This policy explains the data processing practices of Ward Gethin Archer
We ask that you read this privacy notice carefully as it contains important information on who we are, how and why we collect, store, use and share personal information, your rights in relation to your personal information, and on how to contact us and supervisory authorities in the event you have a complaint.
Ward Gethin Archer (“We” “Us” “Our”) is a trading name of Ward Gethin Archer Ltd, a company registered in England and Wales (registered number 07869806). We collect, use and are responsible for certain personal information about you. When we do so we are regulated under the General Data Protection Regulation which applies across the European Union (including the United Kingdom) and we are responsible as “controller” of that personal information for the purposes of those laws.
Personal data – Any information relating to an identified or identifiable individual.
Special category personal data – Personal data revealing racial or ethnic origin, political opinions, religious beliefs, philosophical beliefs or trade union membership; Genetic and biometric data; Data concerning health, sex life or sexual orientation.
The personal information we collect and use
Information collected by us – In the course of the legal services we provide to you, we collect the following personal information when you provide it to us:
The personal data is required to enable us to provide our service to you. If you do not provide personal data we ask for, it may delay or prevent us from providing services to you.
Information collected from other sources – We collect most of this information from you, direct. However, we may also collect information:
Under data protection law, we can only use your personal data if we have a proper reason for doing so, e.g.:
A legitimate interest is when we have a business or commercial reason to use your information, so long as this is not overridden by your own rights and interests.
The table below explains what we use your personal data for and our reasons for doing so:
| What we use your personal data for | Our Reasons |
|---|---|
| To provide legal services to you | For the performance of our contract with you or to take steps at your request before entering into a contract. |
| Conducting checks to identify our clients and verify their identity Screening for financial and other sanctions or embargoes Other processing necessary to comply with professional, legal and regulatory obligations that apply to our business, e.g. under health and safety regulations or rules issued by our professional regulator |
To comply with our legal and regulatory obligations |
| Gathering and providing information required by or relating to audits, enquiries or investigations by regulatory bodies | To comply with our legal and regulatory obligations |
| Ensuring business policies are adhered to, e.g. policies covering security and internet use | For our legitimate interests or those of a third party, i.e. to make sure we are following our own internal procedures so we can deliver the best service for you. |
| Operational reasons, such as improving efficiency, training and quality control | For our legitimate interest or those of a third party, i.e. to be as efficient as we can so we can deliver the best service for you at the best price. |
| Ensuring the confidentiality of commercially sensitive behaviour | For our legitimate interests or those of a third party, i.e. to protect our intellectual property and other commercially valuable information. To comply with our legal and regulatory obligations |
| Statistical analysis to help us manage our practice, e.g. in relation to our financial performance, client base, work type, or other efficiency measures. | For our legitimate interest or those of a third party, i.e. to be as efficient as we can so we can deliver the best service for you at the best price. |
| Preventing unauthorised access and modifications to systems | For our legitimate interests or those of a third party, i.e. to prevent and detect criminal activity that could be damaging to us and for you. To comply with our legal and regulatory obligations. |
| Updating client records | For the performance of our contract with you or to take steps at your request before entering into a contract. To comply with our legal and regulatory obligations. For our legitimate interest or those of a third party, e.g. making sure we can keep in touch with our clients about existing and new services. |
| Statutory returns | To comply with our legal and regulatory obligations |
| Ensuring safe working practices, staff administration and assessments | To comply with our legal and regulatory obligations. For our legitimate interests or those of a third party, e.g. to make sure we are following our own internal procedures and working efficiently so we can deliver the best service to you. |
| Marketing our services to existing and former clients, and third parties who have previously expressed an interest in our services. | For our legitimate interests or those of a third party, i.e. to promote our business to existing and former clients. |
| Credit reference checks via external credit reference agencies | For our legitimate interest or those of a third party, i.e. for credit control |
| External audits and quality checks, e.g. for Lexcel and ISO and audit of our accounts. | For our legitimate interests or those of a third party, i.e. to maintain our accreditations so we can demonstrate we operate at the highest standards. To comply with our legal and regulatory obligations. |
The above table does not apply to special category personal data, which we will only process with explicit consent.
We may use your personal data to send you updates (by email or post) about legal developments that might be of interest to you and/or information about our services.
We have a legitimate interest in processing your data for promotional purposes (see above “How and why we use your personal data”). This means we do not usually need your consent to send you promotional communications. However, where consent is needed, we will ask for this consent separately and clearly.
We will always treat your data with the utmost respect and never sell it to other organisations for marketing purposes.
You have the right to opt out of receiving promotional communications at any time by:
We may ask you to confirm or update your marketing preferences if you instruct us to provide further services in the future, or if there are changes in the law, regulation, or the structure of our business.
We routinely share personal data with:
We will share personal information with law enforcement or other authorities if required by applicable law.
We will not share your personal information with any other third party.
We will keep your personal data after we have finished advising or acting for you. We will do so for one of these reasons:
Under the General Data Protection Regulation, you have a number of important rights free of charge. In summary, those include rights to:
For further information on each of those rights, including the circumstances in which they apply, see the Guidance from the UK Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) on individuals rights under the General Data Protection Regulation.
If you would like to exercise any of those rights, please:
If you would like to unsubscribe from any email newsletter, you can also click on the “unsubscribe” button at the bottom of the email newsletter. It may take up to fourteen days for this to take place.
We have appropriate security measures in place to prevent personal information from being accidentally lost, or used or accessed in an unauthorised way. We limit access to your personal information to those who have a genuine business need to know it. Those processing your information will do so only in an authorised manner and are subject to a duty of confidentiality.
We also have procedures in place to deal with any suspected data security breach. We will notify you and any applicable regulator of a suspected data security breach where we are legally required to do so.
If you want detailed information from Get Safe Online on how to protect your information and your computers and devices against fraud, identity theft, viruses and many other online problems, please visit www.getsafeonline.org. Get Safe Online is supported by HM Government and leading businesses.
We hope that we can resolve any query or concern you raise about our use of your information.
The General Data Protection Regulation also gives you right to lodge a complaint with a supervisory authority, in particular in the European Union (or European Economic Area) state where you work, normally live or where any alleged infringement of data protection laws occurred. The supervisory authority in the UK is the Information Commissioner who may be contacted at https://ico.org.uk/concerns/ or telephone: 0303 1231113.
This privacy notice was published on 22nd August 2019.
We may change this privacy notice from time to time. When we do any changes will be published on our website.
The law relating to cookies recently changed. Ward Gethin Archer is committed to complying with all relevant legislation. Please see our updated policy below.
Cookies are small text files that are placed on your computer by websites that you visit. They are widely used in order to make websites work, or work more efficiently, as well as to provide information to the owners of the site.
This website makes use of cookies to monitor visitor sessions. No personal information is stored in the cookie that is issued by the site. The value stored in the cookie is an anonymous identifier, which is not linked to any other personal information you may give us during your visit.
If you do not wish to receive these cookies you can disable them in your browser, though doing so may affect the functionality of our website. Most web browsers allow some control of cookies through the browser settings. To find out more about cookies, including how to see what cookies have been set and how to manage and delete them, visit www.allaboutcookies.org
We use Google Analytics to analyse the use of this website. Google Analytics generates statistical and other information about website use by means of cookies, which are stored on users' computers. The information generated relating to our website is used to create reports about the use of the website. Google will store this information. Google's privacy policy is available at: https://policies.google.com/privacy you have any comments or concerns regarding this policy please contact Ward Gethin Archer online or in writing by clicking here.
The contents of these pages (including pictures, designs, logos, photographs, text, written and other materials) are the copyright and/or trademark of Ward Gethin Archer or its content and technology providers or their respective owners. All rights reserved. The copying, modification, distribution, reproduction or incorporation into any other work of part or all of the material available on this website in any form is prohibited save that you may copy print or download extracts of the material on this website for the sole purpose of your personal non-commercial use of this website. You may not distribute, copy or store for any commercial purpose any part of this website.
The website has been prepared for general interest and it is important to obtain professional advice on specific issues. While all possible care is taken in the preparation of the website, no responsibility for loss occasioned by any person acting or refraining from acting as a result of the material contained herein can be accepted by the firm or the authors.
We are here to help, giving you clear and practical legal advice when you need it.
Got a question?
Contact us and one of our experts will get back to you as soon as possible.
Offices and phone lines are open:
Monday to Friday: 8:45am - 5:00pm