Flower Show Guides that you're exhibiting at and other RHS publications. If you do not wish to be contacted by the RHS Media Sales team, please email [email protected] at any time to opt out from being contacted.

Exhibitor, Press and Guest Accreditation for Shows ID Access Pass

As an exhibitor for our shows, we will process the personal data you provide under a ‘contract’. This is for the purposes of organising and administration of the shows and your exhibits; and for accreditation purposes to issue a photographic ID work access pass, for the Show(s) you are exhibiting in. We will share your personal data with our third-party contractors, service providers and other exhibitors (who are also exhibiting and working at the same show), for purposes of organising the show. The information provided on the forms relating to the show exhibit will be retained for one year following the termination of the show.

As a press or invited guest to one of our RHS Shows on exclusive days, such as Chelsea Monday and other preview days, we are required to take additional security measures, which include issuing you with a photographic ID access pass to give you special access on exclusive days. We will process your personal data including your name, date of birth, email address, home address and photo for purposes of issuing you the photographic ID access pass.

The accreditation for the photographic ID access pass is carried out by our third-party processor. We have contracts in place with Data Protection obligations with all our third parties that process personal data on our behalf. Accreditation data is held for three years.

We will share your contact information such as your name, address and email with our Ticketing Partner AXS, in order to provide you with the complimentary tickets to the shows. In exceptional circumstances, we may also be required by law to share your personal data with the Metropolitan Police for purposes of law enforcement or national security in relation to any threat to the shows.

The RHS supports community groups, including Britain in Bloom and It’s Your Neighbourhood participants, gardening clubs and other horticultural societies (‘Affiliated Societies’) and other organisations in a wide range of horticultural activities. The RHS provides support through providing information, advice and benefits, including magazines, free annual group visits to RHS Gardens and access to affordable insurance for gardening equipment and activities. In doing so, the RHS relies on its legitimate interests in promoting and facilitating gardening in communities.

The RHS also provides opportunities to these groups, and organisations, to apply for RHS grants to fund and support their gardening or other horticulture projects.

For the above purposes, the RHS will collect the following personal data about the groups’ main contact:

• Name of the main group contact
• Credit or debit card details
• Email address of the main contact
• Contact telephone number
• Correspondence address of group/society/club

The RHS works with schools, groups and individuals to promote gardening for young people. We collect contact details to administer Campaigning for School Gardening (CFSG) membership and our legal basis for this processing is our CFSG membership terms and conditions, agreed when registering. We do not collect any children’s personal data for CFSG membership.

As a CFSG member we collect the following information about you:

• Name
• Address and postcode
• Email address
• Organisation

CFSG provides information, advice and benefits which include newsletters, competitions, information about our training courses and school gardening awards.

You can change your preferences at any time by contacting us on [email protected]. You can also object to the way we process your data, including the way we communicate with you at any time using the contact details at the end of this policy. We will always provide you with an option to unsubscribe in every marketing email that we send you.

• Name of the main group contact
• Email address of the main contact
• Contact telephone number
• Address of group/society/club/venue

While children have the same rights as adults over their personal data, we take particular care when processing children’s personal data, following data protection principles and with a particular emphasis on fairness in processing.

In running some of our activities or special events (such as the Santa’s Grotto held at the Gardens) we may collect personal data from or about children and for this, we rely on parental consent where at all possible. We only retain children’s personal data for so long as reasonably necessary to fulfil the purposes required.

For our annual School Gardeners of the Year Competition, we collect children’s personal data on those nominated by schools or groups for consideration. The children shortlisted are promoted on the website. Details of those not shortlisted are deleted.

For the above purpose we collect the following personal data of the children entering the competition:

• Name
• Age
• School name, address and postcode
• School Email address
• Description of interest and hobbies
• Entry video and audio

Where we use children’s images it is our policy to collect a signed model release form which records parental/guardian consent.

We protect these as personal data. We collect these, and also permit some of our service providers to do so, in the following circumstances: 

At shows and gardens

Drone use

Occasionally we use remote controlled drones with cameras. When drones are in use, we will let those in the vicinity know with signs and you will be able to see the marked drone operator to allow you to avoid the area if you do not want to be inadvertently filmed.

Time Lapse filming and images

We are making lots of improvements at our gardens and are filming in and around these sites to capture the developments through time lapse photography and video. While it will likely not be possible to identify individuals in the finished time-lapse clips, individuals may be identifiable in the original footage and images. We will keep the original footage secure. We have viewing platforms allowing our garden visitors to safely look at the work on development sites. Our visitors may take images of the site for personal use and we also take images and video records of the work for our records.

CCTV

We use CCTV at all gardens, sites and most Flower Shows to prevent and detect crime and for health and safety reasons. CCTV relies on strategic placement of cameras. We periodically monitor the camera's footage and recorded footage for specific purposes and limited period. You will be able to see our cameras and we have RHS CCTV signs displayed in the areas in which we use them.

Social media

We collect information from social media sites if you have given us permission to do so or if you interact with us on one of our social media pages (for example, by liking or sharing Our Facebook page or posting a comment).

Using publicly available sources

As a Charity, fundraising is a key part of our work to support our charitable work and vision, and we are committed to working in a transparent, ethical, responsible and honest way. To reflect this commitment, we are a member of the Fundraising Regulator and committed to the Regulator’s Code of Practice.

We conduct research using information from publicly available sources such as professional profiles (for example, corporate biographies and/or LinkedIn profiles); search engine and public social media results; media, news; other resources such as Companies House and the Charity Commission; and publications such as Debrett's, Who’s Who and the Sunday Times Rich List to profile and better understand a small minority of RHS members, supporters, or prospective supporters, who may be interested in supporting our charitable work. Where we do this, we use the publicly available information to review financial, philanthropic and professional information of supporters or prospective supporters. We will only use limited necessary information required in order for the review.

In some cases, we will obtain potential indicators of interest or financial status based on postcodes. This information is not specific to the individual but will indicate probable characteristics based on postcode. We may use postcode analysis to send every postcode in an area special offers or invitations to events.

This is known as profiling and our legal basis for the processing is our legitimate interest to build a more personalised relationship by building a more detailed profile of RHS members, existing donors, prospective donors or supporters.

Following the profiling, we may invite you to attend an RHS meeting or event. If we do, we may need to share some basic information about you with RHS advocates or trustees involved in the fundraising meetings and events, for the purposes of focusing conversations we have with you about fundraising in the most effective way and ensure that we provide you with an experience which is appropriate for you. It is only shared with those who need to know the information at the time of the meeting or event.

The RHS does not carry out profiling that has any significant legal effect on you. If we think that any profiling activities that we carry out may have a significant legal effect, then we will ask for your consent to ensure you are informed and have control.

We do not use profiling on children or use special categories such as; racial or ethnic origin, political opinions, religious or philosophical beliefs, or trade union membership or health data for profiling.

You have the right to object to this profiling. If you would like to do so, please let us know by contacting us using the details at the bottom of this policy.

The RHS may analyse the personal information we collect about you to help us understand the type and level of support we request from Members and Patrons. This activity is known as profiling and may include analysing postcodes, demographic information, publicly available wealth data, philanthropic history, indicators of affluence, and personal or professional networks.

We may also work with contracted third parties who assist us in generating insights about our Members and Patrons.

If you wish to opt out of this activity, please contact the Data Protection Officer.

We will never contact you if you have been registered on the Fundraising Preference Service (FPS) or the Telephone Preference Service (TPS) unless who you have specifically consented for us to contact you; such as where you have provided us with a telephone number, email address or a business card for us to call/email you as this action demonstrates that we have your consent to contact you.

Please also see the section on ‘Supporters’ and ‘Other ways we may use personal data’.

Business contacts

We contact businesses who we believe would be interested in advertising opportunities in RHS publications. 
 
We rely on our legitimate interests to obtain your business contact data and to contact you about opportunities to advertise in RHS publications to promote your business. We obtain this information from public domain sources, such as; via internet searches, your company website, LinkedIn, online business directories, advertisements, Instagram and Facebook or your contact details may be provided by our RHS Shows department if you are an RHS Shows Exhibitor to offer you the opportunity to advertise in the relevant RHS Show Guides to promote your exhibit or business. 

We collect and hold the following information on potential business contacts and exhibitors:

• Full name of an individual contact or the business trade name
• Email address
• Postal address
• Telephone number

The data is stored on our CRM for as long as necessary and is kept updated. You have the right to object to the processing or opt-out from communications at any time. Please also see the section on ‘Your Rights’.

In some circumstances, our service providers may collect your personal data on our behalf, such as when you purchase tickets to our Flower Shows from our official ticketing partner, or make on online purchase via rhsplants.co.uk, or when you use our refer-a-friend service (provided by Mention Me). When our service providers collect your personal data on our behalf, we ensure that they enter into contracts which only permits them to process your personal data in accordance with our instructions and the Privacy Statement.

The RHS may use contracted third party service providers to help understand to help us understand the type and level of support we request from Members and Patrons. This activity is known as profiling and may include analysing postcodes, demographic information, publicly available wealth data, philanthropic history, indicators of affluence, and personal or professional networks.

We may also work with contracted third parties who assist us in generating insights about our Members and Patrons.

If you wish to opt out of this activity, please contact the Data Protection Officer.

Sponsors and exhibitors at RHS Flower Shows and other events

We permit third parties who may sponsor or exhibit at our Flower Shows and other events to collect data (which may include personal data) from people visiting our Flower Shows and events. You do not need to provide personal data to any sponsors or exhibitors at these events, but you may choose to do so if you would like to receive information or offers from sponsors or exhibitors that you are interested in. 

The RHS does not receive or have access to the data that is collected by sponsors and exhibitors at our Flower Shows and other events. While we take steps to ensure that sponsors and exhibitors protect any personal data they collect from attendees at our Shows and events, and require that they only use this personal data for their own marketing purposes and do not sell it or make it available to any third parties, we cannot be responsible for how sponsors or exhibitors may use personal data that you agree to give to them. The sponsor or exhibitor (and not RHS) is responsible for ensuring that their data collection and usage complies with data protection laws in these circumstances.

Please ensure that you read any terms and conditions provided by sponsors and exhibitors and are comfortable with how they may use your personal data before you provide it to them. If you wish to exercise your data subject rights in relation to personal data held by a third party, you should contact that third party directly.

We do not normally collect or store sensitive personal data (such as information relating to health). However, there are some situations where we will need to do so (e.g. if you have an accident at one of our gardens or events or if you tell us about a disability). If we record your sensitive personal data we will take extra care and follow additional procedures to ensure your privacy rights are protected.

Our legal basis for collecting sensitive personal data will usually be so that we can fulfil legal or regulatory requirements and in other cases it will be your explicit consent.

Please refer to the ‘Health and safety incidents’ section for more information on circumstances where sensitive personal data may be processed.

If you are applying for a role at the RHS, then we collect and use this personal information primarily for recruitment purposes – in particular, we process your name, address, email, phone number, gender, date of birth, immigration/visa status, previous employment history and job title/position, academic/professional qualifications, education, CV, criminal records data (only ‘unspent’ current convictions for vetting purposes, where permissible and in accordance with applicable law). If you are not successful, we may still keep your application for a period of six months after interview to allow us to consider you for other suitable openings within the RHS. We rely on our legal obligation under the various legislation governing the recruitment and selection process including anti-discrimination and equality legislation for collecting and processing your personal data.

Once you become an RHS employee, we collect and use this personal information for the purpose of managing our employment or working relationship with you. Our lawful basis for processing your personal data is a ‘contract’ and legal obligation under various employment related legislation and the Equality Act 2010 – for example, your employment records and contract information (so we can manage our employment relationship with you), your bank account and salary/pension details (so we can pay you).

If you are a volunteer or contingent worker, the type of personal information we process is limited to that needed to manage your particular work assignment with the RHS. This includes name, address, date of birth, email address, telephone number and emergency contact.

We also collect and process equality and diversity information such as: ethnicity, gender, religious belief, sexuality, disability, physical or mental health etc. in order to meet our legal obligations as an employer under the relevant employment legislation, anti-discrimination legislation and the Equality Act 2010 that requires us to process this type of data. However, we will always seek your explicit consent where we need to collect equality and diversity information that fall outside of our legal obligation. Where we collect or process equality and diversity information for monitoring and statistical purposes, it will only be collected and processed anonymously and in an aggregated manner, so that individuals are not identifiable. It will never be used to identify individuals or to make decisions about any individual.

Read the full the RHS employee and volunteer privacy notice (697kB pdf)

Covid-19: please note that under Government guidance, the personal data of employees and volunteers working on-site at the gardens, shows or RHS offices will be used for the purposes of contact tracing and sharing with the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) for the NHS Test and Trace service. The personal data will only be shared where we are requested to do so, to help minimise the transmission of Covid-19 and support public health and safety. Please see the section below on Covid-19 Contact Tracing for more information.

Prospective RHS Council and Committee Volunteers

We collect and process your personal data for the purposes of identifying and recruiting suitably qualified members to RHS Council and Governance committees. The personal data we collect includes your name, basic interests, professional information and whether you are an RHS member.

This is collected directly from you, where you have expressed an interest in volunteering for such roles, or in some cases obtained from publicly available sources such as your website, where a member of the RHS Council or committee has recommended you for such roles. Your personal data is held for three years, in order to notify you when a suitable vacancy becomes available.
 
We rely on our legitimate interests as the lawful basis for processing your personal data. You have a right to object to this processing. If you would like to do so, please let us know by contacting us using the details found in ‘Your rights’ at the bottom of this Privacy Policy page.

The RHS has a legal obligation for ensuring health, safety and welfare of our employees, volunteers and visitors and recording health and safety incidents. Therefore, if you have been involved in a health and safety incident at any of our sites, gardens, events or in the course of conducting RHS work (if you are an employee or volunteer), we will collect and process the following personal data:

• Name 
• Address 
• Age/Date of birth 
• Gender 
• Detail of the injuries 
• Where the accident occurred including, date and time 
• Specific information relating to any injuries that may have been sustained as a result of an accident or incident, including photographs and or descriptions

We rely on the conditions set out under Article 9(2) of UK GDPR, for collecting and processing special categories of personal data such as details of your injuries or your health or medical information.
 
We will also need to record the names and address of any witnesses and we may also obtain personal information from other sources such as; the first aider, RHS employees or other witnesses to that accident.
 
Your personal data may be collected via phone, email, in-person and recorded and held by us on paper or in electronic format on our system.

Your personal data will be processed for the following purposes:

• To fulfil our legal obligations to report certain accidents and incidents to the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) as required by the Reporting of Injuries, Diseases and Dangerous Occurrences Regulations 2013 (RIDDOR)
• To fulfil our legal obligations under the Health and Safety at work act 1974 and the Social Security (Claims and Payments) Regulations 1979
• To enable us to maintain accurate and up-to-date accident, injury and incident records
• To investigate accidents and incidents to minimise the chance of reoccurrence
• To ensure adherence to our company rules, policies and procedures
• To enable us to establish, exercise or defend possible legal claims
• For employment, social security and social protection (if authorised by law) 
• For exercising or defending legal claims or judicial acts 
• To help us manage health and safety risks, improve our health and safety standards and for management reporting (the data will be anonymised in such instances)
• For archiving, research and statistics (the data will be anonymised in such instances)

We rely on the following legal basis for processing your personal data under the UK GDPR:

• Legal obligation – processing is necessary for compliance with a legal obligation to which the RHS are subject to;
• Vital interest – the processing is necessary to protect someone’s life; and 
• Legitimate interests – processing is necessary for the purposes of the legitimate interests pursued by the RHS

We will only use your personal data for the purposes for which we collected it. If we need to use your personal data for a purpose other than that for which it was collected, we will provide you, prior to that further processing, with information about the new purpose, we will explain the legal basis which allows us to process your personal data for the new purpose and we will provide you with any relevant further information. We may also issue a new privacy notice to you.

Your personal data will be shared in an anonymised form internally for the purposes of internal health and safety compliance monitoring and management reports. Your personal data may be shared externally for the purposes of health and safety legal compliance with the Health and Safety Executive (HSE), with external legal firms or our insurer where required to do so in the event of a civil claim or criminal/legal proceedings.

Your personal data will be held for as long as necessary to fulfil the purposes for which it was collected and processed, including for the purposes of satisfying any legal, tax, health and safety or reporting requirements. We will hold your records for four years after the closure of an investigation or after that for the duration of any civil claim or legal proceedings. If the accident or incident involves a child, the information will be held for three years after their 18th birthday. If the accident or incident involves a hazardous or potentially hazardous substance, the information will be held for at least 40 years (50 years if exposed to radiation) in accordance with current legislation.

• Your user ID, linked to your My RHS
• Your questions submitted to the Chatbotanist
• Your feedback about the Chatbotanist

If you enter any competitions or prize draws run or promoted by the RHS, we will collect the following personal data about you:

• Name
• Email address
• Phone number
• Postcode

The personal data you provide when you enter a competition or a prize draw run by the RHS, will be used for the following purposes:

• The running of the competition or the prize draw
• Contacting you and distributing the prize to you if you win
• Publishing your surname and county if you win to meet the requirements of the Committee of Advertising Practice (CAP) code (where you have not objected)
• Providing your surname and county if you win to anyone who emails to meet the requirements of the Committee of Advertising Practice (CAP) code (where you have not objected)
• Where required by law providing your surname and county if you win to the Advertising Standards Authority upon their request

Unless, you have opted-in to receive other information or marketing from us, the personal data of the winner(s) will be kept for a period of 140 days from the draw date and then deleted and the personal data of all other entrants will be kept for a period of 60 days from the Closing Date and then deleted.

Marketing doesn’t just mean offering things to buy, but also includes news and information about what we do. What information and communications you receive from us will depend on whether you are a member or a non-member.

Members

If you are a member, you will receive the RHS magazine, ‘The Garden’, as well as news about our events and activities in our gardens and partner gardens, seasonal gardening advice, information on Members' days at upcoming RHS Flower Shows, our charitable work your membership supports and member’s offers as part of your membership package. We will send this information by post or email unless you ask us not to. You can opt-out from receiving this communication from us at any time.

You will only receive information about retail offers by email if you have previously bought items from us, or if you opt in. You will only receive information about our charitable appeals by email if you have opted in to receiving this information. To opt in to receive retail offers by post or email, and information on our appeals by email, go to manage your communications.

Non-members

If you are not already a member, we would love to be able to tell you more about our work at the RHS, such as information about our Flower Shows, membership, retail, garden visits and our charitable work and appeals. Please note that if you have already bought something from us we will write to you to let you know about retail offers.

Do not miss out! Opt-in so that we can let you know about events and activities you might be interested in. You can do this by registering for a free RHS secure account, emailing [email protected] or phoning us on 0203 176 5840.

Our marketing promise

• We will only ever use your details to help you make the most of what we have to offer and what you have asked if you have previously made a purchase or shopped with us
• We use contact frequency rules to ensure we do not send you too many communications
• Your details are only used by us, or those who work with us (such as our suppliers and contractors), and will not be sold to anyone else
• Where suppliers and contractors process personal data on our behalf, we control this in order to safeguard your personal data rights, through reviewing their data security arrangements and enforcement of specific personal data obligations in our contracts with them
• We do not make personal data available to third parties to use for their own marketing purposes

Third-party marketing

Our magazines, newsletters and Flower Show guides do include some advertisements about products and services provided by third parties, and information about competitions and fundraising. If you do not wish to receive these advertisements or information, you have the option not to receive the magazine or newsletter. View more information on how to manage your communications.

You should be aware that our service providers, such as our official ticketing partner, may ask you for your consent to send you Third Party Marketing. You do not need to provide your consent to third party marketing in order to purchase tickets to RHS Flower Shows or receive other RHS products or services.

If you do provide your consent to third party marketing, you should be aware that your personal data will be processed by that third party in accordance with their privacy statement (and not this RHS privacy statement). You should read their privacy statement carefully and ensure that you are comfortable with how they may use your personal data before providing your consent. If you wish to exercise your data subject rights in relation to personal data held by a third party, you should contact that third party directly.

Certain pages of Our Website may contain third party advertising, which may be targeted or personalised if you have cookies enabled on your browser. Please see our Cookie Policy for more information.

We permit sponsors and exhibitors at our Flower Shows and other events to collect data (which may include personal data) from attendees at our Flower Shows. You do not need to provide personal data to any sponsors or exhibitors at our Flower Shows, but you may choose to do so if you would like to receive information or offers from sponsors or exhibitors that you are interested in.

The RHS does not receive or have access to the data that is collected directly by sponsors and exhibitors at our Flower Shows and other events. While we take steps to ensure that sponsors and exhibitors protect any personal data they collect from attendees at our Shows and events, and require that they only use this personal data for their own marketing purposes (and do not sell it or make it available to any third parties), we cannot be responsible for how sponsors or exhibitors may use any personal data that you agree to give to them.

The sponsor or exhibitor (and not RHS) is responsible for ensuring that their data collection and usage complies with data protection laws in these circumstances. Please ensure that you read any terms and conditions provided by sponsors and exhibitors and are comfortable with how they may use your personal data before you provide it to them.

Analysis and grouping

We analyse data about our members and non-members to understand common characteristics and preferences. We analyse various types of information including activity (e.g. frequency of garden and Flower Show visits) and demographic information (e.g. age or location). By analysing data and grouping people together by common characteristics, we can provide more relevant communications, offers, and information, improve our activities and services, and operate more efficiently.

Research and profiling

We also use personal data to build profiles of categories of members and add profiles to the individual’s member’s record. This enables us to understand our members and supporters, improve our relationships, and provide a better member and supporter experience.

The RHS does not carry out profiling that has any significant legal effect on you. If we think that any profiling activities that we carry out may have a significant legal effect, then we will ask for your consent to ensure you are informed and have control. We will not use profiling on children or special categories of data like genetic or biometric information. 

You have the right to object to this profiling. If you would like to do so, please let us know by contacting us using the details at the bottom of this policy.

Anonymised data

We may aggregate and anonymise personal data. We use anonymised or de-identified information for a variety of purposes, such as identifying trends or patterns within our existing member or supporter base, to improve our activities and services, including our campaigns, retail offers, services, newsletters and magazine.

Special circumstances

If you do not fall within one of the above categories, why and how we process your data will depend on how you interact with us, for example, if you ask us for information or sign up for a newsletter we will need to collect some personal data from you.

We will only use this information to provide the necessary service or information that you have requested, unless you have given us your explicit consent to use your information in other ways.

You can change your preferences at any time clicking here and can object to how we process your data at any time by contacting the Data Protection Officer.

The Data Protection Officer
Royal Horticultural Society
80 Vincent Square
London
[email protected]

We maintain and apply appropriate safeguards, organisational and technological security measures in order to keep your personal data secure and also require that third parties we choose to process your personal data do the same.

We have up-to-date security measures, a comprehensive privacy programme, carry out security audits and have a dedicated privacy expert to advise us.

We actively manage our use of your personal data and store it securely in the UK or within the European Economic Area (EEA).

International processing

It is our policy not to use service providers who store or transfer data outside of the European Economic Area. However, in some circumstances where this is not possible, we will ensure that it is only transferred outside of the European Economic Area in compliance with the UK and EU GDPR and with appropriate safeguards. We will notify you of any such transfers by way of a specific privacy notice for the impacted service you are receiving. 

Banking details

We store your bank account and debit / credit card details in accordance with the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI-DSS).

We keep your personal data safely for as short a time as we need it or legally have to keep it. In doing so, we:

• review the length of time we keep your personal data;
• consider the purposes for which we holds the personal data in deciding whether (and for how long) to retain it;
• securely delete personal data that is no longer needed for those purposes; and
• update, archive or securely delete personal data if it goes out of date. 

The time periods for which we retain your personal data depend on the purposes for which we use it.

We have set destruction limits taking into account legal rules, your rights and our needs and have a continuous programme that securely destroys your personal data when we have reached the relevant time limit.

When you make a payment to us by giving us your card or bank account details, we may temporarily store these details securely in order to process the payment as soon as possible. After the payment has been processed we safely destroy the card or bank account details.

If you make annual payments to us, we will safely store your payment details for annual processing of payment.

We will never sell your personal data.

We may share data, including personal data, with RHS affiliates and subsidiaries, and with our third-party vendors and service providers who may need to have access to your personal data for the purpose of providing services to us. We do not permit our third party service providers to use any personal data that we share with them for their own marketing purposes or for any other purposes other than in connection with the services they provide to us, unless you have provided your consent for them to do so.

In some circumstances, our service providers may collect your personal data on our behalf, such as when you purchase tickets to our Flower Shows from our official ticketing partner, or make on online purchase via rhsplants.co.uk, or when you use our refer-a-friend service (provided by Mention Me). When our service providers collect your personal data on our behalf, we ensure that they enter into contracts which only permits them to process your personal data in accordance with our instructions and the Privacy Statement.

You should be aware that our service providers, such as our official ticketing partner, may ask you for your consent to send you marketing and other information about non-RHS events, products and services (“Third-Party Marketing”). You do not need to provide your consent to third party marketing in order to purchase tickets to RHS Flower Shows or receive other RHS products or services via our official partners, such as our ticketing agent. If you do provide your consent to third party marketing, you should be aware that your personal data will be processed by that third party in accordance with their privacy statement (and not the RHS privacy statement). You should read their privacy statement and ensure that you are comfortable with how they may use your personal data before providing your consent.

We may also share your personal data with third parties if we are required to do so by law or contract, to respond to legal process, to protect our customers or staff, to protect lives, with your consent, to complete a transaction, or to protect the rights or property of the RHS.

We pass your card or bank details to our payment providers in order to process payments that are due to us.

We may allow our external researchers to create anonymous aggregate data and perform trend analysis about donations, garden visits, online purchases, visits to our shops, shows and events. We will only use anonymised, non-identifiable information for these purposes to help us provide better and more relevant services.

We may also share your personal data if it is necessary to:

• comply with applicable law or respond to valid legal processes, including from law enforcement or other government agencies. For example, on occasion we may disclose CCTV footage to the police.
• reclaim gift aid on your donations from HMRC gift aid declarations. In these circumstances, we will need to share your name and address and details of your tax status.

The RHS carries out research to test and improve services.

Why have we emailed you about taking part in user research?

We will contact people via email under our ‘Legitimate Interests’ or who have consented to receive emails about taking part in customer research, about a product or service they have used for the purposes of helping us to improve our services, products, and experiences.

Why we need your data

When we ask you to fill in a survey

We need information about you when inviting you to take part in research to ensure that:

• You meet the criteria for this piece of research
• ​We are including a wide range of people

We use survey platforms called ‘Survey Monkey’ and ‘Conjointly’ to conduct the surveys by RHS employees or by our contracted research companies who carry out the research on behalf of the RHS.

Not everyone who fills in the survey will take part in the user research sessions. People will be selected by the answers given in any surveys we may ask to fill in prior to interviews and hit our research brief. 

During research interviews

We need to collect data during the research session to ensure that we have an accurate record of what happened and what was said. This is important, because we then analyse this information and use it to draw conclusions about what we should do next.

Our legal basis for using your data

We use your data because you have consented for us to do so for this particular piece of research.

What data we collect from you

When inviting you to take part

The personal data we collect from you at this stage could include information about your:

• Name
• Age range
• Gender 
• Ethnicity (do we need to ask this?)
• Disabilities, such as details of any condition that can affect your ability to use a computer 
• Email address

We may collect additional information, based on the specific topic being researched. For example, if we’re conducting research on a specific RHS service, we might want to know whether you’ve used this service in the past.

We sometimes work with other organisations to carry out research. This can include companies that help us recruit people to take part in research. We will always ensure that we have a contract in place with the organisations. If we do this, these companies may also collect additional data for which they are the data controller, and their privacy policy will also apply.

During the research session

In most cases, we’ll collect personal data during the research session. This could be in the form of:

• Audio recordings
• Video recordings
• Screen recordings
• Written notes
• Photos
• Survey questionnaire

What we do with your data

Collecting and analysing

We sometimes use external organisations to book a venue for the research outside of our offices, and external tools to conduct remote research sessions. This means that a limited number of staff in other organisations may have access to your data – for example, when we use the recording equipment at an external venue.
We may also use the following third party tools and services to collect, transcribe or analyse your data:

• Survey tools
• Online collaboration tools, including video conference and virtual whiteboard tools
• Consent management tools

If we do any of the above, we will monitor and limit the access that people outside the RHS have to your data. The privacy policies of these external organisations will also apply.

Reporting the results

When using your responses in reports or presentations, or sharing internally or externally, we will make sure you cannot be identified from your data. Each person taking part in a piece of research will be assigned a number, and any names or other personal and identifiable data will be removed.

Only researchers working at the RHS will have access to the full original survey responses and recordings though we may share short audio or video clips with external organisations who are contracted to work on the research.

If we do any of the above, we will monitor and limit the access that people outside the RHS have to your data. The privacy policies of these external organisations will also apply.

Legal obligations

We will not:

• Sell or rent any of your data to third parties
• Share your data with third parties for marketing purposes

Where your data is processed and stored

Your personal data will be stored securely on our IT systems. Your personal data may be transferred outside the United Kingdom. If this happens, it will be subject to equivalent legal protection through the use of adequacy decisions. If no relevant adequacy decision exists, standard contractual clauses will be used instead. 

How long we keep your data

The data collected when we invite you to take part will be held for a maximum of 12 months. After this point, we will delete this but will keep a record of consent, your name, and the data gathered during the research session.
We will hold the data from research sessions, your name, and a record of consent for a maximum of 3 years. After this point, we will delete all personal data relating to you, but we might retain reports that contain your anonymised quotes.

How we protect your data and keep it secure

We are committed to doing all that we can to keep your data secure. We have set up systems and processes to prevent unauthorised access to or disclosure of the data we collect about you. All third parties that process personal data for  RHS are also required to keep that data secure.

Your rights

You have the right to withdraw consent to the processing of your personal data - for example original recordings and notes where you can be identified. If a report with anonymised quotes has been published (internally or externally) we will not be able to remove this as it does not constitute personal data.

You also have the right to request:

• Information about how your personal data is processed
• A copy of that personal data
• That anything inaccurate in your personal data is corrected without delay

• That your personal data is erased if there is no longer a justification for holding it
• That the processing of your personal data is restricted in certain circumstances (for example, where accuracy is contested)

If you have any of these requests, please contact us using the details in the information sheet provided to you, or the contact details listed below.

Questions and complaints

If you have questions about research that you’ve been invited to participate in, you can contact the researcher named on the information sheet provided to you.

Contact the RHS Data Protection Officer if you:

• Have any questions about anything in this document
• Think that your personal data has been misused or mishandled

Office. The contact details for our Data Protection Officer are:
Data Protection Officer
Royal Horticultural Society
80 Vincent Square
London
SW1P 2PE
Email: [email protected]

The Data Protection Officer provides independent advice and monitoring of Cabinet Office’s use of personal information.

You can also complain to the Information Commissioner, who is an independent regulator.
Information Commissioner's Office
Email [email protected]
Contact form https://ico.org.uk/glo...
Telephone 0303 123 1113
Textphone 01625 545 860

Changes to this privacy notice

We may change this privacy notice. When we make changes, the ‘last updated’ date at the top of the page will also change.

Any changes to this notice will apply to you and your data immediately. 

• understanding what our users need gardening help with so that we can provide better gardening content on all our digital platforms,
• for research and innovation in the areas of science and horticulture, and
• training our AI tool that power Chatbotanist to help our AI tool become more accurate and better at solving specific problems and to make our AI tool more helpful for people.

You are in control of what we do with your personal data. If you would like to change your choices, or how we communicate with, just let us know.

The easiest way to do this is through a My RHS account - it’s quick, free and secure for both members and non-members. Simply sign up and log in, to manage our contact with you.

Alternatively you can contact us at [email protected] or call us on 0203 176 5840 and speak with our Membership Team.

If you are a member and would like to receive information about RHS retail and our appeals by email, please opt in here so you do not miss out!

If you are not a member and would like to receive information about shows, membership, retail, garden visits and our charitable work and appeals, please opt in here. Please note that if you have already bought something from us we may write to you about our retail offers.

There are “unsubscribe” buttons on all electronic communications which allow you to opt out of future communications. We also include a reminder of our “unsubscribe” email address and phone number on communications we send to you by post.

Please let us know if your personal data is inaccurate because your details have changed (for example you have moved house). You can do this online by logging into your RHS.org.uk account, selecting “my details”, or letting us know using our contact details.

When updating your personal data by phone or email, we may ask you to verify your identity before we can act on your request.

You have several legal rights in relation to your personal data. These data subject rights are the right to request:

• Right to be informed about the collection and use of your personal data;
• Access to your personal data (see below);
• Rectification of your personal data;
• Erasure of your personal data (this right is also referred to as the 'right to be forgotten');
• Restriction of our processing of your personal data;
• Portability of your personal data (where we process your data by automated means and under the legal basis of consent you have the right to receive this data in a structured, commonly used and machine readable way and to transmit this to another controller);
• Processing of your personal data ceases (the right to object); and
• Not to be subject to automated decision making

To exercise your rights or ask any questions please contact the Data Protection Officer.

The Data Protection Officer
Royal Horticultural Society
80 Vincent Square
London
SW1P 2PE
[email protected]

We will always try to respond to your satisfaction, but there may be situations where we are unable to do so.

More information can be found at the website of the Information Commissioner's Office.

You can find out if we hold your personal data and ask for a copy of it by making a ‘subject access request’.

If we do hold personal data about you, we will:

• let you know what personal data is being held or used and why
• let you know who can see your personal data
• give you a copy of the personal data you request in electronic form
• provide any other relevant information including how long we will hold your personal data for and how to correct inaccurate information that is held by us.

Please get in touch with us if you have any questions about any aspect of this privacy policy, or wish to exercise your legal rights. 

To make a request or to exercise your legal rights, please email or send a letter (headed ‘Subject Access Request’) to:

The Data Protection Officer
Royal Horticultural Society
80 Vincent Square
London
[email protected]

We will respond as soon as possible (and within one month of the date of receipt of your request and the information we need to respond).

We use up to date physical and technical measures to keep your information safe, prevent unauthorised access to it and to prevent misuse or unauthorised disclosure of it.

We control who has access to our secure electronic databases and provide staff and volunteers training on our data protection policies and procedures. We also check these are being followed.

Our website includes some links to other sites that may be operated by third parties. If the third party website is operated on our behalf by one of our official partners, such as when you purchase plants via rhsplants.co.uk and when you purchase Flower Show tickets, any personal data that you submit via that website will still be governed by this privacy policy, unless you provide your consent for your information to be used in other ways (such as if you opt-in to receive Third Party Marketing), in which case the third party’s privacy policy may apply. 

On some occasions, we may provide links to third party websites that are not operated on our behalf.  When this is the case, we will notify you that you are leaving the RHS Website and entering a website operated by a third party.  In these circumstances, any personal data that you may submit to the third party’s website will be processed in accordance with the third party’s privacy statement.

Our site may also have “plugins” (such as Facebook “like button”) through a third party website. These and similar features are also governed by the third party’s privacy statement.