Privacy Policy

PRIVACY NOTICE issued by Ostberg Sinclair & Co. Ltd

Introduction

The Data Protection Act 2018 (“DPA 2018”) and the General Data Protection Regulation (“GDPR”) impose certain legal obligations in connection with the processing of personal data.

Ostberg Sinclair & Co. Ltd is a data controller within the meaning of the GDPR and we process personal data. The firm’s contact details are as follows: Ostberg Sinclair & Co. Ltd, Aldwych House, 71-91 Aldwych, London, WC2B 4HN, email@osandco.co.uk.

We may amend this privacy notice from time to time. If we do so, we will supply you with and/or otherwise make available to you a copy of the amended privacy notice.

Where we act as a data processor on behalf of a data controller (for example, when processing payroll), we provide an additional schedule setting out required information as part of that agreement. That additional schedule should be read in conjunction with this privacy notice.

Personal data we process

The personal data we process about you depends on the purpose for which you have contacted us, but includes the following data:

• Full name, address, e-mail address, telephone number
• Date of birth
• Job title and company name
• Banking details if relevant to the service
• Tax filing details if relevant to the service, including Social Security Number (SSN), National Insurance number (NI) and Unique Taxpayer Reference (UTR)
• Other personal data that you choose to provide
• Employment status
• Financial details if relevant to the service
• Your Curriculum Vitae (CV) containing personal data
• Information from a website enquiry, including IP address, Geographical location, Operating system, Browser type.
• To enable our systems to recognize your device and provide features to you, we use cookies. More information can be found by reading our Cookie Policy

The purposes for which we intend to process personal data

We intend to process personal data for the following purposes:

• To enable us to supply professional services to you as our client.
• To fulfil our obligations under relevant laws in force from time to time (e.g. the Money Laundering, Terrorist Financing and Transfer of Funds (Information on the Payer) Regulations 2017 as amended (“MLR 2017”)).
• To comply with any professional obligations which we are subject to.
• To use in the investigation and/or defense of potential complaints, disciplinary proceedings, and legal proceedings.
• To enable us to invoice you for our services and investigate/address any attendant fee disputes that may have arisen.
• To contact you about other services we provide which may be of interest to you if you have consented to us doing so.
• For recruitment, we collect personal data to consider your application and assess your suitability for employment.
• Procurement of services from suppliers.

The legal bases for our intended processing of personal data

We will rely on a range of legal bases for our activities including:

• Consent: At the time you instructed us to act, you gave consent to our processing your personal data for the purposes listed above.
• Contract: The processing is necessary for the performance of our contract with you.
• Legal Obligation: The processing is necessary for compliance with legal obligations to which we are subject (e.g. MLR 2017).
• Legitimate Interests: We may from time to time use personal data to send marketing communications to existing customers providing that the customers have a reasonable expectation of receiving such communications.

Special Category Personal Data

We do not normally collect special category personal data such as health, race or ethnic origin. However, for certain services (e.g. preparation of US tax returns), and when required by law, this may be necessary. We will always seek to minimise our processing of special category data to that which is absolutely necessary.

Data sharing: Persons/organizations to whom we may give personal data

We will only share data with other organisations when we have a lawful basis to do so and when it is necessary to do so. We do not sell any of your information to third parties. When we do share data, we will ensure that contractual arrangements are in place to protect personal data and to comply with our data protection, confidentiality and security standards. Where we transfer personal data outside of the EU to a country not determined by the European Commission as providing an adequate level of protection for personal data, the transfers will be under an agreement which covers the EU requirements for the transfer of personal data outside the EU.

We may share your personal data with:

• HMRC
• Tax compliance software companies
• Any third parties with whom you require or permit us to correspond
• Subcontractors
• Professional indemnity insurers
• Our professional body HMRC and/or the Office of Professional Body Anti-Money Laundering Supervisors (OPBAS) in relation to practice assurance and/or the requirements of MLR 2017 (or any similar legislation)

If the law allows or requires us to do so, we may share your personal data with:

• The police and law enforcement agencies
• Courts and tribunals
• The Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO)

We may need to share your personal data with the third parties identified above in order to comply with our legal obligations, including our legal obligations to you. If you ask us not to share your personal data with such third parties, we may need to cease to act.

Data sharing in the event of a sale of all or part of the business

If we were to contemplate selling all or part of our business, we may disclose personal data as part of any due diligence process. This would be governed by a legally binding contract that guarantees confidentiality in compliance with data protection legislation. Any such contract would also bind any prospective purchaser’s professional advisors. If the prospective purchase did not proceed, the contract would oblige the prospective purchaser to erase any and all personal data that had been disclosed in the due diligence process.

If the sale of the business went ahead all data would be passed over as an asset of the business and you would be advised directly about any change of ownership and/or use of your personal data. 

Retention of personal data

We will only keep your personal data for as long as necessary to provide our services or comply with legislation.

Requesting personal data we hold about you (subject access requests)

You have a right to request access to your personal data that we hold. Such requests are known as ‘subject access requests’ (“SARs”).

Please provide all SARs in writing marked for the attention of email@osandco.com

To help us provide the information you want and deal with your request more quickly, you should include enough details to enable us to verify your identity and locate the relevant information. For example, you should tell us:

• your date of birth
• previous or other name(s) you have used
• your previous addresses in the past five years
• personal reference number(s) that we may have given you, for example your national insurance number, your tax reference number or your VAT registration number
• what type of information you want to know

If you do not have a national insurance number, you must send a copy of:

• the back page of your passport or a copy of your driving license; and
• a recent utility bill.

DPA 2018 requires that we comply with a SAR promptly and in any event within one month of receipt. There are, however, some circumstances in which the law allows us to refuse to provide access to personal data in response to a SAR (e.g. if you have previously made a similar request and there has been little or no change to the data since we complied with the original request).

We will not charge you for dealing with a SAR.

You can ask someone else to request information on your behalf – for example, a friend, relative or solicitor. We must have your authority to respond to a SAR made on your behalf. You can provide such authority by signing a letter which states that you authorise the person concerned to write to us for information about you, and/or receive our reply.

Where you are a data controller and we act for you as a data processor (e.g. by processing payroll), we will assist you with SARs on the same basis as is set out above.

Putting things right (the right to rectification)

You have a right to obtain the rectification of any inaccurate personal data concerning you that we hold. You also have a right to have any incomplete personal data that we hold about you completed. Should you become aware that any personal data that we hold about you is inaccurate and/or incomplete, please inform us immediately so we can correct and/or complete it.

Deleting your records (the right to erasure)

In certain circumstances you have a right to have the personal data that we hold about you erased. Further information is available on the ICO website (www.ico.org.uk). If you would like your personal data to be erased, please inform us immediately and we will consider your request. In certain circumstances we have the right to refuse to comply with a request for erasure. If applicable, we will supply you with the reasons for refusing your request.

The right to restrict processing and the right to object

In certain circumstances you have the right to ‘block’ or suppress the processing of personal data or to object to the processing of that information. Further information is available on the ICO website (www.ico.org.uk). Please inform us immediately if you want us to cease to process your information or you object to processing so that we can consider what action, if any, is appropriate. 

Obtaining and reusing personal data (the right to data portability)

In certain circumstances you have the right to be provided with the personal data that we hold about you in a machine-readable format, e.g. so that the data can easily be provided to a new professional adviser. Further information is available on the ICO website (www.ico.org.uk).

The right to data portability only applies:

• to personal data an individual has provided to a controller;
• where the processing is based on the individual’s consent or for the performance of a contract; and
• when processing is carried out by automated means

We will respond to any data portability requests made to us without undue delay and within one month. We may extend the period by a further two months where the request is complex or a number of requests are received but we will inform you within one month of the receipt of the request and explain why the extension is necessary.

Withdrawal of consent

Where you have consented to our processing of your personal data, you have the right to withdraw that consent at any time. Please inform us immediately if you wish to withdraw your consent.

Please note:

• the withdrawal of consent does not affect the lawfulness of earlier processing
• if you withdraw your consent, we may not be able to continue to provide services to you
• even if you withdraw your consent, it may remain lawful for us to process your data on another legal basis (e.g. because we have a legal obligation to continue to process your data)

Automated decision-making

We do not intend to use automated decision-making in relation to your personal data.

Complaints

If you have requested details of the information we hold about you and you are not happy with our response, or you think we have not complied with the GDPR or DPA 2018 in some other way, you can complain to us. Please send any complaints to email@osandco.com.

If you are not happy with our response, you have a right to lodge a complaint with the ICO (www.ico.org.uk).

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