Brookson Limited Privacy Notice

We will comply with data protection law. This says that the personal information we hold about you must be:

1. Used lawfully, fairly and in a transparent way.
2. Collected only for valid purposes that we have clearly explained to you and not used in any way that is incompatible with those purposes.
3. Relevant to the purposes we have told you about and limited only to those purposes.
4. Accurate and kept up to date.
5. Kept only as long as necessary for the purposes we have told you about.
6. Kept securely.

Personal data, or personal information, means any information about an individual from which that person can be identified. It does not include data where the identity has been removed (anonymous data).

“Special category” is data of more sensitive personal data about you and if we are provided with any such data, we will ensure it receives a higher level of protection.

We will collect, store, and use the following categories of personal information about you in order to identify you and facilitate the provision of our services to you. In order to do this, we will need to process the following personal data:

• Name
• Home address
• Residential address
• Work location
• Date of birth
• Title
• IP address/location
• Connect login and password details
• Bank details
• Unique tax reference number
• Nationality
• National Insurance Number
• Tax codes
• Email address and secondary email address
• Home, mobile and work/business telephone numbers
• Delegation authority name
• Eye colour
• Mother’s maiden name
• Birth town
• Historic addresses
• Personal income/tax returns and employment details
• Financial details

We may also collect, store and use the following “special categories” of more sensitive personal information:

• Information about your health, including any medical condition, health and sickness records from any Sick Note, Fit Note or other note or records provided by your doctor or medical professional from time to time, in order to assist you with any accounting services or relating to state benefits which you may be claiming or entitled to claim.
• Information about criminal convictions and offences which you may inform us about from time to time which may be used to provide advice your duties as a director, or your eligibility to act as a director of a business.

We collect personal information about customers through the initial engagement and on-boarding process, either directly from you over the telephone, or through submitting information to us via the brooksonone.co.uk website, or sometimes from an employment business/agency. We may also collect additional information from third parties including credit reference agencies or other background check agencies to confirm your identity and suitability for our services, or from your use of our website. We may also receive information from current customers (or customers of other members of the Brookson Group) who are looking to introduce their friends, colleagues and peers to our services as part of our ‘Recommend a Friend’ scheme from time to time.

We will also collect additional personal information in the course our engagement relating to the services which we provide.

We will collect this data from the following sources:

· E-mail
· Instant messaging
· Letters
· Online data capture forms
· Telephone calls (these may be recorded)
· Information from received directly from end clients
· Information received from recruitment businesses

All data received and recorded will only be used in accordance with the purposes set out below and where we have a legal basis for processing this data.

IP addresses and cookies

As is the case with most websites, we may obtain information about your usage of our web services through the use of cookies on our website. A cookie is a small piece of data placed on your hard drive in order to assist us in ensuring that your experience of using our website is optimised for your personal circumstances. Cookies cannot pass on computer viruses, retrieve other data from your computer’s hard drive or capture your email address. Cookies can be used to save users time on the site, by securely storing a user’s ID and password, personalise web pages and identify visited parts of a site and keep track of user’s selections. We use cookies to estimate our audience size and usage pattern, to speed up your searches and to collect information about your browsing habits and tailor our content, support and advertising in a manner relevant to our users. The data may then be used to track the user’s sites, via third-party vendors such as Google and may show adverts from us or other parts of the Brookson Group on those internet sites.

You have the option to opt-out and manage the cookies by altering the “help” settings on their browser. However, if you choose to disables the cookie, this can impair the functionality of our website and web services being used.

We will only use your personal information when the law allows us to. Most commonly, we will use your personal information in the following circumstances:

1. Where we need to perform the contract we have entered into with you.
2. Where we need to comply with a legal obligation.
3. Where it is necessary for our legitimate interests (or those of a third party). Where we are processing for a legitimate interest we have balanced this against your interests and fundamental rights do not override those interests.

We may also use your personal information in the following situations, which are likely to be rare:

1. Where it is needed in the public interest or for official purposes.

We will use information about you for the following purposes:

• Advising and assisting you to making decisions about salary, remuneration and compensation (based on the terms of our engagement with you)
• Providing accounting, support services to you and your business (in accordance with the terms of our engagement with you)
• Providing bookkeeping support services to you and your business (in accordance with the terms of our engagement with you)
• Providing back office support services to you and your business (in accordance with the terms of our engagement with you)
• To provide you support and advice in relation to the completion, and filing, of self-assessment tax returns (in accordance with the terms of our engagement with you)
• Making decisions about your continued engagement with us (in accordance with the terms of our engagement with you)
• Making arrangements for the termination of our working relationship (in accordance with the terms of our engagement with you)
• Education and training on relevant information applicable to you/your business/working practices (in accordance with the terms of our engagement with you and/or our legitimate interests)
• Dealing with disputes involving you (in accordance with us performing our terms of our engagement with you)
• Ascertaining your fitness to act as a director of your business in compliance with legislation (in accordance with the terms of our engagement with you)
• Analysing assignment information which you are engaged on our behalf (including location of work, duration of working time, income, timesheet and invoicing information) to enable us to perform the terms of our engagement with you
• Understanding and analysing working patterns to ensure compliance with legal obligations (in accordance with the terms of our engagement with you)
• To prevent fraud (in accordance with our legal obligations)
• Processing payroll and making payments to your bank account(s) (in accordance with the terms of our engagement with you)
• To provide you with assistance in relation to accessing a pension scheme (in accordance with our legitimate interests)
• Analysing and processing eligibility for, and making payment of, expenses incurred during the course of your work (in accordance with the terms of our engagement with you)
• Informing recruitment businesses of necessary information in order to comply with obligations imposed by s44 Income Tax Earnings and Protection Act 2003 (in accordance with the terms of our engagement with you)
• To monitor your use of our information and communication systems to enable us to ensure that our software performs in accordance with our contract with you and to assess improvements and developments. This is to provide a better service and is in our legitimate interest to do so
• To ensure network and information security, including preventing unauthorised access to our computer and electronic communications systems and preventing malicious software distribution to enable us to ensure that our software performs in accordance with our contract with you and to assess improvements and developments. This is to provide a better service and is in our legitimate interest to do so
• To conduct data analytics studies to review and better understand our customer base, remuneration, retention and attrition rates to enable us to ensure that our software performs in accordance with our contract with you and to assess improvements and developments. This is to provide a better service and is in our legitimate interest to do so
• To provide you with information and guidance on anything which may impact on atypical working in the recruitment/temporary worker sector (such as legislative changes, government consultations, sourcing statistical information to support our contribution to this sector of society) to enable in accordance with us performing our contract with you
• To provide you with information and guidance on efficient ways of working to maximise your take home pay and various vehicles used to provide services (such as personal service companies, sole trader/self employed, CIS and/or other models/vehicles available in the market). It is within our legitimate interest to do so
• To enable other businesses within the Brookson Group to notify you of support services which may be of interest to you or your business, it is within our legitimate interest to do so
• To notify you of offers, promotions, which may interest you or your business should you wish to refer a friend to us for employment within the Brookson Group or to use any of our products or services. It is within our legitimate interest to do so
• To provide you with updates, guidance, general and tailored advice which is (or may be in the future) relevant to you or your business in accordance with us performing our terms of engagement with you
• To assist you in opening a business bank account in accordance with your interests of being paid for work carried out and our legitimate interests of referring you to a banking partner which works seamlessly with our online platforms to support services to you and who may pay referral fees in accordance with our terms of engagement with you
• To enable third party insurance providers (Kingsbridge Risk Solutions Limited), to offer you products or services to enable you to comply with your legal obligations or otherwise support your business in accordance with your legitimate interest and for the purposes of paying a referral fee to us in accordance with the terms of our engagement with you
• Equal opportunities monitoring in relation to providing access to our services to comply with our legal obligations

Some of the above grounds for processing will overlap and there may be several grounds which justify our use of your personal information. Where the grounds for processing involve marketing to you, you will always have the option to object to us processing for this purpose.

If you fail to provide personal information

If you fail to provide certain information when requested, we may not be able to perform the contract we have entered into with you (such as providing our services to you or your business), or we may be prevented from complying with our legal or regulatory obligations (such as to report financial impropriety in relation to anti-money laundering),

 

Change of purpose

We will only use your personal information for the purposes for which we collected it, unless we reasonably consider that we need to use it for another reason and that reason is compatible with the original purpose. If we need to use your personal information for an unrelated purpose, we will notify you and we will explain the legal basis which allows us to do so.

Please note that we may process your personal information without your knowledge or consent, in compliance with the above rules, where this is required or permitted by law.

“Special categories” of particularly sensitive personal information require higher levels of protection. We need to have further justification for collecting, storing and using this type of personal information. We may process special categories of personal information with your explicit written consent.

Less commonly, we may process this type of information where it is needed in relation to legal claims or where it is needed to protect your interests (or someone else’s interests) and you are not capable of giving your consent, or where you have already made the information public. We may also process such information about members or former members in the course of legitimate business activities with the appropriate safeguards.

Our obligations as an Accountancy Provider

We will use information relating to leaves of absence, which may include sickness absence or health, or disability status, to advise you in relation to statutory/state benefits to which you may be entitled and/or to assist you with any legal rights or obligations you may be required to comply with.

Do we need your consent?

Usually, we will approach you for your explicit consent to allow us to process certain particularly sensitive data. We will provide you with full details of the information that we would like and the reason we need it, so that you can carefully consider whether you wish to consent. You should be aware that it is not a condition of your contract with us that you agree to any request for consent.

We do not envisage that we will hold information about criminal convictions for the majority of our customers.

We will only collect information about criminal convictions with appropriate consent if it is appropriate given the nature of the services we provide and where we are legally able to do so. Where appropriate, we will collect information about criminal convictions as part of the initial engagement process to assess your suitability to act as a director of business and provide advice and guidance in relation to the same; or we may be notified of such information directly by you during the course of our engagement. We will use information about criminal convictions and offences to assess your suitability to continue to be engaged as a director of your business to enable us to provide advice and guidance as may be required from time to time.

We are allowed to use your personal information in this way to carry out our obligations during our engagement and in compliance with legal obligations imposed on the supply chain relating to atypical/temporary workers, personal service companies and independent contractors/consultants.

Automated decision-making takes place when an electronic system uses personal information to make a decision without human intervention. We are allowed to use automated decision-making in the following circumstances:

1. Where we have notified you of the decision and given you 21 days to request a reconsideration.
2. Where it is necessary to perform the contract with you and appropriate measures are in place to safeguard your rights.
3. In limited circumstances, with your explicit written consent and where appropriate measures are in place to safeguard your rights.

If we make an automated decision on the basis of any particularly sensitive personal information, we must have either your explicit written consent or it must be justified in the public interest, and we must also put in place appropriate measures to safeguard your rights.

You will not be subject to decisions that will have a significant impact on you based solely on automated decision-making, unless we have a lawful basis for doing so and we have notified you.

We may use some automated decision making in order for us to understand the information required from you in order for us to comply with our anti-money laundering obligations as we will use online search tools to assist us in the performance of Know Your Client and Identity Checking activities from time to time.

We may have to share your data with third parties, including third-party service providers and other entities in the Brookson Group.

We require third parties to respect the security of your data and to treat it in accordance with the law.

We may transfer your personal information outside the EU. If we do, you can expect a similar degree of protection in respect of your personal information.

”Third parties” includes third-party service providers (including contractors and designated agents) and other entities within our group. The following activities are carried out by third-party service providers: payroll, pension administration, benefits provision and administration, IT services, legal services, financial services. The following third-party service providers process personal information about you for the following purposes:

Brookson Legal Services Limited:	For the provision of legal support for the business during the course of your engagement with us. The reason for processing will be performance of a contract but we may also be share data to offer you products that may be of interest to you in which there is a legitimate interest to share.
Brookson Financial Limited:	Auto enrolment and pension compliance activities as well as advice and guidance on mortgages, investments and protection products and services. There is a legitimate interest to share data for this purpose.
RCAF VI Mallard Group Limited	Managerial oversight of our business, strategy and services.
FCSA / ICAEW	For audit and regulatory compliance activities. There is a public interest to share data for this purpose.
HMRC	For tax compliance activities. We have a legal obligation to share data for this purpose.
Recruitment businesses	To enable them to manage the assignment on which you are engaged to provide services on our behalf and comply with their legal and regulatory obligations (including quarterly off-payroll worker reports to HMRC) in relation to the same. There is a legitimate interest to share data for this purpose.
End clients	To whom you are engaged to provide services to enable them to manage your engagement; protect your health and safety at work; process working time and comply with their legal, regulatory and contractual obligations in relation to the same. There is a legitimate interest to share data for this purpose.
Credit Safe / Lexis Nexis	To assist us with our anti-money laundering checks. We have a legal obligation to share data for this purpose.
Jordans Limited / Oswalds Limited	To carry out company incorporation and/or Company Secretarial services on our behalf in England and Wales / Scotland. This data will be shared in accordance with our terms of business.
Kingsbridge Risk Solutions Limited	To support your business with insurance requirements in order for you to comply with best corporate governance or legal obligations. There is a legitimate interest to share data for this purpose.
Zempler Bank	To provide banking services to your business which work seamlessly with our online services. There is a legitimate interest to share data for this purpose.
Other banks / banking partners from time to time	To provide banking services to your business and which may work seamlessly with our online services. There is a legitimate interest to share data for this purpose.
GoTo	For the provision of telecommunication services and recording facilities.

How secure is my information with third-party service providers and other entities in our group?

All our third-party service providers and other entities in the group are required to take appropriate security measures to protect your personal information in line with our policies. We do not allow our third-party service providers to use your personal data for their own purposes. We only permit them to process your personal data for specified purposes and in accordance with our instructions.

When might you share my personal information with other entities in the group?

We will share your personal information with other entities in our group as part of our regular operations and reporting activities on company performance, in the context of a business reorganisation or group restructuring exercise, for system maintenance support and hosting of data, for back office support and legal support.

What about other third parties?

We may share your personal information with other third parties, for example in the context of the possible sale or restructuring of the Brookson Group; regulatory compliance activities (as a member of the Freelance and Contractor Service Provider Association (FCSA) and the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales); and recruitment businesses to support us with work finding opportunities and services.

We have put in place measures to protect the security of your information and remain keen to comply with the requirements of ISO 27001. Details of these measures are available upon request.

Third parties will only process your personal information on our instructions and where they have agreed to treat the information confidentially and to keep it secure.

We have put in place appropriate security measures to prevent your personal information from being accidentally lost, used or accessed in an unauthorised way, altered or disclosed. In addition, we limit access to your personal information to those employees, agents, contractors and other third parties who have a business need to know. They will only process your personal information on our instructions and they are subject to a duty of confidentiality. Details of these measures may be obtained from our Group Data Protection Officer.

We have put in place procedures to deal with any suspected data security breach and will notify you and any applicable regulator of a suspected breach where we are legally required to do so.

How long will you use my information for?

We will only retain your personal information for as long as necessary to fulfil the purposes we collected it for, including for the purposes of satisfying any legal, accounting, or reporting requirements. Details of retention periods for different aspects of your personal information are available in our data retention policy which is available from our Group Data Protection Officer ([email protected]). To determine the appropriate retention period for personal data, we consider the amount, nature, and sensitivity of the personal data, the potential risk of harm from unauthorised use or disclosure of your personal data, the purposes for which we process your personal data and whether we can achieve those purposes through other means, and the applicable legal requirements.

In some circumstances we may anonymise your personal information so that it can no longer be associated with you, in which case we may use such information without further notice to you. Once you are no longer an employee, worker or contractor of the company we will retain and securely destroy your personal information in accordance with our data retention policy or applicable laws and regulations (where appropriate).

Your duty to inform us of changes

It is important that the personal information we hold about you is accurate and current. Please keep us informed if your personal information changes during your working relationship with us.

Your rights in connection with personal information

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

• Request access to your personal information (commonly known as a “data subject access request”). This enables you to receive a copy of the personal information we hold about you and to check that we are lawfully processing it.
• Request correction of the personal information to ensure it remains accurate and up to date
• Request erasure of some or all of your information which we hold on you, subject to us complying with our legal and regulatory obligations which may override your right to request erasure
• Right to request that we cease processing some or all of your information, in whole or in part, subject to our legal and regulatory obligations which may override your right to request that we either pause our processing activities or cease processing your personal data entirely
• Right to request that your data is transferred to a third party (portability) in the event that you look to use the services of a third party (such as if you chose to use another accountant or apply for a mortgage), we will share data relating to your engagement with us with such third party (for example, your new accountant or mortgage provider), upon request
• Right to object to some or all of your data no longer being processed by us (either temporarily or permanently). This will be subject to our legal and regulatory obligations which may override your right to request this, but we will ensure that such obligations and or/legitimate interest or ours (or others) are sufficiently compelling in order to override you rights in this regard
• If we use automated decision making or profiling you will be able to request manual/human intervention to ensure appropriate decisions are taken or advice provided

No fee usually required

You will not have to pay a fee to access your personal information (or to exercise any of the other rights). However, we may charge a reasonable fee if your request for access is clearly unfounded or excessive. Alternatively, we may refuse to comply with the request in such circumstances.

What we may need from you

We may need to request specific information from you to help us confirm your identity and ensure your right to access the information (or to exercise any of your other rights). This is another appropriate security measure to ensure that personal information is not disclosed to any person who has no right to receive it.

Where you may have provided your consent to the collection, processing and transfer of your personal information for a specific purpose, you have the right to withdraw your consent for that specific processing at any time. To withdraw your consent, please respond to the point of contact from whom you received the last communication to which you consented to receive, or our Business Advisory Team. Once we have received notification that you have withdrawn your consent, we will no longer process your information for the purpose or purposes you originally agreed to, insofar that we do not have a legal obligation to do so. Please also note that in certain circumstances withdrawing consent may restrict us from performing our contractual obligations.

We have appointed a data protection officer (DPO) to oversee compliance with this privacy notice. If you have any questions about this privacy notice or how we handle your personal information, please contact the DPO by email at [email protected]. You have the right to make a complaint at any time to the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO), the UK supervisory authority for data protection issues.

We reserve the right to update this privacy notice at any time, and we will provide you with a new privacy notice when we make any substantial updates. We may also notify you in other ways from time to time about the processing of your personal information.

If you have any questions about this privacy notice, please contact the Business Advisory Team on 0345 058 1200

Questions, comments and requests regarding this privacy policy are welcomed and should be addressed to [email protected].