Privacy Policy

1. Purpose of This Notice

This notice describes how we collect and use personal data about you, in accordance with the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), the Data Protection Act 2018 and any other national implementing laws, regulations and secondary legislation, as amended or updated from time to time, in the UK (‘Data Protection Legislation’).

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

2. About Us

Alexander Knight & Co Limited (“we”) are an audit, accountancy, tax compliance and advisory firm.

We are registered in England and Wales as a limited company under number: 08285535

Registered office: Westgate House, 44 Hale Road, Hale, Altrincham, Cheshire WA14 2EX

For the purpose of the Data Protection Legislation and this notice, we are the ‘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 Officer who is responsible for assisting with enquiries in relation to this privacy notice or our treatment of your personal data. Please see Section 12 (Contact Us) for contact details.

3. How We May Collect Your Personal Data

We obtain personal data about you, for example, when:

• You request a proposal from us in respect of the services we provide
• You or your employer or our clients engage us to provide our services and during the provision of those services
• You contact us by email, telephone, post or social media with queries about our services
• Third parties provide information to us or from publicly available resources (e.g. Companies House)

4. The Kind of Information We Hold About You

The information we hold about you may include:

• Personal details (name, address, date of birth, National Insurance Number, Unique Tax Reference Number)
• Details of contact we have had with you regarding services
• Details of any services you have received from us
• Our correspondence and communications with you
• Information about complaints and enquiries you make
• Information from research, surveys, and marketing activities
• Information from other sources such as publicly available information or information from your employer or clients

5. How We Use Personal Data

We may process your personal data for:

• Purposes necessary for the performance of our contract with you, your employer or our clients, and to comply with our legal obligations
• Purposes of our own legitimate interests (including marketing, business development, and statistical analysis) provided those interests do not override your rights and freedoms
• Additional purposes with your consent, which you may withdraw at any time

Situations in which we will use your personal data

• Carry out our obligations arising from agreements entered into with you, your employer or our clients
• Provide you with information about our services, events and activities that you request or that we feel may interest you (with your consent)
• Seek your thoughts and opinions on the services we provide
• Notify you about changes to our services

Important: If you refuse to provide certain information when requested, we may not be able to perform the contract or comply with legal and regulatory obligations.

Data Retention

We will only retain your personal data for as long as is necessary to fulfil the purposes for which it is collected.

When assessing retention periods, we consider:

• The requirements of our business and services
• Any statutory or legal obligations
• The purposes for which we originally collected the data
• The lawful grounds for processing
• The types and amount of personal data
• Whether the purpose could be fulfilled by other means

Change of Purpose

If we need to use your personal data for another reason, we will only do so where that reason is compatible with the original purpose.

For any new purpose, we will notify you and communicate the legal basis which allows us to do so before starting any new processing.

6. Data Sharing

Why might we share your personal data with third parties?

We will share your personal data with third parties where:

• We are required by law
• It is necessary to administer our relationship
• We have another legitimate interest in doing so

Which third-party service providers process your personal data?

Third-party service providers carry out the following activities:

• IT services
• Professional advisory services
• Marketing services

All third-party service providers are required to take appropriate security measures to protect your personal data. We only permit them to process your data for specified purposes and in accordance with our instructions.

Other third parties

We may share your personal data with other third parties, for example:

• In the context of possible sale or restructuring of the business
• To comply with legal requirements or regulator requests

7. Transferring Personal Data Outside the EEA

We will not transfer the personal data we collect about you outside of the European Economic Area (EEA).

8. Data Security

We have put in place commercially reasonable and appropriate security measures to:

• Prevent your personal data from being accidentally lost, used or accessed unauthorised
• Prevent data being altered or disclosed
• Limit access to those with a genuine business need to know

All staff who access your personal data are subject to a duty of confidentiality.

We have procedures to deal with any suspected data security breach and will notify you and applicable regulators where legally required to do so.

9. Your Rights

Your duty to inform us of changes

It is important that the personal data we hold about you is accurate and current. Please notify us of any changes to your information.

Your rights in connection with personal data

Under certain circumstances, by law you have the right to:

• Request access to your personal data and check that we are processing it lawfully
• Request correction of inaccurate personal data
• Request erasure of your personal data where there is no good reason for us continuing to process it
• Object to processing where we are relying on a legitimate interest or processing for direct marketing
• Request the restriction of processing of your personal data
• Request the transfer of your personal data to you or another data controller (where applicable)

Exercising your rights: To exercise any of the above rights, please email our Data Protection Officer at murray@alexanderknightaccountants.co.uk

Fees: You will not have to pay a fee to access your personal data or exercise any of your rights. However, we may charge a reasonable fee if your request is clearly unfounded or excessive.

We may need to request specific information from you to help us confirm your identity and ensure your right to access information. This is an appropriate security measure to ensure personal information is not disclosed inappropriately.

10. Right to Withdraw Consent

Where you have provided your consent to the collection, processing and transfer of your personal data for a specific purpose (for example, direct marketing), you have the right to withdraw your consent at any time.

To withdraw your consent, please email: murray@alexanderknightaccountants.co.uk

Once we have received notification that you have withdrawn your consent, we will no longer process your information for that purpose unless we have another legitimate basis for doing so.

11. Changes to This Notice

Any changes we make to our privacy notice in the future will be updated on our website and provided to you by email.

Last updated: 23 May 2018

12. Contact Us

If you have any questions regarding this notice or would like to speak to us about the manner in which we process your personal data, please contact our Data Protection Officer:

Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO)

You also have the right to make a complaint to the ICO, the UK supervisory authority for data protection issues, at any time.

Address: Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow, Cheshire SK9 5AF

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

Website: https://ico.org.uk/concerns