PRIVACY NOTICE

 

Wilkins Beaumont Suckling Limited (“WBS”) are solicitors and take safeguarding online privacy very seriously. Please read the following to understand our privacy practices.

From time to time, we may need to change our privacy statement because of changes in our organisation, legislation or in our attempts to serve your needs better. We will use reasonable efforts to publish any changes to our privacy statement on our website.

WBS is responsible for collecting, processing, storing and safe-keeping personal and other information as part of providing a service and carrying out our regular business activities. We manage personal information in accordance with the EU General Data Protection Regulation (“GDPR”) and the Data Protection Act 2018 which supplements the GDPR and extends its application in the UK. We are registered as a Data Controller with the Information Commissioner’s Office Registration Number Z1282539.

We take your privacy rights and the security of your information very seriously.

 

Scope

This policy applies to all personal information collected by WBS and any contractors acting on our behalf.

 

What is personal data and special category data?

Personal data is defined in the GDPR as any information relating to an identified or identifiable natural person. It can include obvious data like your name but also identification numbers, online identifiers and/or one or more factors specific to the physical, physiological, genetic, mental, economic, cultural or social identity of that person.

Special category data includes data revealing race or ethnic origin, political opinions, religious or philosophical beliefs, trade union membership, genetic data, biometric data, data concerning health or data concerning a person’s sex life or sexual orientation.

 

Collecting, storing and using personal information

 

Personal information we may collect

The information we may collect about you and others could include, but is not limited to:

·                     Personal data i.e. name, D.O.B, address

·                     Proof of ID i.e. passport/driving licence

·                     In relation to a case

·                     Case files/notes

We will not collect information about you for any purpose other than specified within our contract with you. WBS will ensure that the personal information we collect is updated to our systems in a timely and accurate manner.

 

Your rights as a data subject

At any point while we are in possession of or processing your personal data, you, the data subject, have the following rights:

·                     Right to be informed – you have the right to be informed about the collection and use of your personal data

·                     Right of access – you have the right to request a copy of the information that we hold about you.

·                     Right of rectification – you have a right to correct data that we hold about you that is inaccurate or incomplete.

·                     Right to be forgotten – in certain circumstances you can ask for the data we hold about you to be erased from our records.

·                     Right to restriction of processing – where certain conditions apply to have a right to restrict the processing.

·                     Right of data portability – you have the right to have the data we hold about you transferred to another organisation.

·                     Right to object – you have the right to object to certain types of processing such as direct marketing.

·                     Right to object to automated processing, including profiling – you also have the right to be subject to the legal effects of automated processing or profiling.

All of the above requests will be forwarded on should there be a third party involved in the processing of your personal data.

 

Requesting a copy of your personal information

As part of our service to you, we will supply you with copies of specific pieces of information. If you want a copy of information we have received or shared with third parties or a copy of everything we have on record relating to you, we ask that you put your request in writing. This is called a ‘Subject Access Request’.

If you make a Subject Access Request, we will provide you with a readable copy of the personal information we hold about you. To make a Subject Access Request you must provide proof of your identity.

Please send your request to our Person Responsible for Data (“PRD”):

Name: Jonathan Suckling
Address: 1 Royal Exchange Avenue, London, EC3V 3LT
Email address – [email protected]
Phone Number – 020 7464 4390

In the event that WBS refuses your request under rights of access, we will provide you with a reason as to why and you would have the right to make a complaint to the ICO or seek to enforce your right to access through judicial remedy.

 

 

How we use your personal information

WBS will process your information to respond to your enquiries, provide you with services and manage your relationship with us.

The information is used to:

·                        Allow the performance of legal services

·                        Carry out technical administration

·                        Enable client administration

·                        Hold data records. This is usually personal information such as name, address and date of birth.

We will only use your personal information where the law allows us to. Generally, we will use your personal data pursuant to one of the following legal bases:

·                        Where we need to perform a contract with you

·                        Where it is necessary for our legitimate interests, provided that your fundamental rights are not overridden by our interests

·                        Where we need to comply with a legal or regulatory obligation

WBS may undertake regular reviews of the personal information we hold about you and make changes to any service or information-handling processes within the law or under the guidance of the Information Commissioner. WBS only collects or uses personal information for those purposes indicated in our notification with the Information Commissioner’s Office.

 

 

Who can access to this information?

Staff working for WBS or on behalf of WBS can access the data that is essential to the performance of their duties and the provision of our services.

 

Retention Period

WBS’s Retention Period has been set to six years. In practice, there are a number of reasons for retaining documents/information beyond the end of a case.  These include:

1.                  Case documents may be relevant to an appeal out of time.

2.                  Anonymised case documents can be used as precedents.

3.                  Case documents may contain the results of research into the law, which may be relevant to a current case. These should be anonymised once any need to retain the data for other purposes has disappeared (e.g. “7” below).

4.                  Facts or expert opinions in a previous case may be relevant to a current case. These should be anonymised once any need to retain the data for other purposes has disappeared (e.g. “7” below).

5.                  Correspondence contains contact details which may be useful. These should be transposed from the correspondence to a list of contacts e.g. in Outlook, once the need to retain the documents for other reasons has disappeared (e.g. “7” below), so that the documents can then be deleted.

6.                  Case documents or records may be important when carrying out a conflict search. It will not usually be necessary to retain substantial numbers of case files for this purpose, and you may find that it is sufficient for the necessary information to be retained on the WBS IT system, for those who normally carry out these searches.

7.                  Case documents have to be retained in the event that a complaint is made against WBS or WBS makes a claim against a third party. The limitation period for such claims should provide guidance as to the period of retention. In addition, an extended retention period may be required where clients are minors.

 

Destruction of records

When records are identified for disposal, WBS’s responsibility is to delete those records in a secure manner.  WBS use a third party company Russell Fewins who collect the case files and dispose of them securely.

 

 

 

Applications for Employment at WBS

All applications for employment with WBS will be used to process your application. References will not be requested without your prior permission. WBS will not share or disclose your information unless you have given us your consent or we are required to by law.  Where WBS is required to carry out a disclosure, we will comply with the law and your rights when carrying out these checks.

WBS retains personal information relating to unsuccessful applicants for no longer than a year for use in the event of an appeal. We may collect additional information when an offer of employment is made to the successful applicant. This could include, for example, requesting and holding a copy of your passport, national insurance number and in some circumstances a valid driving licence.

 

How we share your personal information

We will only share your information with third parties with your consent such as expert witnesses, counsel, your insurers, the opponent etc but there are occasions where we are required to share your information without your consent due to legal reasons, such as being required by the Court or other tribunal etc.  We may seek your consent directly, or may obtain it by telling you about how your information may be used at the time you provide information or enter a contract with us.

 

Our legal obligations

We will share specific and relevant information with law enforcement and government agencies or public bodies where we are legally required to do so. Examples may include:

·                     The prevention or detection of crime and fraud

·                     The apprehension or prosecution of offenders

·                     The assessment or collection of tax or duty owed to customs and excise

·                     Sharing in connection with legal proceedings

·                     Sharing in relation to the physical or mental health of an individual, where disclosure is required to protect them or others from serious harm

·                     Research and statistical purposes

We may also share your information with emergency services and local authorities, where this is necessary to help them respond to an emergency that affects you.

 

 

Keeping your information secure

We store personal information both electronically and in paper form. We implement security policies, processes and technical security solutions to protect the personal information we hold from:

·                     unauthorised access

·                     improper use or disclosure

·                     unauthorised modification

·                     unlawful destruction or accidental loss.

When you contact us, we may ask you to provide us with some information so that we can confirm your identity. If other people (e.g. family members, support workers) act on your behalf, we will take steps to make sure that you have agreed for them to do so. This may include asking them to provide us with supporting information to indicate your consent. We do this to protect you and to make sure that other people cannot find things out about you that they are not entitled to know.

Employees and third parties who have access to, or are associated with the processing of, your personal information will be required to ensure compliance with the GDPR and make reasonable efforts to safeguard it.

 

Our website

When accessing our website, please note that:

·                          We do not use cookies to collect information

·                          We do not make any attempt to identify visitors to our websites. We do not associate information gathered from our sites with personally identifying information from any source

·                          When we collect personal information, for example from you contacting us via email, we will explain what we intend to do with it

 

Contacting us about your personal information

We will be transparent about what, why and how we collect, use and share your information. Please keep us informed if any of your information changes.

 

 

 

Finding out about the personal information we hold about you

You can ask us whether we are keeping personal information about you by writing to our PRD.

The GDPR gives you a number of rights in relation to your personal information. You can find out about your rights and obtain further guidance from the ICO website.

 

Questions and complaints

If you are concerned about how we are collecting, using and/or sharing your personal information, you can contact our PRD. You can also obtain more information on your rights and our obligations as a Data Controller by contacting the Information Commissioner.

We may review this privacy notice from time to time and any changes will be notified to you by posting an updated version on our website. We recommend that you regularly check for changes and review this policy whenever you visit our website.

This privacy notice was last updated on 23 May 2018.