privacy

Privacy Policy

Our Privacy Policy tells you what will happen to any personal data that you provide to us as a result of using this website. The information is written for the benefit of general visitors to the website - if you are a client of ours (or become one) we process a wider range of personal data and deal with a broader range of privacy-related issues. Clients are provided detailed information about this during the engagement process.

Personal Data You Provide

Your privacy is important to us. By providing personal information such as your name and e-mail address via the forms on this website, you agree to us contacting you with regard to the information provided.

Some forms on our website also include a check box asking you for permission to add you to our mailing list. This is an opt-in mailing list and your personal information will be used solely by us (and all such emails include a link for opt-out).

How We Use Your Personal Data

We use the data you provide via this website to:

  • communicate with you, for example: we use contact details such as email address or phone number when responding to enquiries made via online forms
  • monitor website trends, for example: we use Google Analytics to help us aggregate traffic so we can monitor how the website is being used
  • operate our business more effectively, for example: we seek feedback and use this to help improve our service

Our "Lawful Reasons" For Processing Your Personal Data

The "General Data Protection Regulation" (GDPR) is the primary piece of legislation defining your rights over our processing of your personal information. The GDPR requires us to declare which of six "lawful reasons" we are relying on when we are processing your personal data: we operate on the basis of "consent" when sending newsletters (you won't get sent a newsletter unless you have explicitly opted in to receive one).... and we operate on the basis of "legitimate interest" when communicating with you in other ways (e.g. when responding to your enquiry).

How Long We Keep Personal Data

Personal data may be stored by the website for a period of up to 90 days after which time it is removed automatically.

Transfer of Personal Data

From time to time we may pass personal data such as your name and email address to other services that we use to send out newsletters and other communications (both electronic and print). However, your personal data will remain in the EU or countries considered by the EU to have equivalent policies such as Jersey, Guernsey, Switzerland, New Zealand and Canada. Companies based in the USA that have certified with the EU-US Privacy Shield programme are also considered to be permitted destinations by the EU (this includes popular US products like Gmail, DropBox and MailChimp).

Questions or Complaints

In the first instance we hope you will contact us directly with any questions or complaints. Our Data Compliance Manager is Ingrid Juhanson and can be contacted via email or by calling 01708 745183.  However, legal rights regarding privacy are the remit of the Information Commissioners Office (ICO) and you will find more information about how to complain here: https://ico.org.uk/concerns/

Privacy Notice for Job Applicants

In accordance with the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), we have implemented this privacy notice to inform you, as prospective employees of our Company, of the types of data we process about you. We also include within this notice the reasons for processing your data, the lawful basis that permits us to process it, how long we keep your data for and your rights regarding your data.

  •   Data Protection Principles

Under GDPR, all personal data obtained and held by us must be processed according to a set of core principles. In accordance with these principles, we will ensure that:

  1. processing is fair, lawful and transparent
  2. data is collected for specific, explicit, and legitimate purposes
  3. data collected is adequate, relevant and limited to what is necessary for the purposes of processing
  4. data is kept accurate and up to date. Data which is found to be inaccurate will be rectified or erased without delay
  5. data is not kept for longer than is necessary for its given purpose
  6. data is processed in a manner that ensures appropriate security of personal data including protection against unauthorised or unlawful processing, accidental loss, destruction or damage by using appropriate technical or organisation measures
  7. we comply with the relevant GDPR procedures for international transferring of personal data
  • Types of Data Held

We keep several categories of personal data on our prospective employees in order to carry out effective and efficient processes. We keep this data in human resources files, hard copy and also on our computer systems.

We may hold the following personal data:

  1. personal details such as name, address, phone numbers;
  2. your photograph;
  3. your gender, civil status, information of any disability you have or other medical information;
  4. right to work documentation;
  5. information gathered via the recruitment process such as that entered into a CV or included in a CV cover letter;
  6. references from former employers;
  7. details on your education and employment history etc;
  8. passport and/or driving licence;
  9. criminal convictions.
  • Collecting your Data

You provide several pieces of data to us directly during the recruitment exercise.  In some cases, we will collect data about you from third parties, such as employment agencies, former employers when gathering references or credit reference agencies.

Should you be successful in your job application, we will gather further information from you, for example, your bank details and next of kin details, once your employment begins

  • Lawful Basis For Processing

The lawful basis on which we collect your data is Legitimate interest, that being our business interests. For successful candidates, the lawful basis becomes Contract.

  • Special Categories of Data

Special categories of data are data relating to your:

  1. health
  2. sex life
  3. sexual orientation
  4. race
  5. ethnic origin
  6. political opinion
  7. religion
  8. trade union membership
  9. genetic and biometric data.

We may carry out processing activities using special category data for a) the purposes of equal opportunities monitoring and b) to determine reasonable adjustments

Most commonly, we will process special categories of data when the following applies a)  you have given explicit consent to the processing and/or b)  we must process the data in order to carry out our legal or regulatory obligations.

  •  Failure to Provide Data

Your failure to provide us with data may mean that we are unable to fulfil our requirements for entering into a contract of employment with you. This could include being unable to offer you employment, or administer contractual benefits.

  • Criminal Convinction Data

We will only collect criminal conviction data where it is appropriate given the nature of your role and where the law permits us. This data will usually be collected at the recruitment stage, however, may also be collected during your employment. We use criminal conviction data to determine your suitability, or your continued suitability for the role.

  • Protecting your Data

We are aware of the requirement to ensure your data is protected against accidental loss or disclosure, destruction and abuse. We have implemented processes to guard against such.

  • Retention Periods

We only keep your data for as long as we need it for, which, in relation to unsuccessful candidates, is a maximum of two years at the end of which period, we will delete or destroy your data

If your application is successful, your data will be kept and transferred to the systems we administer for employees. We have a separate privacy notice for employees, which will be provided to you at that time.

  • Your Rights

You have the following rights in relation to the personal data we hold on you:

  1. the right to be informed about the data we hold on you and what we do with it;
  2. the right of access to the data we hold on you. We operate a separate Subject Access Request policy and all such requests will be dealt with accordingly;
  3. the right for any inaccuracies in the data we hold on you, however they come to light, to be corrected. This is also known as ‘rectification’;
  4. the right to have data deleted in certain circumstances. This is also known as ‘erasure’;
  5. the right to restrict the processing of the data;
  6. the right to transfer the data we hold on you to another party. This is also known as ‘portability’;
  7. the right to object to the inclusion of any information;

If you wish to exercise any of the rights explained above, please in the first instance contact he person you have been dealing with or in their absence our Data Protection Compliance Officer.

Questions or Complaints

F Barnes Solicitors Limited is registered as a Data Controller with the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) for the purposes of processing your personal information.  

If you have any concerns regarding our processing of your personal information please contact us in the first instance. Our Data Compliance Manager is Ingrid Juhanson and can be contacted via email or by calling 01708 745183. You can also contact ICO on tel: 0303 123 1113 https://ico.org.uk/concerns/

Our Use of Google Analytics

We use Google Analytics to monitor how our website is being used so we can make improvements. Our use of Google Analytics requires us to pass to Google your IP address (but no other information) - Google uses this information to prepare site usage reports for us, but Google may also share this information with other Google services. In particular, Google may use the data collected to contextualize and personalize the ads of its own advertising network. Related information: