General Privacy Notice

PRIVACY NOTICE

Background

This Privacy Notice applies to Ethical Legal Services Ltd, trading as and referred to in this notice as Beacon. Beacon understands that your privacy is important to you and that you care about how your personal data is used. We respect and value the privacy of all of our clients and will only collect and use personal data in ways that are described here, and in a way that is consistent with our obligations and your rights under the law.

Please read this Privacy Notice carefully and ensure that you understand it. By contacting us to request information or advice, to discuss our services, to order products and when you engage in casework or advocacy services with Beacon, you are agreeing to be bound by this policy.

1. Information About Us

Ethical Legal Services Ltd (T/A Beacon), a limited company registered in England under company number 8649926. Ethical Legal Services Ltd is owned by Age UK Oxfordshire, a Limited Company Registered in England under company name 4328143, Registered Charity Number 1091529.

Registered address: 10 Napier Court, Barton Lane, Abingdon, Oxfordshire, OX14 3YT.

Trading Address: 10 Napier Court, Barton Lane, Abingdon, Oxfordshire, OX14 3YT.

VAT number: 171 6840 02.

We are a member of the Institute of Paralegals, Social Enterprise UK and Affiliate members of the Society of Later Life Advisers.

2. What Does This Notice Cover?

This Privacy Notice explains how we use your personal data: how it is collected, how it is held, and how it is processed. It also explains your rights under the law relating to your personal data.

3. What is Personal Data?

Personal data is defined by the General Data Protection Regulation (EU Regulation 2016/679) (the “GDPR”) as ‘any information relating to an identifiable person who can be directly or indirectly identified in particular by reference to an identifier’.

Personal data is, in simpler terms, any information about you that enables you to be identified. Personal data covers obvious information such as your name and contact details, but it also covers less obvious information such as identification numbers, electronic location data, and other online identifiers.

The personal data that we use is set out in Part 5, below.

4. What Are My Rights?

Under the GDPR, you have the following rights, which we will always work to uphold:

a) The right to be informed about our collection and use of your personal data. This Privacy Notice should tell you everything you need to know, but you can always contact us to find out more or to ask any questions using the details in Part 13.

b) The right to access the personal data we hold about you. Part 11 will tell you how to do this.

c) The right to have your personal data rectified if any of your personal data held by us is inaccurate or incomplete. Please contact us using the details in Part 13 to find out more.

d) The right to be forgotten, i.e. the right to ask us to delete or otherwise dispose of any of your personal data that we have. Please contact us using the details in Part 13 to find out more.

e) The right to restrict (i.e. prevent) the processing of your personal data.

f) The right to object to us using your personal data for a particular purpose or purposes.

g) The right to data portability. This means that, if you have provided personal data to us directly, we are using it with your consent or for the performance of a contract, and that data is processed using automated means, you can ask us for a copy of that personal data to re-use with another service or business in many cases.

h) Rights relating to automated decision-making and profiling. Part 7 explains more about how we use your personal data, including profiling.

For more information about our use of your personal data or exercising your rights as outlined above, please contact us using the details provided in Part 13.

Further information about your rights can also be obtained from the Information Commissioner’s Office or your local Citizens Advice Bureau.

If you have any cause for complaint about our use of your personal data, you have the right to lodge a complaint with the Information Commissioner’s Office.

5. What Personal Data Do You Collect?

We may collect some or all of the following personal data (this may vary according to your relationship with us):

• Name;
• Date of birth;
• Gender;
• Address;
• Email address;
• Telephone number;
• Business name;
• Job title;
• Profession;
• Payment information;
• Information about where you heard about us;
• When you contact us by email, telephone, social media, letter or any other method to request information or advice, to discuss our services or to order products, we may collect information related to the reason you are contacting us, for example information about your health and social care needs or those of the person you are contacting us about;
• Information about your health and social care needs including but not limited to NHS continuing healthcare assessments, care plans, risk assessments, daily evaluation reports, medication, hospital and GP records, and correspondence with health or social care agencies, which you have provided to us or given us consent to obtain;
• Financial information which is necessary to the performance of a contract with you (for example details of historic care payments) which you have sent to us or given us consent to obtain;
• Personal data related to the person you are contacting us about. You must have their authority to provide their personal data to us and where they have capacity to understand, you must also share this data protection statement with them beforehand together with details of what you’ve agreed on their behalf.

Where you have given us consent to obtain your personal information in order for us to supply a service to you (for example where it is necessary to obtain clinical records for our performance of a contract with you), we may obtain information from the following third parties:

• Clinical Commissioning Groups;
• Local Authorities (Adult Social Care Departments);
• Hospital Trusts;
• GP Surgeries;
• GP Agencies;
• Mental Health Trusts;
• NHS Commissioning Board (NHS England);
• Care Providers (e.g. care homes or care agencies);
• Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman; and
• Any other organisation or agency which may hold information necessary for us to supply a service to you or for our performance of a contract with you.

6. Monitoring of Communications

Subject to applicable laws, we’ll monitor and record your calls, emails, text messages, social media and other communications in relation to your dealings with us. We’ll do this for self-regulatory practices, to protect the security of our communications systems and procedures, for quality control and staff training, and when we need to see a record of what’s been said.

7. How Do You Use My Personal Data?

Under the GDPR, we must always have a lawful basis for using personal data. This may be because the data is necessary for our performance of a contract with you, because you have consented to our use of your personal data, or because it is in our legitimate business interests to use it.

The legal basis for us processing your data is as follows:

i) As necessary to perform our contract with you for the relevant service:

(1) To take steps at your request before entering into it;

(2) To decide whether to enter into it;

(3) To manage and perform that contract;

(4) To update our records; and

(5) To trace your whereabouts to contact you about your services and recovering debt.

ii) As necessary for our own legitimate interests, e.g.:

(1) For good governance, accounting, and managing and auditing our business operations;

(2) To monitor emails, calls, other communications, and activities related to the products or services you have requested from us;

(3) For market research, analysis, and developing statistics; and

(4) To send you marketing communications which you have requested and that may be of interest to you, via your preferred method of communication. These may include information about NHS continuing healthcare developments or related matters as well as information about our products and services.

iii) As necessary to comply with a legal obligation, e.g.:

(1) When you exercise your rights under data protection law and make requests;

(2) For compliance with legal and regulatory requirements and related disclosures;

(3) For establishment and defence of legal rights;

(4) To verify your identity, make credit, fraud prevention and anti-money laundering checks; and

(5) To monitor emails, calls, other communications, and activities relating to the products or services you have requested from us.

iv) Based on your consent, e.g.:

(1) When supplying our advice, advocacy and casework services to you, or processing orders for information products, at your request;

(2) When you request us to disclose your personal data to other people or organisations such as an NHS Trust connected to a service we are providing to you, or otherwise agree to disclosures;

(3) When we process any special categories of personal data about you at your request (e.g. your racial or ethnic origin, religious or philosophical beliefs, data concerning your health or sexual orientation); and

(4) To send you marketing communications where we’ve asked for your consent to do so.

Your personal data will be used for one or more of the following purposes:

• Processing orders for Information Products that you have submitted;
• Supplying our advice, advocacy and casework services to you. Your personal details are required in order for us to provide these services;
• Carrying out our obligations arising from any contracts entered into by you and us;
• Personalising and tailoring our services for you;
• Seeking your views or comments on the products and services that we provide;
• Communicating with you. This may include responding to emails or calls from you;
• Sending you communications which you have requested and that may be of interest to you, via your preferred method of communication. These may include information about NHS continuing healthcare developments or related matters, as well as information about our products and services (you may unsubscribe or opt-out at any time by contacting us using the details in part 13);
• Processing a job application; and/or
• Processing a payment.

You have a choice about whether or not you wish to receive information from us. With your permission and/or where permitted by law, we may also use your personal data for marketing purposes, which may include contacting you by email, telephone, SMS text or post with information and news about NHS continuing healthcare and related matters, as well as our products and services.

You will not be sent any unlawful marketing or spam. We will always work to fully protect your rights and comply with our obligations under the GDPR and the Privacy and Electronic Communications (EC Directive) Regulations 2003, and you will always have the opportunity to opt-out.

We may analyse your personal information to create a profile of your interests and preferences so that we can contact you with information relevant to you. We may make use of additional information about you when it is available from external sources to help us do this effectively. We may also use your personal information to detect and reduce fraud and credit risk.

8. How Long Will You Keep My Personal Data?

We will not keep your personal data for longer than is necessary for the purpose it was collected. This means that data will be destroyed or erased from our systems when it is no longer required.

We take appropriate steps to ensure that we process and retain information about you based on the following logic:

• at least the duration for which the information is used to provide you with a service;
• as required under law, a contract, or with regard to our statutory obligations; or
• only for as long as is necessary for the purpose for which it was collected, is processed, or longer if required under any contract, by applicable law, or for statistical purposes, subject to appropriate safeguards.

9. How and Where Do You Store or Transfer My Personal Data?

We may store or transfer some or all of your personal data in countries that are not part of the European Economic Area (the “EEA” consists of all EU member states, plus Norway, Iceland, and Liechtenstein). By way of example, this may happen if any of our servers are from time to time located in a country outside of the EU. These are known as “third countries” and may not have data protection laws that are as strong as those in the UK and/or the EEA. This means that we will take additional steps in order to ensure that your personal data is treated just as safely and securely as it would be within the UK and under the GDPR as follows. By submitting your personal data, you are agreeing to this transfer, storing or processing.

We may share your data within the group of companies of which we are a part. Where this involves the transfer of personal data outside the EEA, our group ensures that personal data is protected by requiring all companies within the group to follow the same rules with respect to personal data usage. These are known as “binding corporate rules”. More information on binding corporate rules is available from the European Commission.

Where we transfer your data to a third party based in the US, this may be protected if they are part of the EU-US Privacy Shield. This requires that third party to provide data protection to standards similar to those in Europe. More information is available from the European Commission.

Please contact us using the details below in Part 13 for further information about the particular data protection mechanism used by us when transferring your personal data to a third country.

The security of your personal data is essential to us and to protect your data, we take a number of important measures, including the following:

• Any sensitive information (such as information about your health and social care needs) is protected with high-security servers using 256-bit SSL encryption and storage redundancies to prevent loss due to catastrophic events.
• Advanced permissions and password features ensure only authorised staff have access to sensitive information.

When you are on a secure page, a lock icon will appear on the bottom of web browsers such as Microsoft Internet Explorer.

Non-sensitive details (your email address etc.) are transmitted normally over the Internet, and this can never be guaranteed to be 100% secure. As a result, while we strive 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 systems. Where we have given (or where you have chosen) a password which enables you to access certain parts of our websites, you are responsible for keeping this password confidential. We ask you not to share your password with anyone.

10. Do You Share My Personal Data?

We will not sell or rent your information to third parties.

We will not share your information with third parties for marketing purposes.

In some limited circumstances, we may be legally required to share certain personal data, which might include yours, if we are involved in legal proceedings or complying with legal obligations, a court order, or the instructions of a government authority.

We may share your personal data with other companies in our group for governance, compliance or monitoring purposes. This includes our holding company and its subsidiaries.

We may sometimes contract with the following third parties to supply certain services. In some cases, those third parties may require access to some or all of your personal data that we hold:

• Mailchimp (The Rocket Science Group, LLC), which we use to manage email communication subscriber lists and send emails to our subscribers.
• Technique Web (Technique Print Group Ltd), which hosts our website.
• Automattic, Inc., whose WordPress software (and associated add-ons) we use to manage the content of our website.
• Microsoft Corporation, which provides our email service and business data storage systems.
• Google LLC which provides a Google Analytics service to measure the performance of our website, and a Google Adwords service, through which you may access our website.
• Clio (Themis Solutions Inc.), which provides our cloud-based law practice management software on which your personal data is securely stored and processed.
• Amazon Web Services (Amazon Inc.), whose Amazon S3 cloud storage service we use to securely store copies of your data for backup and archiving purposes.
• Crystaline Communications Ltd, which provides and hosts our telephone systems, including processing and storing call recordings.
• Paypal Holdings, Inc., to securely process credit and debit card payments.
• Kashflow Software Ltd., which provides our online accounting software and is used to process invoices.
• NHS England, with whom we contract to provide some services (note that we will never disclose identifiable information about you to NHS England without your consent).

If any of your personal data is required by a third party, as described above, we will take steps to ensure that your personal data is handled safely, securely, and in accordance with your rights, our obligations, and the third party’s obligations under the law, as described above in Part 9.

Please be reassured that we will not release your information to other third parties for them to use for their own direct marketing purposes, unless you have requested us to do so, or we are required to do so by law, for example, by a court order or for the purposes of prevention of fraud or other crime.

If any personal data is transferred outside of the EEA, we will take suitable steps in order to ensure that your personal data is treated just as safely and securely as it would be within the UK and under the GDPR, as explained above in Part 9.

Where you have given us consent to share your personal information in order for us to supply a service to you (for example where it is necessary to obtain clinical records for our performance of a contract with you), we may share your information with the following third parties:

• Clinical Commissioning Groups;
• Local Authorities (Adult Social Care Departments);
• Hospital Trusts;
• GP Surgeries;
• GP Agencies;
• Mental Health Trusts;
• NHS Commissioning Board (NHS England);
• Care Providers (e.g. care homes or care agencies);
• Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman; and
• Any other organisation or agency necessary for us to supply a service to you or for our performance of a contract with you.

We may also share personal data related to the person you are contacting us about or is the subject of an advocacy or casework service you have engaged with us to provide, with the above agencies. You must have their authority to authorise us to share their personal data and where they have capacity to understand, you must also share this data protection statement with them beforehand together with details of what you’ve agreed on their behalf.

11. How Can I Access My Personal Data?

If you want to know what personal data we have about you, you can ask us for details of that personal data and for a copy of it (where any such personal data is held). This is known as a “subject access request”.

All subject access requests should be made in writing and sent to the email or postal addresses shown in Part 13. To make this as easy as possible for you, a Subject Access Request Form is available for you to use. You do not have to use this form, but it is the easiest way to tell us everything we need to know to respond to your request as quickly as possible.

There is not normally any charge for a subject access request. If your request is ‘manifestly unfounded or excessive’ (for example, if you make repetitive requests) a fee may be charged to cover our administrative costs in responding.

We will respond to your subject access request within 28 days and, in any case, not more than one month of receiving it. Normally, we aim to provide a complete response, including a copy of your personal data within that time. In some cases, however, particularly if your request is more complex, more time may be required up to a maximum of three months from the date we receive your request. You will be kept fully informed of our progress.

12. 16 or Under

We are concerned to protect the privacy of children aged 16 or under. If you are aged 16 or under‚ please get your parent/guardian’s permission beforehand whenever you provide us with personal information.

13. How Do I Contact You?

To contact us about anything to do with your personal data and data protection, including to make a subject access request, please use the following details (for the attention of the GDPR Team):

Email address: enquiries@beaconchc.co.uk

Telephone number: 0345 548 0300.

Postal Address: Beacon, 10 Napier Court, Barton Lane, Abingdon, Oxfordshire, OX14 3YT.

14. Changes to this Privacy Notice

We may change this Privacy Notice from time to time. This may be necessary, for example, if the law changes, or if we change our business in a way that affects personal data protection.

Any changes will be made available on our website (beaconchc.co.uk) or via direct marketing channels, according to your communication preferences.