Privacy Policy

This notice is intended to explain how we use your information and what your rights are in relation to how we use your information.

WHO WE ARE

Rowen Accountants is a trading name of Rowen Accountants Limited. A private limited company registered in England and Wales under registered number: 13515583. The firms registered address is at 1a Fairways Office Park Pittman Way, Fulwood, Preston, Lancashire, England, PR2 9LF

The Firm is the ‘Controller’ for data protection purposes. This means that the Firm collects and holds your information and decides what it will be used for. The Firm is subject to the requirements of data protection legislation applicable to the UK and must use your personal data in accordance with the law. The Firm is registered with the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO).

HOW YOU CAN CONTACT US

We have appointed Saliha Munshi as our Data Protection Manager and you can contact her to discuss this privacy notice for any data protection related issues or queries.

Telephone: 01772 348 050

Email: info@rowenaccountants.co.uk

Post: 1a Fairways Office Park Pittman Way, Fulwood, Preston, Lancashire, England, PR2 9LF

IF YOU ARE A VISITOR TO OUR WEBSITE

Analytics and cookies

Our website does not currently use analytical software or cookies.

Using our contact form

If you submit your personal details to us by completing and submitting our contact form, we will use your information to:

• Contact you to respond to your request

• Send information to you about the firm and its services, where you have given us express authority to do so.

We will add your contact details to our electronic database and keep them for as long as you provide your consent for us to use your contact details in this way.

Our lawful basis for using your information in this way will be two-fold:

• For our legitimate interests in marketing our services; and

• Upon your express consent (where required by law).

We will not share information received through our contact form with any third party unless you expressly authorise us to do so or we are required by law.

TELEPHONING OUR OFFICES

We record all incoming and outgoing telephone calls for the following reasons:

• Quality monitoring: to help us to monitor our service levels.

• Training: to help us to identify training needs and to provide training material from different scenarios we encounter when making or receiving telephone calls.

• Complaints and disputes: to provide us with additional information to help us with investigations for complaints or disputes.

• Staff protection: to provide us with evidence in the event of abusive behaviour towards our staff.

Our legal basis for recording calls is to protect our legitimate interests in ensuring that we have the information available for the reasons stated above.

Call recordings may be disclosed to third parties if required to settle a dispute or report any abusive behaviour. Call recordings will also be disclosed to third parties if required by law.

All call recordings are kept for 6 months after which time they are permanently destroyed.

VISITING OUR OFFICES

Closed Circuit Television (CCTV) is in operation at our office premises. CCTV operates both in the spaces immediately outside of our office premises and at various points inside or our office premises.

We believe that use of CCTV is necessary for our legitimate interests in:

• Preventing crime and protecting our office premises and assets from damage, disruption, vandalism, and other crime.

• The personal safety of staff, visitors, and other members of the public and to act as a deterrent against crime.

• Supporting law enforcement bodies in the prevention, detection, and prosecution of crime.

• Assisting in day-to-day management, including ensuring the health and safety of staff and others.

• Assisting in the effective resolution of disputes which arise in the course of disciplinary or grievance proceedings.

• Assisting in the defence of any civil litigation, including employment tribunal proceedings.

• Assisting in the effective day-to-day supervision of staff.

This list is not exhaustive and other purposes may be or become relevant.

CCTV recordings are managed by the firm and are not transferred outside of the European Economic Area (EEA).

CCTV recordings are kept for 3 months after which time they are then overwritten with new recordings.

IF YOU ARE A CLIENT

Legal Basis for Processing Personal Data

We keep your information confidential and will not disclose it to third parties unless disclosure is:

• Authorised by you.

• Necessary as part of the legal services we are providing to you (to perform our contract with you).

• Required by law or our professional rules.

• Necessary for the purposes of our legitimate interests or those of a third party (in other words, we have a compelling justification for the disclosure).

• Necessary to protect your vital interests or those of another person i.e. to protect a life.

How We Use Your Personal Data

We use your information primarily to provide legal services to you. We also use your information for: accounting and billing purposes; to comply with our legal and regulatory obligations, and to manage our business effectively. With your authority, we may also send you information about our services or events that we think may be of interest to you. We will seek your written consent to do this.

Sharing Your Personal Data with Third Parties

We may, on your authority, work with other professionals to progress your matter, and may need to disclose relevant information about you to them. We will seek your written consent to do this.

Sometimes we outsource part of our work to other people or companies to improve efficiency and your client experience. We will always carry out due diligence and obtain confidentiality agreements from such outsourced providers. We will seek your written consent as to whether you are happy for us to outsource relevant aspects of your file as appropriate to our providers. If you would like more information about our outsourcing arrangements, please contact us.

We may in some cases consult credit reference agencies in order to assess your creditworthiness. If you are an individual, we will seek your written consent before we do this. Please note that if you withhold your consent, this may limit the payment options that will be available to you. For example, we may not complete work for you unless you have made a payment on account. Details of the credit agency we use are available on request.

Contacting You

We may correspond with you by email if you provide us with an email address, unless you advise us in writing that you do not wish us to do so. You acknowledge that email may not be secure. Email will be treated as written correspondence and we are entitled to assume that the purported sender of an email is the actual sender and that any express or implied approval or authority referred to in an email has been validly given. Please be aware that the Firm may monitor and read any email correspondence travelling between you and any mail recipient at the Firm as part of its monitoring activities to ensure compliance with its Information Management and Security Policy.

We will aim to communicate with you by such method as you request. More often than not this will be in writing but may be by telephone if it is appropriate.

Where you provide us with fax or email addresses for sending material to, you are responsible for ensuring that your arrangements are sufficiently secure and confidential to protect your interests. You must tell us if this method of communication is not secure so that can use an alternative method.

Protecting Personal Data

The Internet is not secure and there are risks if you send sensitive information in this manner or you ask us to do so. Please be aware that the data we send by email is not routinely encrypted.

We will take reasonable steps to protect the integrity of our computer systems by screening for viruses on email sent or received. We expect you to do the same for your computer systems.

Bank Details

It is very unlikely that we will change our bank account details during the course of your matter. In any event, we will never contact you by email to tell you that our details have changed. If you receive any communications purporting to be from this firm, that you deem suspicious or have any concerns about (however slight), please contact our office by telephone straightaway.

Holding Your Personal Data

During the progress of your matter, we may hold your information both electronically and in paper format. We will use all reasonable measures to ensure that your information remains confidential and will advise you immediately if we believe that any of your information has been released. We have procedures in place with our staff members to ensure that your information is only seen by members of staff who have a legitimate reason for accessing your file, such as supporting staff working on your file and senior members of the firm for the purposes of supervision, checking your file for quality purposes or to deal with any complaints.

Retention and Destruction of Your Personal Data

Once your matter has concluded, we will hold your files in our archive storage for at least 6 years from the date that the matter is closed in line with our retention periods. After that period has elapsed, we will destroy your file securely and/or delete it from our electronic records. Once that has happened, your file will no longer be available.

IF YOU ARE A THIRD PARTY OR THE OTHER SIDE TO OUR CLIENTS’ MATTERS

Personal Data That We May Receive About You

We will receive information (including personal data) about third parties that are involved with our clients’ matters.

How We Use Your Personal Data

We receive this information so that we can provide financial services to our client and therefore our legal basis for processing your information is to perform the contract that we have with our client for all the services.

Legal Basis For Processing Your Personal Data

We keep your information confidential and will not disclose it to third parties unless disclosure is:

• Authorised by you.

• Necessary for the performance of a contract.

• Required by law or our professional rules.

• Necessary for the purposes of our legitimate interests or those of a third party (in other words, we have a compelling justification for the disclosure).

• Necessary to protect your vital interests or those of another person i.e. to protect a life.

Holding Your Personal Data

During the progress of our clients’ matters, we may hold your information both electronically and in paper format. We will use all reasonable measures to ensure that your information remains confidential and will advise you immediately if we believe that any of your information has been released. We have procedures in place with our staff members to ensure that your information is only seen by members of staff who have a legitimate reason for accessing your file, such as bookkeepers and supporting staff working on your file and senior members of the firm for the purposes of supervision, checking your file for quality purposes or to deal with any complaints.

Retention and Destruction of Your Personal Data

Once our clients’ matters have concluded, we will hold your information on our clients’ files in our archive storage for at least 6 years from the date that the matter is closed in line with our retention periods. After that period has elapsed, we will destroy our clients’ files securely and/or delete it from our electronic records. Once that has happened, your information will no longer be available.

Transferring Your Personal Data Outside of European Economic Area

We will not store any of your information outside of the European Economic Area.

IF YOU ARE CURRENT EMPLOYEE OR FORMER EMPLOYEE

How We Use Your Personal Data

We obtain your personal information for the following purposes:

• Contact details

• Bank details

• Pension details

• Tax details

• Pay details

• Annual leave details

• Sick leave details

• Performance details

• Qualifications

• Employment history

• Ethnicity details

• Disability details

• Training records

• DBS checks (as required).

Legal Basis For Processing Your Personal Data

We keep your information confidential and will not disclose it to third parties unless disclosure is:

• Authorised by you.

• Necessary for the performance of a contract.

• Required by law or our professional rules.

• Necessary for the purposes of our legitimate interests or those of a third party (in other words, we have a compelling justification for the disclosure).

• Necessary to protect your vital interests or those of another person i.e. to protect a life.

Our legal basis for processing your personal data is two-fold:

• For our legitimate interests in ensuring that we have adequate personnel records; and

• To meet our legal obligations as employers.

Sharing Your Personal Data

We will share your information with the following third parties:

• HMRC

• The firm’s pension provider

• The firm’s payroll provider

• The firm’s IT support provider

Retention of Your Personal Data

Your employee file for the duration of your employment plus 6 years following the end of your employment.

Transferring Your Personal Data Outside of the European Economic Area

We do not send or store any of your information outside of the European Economic Area.

YOUR RIGHTS

If you are an individual, you have the following rights under the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR):

• Right to access personal data – you can request details from us of the personal data that we hold about you.

• Right to object to processing – you can tell us that you want us to stop processing your personal data.

• Right to object to automated individual decision making including profiling – you can object to us making decisions about you solely by using a computer system without any human consideration. We do not currently do this.

• Right to rectification – you can ask us to correct personal data that we hold because you believe it is inaccurate.

• Right to erasure – you can ask us to delete the personal data that we hold about you.

• Right to restrict processing – you can tell us that you only want us to use the personal data for a specific reason.

Please note that these rights are not absolute rights (they are not rights that will be automatically granted), as we have to consider whether there are any reasons why we cannot meet your request. For example, we will not be able to delete data that we are legally obliged to keep. We will let you know if we are not able to meet your request and the reason why (where it is appropriate to disclose this information to you).

You also have the right to complain to the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) if you are not happy with the way that we handle your personal data. You can contact the ICO at Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow, Cheshire, SK9 5AF or by calling the ICO’s helpline on 0303 123 1113.

Please note that where you provide consent to us using your personal data, you are entitled to withdraw that consent at any time. You can do this by informing your accountant or contacting our designated Data Protection Manager.

LINKS TO OTHER WEBSITES

This Privacy Notice does not cover any links to other websites that have been included on our website. Please read the Privacy Notices on the other websites that you visit.

CHANGES TO OUR PRIVACY POLICY

This privacy notice is reviewed regularly and was last updated in December 2021.