Privacy Policy

 

Veritas Accounting & Tax Solutions Limited

PRIVACY NOTICE – November 2024

  1. ABOUT US AND THE PURPOSE OF THIS NOTICE

(“Veritas Accounting & Tax Solutions”, “Veritas ATS”, "we", “us”, “our” and “ours”) is an accountancy and business and tax advisory firm. We are registered in England and Wales as a private limited company under number: 14456767 and our registered office is at Future Business Centre Cambridge Campus, Kings Hedges Road, Cambridge, England, CB4 2HY.

 

We are registered with the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) under registration number: ZB850403.

 

This notice will tell you how we look after your personal data, about your privacy rights, and about our compliance with and your protections under Data Protection Legislation.

 

In this notice “Data Protection Legislation” means any applicable law relating to the processing, privacy, and use of Personal Data, including the Data Protection Act 2018 and the Privacy and Electronic Communications (EC Directive) Regulations 2003, as amended by The Data Protection, Privacy and Electronic Communications (Amendments etc) (EU Exit) Regulations 2020. 

 

For the purpose of the Data Protection Legislation and this notice, we are the ‘data controller’. This means that we are responsible for deciding how we hold and use personal data about you. We are required under the Data Protection Legislation to notify you of the information contained in this privacy notice.

 

We have appointed a Data Protection Lead. Our Data Protection Lead is our Data Protection Point of Contact and is responsible for assisting with enquiries in relation to this privacy notice or our treatment of your personal data. Should you wish to contact our Data Protection Point of Contact you can do so using the contact details noted at paragraph ‎11(Contact Us), below.

 

  1. THE KIND OF INFORMATION WE HOLD ABOUT YOU

The information we hold about you may include the following:

 

  • your personal details (such as your name and/or address, telephone number);
  • details of contact we have had with you in relation to the provision, or the proposed provision, of our services;
  • details of any services you have received from us;
  • our correspondence and communications with you;
  • information about any complaints and enquiries you make to us;
  • information from research, surveys, and marketing activities;
  • pseudonymised information about usage of our website and social media services such as session tracking cookies;
  • anonymised analytics data through Google Analytics, which may include your IP address, browser type, referral source, pages visited, session duration, and interactions with the website;
  • information we receive from other sources, such as publicly available information, information provided by your employer or our clients or information from our member network firms.

 

  1. HOW WE MAY COLLECT YOUR PERSONAL DATA

We obtain your personal data directly from you when: 

  • you request a proposal from us in respect of the services we provide;
  • you engage us to provide our services and also during the provision of those services; or
  • you contact us by email, telephone, post, website or social media (for example when you have a query about our services).
  • through analytics tools such as Google Analytics, which use cookies to collect usage data when you visit our website.

We may also obtain your personal data indirectly:

  • from your employer or our client when they engage us to provide services and also during the provision of those services; or
  • from third parties and/or publicly available resources (for example, from your employer or from Companies House).

 

  1. HOW WE USE PERSONAL DATA WE HOLD ABOUT YOU

We may process your personal data for purposes necessary for the performance of our contract with you or your employer or our clients and to comply with our legal obligations. This may include processing your personal data where you are an employee, subcontractor, supplier or customer of our client.

 

We may also process your personal data for the purposes of our own legitimate interests provided that those interests do not override any of your own interests, rights and freedoms which require the protection of personal data. This includes processing for marketing, business development, statistical and management purposes.

 

We may process your personal data for certain additional purposes with your consent, and in these limited circumstances where your consent is required for the processing of your personal data then you have the right to withdraw your consent to processing for such specific purposes.

 

Please note that we may process your personal data for more than one lawful basis depending on the specific purpose for which we are using your data.

 

Situations in which we will use your personal data

We may use your personal data in order to:

 

  • carry out our obligations arising from any agreements entered into between you or your employer or our clients and us (which will most usually be for the provision of our services);
  • carry out our obligations arising from any agreements entered into between our clients and us (which will most usually be for the provision of our services) where you may be a subcontractor, supplier or customer of our client;
  • provide you with information related to our services and our events or seek your thoughts and opinions on the services we provide; and
  • notify you about any changes to our services.

In some circumstances we may anonymise or pseudonymise the personal data so that it can no longer be associated with you, in which case we may use it without further notice to you.

 

If you refuse to provide us with certain information when requested, we may not be able to perform the contract we have entered into with you. Alternatively, we may be unable to comply with our legal or regulatory obligations.

 

We may also process your personal data without your knowledge or consent, in accordance with this notice, where we are legally required or permitted to do so.

 

Data retention

We will only retain your personal data for as long as is necessary to fulfil the purposes for which it is collected. 

 

When assessing what retention period is appropriate for your personal data, we take into consideration the requirements of our business and the services provided, any statutory or legal obligations and the purposes for which we originally collected the personal data.

 

Change of purpose

Where we need to use your personal data for a reason, other than the purpose for which we originally collected it, we will only use your personal data where that reason is compatible with the original purpose. If we need to use your data for a new purpose, we will notify you and communicate our legal basis for this new processing.

 

  1. DATA SHARING

We will share your personal data with third parties where we are required by law, where it is necessary to administer the relationship between us, or where we have another legitimate interest in doing so. This may include sharing your personal data with a regulator or to otherwise comply with the law.

 

“Third parties” includes third-party service providers and the members of our firm’s network. The following activities are carried out by third-party service providers: IT and cloud services, professional advisory services, administration services, marketing services, banking services and fee protection insurance. We only permit our third-party service providers to process your personal data for specified purposes and in accordance with our instructions

 

We may share your personal data with other third parties, for example in the context of the possible sale or restructuring of the business. We may also need to share your personal data with a regulator or to otherwise comply with the law.

  1. TRANSFERRING PERSONAL DATA OUTSIDE THE UNITED KINGDOM (UK)

This section explains how we handle the transfer of personal data outside the UK. Under the UK General Data Protection Regulation (UK GDPR) and the Data Protection Act 2018, personal data may only be transferred outside the UK where an adequate level of protection is ensured.

 

We may use service providers based outside of the UK to help us provide our services to you and this means that we may transfer your information to service providers outside the UK for the purpose of providing our services to you. For example, we utilise services such as Office 365 and cloud accounting service such as Xero and Quickbooks and parts of these service may for example be hosted on servers located within the United States or managed and supported from outside the UK to, for example, ensure service availability and security.

 

We take steps to ensure that where your information is transferred outside of the UK by our service providers and hosting providers, appropriate measures and controls in place to protect that information in accordance with applicable data protection laws and regulations. In certain cases, the UK government may issue an adequacy decision in relation to certain countries, territories, or sectors, confirming that they provide an adequate level of protection for personal data. Where such a decision exists, personal data can be transferred outside the UK on this basis. In the absence of an adequacy decision, we may rely on the UK’s International Data Transfer Agreement (IDTA), the Addendum to the European Commission’s Standard Contractual Clauses (SCCs), or another legally approved mechanism to ensure that personal data is protected when transferred outside the UK.

 

By using our website, products, or services, or by interacting with us in the ways described in this Privacy Notice, you consent to the transfer of your information outside the UK in accordance with this Privacy Notice where necessary for the delivery of our services. If you do not wish for your information to be transferred outside the UK, you may not be able to use all of our services.

 

Should you require further information about these protective measures, or confirmation as to whether the services we deliver to you involve such transfers, please contact us using the contact details outlined in section 11 below.

  1. DATA SECURITY

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

 

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.

 

  1. RIGHTS OF ACCESS, CORRECTION, ERASURE, AND RESTRICTION

Your duty to inform us of changes

It is important that the personal data we hold about you is accurate and current. Should your personal information change, please notify us of any changes of which we need to be made aware by contacting us, using the contact details below. 

 

Your rights in connection with personal data

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

 

  • Request access to your personal data. This enables you to receive details of the personal data we hold about you and to check that we are processing it lawfully.
  • Request correction of the personal data that we hold about you. 
  • Request erasure of your personal data. This enables you to ask us to delete or remove personal data where there is no good reason for us continuing to process it. You also have the right to ask us to delete or remove your personal data where you have exercised your right to object to processing (see below).
  • Object to processing of your personal data where we are relying on a legitimate interest (or those of a third party) and there is something about your particular situation which makes you want to object to processing on this basis. You also have the right to object where we are processing your personal information for direct marketing purposes. 
  • Request the restriction of processing of your personal data. This enables you to ask us to suspend the processing of personal data about you, for example if you want us to establish its accuracy or the reason for processing it.
  • Request the transfer of your personal data to you or another data controller if the processing is based on consent, carried out by automated means and this is technically feasible.

If you want to exercise any of the above rights, please email our Data Protection Point of Contact data-protection@veritas-ats.co.uk.

 

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

 

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.

 

  1. RIGHT TO WITHDRAW CONSENT

In the limited circumstances where you may have provided your consent to the collection, processing and transfer of your personal data for a specific purpose (for example, in relation to direct marketing that you have indicated you would like to receive from us), you have the right to withdraw your consent for that specific processing at any time. To withdraw your consent, please email our Data Protection Point of Contact data-protection@veritas-ats.co.uk.

 

Once we have received notification that you have withdrawn your consent, we will no longer process your personal information (personal data) for the purpose or purposes you originally agreed to, unless we have another legitimate basis for doing so in law.

 

  1. CHANGES TO THIS NOTICE

We may make changes to this Privacy Notice from time to time. Any changes we may make to our privacy notice in the future will be provided to you by being updated 

on our website at: www.veritas-ats.co.uk/privacynotice which will always contain the latest version.

 

This privacy notice was last updated on 1 November 2024.

  1. CONTACT US

If you have any questions regarding this notice or if you would like to speak to us about the manner in which we process your personal data, please email our Data Protection Point of Contact data-protection@veritas-ats.co.uk or telephone our Data Protection Point of Contact on 01223 782797.

 

You also have the right to make a complaint to the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO), the UK supervisory authority for data protection issues, at any time. The ICO’s contact details are as follows:

 

Information Commissioner's Office
Wycliffe House
Water Lane
Wilmslow
Cheshire
SK9 5AF

 

Telephone - 0303 123 1113 (local rate) or 01625 545 745

 

Website - https://ico.org.uk/concerns