Our Privacy Promise
The privacy and security of your personal information is extremely important to us. This privacy promise explains how and why we use your personal data, to make sure you stay informed and can be confident about giving us your information. It is also known as a Privacy Notice or Fair Processing Notice or FPN).
This policy applies to both clients and prospective clients of Banner Jones Solicitors who may make an enquiry through our website, via email, by phone, in person or in writing. It also applies to our employees and job applicants.
Who are we?
For the purposes of the EU General Data Protection Regulation (from 25 May 2018)/UK Data Protection Act and Privacy of Electronic Communication Regulation General Data Protection Regulations act 2018 Banner Jones Limited is a Data Controller. We trade as Banner Jones Solicitors, registered office 24 Glumangate, Chesterfield, S40 1UA. Our Group Data Protection Officer is Jayne Henshaw who can be contacted on the contact details at the end of this policy.
Why do we need to collect your information?
We need to collect and process your personal data so that we can:
• Verify your identity
• Conduct legal services that you have engaged with us on
• Deal with any enquiries you may have
• Develop our services and let you know about legal updates and events that may be of benefit to you
• Process applications for employment and deal with employee contracts of employment
• Ensure the billing of any services delivered and obtaining payment
• Process and respond to any complaints
• Fulfill the legal and other regulatory obligations imposed on us
• Protect our systems for your benefit as well as our own
• Audit usage of our systems
What information do we collect about you?
We only collect the personal information that we need to provide our service to you and this will very much depend on the service you are instructing us to do on your behalf. The information we collect will usually include:
• Personal information including full name, DOB, marital status and NI number
• Contact details, including address, email and phone number
• Financial information such as bank details and bank statements for anti-money laundering and regulatory requirements
• ‘sensitive personal data’ such as medical information or information about racial or ethnic origin, political opinions, religious beliefs or other similar beliefs, trade union membership, physical or mental health, sexual life, and any criminal allegations, proceedings or convictions maybe required to assist with your case
• Proof of ID will be required at the start of your matter. This can be provided in physical form and/or an online check and kept in accordance with our regulatory obligations.
• Children’s data. In certain cases involving children we will need to collect their personal data but will gain the permission from the parent/guardian before we do so. If the child is over 13 we will need their permission as well. They will never be included on any marketing lists, nor asked for consent to do so. For work experience candidates we will seek permission from both the student and their parent/guardian to store basic personal information for a period of 2 years.
How do we collect your data?
Your information will be collected in various ways, depending on how you make contact with us. Sometimes we will use third party software systems to help us process your data and the privacy statements for those platforms can be accessed by clicking on the highlighted links.
- Through face to face meetings with your advisor. Any attendance notes from your meetings will be added to your matter which is held in our secure case management system ALB.
- Over the phone. Any relevant notes from your conversations will be added to your matter in ALB. If you are calling regarding an enquiry and you do not instruct Banner Jones Solicitors your personal information may be stored for a period of 12 months and then destroyed.
-If you call via the number displayed on this website, your phone number will be stored in our call tracking software called calltracks for a period of 12 months.
- By email. Any emails relating to your matter will be saved onto ALB. If your email is regarding an initial quote and you do not instruct Banner Jones Solicitors your personal information will be stored for a period of 12 months and then destroyed.
- Via our website enquiry form. Your enquiry form will be sent to our marketing team who will then be pass your enquiry to the relevant department to enable them to contact you. Should you proceed to become a client your data will be stored securely on our case management system as above. If you do not instruct Banner Jones Solicitors your personal information will be stored for a period of 12 months and then destroyed. Please do not include sensitive personal data on your initial enquiry form.
- If you visit our website, then your IP address will be stored in Google Analytics for a period of 26 months.
- Via client surveys and feedback forms. At the end of your matter we ask for feedback on our service through a client survey. Any personal data provided on your survey will be held in SurveyMonkey for the purpose of analysing customer feedback.
- Via social media messaging services. Should you enquire through our Facebook and Twitter pages, we will process your enquiry by sending your contact details to the relevant department. Please see Facebook and Twitter privacy policies.
- Via cookies stored on the website. Please see our cookie policy.
How will we use the your data?
We may use your information for the following purposes:
Delivering Services
We collect and maintain personal information that you submit to us during your use of our website and/or our services to enable us to perform the services. Please note also that our Terms of Business apply when we provide the services.
• What is our legal basis for this?
It is necessary for us to process your information to perform our obligations under any contract with you. It is in our legitimate interest or a third party's legitimate interest to use your personal information in such a way to ensure that we deliver the very best client service we can to you or others.
Enquiries
As set above there are various ways you can contact us to request information about our Services. Contact information and relevant personal information may be requested in each case. This information is used in order to enable us to respond to your requests. Please avoid putting sensitive information in the initial enquiry forms.
• What is our legal basis?
It is in our legitimate interest or a third party's legitimate interest to use your personal information in such a way to ensure that we deliver the very best client service we can to you or others.
Business administration and compliance
We use your personal information for the following business administration and regulatory compliance purposes such as complying with our legal obligations such as our Know Your Client or Anti-Money Laundering or Anti-Bribery, conflicts and maintaining our professional indemnity insurance, to enforce our legal rights and to protect the rights of third parties
• What is our legal basis?
Where we use your personal information in connection with a business transition, to enforce our legal rights, or to protect the rights of third parties it is in our or a third party's legitimate interest to do so. For all other purposes falling within this section, it is our legal obligation to use your personal information to comply with any legal obligations imposed upon us.
Recruitment
We use your personal information for the following recruitment purposes to assess your suitability for any position for which you may apply at Banner Jones Solicitors whether your application has been received by us online, via email, by hard copy or in-person. We also use it to review our equal opportunity profile in accordance with applicable regulation and any legislation to ensure that Banner Jones Solicitors does not discriminate on the grounds of gender, race, ethnic origin, age, religion, sexual orientation, disability or any other basis covered by regulation or legislation.
• What is our legal basis?
Where we use your personal information in connection with recruitment it will be, at your request, part of the process of entering into a contract with us or it is in our legitimate interest to use personal information in such a way that we can make the best recruitment decisions for Banner Jones Solicitors. We will not process any sensitive personal information except where we are able to do so under applicable legislation or with your explicit consent.
Photography and videos
We take photographs and videos of staff to be used for marketing and promotional material for the firm, including our website, brochures and tenders. We also circulate staff photographs internally to ensure the security of our offices and on occasion where necessary to conduct human resources administration such as assessing eligibility, suitability and/or fitness to work.
What is our legal basis?
To obtain explicit consent prior to collecting and using this information, to meet the requirements of a contract and/or to fulfil contractual obligations which would include any action required before we enter into a contract with you.
Marketing communications
We carry out postal and email marketing activities using your personal information. We use information that we see about you from your interactions with our website, our email communications to you and/or with the services we deliver to you, to send you marketing communications.
• What is our legal basis?
It is in our legitimate interest to use your personal information for marketing purposes.
We will only send you marketing communications if you have consented to receive them or, where we have a lawful right to do so. Outlined in the 'keeping you up to date' section below.
Client insight and analysis
We analyse your contact details with other personal information that we see about you from your interactions with our website, our email communications to you and/or with the services we deliver to you and the services you have viewed. Where you have given your consent (where lawfully required), we use cookies, log files and other technologies to collect personal information from the computer hardware and software you use to access our website, or from your mobile. Further information is provided in our cookie policy. When we use this information, we are able to measure the effectiveness of our website and how visitors use it and our services. This allows us to learn which parts of our website visitors are most attracted to and which parts are most interesting.
• What is our legal basis?
Where you have given personal information not in an anonymous form, it is in our legitimate interest to use your personal information to ensure that we provide the very best products and services to you and our other clients. Any other purposes for which we should like to use your personal information that are not listed above, or any other changes we propose to make to the existing purposes will be notified to you using your contact details if you have provided them.
Who might we need to share your data with?
In order to deliver our services to you as a client we may need to send your details to third party data processors such as;
- The solicitor on the other side of your matter, barristers and courts
- Online ID checking agencies for the purposes of fulfilling our obligations in respect of prevention of money-laundering
- The Government, to pay for Land Registry and Stamp Duty Land Tax
- Any medical and other experts advising on your matter
- Legal Support Services (Northern) Ltd for the provision of property searches, outsourced typing and file storage/destruction
- Our confidential waste destruction providers
- Our professional body the Solicitors Regulation Authority ‘SRA’
- Our Insurers
- Our file audit software providers
- Our auditors
- Certainty UK, a national record provider for Wills.
Where it is necessary for your personal data to be forwarded to a third party such as those listed above we will use appropriate security measures to protect your personal data in transit. Where third parties are involved in processing your data we have a contract in place with them to ensure the security and fair processing of your data.
We will never sell or share your personal information for marketing purposes.
Where we store your information
Your personal information will be stored in the software above which is hosted securely on servers within our offices in the UK. We do not use cloud servers. Should we need to transfer your information to a data processor as above who are located outside of the EEA, we shall take all reasonable steps to ensure that your information is as protected as us hosting it ourselves.
How long do we need to keep your information?
We will only use your personal information for the purpose for which it was given and your personal data should not be held for longer than is required under the terms of our contract for services with you. However, we are subject to legislative and regulatory requirements to retain data for specified minimum periods.
You have the right to request deletion of your personal data and we will comply with this request, subject to the restrictions noted above.
How can I access the information you hold about me?
You have the right to request a copy of the information that we hold about you. This is known as a ‘Subject Access Request’ and if you would like a copy of some or all of your personal information, please email us privacy@bannerjones.co.uk. We have an obligation to ensure that your personal information is accurate and up to date. You can ask us to update or remove any information that you think is incorrect at any time.
What are my rights under the Data Protection Act 2018?
Your individual rights are provided by Part 3 of the Data Protection Act 2018: Law enforcement processing:
- You have the right to be informed – this policy confirms how we collect and use your personal data.
- You have the right of access – you are entitled to receive a copy of your personal data. You can do this by making a Subject Access Request as mentioned above.
- You have the right to rectification – if you believe your data is inaccurate or incomplete, you have the right for this to be rectified or completed.
- You have the right to erasure or restrict processing – this is also known as ‘the right to be forgotten’ and only applies in certain circumstances, as does your right to request the restriction or suppression of your personal data.
- You have the right not to be subjected to automated decision-making – we may not take a decision based on solely automated means (without human intervention).
Keeping you up-to-date
The law changes frequently and we would like to keep you informed of these changes by occasionally emailing an update to you. The update may also include events that may be of interest to you and any relevant news stories. We will only send this to you with your express permission. When you engage with Banner Jones Solicitors you will be invited to opt-in to receiving these updates by your preferred marketing channel, this includes email, post and telephone.
You have a right to change, amend or withdraw your consent to receive these updates at any time. You can ask us to update or correct your personal information or ‘opt out’ of our marketing mailing list at any time by contacting us on marketing@bannerjones.co.uk or by clicking ‘unsubscribe’ on any marketing email you receive from us.
For former clients/business contacts of Banner Jones Solicitors (those who signed Terms & Conditions of Business prior to the 25th May 2018), we will continue to keep you up to date with communications that we feel are relevant to you. For this we are relying on a legitimate commercial interest to process your data and a full copy of our Legitimate Interest Assessment is available from marketing@bannerjones.co.uk.
Under The Privacy and Electronic Communications (EC Directive) Regulations 2003 (PECR) we are allowed to send marketing emails to an existing clients using contact details obtained during the course of our service to you. We will only ever send you legal updates and marketing information on events and services that you would reasonably expect; and we will always offer a simple opportunity to refuse or opt out of the communications.
Recruitment and Employment Personal Data
In order to comply with our contractual, statutory, and management obligations and responsibilities, we process personal data, including ‘sensitive’ personal data, from job applicants and employees. Such data can include, but is not limited to, information relating to health, racial or ethnic origin, and criminal convictions. In certain circumstances, we may process personal data or sensitive personal data, without explicit consent. Further information on what data is collected and why it is processed is given below.
- Contractual responsibilities: Our contractual responsibilities include those arising from the contract of employment. The data processed to meet contractual responsibilities includes, but is not limited to, data relating to: payroll, bank account, postal address, sick pay, leave, maternity pay, pension and emergency contacts.
- Statutory & Regulatory responsibilities: Our statutory and regulatory responsibilities are those imposed through law or by our professional body the Solicitor Regulatory Authority. The data processed to meet these responsibilities includes, but is not limited to, data relating to: tax, national insurance, statutory sick pay, statutory maternity pay, family leave, work permits, equal opportunities monitoring and criminal convictions.
- Management responsibilities: Our management responsibilities are those necessary for the organisational functioning of the organisation. The data processed to meet management responsibilities includes, but is not limited to, data relating to: recruitment and employment, training and development, absence, disciplinary matters and personal contact details.
Sensitive personal data
The Act defines ‘sensitive personal data’ as information about racial or ethnic origin, political opinions, religious beliefs or other similar beliefs, trade union membership, physical or mental health, sexual life, and criminal allegations, proceedings or convictions.
In certain limited circumstances, we may legally collect and process sensitive personal data without requiring the explicit consent of an employee.
(a) We will process data about an employee’s health where it is necessary, for example, to record absence from work due to sickness, to pay statutory sick pay, to make appropriate referrals to the Occupational Health Service, and to make any necessary arrangements or adjustments to the workplace in the case of disability. This processing will not normally happen without the employee’s knowledge and, where necessary, consent.
(b) We will process data about, but not limited to, an employee’s racial and ethnic origin, their sexual orientation or their religious beliefs only where they have volunteered such data and only for the purpose of monitoring and upholding our equal opportunities policies and related provisions.
(c) Data about an employee’s criminal convictions will be held as necessary
Disclosure of personal data to other bodies
In order to carry out our contractual and management responsibilities, we may, from time to time, need to share an employee’s or applicant’s personal data with one or more third party supplier. For example our recruitment data may need to be audited externally.
Under contracts of employment we are required to transfer an employee’s personal data to third parties such as pension providers and HM Revenue & Customs.
How long do we keep recruitment and employee data?
We keep job applicant data securely for a period of 12 months after which it is destroyed.
We keep ex-employee data for a period of 6 years after which it is destroyed.
What can you do if you are unhappy with how your personal data is processed?
In the first instance you should contact our Data Protection Officer:
By email: privacy@bannerjones.co.uk
By phone: 01246 560 560
Or by post:
Jayne Henshaw
Group Data Protection Officer
Banner Jones Solicitors
24 Glumangate
Chesterfield
S40 1 UA
You also have a right to lodge a complaint with the supervisory authority for data protection. In the UK this is the:
Information Commissioner’s Office
Wycliffe House
Water Lane
Wilmslow
Cheshire
SK9 5AF
0303 123 1113 (local rate)
This policy was updated on the 18th April 2024.