Privacy Statement
Privacy Statement 

BHB Law ("we"/"us"/"our") is committed to protecting Personal Data that you share with us as we understand how important it is to you. 

This statement (together with the terms [insert link to terms] and any documents referred to in it) explains how we collect and use your Personal Data and how you can control our use. Please read this statement carefully. When you visit www.bhblaw.co.uk ('our website'), or you use our telephone or email services you will agreeing to the way in which we collect and use your Personal Data. If you have any queries concerning our use of your Personal Data, you can get in touch using the details in Contact Us.

Our use of your Personal Data is governed by our professional duty of confidentiality, the Data Protection Act 2018 and also the EU General Data Protection (EU Regulation 2016/279) Regulation - collectively 'GDPR'.

Our Details

BHB Law Limited trading as BHB Law (Data Controller)
Registered in England and Wales under Company Number: 06964037
Registered Office: 145-147 New Union Street, Coventry, CV1 2NT
Telephone : 024 7655 5191
Fax : 024 7655 5725
email : info@bhblaw.co.uk
Authorised and Regulated by the Solicitors Regulation Authority under SRA Number : 517635
VAT Number : 998 6311 61 
Registered with the information Commissioner's Office under registration number : Z1892420

GDPR

The GDPR gives you more control over your Personal Data and this Privacy Statement sets out how we as the Data Controller use your Personal Data and your rights in relation to them.  

Generally, we will collect and use Personal Data about individuals and sometimes people working in companies when we are asked to provide information about our services, legal advice or to carry out legal transactions for you.

Our Promise

When we collect Personal Data, we will

• only use it for the purpose for which it was obtained, unless the law provides otherwise
• keep it safe
• not sell it 

Collection of Personal Data

The law indicates that Personal Data is that from which a living person can be identified. This therefore includes names, addresses, telephones numbers, email addresses, photographs, dates of birth and any other documentation that identifies you when provided. We collect and process Personal Data in the following ways:

• From you - when you correspond in writing (by letter or email), when you telephone us or post comments about us on our website or social media. 
• From others - We may also receive Personal Data about you from other persons who you have authorised to act on your behalf. We may also obtain such information from publically available sources and other entities such as credit reference agencies or information providers. In some cases we may also get information from regulatory bodies or government departments. 
• From our website - when you visit our website, we will also collect and process Personal Data such as your Internet Protocol (IP) address and other information through the use of Cookies. See the Cookies section below for further details. 

Special Personal Data

Special Personal Data includes any information which relates to your racial or ethnic background, beliefs or views including those held on religious grounds, trade union memberships, physical or mental health and sex life or orientation.

We will only collect and use Special Personal Data when it is necessary and when you have agreed for us to do so to allow to provide our services. Please note that if you exercise your right to withhold your consent, we may not be able to continue to provide our services to you e.g. where you are seeking asylum. 

Failure to provide Personal Data

Where we need to collect Personal Data by law, or under the terms of a contract we have with you and you fail to provide it, we may not be able to deliver the goods or services that you seek. If this happens, we may have to cancel the contract and will let you know if this is the case at the time.

Use of Personal Data

In general, we will be using your Personal Data if we do anything with it. So, we will be using your Personal Data when we ask for it, record it, store it, change it, arrange it in some way, erase or destroy it. For example, when you complete our on-line query form and submit it to us through our website, we will be collecting your Personal Data and using it to respond to your query and to advise you of our services.

Your Rights

Where we collect and use your Personal Data, you have certain rights but please note that not all of them will apply in all circumstances. You have the right to:

• know what Personal Data about you is being obtained and how it is stored.
• obtain a copy of your Personal Data that we hold or use. This is called a Data Subject Access Request and where you make such a request, we will provide the information within 30 days and without cost to you, unless the request is 'manifestly unfounded or excessive' in which case we may charge a fee to cover our administrative costs. 
• object to any direct marketing that you have previously agreed to receive from us.
• challenge our use of your Personal Data where we rely on our ‘legitimate interests’ as our legal basis for using it.
• have your Personal Data erased in certain circumstances e.g. if we have used it unlawfully. If we are not able to delete all of your Personal Data because we need to retain it to comply with a legal or regulatory obligation, we will seek to minimise the information being held if this is feasible. 
• have your Personal Data held on our IT system transferred to another organisation in a ‘machine readable format’ that can be used by them. 
• have your Personal Data updated if you think it is incorrect.

If you wish to exercise your rights, please get in touch using the details in Contact Us supplying your name and address, the right that you wish to exercise and the information relating to your request. We may also request you to also supply proof of your identity to ensure we are dealing with the right person. 

Lawful bases

The law provides that where we collect and use Personal Data, we do so only when we have a 'lawful basis'. Essentially this is when we can justify the use. In the main, we will be using your Personal Data for the purposes and under the 'lawful bases' set out below:

Contractual it is necessary for us to do so that we can provide you with the services that you have requested from us which would include operating our 'cloud based' case management system (CRM) to deliver an efficient service, administering our relationship with you including the financial side and defending or pursuing our rights. We may also need to discuss your details with other professional third parties, e.g. experts and counsel to progress your matter. Please note that we may not be able to act for you if do not wish us to use our CRM for your matter.  

Legitimate Interests in order to help us manage our business (by monitoring how our services are used e.g. through the use of Cookies on our website), improve the services that we provide, to detect and prevent fraud, to check your creditworthiness and to provide security for our staff and our premises (through the use of CCTV). We will use your Personal Data on this basis where it does not override your rights and interests.

Legal Obligation we have to use the information in order to comply with a legal obligation or a regulatory obligation which arises through legislation e.g. obtaining identification evidence for the purposes of preventing money laundering (The Money Laundering, Terrorist Financing and Transfer of Funds (Information on the Payer) Regulations 2017). This may include the use of on-line databases to verify your identity.

Consent we need to use the information for a purpose and you have given your consent for us to do so. For example, where you agree that we may use your child's Personal Data in relation to an application for asylum (this would fall into the 'Special' category of Personal Data). We may also inform prospective clients of our services where they have agreed for us to use their Personal Data for this purpose e.g. when they complete our on-line enquiry form seeking information about their legal issues. You can withdraw your consent to our use of your Personal Data at any time. If you wish to do so, please let us know using the details in Contact us. Please note that this it may mean that we cannot then provide our services to you and we will let you know if this is the case..

All our clients are required to complete a Data Preference Form to confirm our use of their Personal Data. Please note that although we will do our best to accommodate your wishes, should you choose to exercise your rights in relation to our use of your Personal Data, we may not be able to provide the services that you require,.  

Sharing of your Personal Data

We will only share your Personal Data where it is necessary for us to do so to deliver services to you, comply with the law and to run our business. This includes sharing with the following categories of recipients:
• our staff.
• our service contractors that we use to assist us in providing our services, for example, other professional advisors – accountants or barristers.
• our IT providers including companies that host and manage our case management and accounting systems, the post office, couriers, bank, insurance brokers, insurers, storage providers and other similar providers.
• Credit reference agencies.
• Regulatory, law enforcement or government bodies that can demand us to provide the Personal Data such as the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA), HMRC and the National Crime Agency (NCA).
• Other organisations or persons with whom we need to share your, or your children's, Personal Data with in order deliver our services, for example, the Home Office on Immigration matters.
• External firms or organisations to conduct audit or quality checks which may mean that your documents may be selected for this purpose. We ensure that such firms or organisations fully maintain confidentiality in relation to any files that they select for audit/quality checking. Your file may also be reviewed in due diligence relating to the sale or transfer of all or part of our business, the acquisition of another business by us or the acquisition of a new business. 

Cookies

These are small text files which originate from us and are stored on your computer or device that you use to visit our website. There are different types of cookies, some are needed to allow the website to work properly, others allow us to collect data such as the browser that you use and the amount of time you spend on any part of our website. Third party cookies may also allow you to share content on social networking sites. The cookie file helps identify you and any particular interests or preferences you express, making your future website visits more efficient, but it does not store any personal information. You can select our use of cookies when you visit our website by adjusting your computer or device's browser settings to reject cookies but this may affect your use of certain parts of our website and the functionality of our website.

The cookies we use are Google Analytics, which will record how many people visit our website what pages they look at, how they reached it, what device they used and other technical information, such as their IP address, the web browser used time zone settings, operating system and other technology on the device used to access our website . These cookies do not permit us to access to personal details about individuals or enable us to identify them. 

We also use third party cookies for social networking on Facebook, Twitter and Google+ [enter any other]. These cookies may also collate information from cookies on your internet browser to steer content or advertisements to you but please note that we have no control over them or how they are used. 

You can learn more about cookies by visiting http://www.allaboutcookies.org/   
Visit https://tools.google.com/dlpage/gaoptout if you wish to prevent Google Analytics from tracking you across all websites. 

Storage

We take appropriate measures to ensure adequate security is in place in relation to your Personal Data. These include keeping your document files in our secure filing cabinets, with our service providers, agencies etc., (as mentioned above) and at a third party ISO 27001 accredited cloud provider (one of the highest information security standards available) to support, manage and back-up our case management system, network security and emails. 
Your Personal Data will only be stored or shared within the United Kingdom. 

Retention 

Our policy is to retain Personal Data generally only for so long as it is necessary and to delete it when it is no longer required. However, this is balanced with the need to achieve our legal, regulatory and contractual obligations and it means that generally we may hold Personal Data for up to 6 years after the end of your transaction. Different retention periods apply depending on the reason for which the Personal Data was collected. If you need more information regarding retention periods, please contact us. 

Children under 18

It may be necessary for us to collect and use Personal Data about your children e.g. when we are dealing with an immigration matter that also involves them. In such cases, in addition to their consent to the use of their Personal Data, we may also need your consent as the parent or guardian. Please note that we may also need to obtain documentary evidence of your children's identity, such as their birth certificate or passport.

Contact Us 

If you have any queries or concerns about our use of your Personal Data or want further clarification, please contact our Data Privacy Officer, Mrs Kiran Binning either directly on 024 7662 9355 (kbinning@bhblaw.co.uk) or via our general office number 024 7655 5191 (info@bhblaw.co.uk) as soon as possible. 

If you have any complaint about our use of your Personal Data, you may also contact the Information Commissioner’s Office on 0303 123 1113 or at www.ico.org.uk .

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