Inghams Solicitors is a firm of solicitors based on the Fylde Coast of England. In order to provide the high quality legal services that we do, it is necessary to collect and use the personal information of clients. In accordance with the UK GDPR, we provide this privacy notice which details: –
- Types of personal information we collect
- Why we process your data
- Who we share it with
- How we store your data
- Who to contact if you wish to exercise your rights or make a complaint
Types of personal information we collect
We collect the following information directly from you: –
- Your name, date of birth and occupation
- Postal and billing addresses, email addresses, telephone numbers
- Identification information including photographic ID and proofs of address
- Financial information for the purposes of sending or receiving funds or making payments
- Location information from your electronic devices
- Website activity information, your IP address, any data you submit to us via our website
- Information we collect at our reception desks if you are a visitor to our offices
- Recruitment information you provide
- Any other information about you which you provide
We may receive personal information about you from third parties: –
- From banks, building societies and other lenders where you are a customer or debtor and we are acting for the financial institution
- From estate agents when a property transaction is agreed
- From law firms, accountants, trustees and other professionals acting for you where our client is a party in a transaction or opponent in a dispute
- From police authorities and healthcare providers when we might make enquiries
- From friends, relatives and colleagues who may provide personal information about you as part of work being done for them, for example as a beneficiary in an estate or trust
- From referees as part of our recruitment process
We store your information securely. We will never ask you for information that we do not require.
Why we process your data
It is a legal requirement that we only process your personal information when we have a lawful basis for doing so. These lawful bases can include: –
- providing you with our services
- accounting, billing and other internal administrative purposes
- determining your eligibility for employment
- developing a business relationship with you or an entity with which you are connected
- identifying and informing you of services you may be interested in
In addition to your consent, the other lawful bases we may rely upon are: –
- performance of a contract to which you are a party
- compliance with the law or regulation
- protection of vital interests of yourself or another person
In certain cases we may process sensitive data about you, your children, your healthcare information or criminal records. We only do this when: –
- we have consent
- we need it to protect your vital interests or those of another person where it is not possible to obtain consent
- it is necessary in the establishment, exercise or defence of legal claims
If you are a client
When we act for you, we need to process your personal information to comply with our regulator, the law and our risk management processes. For example, anti-money laundering checks, conflict of interest checks and background checks for to satisfy our due diligence requirements.
As a client, we collect, maintain and process your personal information during the course of supplying services to you. We will use your contact information in order to collect payments from you and to inform you of any changes to our relationship.
We do not use your information to make automated decisions about you.
If you are a website user
When you access our website, your IP address will be disclosed to us in order for our website servers to transmit the website content to you. Your IP address is a globally unique number, assigned by your Internet Service Provider (ISP), that identifies the internet connection you are using. Your IP address does not contain any personal information in itself, but could be used by the authorities in order to find you. This information is processed for security purposes and is deleted after 12 days unless misuse of our website is detected. In this event, we will process the data for investigative and legal purposes where appropriate.
Contact forms
There are several contact forms available on this website. If you use these forms, you are providing us with personal data including your name, telephone number and/or email address. By submitting this information to us, we assume you consent to us using it to respond to you. We do not share this data with any third parties and do not process it any further. On each of the forms, we provide tooltips explaining why we are asking for certain information.
Analytics
Inghams uses Google Analytics to monitor the performance of this website. This service places a cookie on your computer but no personal information is stored. Google Analytics tracks various metrics such as which site you came from, how long you spend on the site, what pages you look at, and so on. However, this data is not collected or logged in a way that identifies you. We use the data collected to monitor and improve our website.
Links
Our website contains links to other sites. These sites are not controlled by us, and we are not responsible for the privacy practices or security of other websites.
Cookies
The process of accessing websites is ‘stateless’. This means that each page you visit has no knowledge of any other page you were previously on. A cookie is a small file that is placed on your computer that is used to provide ‘state’ so that when you navigate around a site, the site knows that it is still you. Every time you access a website that uses cookies, the website can check and update its cookie. Commonly, cookies are used to remember your preferences on websites such as time zone, language, and so on. Without the cookie, you would have to enter this data on every page.
This website does not place any cookies on your computer, but some of the third party components of the website do. These are listed below.
You can control or block cookies on most devices: please visit aboutcookies.org for more information on how to do this.
Third party cookies
The following table lists third party providers we use that also place cookies.
| Service | Description |
|---|---|
| We use several services from Google including Analytics and reCaptcha |
If you are a job applicant
When you apply for a job with us, we use the information you provide in order to process your job application. This information may be provided directly to us, via a recruitment agency website, via your referees or via our staff in the case of a recommendation or referral.
We use this information to assess your suitability for the position you have applied for and to ensure we are compliant with our equal opportunities obligations.
The information we collect may include: –
- Name, address and other contact details
- Nationality, residency, right to work information
- Employment history, skills and experience
- Education background
- References
- Diversity criteria, for instance disabilities, ethnicity, religion, etc
- Any other details provided in your CV, by you during the application process or by others that may provide information about you (such as a referee)
We will only use the information collected in order to process your application and to comply with any applicable legislation. Special category information will only be used with your consent and will only be used for diversity monitoring and to ensure reasonable adjustments are made for applicants with disabilities.
If you attend one of our offices
All visitors to our offices must sign in and out at one of our reception desks. This data is collected for security and health and safety purposes and will be retained for 12 months.
We may collect personal information during your visit to our office. This may include name, contact details, payment information, identification documents and other information relevant for us to provide our services.
We may offer a public Wi-Fi hotspot. If you connect to this, we will collect the MAC address of your device at the point of connection, but will discard it when you disconnect. The MAC address is a unique code which all smart devices have. It is not directly possible to identify you from this, however it could be used to identify your device.
Who we share your data with
- Professional advisors, insurers and auditors
- Third party expert services such as medical experts, barristers, etc.
- Courts, tribunals, regulators
- The other side to a transaction or litigation
- Lender clients
- Other clients that are jointly instructed
We will not disclose to the above without a legal basis for doing so. Either: –
- we have your consent
- we are required by law
- it is needed as part of legal proceedings
There may be rare occasions that we must share data with the National Crime Agency. In these circumstances we are not permitted to inform you that this has taken place.
How we store your data
Any personal data we collect is stored in our offices, on servers local to our offices or on cloud servers hosted within the UK.
We retain non-original material for a minimum of 7 years following the payment of the final bill. After this, hard copy is destroyed securely and digital data removed.
We will retain a small amount of information after the conclusion of any dealings for the purposes of complying with our professional duties, for instance carrying out conflict of interest checks.
Your data protection rights
Under UK GDPR you have various data protection rights. These include: –
- Right of access. Your right to ask us for a copy of your personal information.
- Right to rectification. Your right to ask us to rectify personal information that you believe is not accurate.
- Right to erasure/right to be forgotten. You have the right to ask us to erase your personal information in certain circumstances.
- Right to restriction of processing. Your right to ask us to restrict the processing of your personal information in certain circumstances.
- Right to object to processing. Your right to object to the processing of personal information in certain circumstances.
- Right to portability of data. Your right to ask that we transfer your personal information to another organisation, or to you, in certain circumstances.
Note that if we are required by law to process your data, then some of the above rights may not apply, or we may not be able to action them. For example, if you request that we erase your data but the law requires that we retain your file, then erasure will not take place.
We do normally have a right to payment of any outstanding costs before releasing a whole file to you but you have a separate right under the GDPR to access certain ‘personal data’ without charge. This may include having it in a particular electronic format (‘portable’ format).
Who to contact if you wish to exercise your rights
If you wish to exercise any of your rights as above, please put your request in writing to:-
Data Protection Officer
Inghams Solicitors
32-38 North Albert Street
Fleetwood
FY7 6AW
Alternatively you can email dpo@inghams.law
We have 1 month to respond to your request.
Making a complaint
If you have any concerns about our use of your personal information, you can raise a complaint with us in the first instance using the details above, or as a last resort with the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO).
The ICO’s address is: –
Information Commissioner’s Office
Wycliffe House
Water Lane
Wilmslow
Cheshire
SK9 5AF
You can also telephone the ICO on 0303 123 1113 or visit their website at https://www.ico.org.uk