PRIVACY POLICY

Who we are

Homestead Associates, trading as Charlotte Wells & Co, comprises Charlotte Wells and individual Associates who are engaged to provide Expert Witness medico-legal reports for and on behalf of the company.

The Purpose of this Privacy Notice

A privacy notice gives you important information concerning how we use your personal data and your rights concerning it.

Controller

Charlotte Wells & Co is the data controller and responsible for your personal data (collectively referred to as “Charlotte Wells & Co”, “we”, “us”, or “our” in this privacy policy).

Name: Charlotte Wells & Co

Address: 50 Stratford Road, Shipston-on-Stour, CV36 4BA

Phone: 07871 655 312

Email: charlotte.wells@charlottewells.org

Data controller: Charlotte Wells

ICO Number: ZA644208

Changes to this privacy notice

We review this privacy policy when necessary and at least annually and we will place updates on our website.

Updating your personal data

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

Personal data

Personal data is any information about a living individual that can be used to, either directly or indirectly, identify them. It includes information such as: their name, address, email address, IP address, qualifications, photographs.

Personal data also includes what is known as ‘special category personal data’. This refers to particularly sensitive information concerning an individual’s: racial or ethnic origin; political opinions; religious or philosophical beliefs; trade union membership; genetics; health – physical or mental; and, sex life or sexual orientation.

We do not track, collect or store personal information using cookies on our website. Cookies are not enabled.

What Information Do We Collect

The type of personal information we collect from clients, customers and associates is kept to a minimum and may include:

Name, address, email address and contact telephone numbers
Personal and family details
Details regarding your lifestyle and social circumstances
Financial details
Education, training, and employment details
Medical records, doctors’ notes, and treatment records
Age, gender, race, and religious background
Other personal data relevant to instructions to produce an independent medico-legal report, including data specific to the instructions in question
VAT number and company registration number
Bank account information
Medical qualification, registrations, and membership to professional bodies
Insurance information
Work experience

How we get the personal information and why we have it

Most of the personal information we process is provided to us directly by our clients and associates in order for us to undertake expert witness work efficiently.

Under the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), the lawful bases we reply on for processing this information are:

(a) Your consent. You are able to remove your consent at any time by contacting us using the details above.

(b) We have a contractual obligation.

How we use your personal data

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

Where we need to perform the contract, we are about to enter into or have entered into with you.
Where it is necessary for our legitimate interests (or those of a third party) and your interests and fundamental rights do not override those interests.
Where we need to comply with a legal or regulatory obligation.

The types of lawful basis that we will rely on to process your personal data can be summarised as follows:

“Performance of Contract” means processing your data where it is necessary for the performance of a contract to which you are a party or to take steps at your request before entering such a contract.

“Legitimate Interest” means the interest of our business in conducting and managing our business to enable us to give you the best service and the best and most secure experience. We make sure we consider and balance any potential impact on you (both positive and negative) and your rights before we process your personal data for our legitimate interests. We do not use your personal data for activities where our interests are overridden by the impact on you (unless we have your consent or are otherwise required or permitted to by law). You can obtain further information about how we assess our legitimate interests against any potential impact on you in respect of specific activities by contacting us.

“Comply with a legal or regulatory obligation” means processing your personal data where it is necessary for compliance with a legal or regulatory obligation that we are subject to.

Generally, we do not rely on consent as a legal basis for processing your personal data other than in relation to sending direct marketing communications to you via email. You have the right to withdraw consent to marketing at any time by contacting us.

Our lawful processing of your Health Data is necessary for the establishment, exercise or defence of legal claims or whenever courts are acting in their judicial capacity.

Purposes for which we will use your personal data

The purpose for which we process personal data is to allow us to perform under our contracts; for example, by providing an expert to conduct the assessment of an individual for the purpose of providing a report for litigious purposes.

We will need to process personal data relating to your health to facilitate in the creation of an independent report by one of our appointed experts.

Note that we may process your personal data for more than one lawful ground depending on the specific purpose for which we are using your data. Please contact us if you need details about the specific legal ground, we are relying on to process your personal data. We only process your personal data consistently with our obligations under the General Data Protection Regulation and Data Protection Act 2018.

Change of purpose

We will only use your personal data 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 you wish to get an explanation as to how the processing for the new purpose is compatible with the original purpose, please contact us.

If we need to use your personal data 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 data without your knowledge or consent, in compliance with the above rules, where this is required or permitted by law.

Disclosures of your personal data

We may have to share your personal data with the parties set out below for the purposes set out in paragraph 5 above:

Third parties, as is necessary in the provision of our services, including to third party providers who deliver services to support the operation of our company.
Professional advisers acting as processors or joint controllers including lawyers, bankers, auditors and insurers.
HM Revenue & Customs, regulators and other authorities.
Third parties to whom we may choose to sell, transfer, or merge parts of our business or our assets. Alternatively, we may seek to acquire other businesses or merge with them. If a change happens to our business, then the new owners may use your personal data in the same way as set out in this privacy notice.

Where we have collected your personal data to allow us to facilitate in the creation of an independent report, we will be required to transfer your personal data to one of our experts. The expert will require your personal data to create the independent report for litigious purposes.

We require all third parties to respect the security of your personal data and to treat it in accordance with the law. We do not allow our third-party service providers to use your personal data for their own purposes and only permit them to process your personal data for specified purposes and in accordance with our instructions.

Data security

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

How Long Do We Keep Your Information For

To make sure we meet our legal data protection and privacy obligations, we only hold onto your information for as long as we need it for the purposes we acquired it for in the first place.

In most cases, this means we will keep your information for as long as you continue to use our services, work with us as an associate, or for the duration of your case and for a reasonable period afterwards. After that we will delete it, other than where we lawfully need to keep any data (7 years for accounting records and VAT reporting).

Your Rights

Unless subject to an exemption, you have a number of rights concerning your personal data. These are:

the right to receive information concerning personal data we collect. This information is contained in this Privacy Notice;
the right to receive information concerning your personal data which we collect from third parties;
the right of access to your personal data and related information we hold. This is generally known as a subject access right;
the right to have us correct any errors in respect of your personal data which we hold;
the right to have us delete or otherwise destroy the personal data we hold on you;
the right to stop us processing your personal data;
in certain circumstances, the right to have us transfer your personal data to someone or some organisation of your choice;
the right to object to us processing your personal data;
the right not to be subject to automated decision-making or profiling;
the right to complain to the Information Commissioner concerning how we process your personal data.

Access to personal information

You can find out what personal data we hold about you, or exercise any of your other rights concerning your personal data, by making a ‘data subject request’. If you wish to do so please contact Charlotte Wells in writing via letter or email at

Charlotte Wells:

Email: charlotte.wells@charlottewells.org

Post: 50 Stratford Road, Shipston-on-Stour, Warwickshire, CV36 4BA

Please include the following information in your letter or email:

Your name and correspondence address;
Contact number and email address;
Details of the information requested.

Your acceptance of this Privacy Notice

Charlotte Wells & Co provides this Privacy Notice as the data controller of your data. By using our website and services we will process your personal data in the ways set out in this notice. If you do not agree with us using your personal data in such ways.

Security

Charlotte Wells & Co is committed to ensuring that your information is secure. In order to prevent unauthorised access or disclosure suitable physical, electronic and managerial procedures to safeguard and secure the information collected have been put in place.

Further information

You can contact the Information Commissioner for independent advice about data protection and privacy. Further information on the protection of data can also be found on the Information Commissioner’s Office website https://ico.org.uk/for-organisations/guide-to-data-protection

How to complain

If you have any concerns about our use of your personal information, you can make a complain to us at:

Charlotte Wells:

Email: charlotte.wells@charlottewells.org

Post: 50 Stratford Road, Shipston-on-Stour, Warwickshire, CV36 4BA

You can also complain to the ICO if you are unhappy with how we have used your data. The ICO’s address:

Information Commissioner’s Office

Wycliffe House

Water Lane

Wilmslow

Cheshire SK9 5AF

Helpline number: 0303 123 1113

ICO website: https://www.ico.org.uk