PRIVACY NOTICE

1.   PURPOSE OF THIS NOTICE

This notice describes how we collect and use personal data about you, in accordance with the the Data Protection Act 2018 (“GDPR”).

Please read the following carefully to understand our practices regarding your personal data and how we will treat it.

2.   WHO WE ARE

‘Formby Forensics’ is a trading name of Formby Forensic Services Limited (“FFS”). FFS is a firm of chartered accountants that specialises in the provision of forensic accountancy, accountancy and management consultancy services.

We are registered in England and Wales as a limited company under number:10531929 and our registered office is at Osborne House, 82 Carlingcott, Bath, England, BA2 8AW.

For the purpose of the Data Protection Legislation and this notice, we are a ‘data controller’. This means that we are responsible for deciding how we hold and use personal data about you. We are required under the Data Protection Legislation to notify you of the information contained in this privacy notice.

We have appointed a data protection manager. Our data protection manager is our Data Protection Point of Contact and is responsible for assisting with enquiries in relation to this privacy notice or our treatment of your personal data. Should you wish to contact our Data Protection Point of Contact you can do so using the contact details noted below.

3.   WHOSE PERSONAL DATA DO WE DEAL WITH?

FFS handles the personal data of a wide variety of individuals, including actual and potential clients / other individuals concerned in legal disputes and requests for forensic accountancy advice/ and business clients.

4.   WHAT DO WE USE PERSONAL DATA FOR?

FFS processes Personal Data in pursuit of its legitimate interests. FFS uses personal data in the provision of its professional services/ in the administration and running of its business/and in related professional activities. FFS also engages in marketing activities in pursuit of its legitimate interests.

5.   WHO DO WE SEND PERSONAL DATA TO?

Who do we send personal data to?

We provide personal data to third parties in the normal course of providing our professional services – this includes to courts and tribunals, mediators, adjudicators, and instructing & opposing solicitors and barristers and other expert witnesses in litigation.

We may process your personal data for the purposes of our own legitimate interests provided that those interests do not override any of your own interests, rights and freedoms which require the protection of personal data. This includes processing for marketing, business development, statistical and management purposes.

We may process your personal data for certain additional purposes with your consent, and in these limited circumstances where your consent is required for the processing of your personal data then you have the right to withdraw your consent to processing for such specific purposes.

Please note that we may process your personal data for more than one lawful basis depending on the specific purpose for which we are using your data.

6. INDIVIDUAL’S RIGHTS REGARDING THEIR PERSONAL DATA

Individuals have a right under the law to object to processing in pursuit of legitimate interests. Individuals also have a right to insist that processing of their Personal Data for FFS’ direct marketing activities immediately cease. Individuals can exercise those rights by contacting FFS in the manner described below.

7. WHAT OTHER DATA PROTECTION RIGHTS DO INDIVIDUALS HAVE?

The law provides various rights for individuals whose personal data are processed by FFS. Those rights include the right: to be informed of processing activities/of access to the individual’s personal data which is being processed / to have inaccurate personal data rectified, and incomplete data completed / to have personal data erased/to have processing activities restricted/to data portability / to withdraw consent, where processing is based on consent / not to be subject to decisions based on automated processing / and the right to complain to a supervisory authority.

Information handled by FFS may be subject to privilege and to court order.  This means that, in some circumstances, FFS may be required not to comply with individual requests to exercise data protection rights.

8. WHAT PERSONAL DATA DOES FFS COLLECT?

We collect Personal Data for the purposes of providing our professional services.

Typically, with our forensic accounting work we are instructed by a solicitor (a professional client) to provide forensic accountancy services on behalf of the solicitor’s own client (known as the “lay” client). On occasions, FFS may receive instructions to provide forensic accountancy services directly from a lay client.

Typically, FFS will be provided with information by the client for the purposes of providing forensic accountancy services. That information is likely to include Personal Data, for example in relation to: the lay client (or, where the client is a corporate body, individuals who are employed by or otherwise act on behalf of the corporate client) / the professional client (or, again, individuals who represent the professional client) / witnesses or other individuals concerned in the request for forensic accountancy advice or report or the relevant dispute or matter / opposing parties in the relevant matter (or their representatives, where the opposing party is a corporate body) / barristers, solicitors, expert advisors or witnesses and other professional representatives acting for any opposing parties / mediators, adjudicators, and members of the judiciary who involved in the relevant matter.

Any information (including Personal Data) which is provided by the client to FFS will be information which the client or FFS considers relevant to the provision of the requested forensic accountancy services. Some of the information provided to FFS will include Sensitive Personal Data. For example, with personal injury and clinical negligence claims FFS will typically receive information as to the health of the lay client or others involved in a case.

9.   OTHER INFORMATION COLLECTED BY FFS

FFS may also collect Personal Data other than for the purposes of providing its accountancy services – for example in relation to other participants in professional interest groups, legal and other professional service providers. Information collected in these contexts is likely to include: professional contact details and other information provided by the individual, such as information about professional activities and interests.

10. FREEDOM TO WITHHOLD PERSONAL DATA

No individual is obliged to provide Personal Data to FFS. However, where an individual chooses to withhold his or her Personal Data from FFS this may affect FFS’ ability to provide its professional services.

11. SENSITIVE PERSONAL DATA

FFS may process Sensitive Personal Data in relation to their lay clients to fulfil requests to provide forensic accountancy advices or reports. In this context FFS processes Sensitive Personal Data for the purposes of the establishment, exercise or defence of claims or disputes. In such situations, the relevant Sensitive Personal Data will be contained within FFS’ instructions from its client and will be processed by FFS for the purposes of providing forensic accounting services, pursuant to the client’s instructions.

Thereafter, FFS will store, retrieve and otherwise process the relevant Sensitive Personal Data only for the purposes of bringing or responding to potential claims arising out of the FFS’ forensic accounting services.

12.   INDIVIDUAL’S RIGHTS TO OBJECT TO PROCESSING PERSONAL DATA

Individuals whose Personal Data are processed by FFS have the right under GDPR to object to that processing. Individuals whose Personal Data are processed by FFS for direct marketing purposes have the right to insist that that processing immediately cease. In order to exercise those rights, individuals may contact our Data Protection Point of Contact whose name and contact details are listed below.

13. HOW FFS WILL RESPOND IN THE EVENT OF AN OBJECTION TO PROCESSING

In the event of an objection from an individual to the processing carried out by FFS any processing carried out by FFS for the purposes of providing forensic accountancy services may continue, pursuant to Article 21(1) GDPR / any processing carried out by FFS for the purposes of direct marketing activities will immediately cease.

14.   THE RECIPIENTS TO WHOM WE TRANSFER PERSONAL DATA

FFS transfers Personal Data to a broad range of recipients, including courts, tribunals, arbitrators and mediators / lay and professional clients / other professionals such as expert witnesses / opposing parties, opposing solicitors and opposing barristers.

15. HOW WE ENSURE THE SECURITY OF PERSONAL DATA

FFS has appropriate procedure and arrangements to ensure the security of storage, transport and destruction of Personal Data in hard copy form; and also appropriate measures to ensure the physical and electronic security of electronic data processed by FFS.

16.   SITUATIONS IN WHICH WE MAY TRANSFER PERSONAL DATA OUTSIDE OF THE UK

FFS transfers Personal Data to third party providers of IT services, including providers of storage and backup facilities for electronic data processed by it. Such transfers may lead to processing of Personal Data in countries outside the UK.  

FS may also transfer Personal Data for processing outside the UK where it is instructed to provide its professional services to a client, or on behalf of a lay client, located outside of the UK and is required to send information, advices or reports to the client, or lay client, in the course of carrying out the client’s instructions; or where FFS is instructed to act as an Expert Witness in a dispute before a court outside the UK, before an international organisation, or before a mediator or arbitrator outside the UK, and FFS  is required to send information, advices or reports to the relevant international organisation, court, mediator or arbitrator.

17.   MINIMISING OUR PROCESSING OF PERSONAL DATA

Because of the nature of our professional work, FFS is limited in its ability to minimise the processing of Personal Data. FFS must comply with professional duties owed to its client and where necessary the court and this may limit the extent to which Personal Data can be removed from the information provided to FFS for the purposes of it providing its services.

FFS shall review its electronic and hard copy data on at least one occasion each year. Any data which is “expired” will be erased and/or destroyed in the course of that review. 

Personal Data which is stored electronically will be backed-up from time to time. Each back up record will be destroyed securely by FFS in due course, typically within a year of it having been made.   

18. DATA PROTECTION RIGHTS OF INDIVIDUALS

The law provides various rights for individuals whose personal data are processed by FFS.

Those rights include rights to object to processing based on FFS’ legitimate interests and to object to processing for the purposes of direct marketing. Individuals’ rights also include the right to be informed of processing activities / of access to the individual’s personal data which is being processed / to have inaccurate personal data rectified, and incomplete data completed / to have personal data erased / to have processing activities restricted / to data portability / to withdraw consent, where processing is based on consent / not to be subject to decisions based on automated processing which produce legal or other similarly significant effects / to complain to a supervisory authority.

Individuals wishing to exercise their rights may contact FFS in the manner described above. In some situations, the rights of individuals may be limited by reason of legal process.

19. IMPACT OF LEGAL PROCESS AND COURT ORDERS

Individuals’ rights under GDPR may be limited where their Personal Data is contained in information which is subject to legal process or a court order. Where information has been transmitted to FFS by a client for the purposes of a legal process, FFS may be required not to comply with individual rights under the GDPR. If legal process prevents FFS from complying with a request from an individual to exercise his or her GDPR rights, this will be explained in the response provided by FFS.

20. HOW TO CONTACT US OR COMPLAIN ABOUT MATTERS COVERED IN THIS NOTICE

If you have any questions regarding this notice or if you would like to speak to us about the manner in which we process your personal data, please email our Data Protection Point of Contact Harriet Formby at admin@formbyforensics.co.uk

You also have the right to make a complaint to the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO), the UK supervisory authority for data protection issues, at any time. The ICO’s contact details are as follows:

Information Commissioner’s Office
Wycliffe House
Water Lane
Wilmslow
Cheshire
SK9 5AF

Telephone – 0303 123 1113 (local rate) or 01625 545 745

Website – https://ico.org.uk/concerns