Purpose of this policy 

The Booker Prize Foundation (“we”, “us”, “our”, the “BPF”) is committed to keeping your personal information safe and meeting our responsibilities under privacy law.  

This policy explains: 

  • when and why we collect your personal information when you interact with us or use our website (thebookerprizes.com);
  • how we use your personal information and keep it secure;
  • how you can let us know if you would like us to change how we manage your personal information.  

Who we are 

We are BPF, a charity which awards prizes to authors who have written exceptional works of fiction. These prizes include the Booker Prize, the International Booker Prize and the Children’s Booker Prize (we refer to these together as the “Prizes”).  

BPF is a registered charity (no. 1090049 in England and Wales) and company limited by guarantee (no. 4213467). Our registered address is at Somerset House, London, WC2R 1LA.  

What we mean by personal information 

Personal information is any information that relates to a person – for example, your name, your date of birth or your email address. It does not include information where a person cannot be identified (known as anonymous data).  

What personal information we collect about you 

We may collect the following personal information about you: 

  • identification information, such as your name and date of birth;
  • contact information, such as your email address, telephone number or home address;
  • gender information;
  • professional information, such as your job title, organisation or details about your career;
  • financial information, such as bank account or payment card details, billing address or donation information;
  • application information, such as the information you provide in applying to join or work with the BPF team (including as a judge for our Prizes);
  • media, including photographs and video footage of you;
  • any other information you provide us during our interactions with you. 

If you are a child (someone under 18 years old), we may collect some more information about you, including: 

  • the contact details of your parent or guardian;
  • information about the school that you go to, your school year and your teachers. 

When you access our website, we also collect information relating to your computer, including (where available), your IP address, operating system and browser type. We do this for system administration purposes, including to analyse trends and gather broad demographic information for aggregate use so that we can improve our website and deliver customised, personalised content. 

Sensitive personal information 

Certain personal information is considered more ‘sensitive’ under the law. This is because the information can be about private things: information about race, ethnic origin, political opinions, religious or philosophical beliefs, trade union membership, health, and criminal offence data are all examples of this extra ‘sensitive personal information’).  

We may collect the following sensitive personal information about you: 

  • health information, including dietary and accessibility requirements, so that if you visit us, we can make sure that we can look after you properly and make sure you have what you need to be comfortable;
  • ethnicity information, so that we can make sure we are working with people from lots of different backgrounds. 

Where we obtain your personal information 

We collect personal information about you that you have given us in different ways, for example when you: 

  • register for one of our networks/communities or to receive one of our newsletters;
  • enter one of our prize competitions or prize draws;
  • enquire about any services and/or products we may provide;
  • submit entries to the Prizes (if you are a publisher);
  • apply to work with, or join, our team (including as a judge);
  • apply to be, or join us as, a volunteer;
  • donate to us.  

We may also obtain personal information about you from third parties, including: 

  • if someone applies on your behalf to be part of our Prizes selection team (including, if you are a child, your teacher or parent/guardian);
  • if someone submits an entry about your work to the Prizes;
  • partners we work with;
  • any other third parties where we have consent to use your personal information.  

How we use your personal information 

We may use your information to: 

  • carry out our obligations arising from any contracts made between you and us;
  • seek your views or comments on the content we provide;
  • organise and manage events;
  • notify you of changes to our rules or services;
  • ensure our people have the information they need to carry out our work;
  • send you communications which you have requested and which may be of interest to you;
  • comply with your requests;
  • handle enquiries and complaints;
  • review applications to join the Prizes selection teams and make decisions about who the judges for our Prizes should be;
  • process a job application;
  • administer the Prizes in accordance with the rules which apply to them;
  • comply with applicable laws and regulatory requirements. 

Direct marketing 

Where you have provided consent, we might send you any email marketing, newsletters or other communications about topics and events which we think might interest you. We might also send you mail marketing about these topics and events, unless you have told us that you don’t want to be contacted in this way. 

We might also send you e-mail marketing, newsletters or other communications about topics and events which we might think interest you in other circumstances, including where you have expressed an interest in one or more of our charitable purposes or have offered or are offering support to further one of our charitable purposes. In these cases, we will always give you the opportunity to opt-out of receiving these communications at the time that we collect your information. 

Irrespective of the circumstances in which we send these communications to you, you may unsubscribe from our email communications by following the instructions in any email that we send you, or you can withdraw your consent and request us to remove your personal information at any time by emailing us using the details in the “Contact Us” section below. 

Our lawful bases 

We will only use personal information when the law allows (i.e., where we have a ‘lawful basis’). Most commonly, we will use your personal information in the following circumstances: 

  • where it is necessary for our legitimate interests (or those of a third party) and your interests and fundamental rights do not override those interests. For example, we have a legitimate interest in administering the Prizes and judging the applications we receive;
  • where you have provided your consent;
  • where it is necessary for the performance of a contract with you;
  • where it is necessary to comply with a legal obligation (for example, reporting to HM Revenue and Customs or the Charity Commission). 

We may use your special category personal information in the following circumstances: 

  • where you have provided your explicit consent (in other words where you, or – if you are a child under 13 – your parent, guardian or teacher have given us permission). 

Retaining your personal information 

We will not keep personal information for longer than necessary, and the appropriate retention period will vary according to the intended purpose for which we collected the personal information.  

The criteria we use to determine the retention period of personal information are: (i) the respective statutory retention period; (ii) our contractual and/or business relationships with you; (iii) (potential) disputes; and (iv) any guidelines issued by relevant regulators. After expiration of the retention period, the relevant information is routinely deleted, as long as it is no longer necessary for the fulfillment of a contract, the initiation of a contract or to protect or defend our position or that of a third party. If you have any questions about our retention periods, please contact us using the details in the “Contact Us” section below.  

How we process and share your personal information 

BPF is the data controller for the personal information we collect and process. We may share your personal information with third parties, including: 

  • with organisations with which we partner or collaborate and to help us as part of our work;
  • with contractors, suppliers or other third parties that provide services on our behalf (such as website host providers);
  • as part of a sale, merger or acquisition, or other transfer of all or part of our assets, including as part of a bankruptcy proceeding;
  • pursuant to a subpoena, court order, or other legal process or as otherwise required or requested by law, regulation or government authority programs, or to protect our rights or the rights or safety of third parties;
  • with our professional advisors, lawyers, accountants and auditors;
  • with your consent or as otherwise disclosed at the time of data collection or sharing. 

International data transfers 

In some cases, we may transfer your personal information out of the UK (for example to our partners located abroad and/or to service providers that are located or store data in other jurisdictions). Where we do this, we take steps to ensure that your information is protected in accordance with appropriate safeguards. In particular, we will rely on the appropriate safeguards under data protection legislation, such as the UK International Data Transfer Agreement entered into by us and the overseas recipient, or where the Secretary of State has permitted the free flow of data to the relevant jurisdiction. 

How we keep your personal information safe 

To protect your privacy, we make sure your personal information is kept securely and disclosed only to relevant organisations or representatives who need to access it to perform their roles. While we seek to use appropriate organisational, technical and administrative measures to protect personal information within our organisation, unfortunately no data transmission or storage system can be guaranteed to be 100% secure. If you have reason to believe that your interaction with us is no longer secure, please immediately notify us in accordance with the “Contact us” section below. 

Your rights 

Under certain privacy laws, you have rights relating to your personal information. You may have a right to the following: 

  • to request access to the personal information we hold about you;
  • to request that we rectify or erase your personal information;
  • to request that we restrict the processing of your personal information;
  • to object to our processing of your personal information in certain circumstances;
  • under certain circumstances, to ask us to transfer personal information to you or to a third party;
  • to make a complaint to us directly about our handling of your personal information; and
  • where we previously obtained your consent, to withdraw consent to processing your personal information. 

To exercise these rights, please contact us via the “Contact us” section below. 

Additionally, you can also make a complaint to the Information Commissioner’s Office at www.ico.org.uk/concerns.  

Cookies 

A cookie is a text-only string of information that a website transfers to the cookie file of the browser on your computer’s hard disk so that the website can remember who you are. Our website uses cookies to validate your access to restricted parts of the sites and for collecting web statistics. You have the ability to accept or decline cookies by modifying the settings in your browser. However, you will not be able to login to restricted area of the website if cookies are disabled. Cookies can also be manually removed from your web browser.  

Other websites 

Our website contains links to other websites. Please note that when you click on one of these links, you are accessing another website for which we have no responsibility (even if you access the website via a link to one of our websites). We encourage you to read the privacy notices on all such websites.  

18 or under 

We want to make sure that we are protecting the privacy of children aged 18 or under. If you are aged 18 or under‚ please make sure that you read this Policy with your parent/guardian, so that they can explain anything that you don’t understand.

Review of this policy 

We may make changes to this privacy policy from time to time. If we do make any such changes, we will post the changes on this page. Please revisit this policy each time you consider giving BPF personal information.  

This policy was last updated on 27 April 2026. 

Contact us 

If you have any questions or concerns about this policy or the way in which we handle your personal information, please email us at [email protected].  

You can also contact us at the following address: 

Booker Prize Foundation
New Wing, Somerset House
London, WC2R 1LA