Privacy Notice

Please read the following information carefully. This privacy notice contains information about what data we collect and store about you and why. It also tells you who we share this information with, the security mechanisms we have put in place to protect your data and how to contact us if you have a complaint.

    Who we are

    We are Horsey Lightly Solicitors. We collect, use and are responsible for personal information about you. When we do this we are the ‘controller’ of this information for the purposes of the General Data Protection Regulations and other applicable data protection laws. 

    Our Data Protection Officer

    John Devlin, partner in Horsey Lightly Solicitors, 2 West Mills, Newbury, Berkshire RG14 5HG. 

    What do we do with your information?

    Information collected by us:

    When carrying out work on your matter and responding to enquiries, we collect the following personal information that you provide to us:

    • Your full name and job title (if any);
    • Your contact details including email address;
    • Demographic information, such as your postcode;
    • Your date of birth;
    • Your National Insurance Number; and
    • Your preferences and interests for marketing our firm.

    Information collected from other sources:

    We collect the following information from other sources:

    • Your full name;
    • Your postal address;
    • Your date of birth;
    • Whether you are registered on the Electoral Roll;
    • Whether you or a relative or associate are a Politically Exposed Person; and
    • Whether you are on HM Treasury Sanctions Register;
    • Whether you are a Special Interest Person, which identifies persons accused of, arrested for or convicted of a crime in the following categories
      • Financial Crime;
      • Terror;
      • Organised Crime;
      • Trafficking
      • Corruption; and
      • War Crimes.

    We obtain this data from a variety of sources including the Internet, Companies House, search providers and credit reference agencies such as SmartSearch (trading name of SmartCredit Ltd), Veriphy Ltd and Searchflow Ltd.

    We may combine this information with information you give to us and we may use this information and the combined information for the purposes set out below.

    Due to the nature of the services we provide, we may use sensitive personal data received from you and/or other sources relating to e.g. your health in connection with our work in conducting legal claims on your behalf.

    How we use your personal information  

    We use your personal information for the following purposes:

    • to carry out our contractual and professional obligations arising from any work we undertake on your behalf;
    • to communicate with others as necessary or appropriate in connection with our work;
    • to enable others working with us to provide services to you e.g. estate agents, barristers, expert witnesses;
    • to comply with our legal obligations; and
    • for our own legitimate interests including:
      • improving our business processes;
      • monitoring and assessing our firm and the provision of our services;
      • internal auditing of client matters;
      • external auditing of client matters and of the firm by our professional regulators and quality standards providers; and
      • in certain circumstances, direct marketing,

    unless in each case your own legitimate interests override ours.

    Whether information has to be provided by you, and why

    The above information must be provided by you to us to enable us to comply with our contractual and professional obligations to you and in compliance with the Proceeds of Crime Act and the 5th Money Laundering Directive. If you do not wish to provide us with this information we may be willing to limit with your agreement how we process that data failing which we may refuse to act for you.

    Who will we share your personal information with? 

    For the purposes of complying with our contractual, professional and legal obligations and where appropriate to do so we will share your data with:

    • SmartSearch (trading name of SmartCredit Ltd), Veriphy Ltd and Searchflow Ltd who are search providers and credit reference agencies;
    • Estate agents and other solicitors/licensed conveyancers involved in the same transaction;
    • H M Land Registry; H M Revenue and Customs;
    • Office of the Public Guardian;
    • The Court or other appropriate Tribunal;
    • Any barrister and barristers’ clerk that we may instruct on your behalf;
    • Any expert e.g. surveyor, accountant etc. that we may instruct on your behalf;
    • The National Crime Agency; and
    • With your consent any other third party whom we reasonably believe may assist us in complying with our obligations and in the provision of our services to you. 

    We will share personal information with law enforcement agencies if required by applicable law. We will not share your personal information with any other third parties without your consent. 

    How long will we store your personal data? 

    We are obliged by legislation to keep copies of clients’ proofs of identity for a period of 5 years following completion of the matter. At the end of the 5 year period we must delete any personal data unless:

    • You consent to its retention for a longer period. (You may withdraw consent at any time by contacting our Data Protection Officer);
    • We are required by law to retain your data;
    • The data may be required for legal proceedings; or
    • We consider that our own legitimate interests justify retention for a longer period.

    In practice our policy is to retain client files and the data in them in our electronic case management system and in hard copy in archive for the following periods:

    1. Matters in which we have been instructed to prepare a will – 100 years
    2. Family law matters involving minor children – the longer of 16 years or 4 years after the youngest child attains the age of majority
    3. Matters in which we act for a minor – 16 years after the minor attains the age of majority
    4. Matters in which we act for a client who lacks mental capacity – 100 years
    5. All other matters – 16 years

    Our retention policy is based on the fact that the file data may be required for legal proceedings and/or we consider that our own legitimate interests justify retention for these periods.

    At the expiry of these periods we shall arrange for the relevant matter file and the data in it to be securely and confidentially destroyed.

    Your rights 

    Under the General Data Protection Regulations, you have a number of important rights that you can exercise free of charge. In summary, you have the right to:

    • Transparency over how we use your personal data and fair processing of your information;
    • Access  your personal information and other supplementary information;
    • Require us to correct any mistakes or complete missing information we hold on you;
    • Require us to erase your personal information in certain circumstances;
    • Receive a copy of the personal information you have provided to us or have this information be sent to a third party. This will be provided to you or the third party in a structured, commonly used and machine readable format;
    • Object at any time to processing of your personal information for direct marketing;
    • Object in certain other situations to the continued processing of your personal information; and
    • Restrict our processing of your personal information in certain circumstances.

    If you want more information about your rights under the GDPR please see the Guidance from the Information Commissioners Office on Individual's rights under the GDPR.

    If you want to exercise any of these rights, please email, telephone or write to us at Horsey Lightly Solicitors, 2 West Mills, Newbury, Berkshire RG14 5HG, jdevlin@horseylightly.com or 01635 580858 stating the right or rights that you wish to exercise. 

    We may need to contact you to request further proof of your identity and address. 

    We will respond to you within one month from when we receive your request. 

    How to make a complaint

    We hope that you are happy with our service and that we can resolve any issues or complaints that arise. Please get in touch if you have any concerns (see ‘Get in touch’ below). 

    The General Data Protection Regulations also gives you the right to lodge a complaint with a supervisory authority, in particular in the European Union (or European Economic Area) State where you work, normally live or where the alleged infringement of data protection laws occurred. The UK supervisory authority is the Information Commissioner’s Office who can be contacted at https://ico.org.uk/concerns/

    Our security

    We treat the security and confidentiality of your personal data very seriously and to this end we operate a variety of practices and procedures including:

    •       Email encryption;

    •       Password protected IT systems;

    •       Need to know client file access;

    •       Confidential waste file destruction;

    •       Business continuity plan and secure back up servers; and

    •       Non-Disclosure Agreements with third parties.

    Future processing

    We do not intend to process your personal information for any reason other than stated within this privacy notice. If this changes, we will inform you by letter or check our website for updates.  

    Changes to this privacy notice

    This privacy notice was published on 24th May 2018 and last updated on 13 October 2021. 

    We constantly review our internal privacy practices and may change this policy from time to time. When we do so we shall republish this Privacy Notice on our website - www.horseylightly.com.  

    Get in touch

    If you have any questions about this Privacy Notice or the information we hold about you, please contact John Devlin, our Data Protection Officer. 

    The best way to reach him is to write to us at Horsey Lightly Solicitors, 2 West Mills, Newbury, Berkshire RG14 5HG, email jdevlin@horseylightly.com  or telephone 01635 580858.