Privacy Policy

Celebration of Life™ is committed to protecting your privacy and handling your personal data in a lawful, fair and transparent way.

This Privacy Policy explains how we collect, use, store and share personal data when you:

  • visit our website;
  • contact us by phone, email, post, web form, live chat or social media;
  • request information, brochures or guides from us;
  • enquire about, purchase or hold one of our funeral plans or use our funeral services;
  • take part in our marketing, surveys or promotions; or
  • otherwise interact with Celebration of Life.

If you decide you no longer give consent to receive marketing communications at any time simply contact us by email at info@col.co.uk, post to Celebration of Life, Enterprise House, Ocean Way, SOUTHAMPTON, SO14 3XB or call us on 0800 150 3555.

1. Who we are

In this Privacy Policy, “Celebration of Life”, “we”, “us” or “our” means Celebration of Life Cremations Ltd, Celebration of Life Planning Ltd, and other relevant companies within the Celebration of Life group, including subsidiaries and associated group companies involved in providing services to you or processing personal data for the purposes described in this Privacy Policy.

For the purposes of data protection law, the relevant controller of your personal data will be the relevant Celebration of Life group company or companies that collect and use your personal data in connection with the services you receive, the products you enquire about, or your interactions with us.

Registered office: Enterprise House, Ocean Way, Southampton, SO14 3XB
Telephone: 0800 150 3555
Email: info@col.co.uk

Because different companies within the Celebration of Life group may be involved in providing funeral plans, funeral services, customer support, administration, marketing, compliance and related activities, your personal data may be shared within the Celebration of Life group where necessary for those purposes.

2. The laws we follow

We process personal data in accordance with:

  • the UK General Data Protection Regulation (UK GDPR);
  • the Data Protection Act 2018; and
  • where relevant, the Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulations 2003 (PECR).

Where relevant to our funeral plan business and regulated activities, we also process and retain personal data to comply with applicable Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) rules, guidance and regulatory requirements, together with other legal, regulatory and compliance obligations.

3. The personal data we collect

The personal data we collect will depend on how you interact with us. It may include:

 

3.1 Information you give to us

  • name and title;
  • postal address;
  • email address;
  • telephone number;
  • date of birth;
  • relationship to the deceased or to the plan holder;
  • funeral wishes or service preferences;
  • details of your enquiry and communications with us;
  • payment and billing information;
  • bank account details where required for payment processing or refunds;
  • identity verification information where required;
  • marketing preferences;
  • information you provide when completing forms, requesting brochures or guides, entering promotions, or contacting us.

 

3.2 Information relating to a deceased person or funeral arrangements

Where relevant to our services, we may process information relating to a deceased person and the arrangements requested, such as:

  • name and details of the deceased;
  • date of death and other details relevant to the funeral or cremation arrangements;
  • next of kin, executors, applicant or representative details;
  • medical information such as cause of death;
  • service preferences and instructions.

 

3.3 Information we may collect automatically when you use our website

  • IP address;
  • browser type and version;
  • device information;
  • operating system;
  • website usage information, including pages visited, referring website, and exit pages;
  • cookie and similar technology data.

 

3.4 Information we receive from other sources

We may receive personal data about you from:

  • family members, representatives or others making an enquiry or arrangements on your behalf;
  • direct mail, lead generation, mailing, marketing or advertising partners;
  • data suppliers, suppression providers, profiling or analytics providers;
  • funeral introducers, referral partners or other intermediaries;
  • payment providers, finance or fraud-prevention providers;
  • regulators, public authorities or law enforcement bodies;
  • publicly available sources; and
  • other third parties where permitted by law.

4. Categories of personal data obtained from third parties

Where we do not collect personal data directly from you, the categories of personal data we may obtain include:

  • your name, address, telephone number and email address;
  • age or date of birth, where relevant;
  • confirmation that you may be interested in funeral plans or funeral services;
  • marketing, lead source or campaign information;
  • information used for mailing, suppression, segmentation, profiling or audience selection;
  • details of your relationship to a deceased person or plan holder;
  • enquiry details, service preferences or circumstances relevant to your enquiry; and
  • payment, fraud-prevention or identity-check information where relevant.

5. Sources of personal data obtained from third parties

If we do not obtain personal data directly from you, we may obtain it from one or more of the following sources:

  • another member of your family, a friend, executor, attorney or representative;
  • a person making funeral arrangements or an enquiry on your behalf;
  • our direct mail, lead generation, mailing, advertising or marketing partners;
  • data suppliers, suppression providers and profiling or analytics providers;
  • funeral industry introducers or referral partners;
  • payment processors, banks and fraud-prevention providers;
  • publicly available sources; and
  • other third parties where permitted by law.

6. How we use your personal data and our lawful bases

We must have a lawful basis under data protection law to use your personal data. Depending on the circumstances, we may rely on one or more of the following lawful bases:

  • performance of a contract with you or someone who has provided your details as part of their contract, or taking steps at your request before entering into a contract;
  • compliance with a legal obligation;
  • our legitimate interests or those of a third party, where those interests are not overridden by your rights and interests; and
  • your consent, where consent is required. 

We may use your personal data for the following purposes:

 

6.1 To respond to enquiries and provide information

We use personal data to respond to your enquiries, send brochures or guides, discuss our services and answer questions.

Lawful basis: legitimate interests; and where you ask us to take steps towards providing a service, contract.

 

6.2 To provide funeral plans, funeral services and related support

We use personal data to set up and administer funeral plans, arrange and deliver funeral services, liaise with families and representatives, process payments, and provide customer support.

Lawful basis: contract; legitimate interests; legal obligation where applicable.

 

6.3 To manage payments, accounts and records

We use personal data to process payments, issue refunds, maintain records, carry out accounting and manage our business operations.

Lawful basis: contract; legal obligation; legitimate interests.

 

6.4 To comply with legal, regulatory and compliance requirements

We may use personal data to comply with legal obligations, respond to complaints, cooperate with regulators, prevent fraud and protect our legal rights. This may include compliance with FCA rules and requirements, complaint-handling obligations, anti-fraud measures, financial and accounting requirements, and the management of legal claims or disputes.

Lawful basis: legal obligation; legitimate interests. 

 

6.5 To improve our services and business

We may analyse customer feedback, enquiries, service usage and website activity to improve our services, customer experience, marketing effectiveness and business processes.

Lawful basis: legitimate interests. 

 

6.6 To carry out marketing, direct mail, audience selection and suppression

We may use personal data to send you information about our services, guides, offers or updates by post, email, SMS or telephone where permitted by law.

We may also use personal data, including data obtained from third parties, for direct mail, lead generation, suppression, segmentation, profiling, audience selection and related marketing analysis so that our marketing is more relevant and to reduce the likelihood of sending marketing to individuals who are unlikely to find it relevant.

Where required by law, we will seek consent for certain marketing communications. In other cases, we may rely on our legitimate interests to market our services in an appropriate and proportionate way.

You can opt out of marketing at any time by contacting us using the details in section 15 or by using the unsubscribe option in the communication where available.

 

6.7 To administer our website and use cookies/analytics

We use website and device data to operate, secure and improve our website, understand usage patterns, and measure website, advertising and marketing performance.

Lawful basis: legitimate interests and, where applicable, consent.

7. Profiling and automated decision-making

We may use limited profiling, segmentation and data analysis to help us better understand likely customer interests, improve our services, and make our marketing and direct mail activity more relevant. This may include audience selection, suppression, response analysis and similar marketing-related activity.

However, we do not currently make decisions about individuals based solely on automated processing, including profiling, where those decisions produce legal effects or similarly significant effects.

If this changes, we will update this Privacy Policy and provide any additional information required by law.

8. When you must provide personal data

In some cases, you are under a contractual or practical requirement to provide personal data to us so that we can respond to your request or provide our services. For example, we may need certain contact, identity, funeral arrangement or payment details to:

  • process an enquiry;
  • provide a funeral plan or funeral service;
  • take payment or issue a refund;
  • comply with legal, regulatory or FCA-related obligations; or
  • communicate with the correct person about arrangements.

If you do not provide information that is necessary, we may be unable to provide the relevant service, process your enquiry fully, or enter into or perform a contract with you.

We do not generally collect personal data because of a statutory obligation on you to provide it to us, but we may need certain information where the law, regulation or an FCA-related requirement requires us to obtain or verify it.

9. Sharing your personal data

We may share your personal data where necessary with:

  • other Celebration of Life group companies;
  • funeral, cremation, transport, administrative and operational service providers involved in delivering services;
  • payment processors, banks and finance-related service providers;
  • IT, software, CRM, telephony, hosting, website and cloud service providers;
  • printing, mailing, fulfilment, call centre, analytics, profiling, suppression and marketing providers;
  • professional advisers such as solicitors, accountants, auditors, insurers and other advisers;
  • trustees, actuaries, auditors and other trust-related service providers or companies connected with funeral plan trusts, trust administration, trust oversight or related regulated arrangements;
  • regulators, government bodies, law enforcement agencies, courts, ombudsmen or other authorities where required or appropriate;
  • prospective buyers, investors, funders or advisers in connection with a business sale, acquisition, restructuring, reorganisation or investment; and
  • other third parties where reasonably necessary for the purposes described in this Privacy Policy.

We require third parties processing personal data on our behalf to do so only on our instructions and to keep it secure and confidential.

10. International transfers

Some of our suppliers, service providers or group service providers may process personal data outside the UK.

Where personal data is transferred outside the UK, we will take steps to ensure that appropriate safeguards are in place as required by data protection law. These may include:

  • a transfer to a country recognised as providing an adequate level of protection;
  • the use of UK-approved international data transfer clauses or other approved safeguards; or
  • another lawful transfer mechanism permitted under UK data protection law.

If you would like more information about international transfers and the safeguards we use, please contact us using the details in section 15.

11. Data retention

We keep personal data only for as long as reasonably necessary for the purposes for which it was collected, including to satisfy legal, accounting, regulatory, complaint-handling and reporting requirements.

Retention periods will vary depending on the type of data and the reason we hold it. In some cases, particularly where data relates to funeral plans, customer relationships, complaints, regulatory requirements, trust arrangements, legal claims, financial records or business administration, we may retain personal data for longer periods where this is reasonably necessary or required.

When personal data is no longer required, we will securely delete it, anonymise it, or otherwise dispose of it securely within a reasonable timeframe.

12. Security

We take the security of personal data seriously and have implemented appropriate technical and organisational measures to protect it against accidental or unlawful destruction, loss, alteration, unauthorised disclosure or access.

These measures may include secure systems, access controls, staff training, supplier due diligence, contractual protections and security monitoring.

13. Your data protection rights

Under data protection law, you may have the right to:

  • request access to your personal data;
  • request correction of inaccurate or incomplete personal data;
  • request erasure of your personal data in certain circumstances;
  • request restriction of processing in certain circumstances;
  • object to processing based on legitimate interests;
  • object to direct marketing;
  • object, in certain circumstances, to profiling related to direct marketing;
  • request transfer of certain personal data to you or another organisation, where the right to data portability applies; and
  • withdraw consent at any time where we rely on consent.

These rights are not absolute and may only apply in certain circumstances.

To exercise any of your rights, please contact us using the details in section 15.

14. Your right to complain

If you are unhappy with how we handle your personal data, we would appreciate the opportunity to address your concerns first.

You also have the right to lodge a complaint with the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO), the UK supervisory authority for data protection issues.

ICO website: https://ico.org.uk/
ICO helpline: 0303 123 1113

If your complaint relates to a regulated funeral plan product or service, you may also have rights to complain through other applicable complaint routes or regulatory processes, depending on the nature of the issue.

15. Contacting us about data protection

If you have any questions about this Privacy Policy, your personal data, or your data protection rights, please contact us:

Celebration of Life
Enterprise House
Ocean Way
Southampton
SO14 3XB

Email: info@col.co.uk
Telephone: 0800 150 3555

16. Marketing preferences

You can ask us to stop sending you marketing communications at any time by:

  • clicking the unsubscribe link in an email where available;
  • telling us when we call you;
  • emailing us at info@col.co.uk; or
  • writing to us at the address above.

Please note that opting out of marketing will not stop us from contacting you about existing services, funeral plans, funeral arrangements, customer service issues, payments, legal notices or other non-marketing communications where necessary.

17. Cookies

Our website uses cookies and similar technologies.

Cookies are small text files placed on your device when you visit a website. They help websites function, improve user experience, remember preferences, analyse website traffic and, in some cases, support advertising and marketing activity.

We may use cookies and similar technologies for the following purposes:

  • to enable core website functionality;
  • to help the website operate securely and efficiently;
  • to remember preferences or settings;
  • to understand how visitors use our website;
  • to improve website performance, content and user experience; and
  • to support our advertising, remarketing and marketing analysis activity.

The cookies we use may include:

  • strictly necessary cookies, which are needed for the operation of the website;
  • performance and analytics cookies, which help us understand how the website is used;
  • functionality cookies, which help remember preferences; and
  • third-party cookies, including cookies set by analytics, advertising or technology providers.

You can control or disable cookies through your internet browser settings. Most browsers allow you to block or delete cookies, and to control whether websites can place cookies on your device. Please note that if you disable certain cookies, some parts of the website may not function properly.

For more information about how to manage cookies, please refer to your browser’s help settings or support pages.

18. Third-party websites

Our website may contain links to third-party websites. This Privacy Policy applies only to Celebration of Life and our website and services. We are not responsible for the privacy practices of third-party websites, and we encourage you to read their privacy notices.

19. Business sales, transfers and restructuring

Celebration of Life may, from time to time, expand, restructure, reduce or sell parts of its business or assets. This may involve the sale, transfer or reorganisation of relevant parts of the business, or the transfer of customer relationships, contracts, assets or operations to another organisation.

Where this happens, personal data may be disclosed to or transferred to prospective purchasers, investors, advisers, lenders or the new owner or operator of the relevant business or assets, provided that such disclosure or transfer is lawful and appropriate safeguards are in place.

Any new owner, operator or controller may use your personal data for substantially the same purposes as set out in this Privacy Policy.

20. Changes to this Privacy Policy

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time to reflect changes in our services, legal obligations or data processing practices.

Any updates will be posted on our website and will take effect from the date of posting.

 

Last updated: 30/6/2026