Privacy Policy

Here at Birmingham Hippodrome, we take your privacy seriously. We promise to respect any personal data you share with us, and keep it safe.

This policy explains who we are, what information we collect, how and why we use it, how it is stored, how we fundraise, which partners we work with, and your rights with regard to any information you share with us.

We promise to use the information we collect about you in accordance with the UK General Data Protection Regulation (UK GDPR), the Data Protection Act (DPA) and the Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulations (PECR). We aim to be clear when we handle your data, and not do anything you wouldn’t reasonably expect.

By visiting www.birminghamhippodrome.com you are accepting and consenting to the practices described in this policy.

This privacy policy applies to our website visitors, customers, participants, supporters, visitors to our building, job/volunteer applicants, creative programme/bursary applicants, suppliers, and industry contacts.

Please read this information carefully, as by providing your data to us you acknowledge you have read this policy and understand we will process your data in accordance with its terms.

Who we are

Birmingham Hippodrome Theatre Trust Ltd (BHTT) (Registered Company No. 1446309) is an independent registered charity (Registered Charity No. 510842) with a voluntary Board of Trustees. We were established in 1979 to present theatrical productions, encourage the arts, and promote education. We receive no regular revenue funding grants. Our income comes from a share of ticket sales, commercial activity, corporate support and donations. We have a trading subsidiary, Birmingham Hippodrome Ltd (BHL), which covenants all profits to BHTT. For this policy, “we”, “us”, “our” and “Birmingham Hippodrome” refers both to BHTT and BHL.

For the purpose of the UK GDPR the data controller is Birmingham Hippodrome Theatre Trust, Hurst Street, Birmingham, B5 4TB. (ICO registration Z7035433).

Contact us

Questions, comments and requests regarding this privacy policy are welcomed.

Email us: dataprotection@birminghamhippodrome.com

Write to us: Data Protection (Information & Ticket Sales Team), Birmingham Hippodrome, Hurst Street, Southside, Birmingham B5 4TB

Unsubscribe from direct mail info@birminghamhippodrome.com

Call us: 0844 338 5000

The types of personal information we collect

We only collect the information that is necessary to carry out normal business operations, to provide any goods or services you’ve asked for, and to keep you updated about our current and future work. The types of personal information we collect include:

• title, first name, and last name
• contact details including organisation/company name and job title (if appropriate), postal address, email address, and telephone number(s)
• if you are a teacher with whom we have professional relationship, your professional email, the name, address and telephone number of school/college, the type of school/college, and the subject and key stage taught
• if you are a young person, we may collect the contact details (including name, address, email address and telephone number) of your parent/guardian
• if you are a contractor, we may ask for details about your professional accreditation/qualifications
• if you are a job applicant, we may ask for details about your experience and qualifications
• date of birth and age
• transaction history, including billing and payment card information (first 6 digits and last 4 digits)
• donation history
• bank details (e.g., for invoicing purposes if you are a supplier, or if you set up a direct debit with us)
• communications preferences
• access requirements (for you or your party)
• health, allergy and dietary requirements (for you or your party) related to your booking
• qualitative opinions or attitudes about our services and programme through surveys
• any other information you provide to us by email, letter, telephone, social media, via our websites or apps, or in person
• image and likeness (as captured on our CCTV cameras, security body cameras, and in photographs and videos we may use for promotional purposes)
• image and likeness (as captured on body cameras worn by staff)
• social media handle
• technical information gathered when you visit our website; including the Internet protocol (IP) address used to connect your computer to the Internet, your login information, browser type and version, time zone setting, browser plug-in types and versions, operating system and platform
• information that is publicly available
• signature
• if you are attending a conference at Birmingham Hippodrome, we may ask for additional information such your pronouns, industry, profession, or discipline

Sensitive personal information

• As recorded above, this includes health information such as access needs (e.g., wheelchair access, audio description, BSL interpretation, captioned or any other access requirement) or allergy/dietary requirements (e.g., for a conference booking).
• We may ask for other sensitive personal information specific to a job or volunteering role you are applying for, such as gender and ethnicity.
• We sometimes request sensitive personal data in our audience surveys, in order to assist us with our diversity monitoring. This data is not obligatory to provide, is analysed anonymously, and not linked to individual customer records.

How we collect your personal information

You give us personal information when you:

• visit our website
• buy a ticket, make a purchase from our shop, The Circle Lounge, The Proscenium Lounge or one of our bars, or buy something from our website
• create or update your Birmingham Hippodrome Account on our website
• sign up to receive marketing communications from us
• sign up to one of our events or workshops
• participate in a project
• make a donation
• join one of our membership or patron schemes
• book a conference or event
• apply for a job or to volunteer with us
• supply goods or services to us
• enter a competition, promotion or survey
• communicate with us by post, email, telephone, social media, via our websites or apps, or in person
• when you complete a form on our website
• when you apply for one of our creative programmes or apply for a bursary
• sign an agreement/contract sent to you from Birmingham Hippodrome via Adobe Sign

Online information

Through our websites and apps, we receive and store certain details through “cookies” which record how the sites are being used to help us provide improved services, analyse usage and enable transactions. Cookies are small text documents, stored by your web browser on your device when you visit our websites, which enable an enhanced experience by storing information such as your user details or preferences. You can decide whether or not to allow cookies on your device.

You can read more about cookies in our policy here.

We keep a record of the emails we send you (and that you send to us), and we may track whether you receive or open them so we can make sure we are sending you the most relevant information. We may then track any subsequent actions online, such as buying a ticket.

We use social media to provide updates on our activities and to promote events and projects. We may tailor adverts on social media and elsewhere online relevant to your interests. Depending on your own privacy settings, you may control Birmingham Hippodrome’s permission to access information via social media platforms.

We use some online tracking and analysis services such as Google Analytics to find out how our websites are being used, which campaigning activities are working best, and how we can improve customer experience.

From time to time, for certain marketing campaigns, you may receive personalised online advertising after visiting our website. For example, we work with visiting producers and agencies to create relevant advertising for future events, and this might be displayed based on your device’s IP address. Many of these online adverts allow a facility to opt-out completely or refine your preferences to make advertising more relevant to you.

Data received from third parties

We may also obtain or collect personal information about you from other third party sources, for example:

• a family member, friend or colleague contacts us on your behalf, for instance to purchase a gift membership or gift voucher
• we may ask parents/guardians to supply information about under 18s for workshops or projects
• if we run an event in partnership with another third party organisation, your details may be shared with us in order to help us run that event
• if we engage an external supplier for photography or video
• if your company or services are recommended to us
• sign an agreement/contract sent to you from Birmingham Hippodrome via Adobe Sign

If you purchase a theatre ticket for one of our shows via a third-party provider (such as Ticketmaster or Disney Tickets), the limited data provided by the third party will only be used for customer verification. The data will automatically be stored in our secure ticketing system and kept in-line with our retention policy. The data will only be used under the lawful basis performance of contract.

If you are part of our Access Registration scheme or hold an Access Card (sometimes referred to as a CredAbility Card or a Nimbus Card) and you register your membership number with us, Nimbus will share some of your personal data with us so that we can quickly and discreetly provide you with the support and service you need. You can delete your membership number from your Birmingham Hippodrome account at any time.

Why we collect this information and how we use it

We will use your information for the purposes listed below either on the lawful basis of: performance of contract; consent (where we require it); where we need to comply with a legal obligation; or our legitimate interest or those of a third party.

Developing a good understanding of visitors, participants, ticket-buyers and supporters through personal data allows us to make better business decisions enabling us to operate, market our services, and fundraise more efficiently. We believe this will help us reach our goal of ensuring everyone is welcome at Birmingham Hippodrome.

We use the personal information we collect about you:

When you make a purchase with us, we use our legitimate business interest to use the information we hold about you to keep you updated by email, post, and phone, on the latest news, events, hospitality and ways in which to engage with and support Birmingham Hippodrome.

If you have not made a purchase with Birmingham Hippodrome, we will seek your consent to use the information we hold about you to keep you updated on the latest news, events, hospitality and ways in which to engage with and support us.

You can unsubscribe to email at any time by following the link in our emails, or you can manage this in your Birmingham Hippodrome Account.

You can unsubscribe from direct mail by emailing us at info@birminghamhippodrome.com

We also use your data:

• to carry out our obligations arising from any contracts between us and to provide you with the information, products and services that you request from us
• to contact you if there is any important change to your booking or visit
• to fulfil our contract with our refund protection partner Secure My Booking
• to keep a record of the relationship we have with you
• to process a transaction and carry out completion of a purchase (your personal information and card details may be passed to third party service providers; card details will only be used in this way for the purpose of handling an individual transaction)
• to invite identified individuals to Birmingham Hippodrome VIP events and press nights and administer guest lists
• to administer competitions
• to provide a personalised service and ensure the best possible experience when you visit us
• to administer any donations you may make, including processing Gift Aid
• to ensure that the information we already hold is accurate and up to date
• to improve our products, services and information in the future
• to assist us with reporting and analysis for our own needs or the needs of any funding partners
• to ensure we know how you prefer to be contacted
• to protect against fraud or unlawful activity
• to ensure compliance with policies, procedures and laws to process any recruitment information, whether directly or via an agent
• to share with approved suppliers (see Sharing your data with third parties below)
• from time to time, to undertake customer research and analysis to help us understand how we can improve our services or information
• to promote the theatre and its activities (e.g. imagery, quotes from social media etc)
• from time to time, to make recommendations to you about other relevant cultural activities by approved partner organisations (NB: these organisations would not be in possession of your data, and the recommendations would only ever be supplementary to other Hippodrome information, for example, by way of a P.S. or a ticket offer on an email update, or within a newsletter sent by the Hippodrome)
• for suppliers, to pay invoices or to contact you about supplying further services to us
• for job/volunteer applicants, to process your application
• to develop business leads in order to provide information about our produces and services
• for creative programme/bursary applicants, to process your application

Fundraising

We may combine information you provide to us with information publicly available from external sources in order to gain a better understanding of our audiences, visitors and supporters to improve our fundraising methods. We will tell you about current and future fundraising campaigns that we think are relevant to you, and how you can make a difference to our reach and impact through a donation or other involvement. From time to time, we invite supporters and prospects to events or receptions. We ensure these are cost effective by conducting relevant research, for instance by analysing your ticket purchase history, current or past donations/memberships, or by using third party information. We hold several events each year to ensure we can meet as many supporters as possible, and to make our fundraising effective and efficient.

Sharing your data with third parties

Unless you give us your consent, the personal information that you give us will only be shared with third parties where:

• we are obliged or permitted by law to disclose it;
• we need to use the services of ‘data processors’ to fulfil our contract with you; or
• to support analysis and research for Birmingham Hippodrome or the Arts Sector.

We have data processing agreements in place with each third party we share data with to ensure that your data is secure at all times and cannot be accessed or used for any other purpose.

As part of the services offered to you, the personal information you provide may be transferred to countries outside the European Economic Area (EEA). For example, this may happen if any of the computer servers used to host our ticketing system are located in a country outside of the EEA. If we transfer your personal information outside of the EEA in this way, we will take steps to ensure that your privacy rights continue to be protected as outlined in this Privacy Policy.

Your personal data is never sold to any agencies or companies.

Instances where we may share your personal information with selected third parties include:

Performance of contract: Business partners, suppliers and sub-contractors for the performance of any contract we enter into with them or you. In general, any third-party providers used by us to fulfil our contract with you will only collect, use and disclose your information to the extent necessary to allow them to perform the services they provide to us. These providers include our ticketing system (Tessitura), our refund protection partner Secure My Booking, our payment provider Windcave, TicketCo  who process and serve our streamed programme, and our email service and mailing houses.

Legitimate interests: We may make data available to approved suppliers for analysis and research purposes, for example identifying sales trends, assessing campaign effectiveness, postcode mapping etc. This assists us with reporting and with our strategic planning, helping us apply our resources more intelligently.

Consent: We use an online recruitment service delivered and supported by Jobtrain. If you use this service you will need to agree to specific Terms & Conditions. If you use You.Smart.Thing., the travel management facility on our website – you can opt in to receive live travel updates from them by registering your email address and telephone number. To help promote sustainable travel they will then share your travel plan data with relevant transport operators and service providers. You can read more about their use of data in their Privacy Policy.

How we keep your data safe

We are located in the UK. Your data is held in the UK and processed on secure systems owned by BHTT and details are only accessed by authorised and trained staff. Only employees and approved contractors/developers are granted access to personally identifiable information. This will be from time to time, and only when they need to perform a specific job or task.

We are committed to protecting your personal data and ensuring the security of any payment information you provide to us. As part of our ongoing efforts to enhance your privacy, we have implemented a secure payment system where your payment details are entered directly in our secure system during phone interactions. Your card information will not be processed or stored by our staff.

If required by law (e.g., by police, regulatory bodies or legal advisers) we may need to disclose your details. We will ensure information is held securely, and only those who need access to it can see it. We will delete this information when we no longer need it.

How long we keep your data

We will keep your information for as long as is necessary to provide you with the services you have requested or require from us or to fulfil our contract with you, unless:

• we must keep it to comply with applicable laws or evidence compliance with such applicable laws;
• there is an outstanding issue, claim or dispute requiring us to keep such information until the issue, claim or dispute is resolved; or
• the information must be kept for our legitimate business interests, such as fraud prevention and enhancing users’ safety and security.

We regularly review email and paper correspondence and minimise our storage through archiving and destruction of out-of-date materials. We will store data in our ticketing system for a maximum of 10 years after your last transaction or communication with us.

We have considered the nature, relevance and volume of this data, the potential risks, and the purposes for which we process your data. We have also considered legal requirements including financial (e.g. Gift Aid declaration and reporting timescales).

For suppliers, we store data in our financial systems for 7 years.

Giving you control

How to update your details

You can set and update your personal contact information and interest preferences at any time, by visiting your account online or by contacting our Information & Ticket Sales team.

Every email and mailing we send to you will contain an option to unsubscribe, or you can contact us via the details set out at the beginning of this Privacy Policy.

Unless you ask us not to, we will tell you about our future events, ticket offers, our other relevant services (e.g., hospitality, memberships), or opportunities to support our charitable work (from volunteering to fundraising).

If you are a supplier, you can update any of the business information we hold about you by contacting Accounts@birminghamhippodrome.com

Your individual rights in relation to your personal data

Under data protection law, you have rights including:

• Your right of access: you have the right to ask us for copies of your personal information.
• Your right to rectification: you have the right to ask us to rectify personal information you think is inaccurate. You also have the right to ask us to complete information you think is incomplete.
• Your right to erasure: you have the right to ask us to erase your personal information in certain circumstances.
• Your right to restriction of processing: you have the right to ask us to restrict the processing of your personal information in certain circumstances.
• Your right to object to processing: you have the right to object to the processing of your personal information in certain circumstances.
• Your right to data portability: you have the right to ask that we transfer the personal information you gave us to another organisation, or to you, in certain circumstances.
• Your right related to automated decision-making including profiling: you have the right not to be subject to a decision based solely on automated processing, including profiling, which produces legal effects concerning you or similarly significantly affects you.

Where you have provided your consent to the collection, processing and transfer of your personal information for a specific purpose, you have the right to withdraw your consent for that specific processing at any time.  To withdraw your consent, please contact us as set out at the beginning of this Privacy Policy. Once we have received notification that you have withdrawn your consent, we will no longer process your information for the purpose or purposes you originally agreed to.

Who to contact if you have any questions or concerns

If you require further information about how your data is used or have any concerns regarding how your personal data is processed, please email dataprotection@birminghamhippodrome.com

How to make a complaint

If you wish to make a complaint about how we are using your data, please email dataprotection@birminghamhippodrome.com

Where you take the view that your personal data is processed in a way that does not comply with the UK GDPR, you have a specific right to lodge a complaint with the relevant supervisory authority. The supervisory authority will then inform you of the progress and outcome of your complaint. The supervisory authority in the UK is the ICO.

You can contact the ICO at:

Information Commissioner’s Office
Wycliffe House
Water Lane
Wilmslow
Cheshire
SK9 5AF

Helpline number: 0303 123 1113

ICO website: https://www.ico.org.uk

Subject Access Request

If you wish to make a subject access request (SAR), please email dataprotection@birminghamhippodrome.com. Whilst you are not required to complete it, we will ask you to complete a SAR form. We will try to respond to all legitimate requests within 30 days. Occasionally it may take us longer if your request is particularly complex or if you have made a number of requests in which case, we will keep you notified and updated. We will require specific details and proof of identification. This is a free service though we reserve the right to charge for reasonable administrative costs if your request is clearly unfounded, repetitive or excessive.

Changes to this policy

We may change or update this Privacy Policy from time to time. Any significant changes will be communicated on our website or by contacting you directly.

If you would like to read our Young Person’s Privacy Notice please click here.

Last Update May 2025