Privacy Statement
Last Updated: 17 May 2024
Introduction
Neathouse Partners Ltd have implemented a general Privacy Information Statement in relation to the services and data we collect from clients in accordance with the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).
Neathouse Partners Ltd respects your privacy and is committed to protecting your personal data. This privacy statement will inform you as to how we look after the personal data that you provide to us when you enter into a service agreement with us.
Important Information And Who We Are
Purpose of this privacy statement
This privacy statement aims to give you information on how the Company collects and processes the personal data you supply to us when you enter into a contract with us to provide Employment Law, HR and Health & Safety services.
Controller
Neathouse Partners Ltd is the controller and responsible for your personal data (collectively referred to as the “Company” “we”, “us” or “our”) in this privacy statement.
We have appointed a Data Privacy Manager who is responsible for overseeing questions in relation to this privacy policy. If you have any questions about this privacy statement, including any requests to exercise your legal rights please contact the data privacy manager using the details set out below.
Contact details
If you have any questions about this privacy policy or our privacy practices, please contact our data privacy manager in the following ways:
Full name of legal entity: Neathouse Partners Ltd
Email address: info@neathousepartners.com
Postal address: Regus House, Herons Way, Chester Business Park, Chester, CH4 9QR
You have the right to make a complaint at any time to the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO), the UK supervisory authority for data protection issues (www.ico.org.uk). We would, however, appreciate the chance to deal with your concerns before you approach the ICO, so please contact us in the first instance.
Changes to the privacy policy and your duty to inform us of changes
We keep our website privacy policy and privacy statement under regular review.
It is important that the personal data we hold about you is accurate and current. Please keep us informed if your personal data changes during your relationship with us.
The Data We Collect About You
We collect a variety of personal data, or personal information from our clients in order to help us perform our agreed services under the contract. We also store data within our computer systems for example, relating to general day-to-day Employment Law & HR advice given in accordance with our advisory service and general documents provided to clients under our service, such as contracts of employment. This does not include data where the identity has been removed (anonymous data).
We may collect, use, store different kinds of personal data on and from our clients as follows:
- Contact Data which includes personal details such as name, address, phone numbers, job title, email addresses etc for the main contact and other contacts for the delivery of the service
- Identity Data which includes personal details of any employees of our clients such as name, address, phone numbers, job title, email addresses, job description, salary, disciplinary and grievance records, annual leave records, criminal convictions, sickness, family-related leave, appraisal, performance information, gender, marital status, race, religion, trade union membership, information of any disability that employees of clients’ may have or other medical information that is supplied to us for the purposes of delivering our service in terms of giving day to day advice and conducting any Employment Tribunal litigation for and on behalf of clients.
- Financial Data which includes bank account and payment card details.
- Transaction Data which includes details about payments to and from clients and other details of products and services clients have purchased from us.
- Usage Data which includes information about how clients use our products and services.
- Marketing and Communications Data which includes client preferences in receiving marketing from us and your communication preferences.
We also collect Special Categories of Personal Data about employees of clients relating to details about race or ethnicity, religious or philosophical beliefs, sex life, sexual orientation, political opinions, trade union membership, information about health, and genetic and biometric data.
We carry out processing activities using the special categories data stated above for the purposes of delivering advice services in relation to employment and health and safety legislation. This data will be provided to us or requested by us for the purposes of providing our services, to ensure clients receive appropriate advice and support.
More commonly, we will process special categories of data when the following applies:
- clients have given explicit consent to the processing
- we must process the data in order to carry out our legal obligations
- we must process data for reasons of substantial public interest
- clients have already made the data public.
We will only collect criminal conviction data where it is appropriate to the provision of the services that you are contracted to receive. This data will usually be collected at the advisory stage or the litigation stage, however, it may be collected at any time during the contract where necessary. We use criminal conviction data to manage potential or future litigation from client employees and workers. We use the information to form the advice and services that are provided to clients. We rely on the lawful basis of legitimate interest to process this data.
If you fail to provide data
Where we need to collect data by law, or under the terms of a contract, we have with a client, and a client fails to provide that data when requested, then we may not be able to perform the contract we have or are trying to enter into with a client. In this case, we may have to cancel a product or service provided to a client, but we will notify them if this is the case at the time.
How Is Data Collected?
We collect data from clients through direct interactions by filling in forms or by corresponding with us by post, telephone, email, or otherwise. This data is collected when the contract is signed, during the onboarding process and throughout the duration of the contract and also after the contract has expired.
How We Use Your Personal Data
We will only use data clients have provided to us when the law allows us to. Most commonly, we will use client data in the following circumstances:
- Where we need to perform the contract, we are about to enter into or have entered into with a client.
- Where it is necessary for our legitimate interests (or those of a third party) and a client’s interests and fundamental rights do not override those interests.
- Where we need to comply with a legal obligation. Generally, we do not rely on consent as a legal basis for processing client personal data, although we will get consent before sending third-party direct marketing communications to you via email or text message. Any client has the right to withdraw consent to marketing at any time by contacting us.
Purposes for which we will use client data
We have set out below, in a table format, a description of all the ways we plan to use client personal data, and which of the legal bases we rely on to do so. We have also identified what our legitimate interests are where appropriate.
Note that we may process client personal data for more than one lawful ground depending on the specific purpose for which we are using your data. Please contact us if you need details about the specific legal ground we are relying on to process client personal data where more than one ground has been set out in the table below.
| Purpose/Activity | Type of data | Lawful basis for processing, including basis of legitimate interest |
| To register a client and set up their account. | (a) Identity
(b) Contact |
Performance of a contract with you |
| To process and carry out the delivery of services to clients under contract. | (a) Identity
(b) Contact |
Performance of a contract with you |
| To manage payments, fees, charges and collect and recover money owed to us | (a) Contact
(b) Financial (c) Transaction |
(a) Performance of a contract with you
(b) Necessary to comply with a legal obligation (c) Necessary for our legitimate interests (to keep our records updated and to study how customers use our products/services) |
| To ensure administration of our contractual services to clients, effective monitoring of the service provided and maintaining up to date records | (a) Contact
(b) Identity (c) Usage |
(a) Performance of a contract with you
(b) Necessary for our legitimate interests (to study how customers use our products/services, to develop them and grow our business) |
| To administer and protect our business and IT systems. | (a) Identity
(b) Contact |
(a) Necessary for our legitimate interests (for running our business, provision of administration and IT services, network security, to prevent fraud and in the context of a business reorganisation or group restructuring exercise) |
| To deliver relevant website content and advertisements to you and measure or understand the effectiveness of the advertising we serve to you | (a) Identity
(b) Usage (c) Marketing and Communications
|
Necessary for our legitimate interests (to study how customers use our products/services, to develop them, to grow our business and to inform our marketing strategy) |
| To make suggestions and recommendations to you about goods or services that may be of interest to you | (a) Contact
(b) Usage (c) Marketing and Communications |
Necessary for our legitimate interests (to develop our products/services and grow our business) |
Marketing
We strive to provide clients with choices regarding certain personal data uses, particularly around marketing and advertising.
Promotional offers from us
We may use client Contact and Usage Data to form a view on what we think a client may want or need, or what may be of interest. This is how we decide which products, services and offers may be relevant for you (we call this marketing).
Clients will receive marketing communications from us if they have requested information from us or purchased services from us and have not opted out of receiving that marketing.
Third-party marketing
We will get an express opt-in consent from any client before sharing client’s personal data with any third party for marketing purposes.
Opting out
A client can ask us or third parties to stop sending you marketing messages at any time by contacting us at any time.
Where a client opts out of receiving these marketing messages, this will not apply to personal data provided to us as a result of a product/service purchase, product/service experience or other transactions.
Change of purpose
We will only use your personal data for the purposes for which we collected it, unless we reasonably consider that we need to use it for another reason and that reason is compatible with the original purpose. If you wish to get an explanation as to how the processing for the new purpose is compatible with the original purpose, please contact us.
If we need to use your personal data for an unrelated purpose, we will notify you, and we will explain the legal basis which allows us to do so.
Please note that we may process your personal data without your knowledge or consent, in compliance with the above rules, where this is required or permitted by law.
Disclosures Of Client Personal Data
We may share client personal data with the parties set out below:
- External Third Parties as set out in the Glossary.
We require all third parties to respect the security of client personal data and to treat it in accordance with the law. We do not allow our third-party service providers to use client personal data for their own purposes and only permit them to process client personal data for specified purposes and in accordance with our instructions.
International Transfers
We do not transfer client personal data outside the European Economic Area (EEA).
Data Security
We have put in place appropriate security measures to prevent client personal data from being accidentally lost, used or accessed in an unauthorised way, altered or disclosed.
In addition, we limit access to your personal data to those employees, agents, contractors and other third parties who have a business need to know. They will only process client personal data on our instructions and they are subject to a duty of confidentiality.
We have put in place procedures to deal with any suspected personal data breach and will notify you and any applicable regulator of a breach where we are legally required to do so.
Data Retention
How long will you use client personal data for?
We will only retain client personal data for as long as reasonably necessary to fulfil the purposes we collected it for, including for the purposes of satisfying any legal, regulatory, tax, accounting or reporting requirements. We will retain client data for the duration of the service agreement and may retain data for a longer period in the event of a complaint or if we reasonably believe there is a prospect of litigation in respect to our relationship with any client.
To determine the appropriate retention period for client personal data, we consider the amount, nature and sensitivity of the personal data, the potential risk of harm from unauthorised use or disclosure of client personal data, the purposes for which we process client personal data and whether we can achieve those purposes through other means, and the applicable legal, regulatory, tax, accounting or other requirements.
By law we have to keep basic information about our customers (including Contact, Financial and Transaction Data) for 6 years after they cease being customers for tax purposes.
In some circumstances you can ask us to delete your data: see client legal rights below for further information.
Client Legal Rights
Under certain circumstances, clients have rights under data protection laws in relation to your personal data.
- Request access to your personal data.
- Request correction of your personal data.
- Request erasure of your personal data.
- Object to processing of your personal data.
- Request restriction of processing your personal data.
- Request transfer of your personal data.
- Right to withdraw consent.
If you wish to exercise any of the rights set out above, please contact us.
No fee usually required
A client will not have to pay a fee to access their personal data (or to exercise any of the other rights). However, we may charge a reasonable fee if a request is clearly unfounded, repetitive or excessive. Alternatively, we could refuse to comply with a request in these circumstances.
What we may need from you
We may need to request specific information from a client to help us confirm their identity and ensure their right to access their personal data (or to exercise any other rights). This is a security measure to ensure that personal data is not disclosed to any person who has no right to receive it. We may also contact a client to ask you for further information in relation to your request to speed up our response.
Time limit to respond
We try to respond to all legitimate requests within one month. Occasionally it could take us longer than a month if a request is particularly complex or a client has made a number of requests. In this case, we will notify clients and keep them updated.
Glossary
LAWFUL BASIS
Legitimate Interest means the interest of our business in conducting and managing our business to enable us to give you the best service/product and the best and most secure experience. We make sure we consider and balance any potential impact on you (both positive and negative) and your rights before we process your personal data for our legitimate interests. We do not use your personal data for activities where our interests are overridden by the impact on you (unless we have your consent or are otherwise required or permitted to by law). You can obtain further information about how we assess our legitimate interests against any potential impact on you in respect of specific activities by contacting us.
Performance of Contract means processing your data where it is necessary for the performance of a contract to which you are a party or to take steps at your request before entering into such a contract.
Comply with a legal obligation means processing your personal data where it is necessary for compliance with a legal obligation that we are subject to.
THIRD PARTIES
External Third Parties
- Service providers who provide IT and system administration services.
- Professional advisers acting as processors or joint controllers including lawyers, bankers, auditors and insurers based in the United Kingdom who provide consultancy, banking, legal, insurance and accounting services.
- HM Revenue & Customs, regulators and other authorities acting as processors or joint controllers based in the United Kingdom who require reporting of processing activities in certain circumstances.
YOUR LEGAL RIGHTS
You have the right to:
Request access to your personal data (commonly known as a “data subject access request”). This enables you to receive a copy of the personal data we hold about you and to check that we are lawfully processing it.
Request correction of the personal data that we hold about you. This enables you to have any incomplete or inaccurate data we hold about you corrected, though we may need to verify the accuracy of the new data you provide to us.
Request erasure of your personal data. This enables you to ask us to delete or remove personal data where there is no good reason for us continuing to process it. You also have the right to ask us to delete or remove your personal data where you have successfully exercised your right to object to processing (see below), where we may have processed your information unlawfully or where we are required to erase your personal data to comply with local law. Note, however, that we may not always be able to comply with your request of erasure for specific legal reasons which will be notified to you, if applicable, at the time of your request.
Object to processing of your personal data where we are relying on a legitimate interest (or those of a third party) and there is something about your particular situation which makes you want to object to processing on this ground as you feel it impacts on your fundamental rights and freedoms. You also have the right to object where we are processing your personal data for direct marketing purposes. In some cases, we may demonstrate that we have compelling legitimate grounds to process your information which override your rights and freedoms.
Request restriction of processing of your personal data. This enables you to ask us to suspend the processing of your personal data in the following scenarios:
- If you want us to establish the data’s accuracy.
- Where our use of the data is unlawful but you do not want us to erase it.
- Where you need us to hold the data even if we no longer require it as you need it to establish, exercise or defend legal claims.
- You have objected to our use of your data but we need to verify whether we have overriding legitimate grounds to use it.
Request the transfer of your personal data to you or to a third party. We will provide to you, or a third party you have chosen, your personal data in a structured, commonly used, machine-readable format. Note that this right only applies to automated information which you initially provided consent for us to use or where we used the information to perform a contract with you.
Withdraw consent at any time where we are relying on consent to process your personal data. However, this will not affect the lawfulness of any processing carried out before you withdraw your consent. If you withdraw your consent, we may not be able to provide certain products or services to you. We will advise you if this is the case at the time you withdraw your consent.