This tells you:

• why we are able to process your information.
• what purpose we are processing it for.
• whether you have to provide it to us.
• how long we store it for.
• whether there are other recipients of your personal information.

Our Data Protection Officer is Mike Northern.  You can contact him at the address, telephone and email address here: Contact

Reason for processing

Most of the personal information we process is provided to us directly by you for one of the following reasons:

• You have made an enquiry to us.
• For the purposes of providing you with our services.
• You have made an information request to us.
• You have made a complaint to us.
• You are representing your organisation.

We also receive personal information indirectly, in the following scenarios:

• We have been contacted by an organisation about a complaint you have made, and it gives us your personal information in its enquiry.
• A complainant refers to you in their complaint correspondence.

Under data protection law, you have rights we need to make you aware of. The rights available to you depend on our reason for processing your information.

Your right of access

You have the right to ask us for copies of your personal information. This right always applies.  There are some exemptions, which means you may not always receive all the information we process.

Your right to rectification

You have the right to ask us to rectify information you think is inaccurate.  You also have the right to ask us to complete information you think is incomplete.  This right always applies.

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 information in certain circumstances.

Your right to object to processing

You have the right to object to processing if we are able to process your information because the process forms part of our public tasks or is in our legitimate interests.

Your right to data portability

This only applies to information you have given us. You may have the right to ask that we transfer the information you gave us from one organisation to another or give it to you.

General

If we are processing your information for criminal law enforcement purposes, your rights are slightly different.

You are not required to pay any charge for exercising your rights. We have one month to respond to you.

Please contact us if you wish to make a request.

How long we keep it

We will keep the information as long as we deem necessary and also to comply with any statutory requirements.

Using and Sharing your information

For the purposes of providing you with our services.

We will not share your information with any third parties for the purposes of direct marketing.  We may use your information for or direct marketing – you may opt out here: "Contact" and we will use it the purposes of providing you with our services.

We may share your information with your permission to instruct other professionals involved in your file/case eg barristers, accountants.  We may be required to share your information with our regulator the SRA or the Legal Ombudsman.

Links to other websites

Where we provide links to websites of other organisations, this privacy notice does not cover how that organisation processes personal information. We encourage you to read the privacy notices on the other websites you visit.

Our website

When you visit us, we use a third-party service, Google Analytics, to collect standard internet log information and details of visitor behaviour patterns.  We do this to find out such things as the number of visitors to the various parts of the site.  This information is only processed in a way that does not identify anyone.  We do not make, and do not allow Google to make, any attempt to find out the identities of those visiting our website.

If we do collect personal data through our website, we’ll be upfront about this.  We’ll make it clear when we collect personal information and we’ll explain what we intend to do with it.

For more information on your rights please visit the UK regulator The Information Commissioner’s Office’s website https://ico.org.uk/