General background
Baines Jewitt Ltd is committed to protecting your personal information. So that we can provide you with our full range of services, plus keep you up to date with important information about our organisation, we sometimes need to collect and process information about you. This Privacy/Data Protection Policy relates to how we use your personal information, whether you have provided it via our website or by other means.
When you provide such details, we are legally required to use your data in line with laws concerning the protection of personal information. This includes the Data Protection Act 1998 and the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), effective from 25 May 2018.
GDPR is Europe’s new framework for data protection. The EU’s GDPR website explains that the legislation is designed to harmonise data privacy laws across Europe and give greater protection and rights to individuals. Despite the UK’s plans to leave the European Union, the UK still needs to comply with GDPR.
This means all businesses that hold and process personal information need to have proper processes and policies in place for handling this type of data. That includes our business – and your data.
Baines Jewitt Ltd has always taken managing data extremely seriously as part of best practice. In line with GDPR, we have worked across all areas of our organisation, and with third parties, to make further improvements.
To ensure we are compliant with GDPR, we have:
- Updated our processes and policies for privacy and data protection
- Trained/updated all staff on the new regulations
- Developed wider use of IRIS Openspace (a secure, simple and direct way of sharing and accessing documents) for exchanges of personal and confidential data
- Removed old and obsolete records
- Improved IT security and testing
- Improved marketing processes and systems – read on for more about this.
Website privacy statement
Under the Data Protection Act and GDPR, we have a legal duty to protect any personal information we collect from you.
Baines Jewitt Ltd does not capture and store any personal information about individuals who access our website, except where you voluntarily choose to give us your personal details via email, by using an electronic form, or by enquiring about any of our services. In these circumstances, any personal information you supply will only be used to provide the information or service you have requested. Personal information is not disclosed to third parties unless this is indicated on the web page and/or relevant form at the point of collecting information from you, or is required by law.
Data collection
We automatically collect statistical data about usage patterns on our website. This information is not used to identify any individual. It is only collected to provide us with an understanding of the areas of interest on our site and kept only for as long as required for this purpose. All data is collected and stored in line with the Data Protection Act 1998.
Cookie policy and consent
Please be aware that our website uses cookies. A cookie is a text file that is used by many websites to collect standard internet log information and visitor behaviour information. Cookies in themselves do not identify the individual user, just the computer used.
Baines Jewitt Ltd uses cookies purely for analytical purposes (i.e. to count the number of unique visitors to our site) and does not collect any sensitive personal data.
The information that Baines Jewitt Ltd may collect about you online includes:
- The IP address of your computer
- Your internet browser details
- Your worldwide geographical location
- The date and time of your visit
- Which site referred you to Baines Jewitt Ltd’s website
- Search terms
- How long you stayed on our website
- The pages you looked at on our website
- Personal information that you choose to send us via our web form
This information is used to:
- Improve the information we provide via our site and how it is accessed
- Gain an insight into what information is important to our target audience
- Give visitors to our site a better user experience
The so-called ‘Cookie Law’ requires websites to obtain consent from visitors to store or retrieve any information on a computer or any other web connected device, such as a smartphone or tablet. As long as we have your consent, the use of cookies by Baines Jewitt Ltd complies with GDPR and the EU Privacy Directive, adopted by the UK in its updated Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulations which came into force on 26 May 2012.
You can set your browser not to accept cookies and there are websites that will tell you how to remove cookies from your browser. In a few cases, some of our website features may not function if you remove cookies.
In accordance with GDPR and the Information Commissioner’s guidance on the Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulations, you have been informed that cookies are used on our site. As such, you have also been asked to agree to the use of the data as set out in the Cookie Policy.
How and why we use information about you
We will only use your personal information to provide the services you have requested from us, as detailed in your Letter of Engagement and supporting Schedules. This will be subject to your instructions, data protection law and our duty of confidentiality.
For business-to-business clients (B2B), our lawful reason for processing your personal information will be ‘legitimate interests,’ whereby we can process your personal information if we have a genuine reason and are not harming any of your rights and interests.
For individual clients our lawful reason for processing your personal information will be ‘a contract with the individual,’ whereby we provide services you have requested, or to fulfil obligations under an employment contract. This also includes steps taken at your request before entering into a contract.
We may receive personal data, such as your passport, from you for the purposes of our checks, such as preventing money laundering and terrorist financing.
Our work for you may require us to pass your information to our third-party service providers, agents, subcontractors and other associated organisations for the purposes of completing tasks and providing the services to you on our behalf. However, when we use third-party service providers, we disclose only the personal information that is necessary to deliver the services. Contracts in place with these third parties require them to keep your information secure and not to use it for their own direct marketing purposes.
We collect information on our website to process your enquiry, give advice based on survey data and improve our services. If you agree, we will also use this information to share updates with you about our services which we believe may be of interest to you.
We will not share your information for marketing purposes with other companies so that they may offer you their products and services.
Data security
When you give us sensitive personal information, such as bank or credit card details, we take steps to make sure that it is treated securely. Any sensitive information is encrypted and protected with security software.
Non-sensitive details, such as your email address, are sent over the Internet, which cannot be guaranteed to be 100% secure. Although we endeavour to protect your personal information, we cannot guarantee the security of any information you transmit to us, and you do so at your own risk. Once we receive your information, we make our best effort to ensure its security on our own systems.
Marketing
We like to send you information which may be of interest or benefit to you. This will vary, but can include:
- Invites to relevant events, seminars and briefings
- Our monthly e-newswire
- Our quarterly newsletter
- Budget updates
- Important tax or financial news
- Insights from the team at Baines Jewitt Ltd
If you have consented to receive marketing by ‘opting-in,’ you have a right at any time to stop us from contacting you for marketing purposes. To opt out please email: gdpr@bainesjewitt.co.uk
If you contact Baines Jewitt Ltd via our website with an enquiry, it does not automatically give us permission to add you to our marketing list. You can however complete the tick box to ‘opt-in’ to our marketing list and accept the terms stated on how your data would be used. Generally, this is to provide quality and relevant information. You can ‘opt-out’ and be removed from our marketing list at any time and you will not receive any further marketing emails from us.
To help us to distribute some of our marketing materials, such as our monthly e-newswire, we sometimes work with contracted third-party agencies. Third parties who help us with our marketing activity adhere to the strict guidelines set out in this policy. They are also contracted to keep your information secure and not to use it for their own marketing purposes.
Use of Google Fonts Web API
Our website utilises Google Fonts API to provide a unified and visually pleasing textual experience for our users. Google Fonts is a service offered by Google LLC (“Google”) that allows websites to utilise high-quality fonts.
By using Google Fonts, some information may be transferred to Google servers, which may be located in other countries. This section outlines how Google collects and uses data in relation to the Google Fonts Web API.
Data Collection by Google
When you visit a page on our website that uses Google Fonts, your web browser automatically sends a request to Google’s servers. This request may include the following information:
- IP Address
- Browser type and version
- Operating System
- Referrer URL
- The time of the request
This data is primarily used by Google to serve the font files to your browser and to improve the overall service quality.
Google may also use this data for the purposes of analytics and to enhance user experience. The data is processed in accordance with Google’s Privacy Policy, which you can review for further details: Google’s Privacy Policy.
If you are concerned about the data collection practices associated with Google Fonts, you may choose to disable the Google Fonts service through browser settings or use browser extensions designed to block such features. However, doing so may affect the appearance and functionality of our website.
Updates to this Section
We reserve the right to update or amend this section at any time to reflect changes in our practices or amendments to Google’s terms of service or privacy policy. We recommend reviewing this section periodically for the latest information on our use of Google Fonts.
Client and contact data
To provide services and information to clients and contacts, we hold and process personal data. The type of personal information we may hold on you is set out below.
| Some of the personal information we may hold on you |
How we use this information |
| Your name | To fulfil our contractual obligations to you. |
| Your date of birth | To fulfil our contractual obligations to you. |
| Your telephone number | To fulfil our contractual obligations to you. |
| Your email address | To fulfil our contractual obligations to you. To provide additional information about Baines Jewitt Ltd, its services or publications/articles. |
| Your location | To fulfil our contractual obligations to you. To provide you with relevant promotional mailings. |
| Your Unique Taxpayer Reference number | To fulfil our contractual obligations to you. |
| Your National Insurance Number | To fulfil our contractual obligations to you. |
Holding your data
For contracted services we are required to hold your data for a period of seven years in line with our regulatory requirements.
For marketing purposes we will continue to hold your data unless you ask to be removed from our marketing list. You will have the opportunity to ‘opt-out,’ update or delete your data at any point.
Access to your information
The Information Commissioner’s Office website (www.ico.org.uk) lists the data protection rights for individuals under GDPR. They include:
- The right to be informed
- The right of access
- The right to rectification
- The right to erasure
- The right to restrict processing
- The right to data portability
- The right to object
You can request a copy of the information that we hold about you and also ask us to correct or remove some/all of your information.
If you would like a copy of some or all your personal information, or would like us to make any amendments, please speak to your usual Baines Jewitt Ltd contact; email gdpr@bainesjewitt.co.uk or write to us at the following address: Mr Michael Bigley, Director, Baines Jewitt Ltd, Spitfire House, 19 Falcon Court, Preston Farm Industrial Estate, Stockton on Tees, TS18 3TU. Your request for information will be responded to within 28 days of receipt.
It is your right to lodge an objection to the processing of your personal data, unless we demonstrate legitimate grounds which override your interest, rights and freedoms, or the processing is for the establishment, exercise or defence of a legal claims.
Complaints
If you feel that your personal data has been processed in a way that does not meet GDPR compliance you have the right to lodge a complaint with the relevant supervisory authority. The supervisory authority will then tell you of the progress and outcome of your complaint. The supervisory authority in the UK is the Information Commissioner’s Office.
Changes to our privacy/data protection policy
We keep our privacy policy under regular review and will place any updates on this web page. This privacy policy was last updated on 8 May 2018 in line with the new GDPR guidelines.
How to contact us
If you have any questions about the information we hold about you or our privacy policy, please contact us as follows:
- Speak to your usual Baines Jewitt Ltd contact
- By email: gdpr@bainesjewitt.co.uk
- In writing to: Mr Michael Bigley, Director, Baines Jewitt Ltd, Spitfire House, 19 Falcon Court, Preston Farm Industrial Estate, Stockton on Tees, TS18 3TU
