Wilkinson Cowan Partnership Ltd is a company registered in England (collectively referred to as “WCP”, “we” or “us” in this policy). Wilkinson Cowan Partnership Ltd has offices in Cheshire and  Merseyside. Wilkinson Cowan Partnership Ltd’s registered address is Stanley House, 15 Ladybridge Road, Cheadle Hulme, Cheshire, SK85BL. Wilkinson Cowan Partnership Ltd’s company number is 7123292.  

Overview

Maintaining the security of your data is a priority at Wilkinson Cowan Partnership Ltd and we respect your privacy rights.  We agree to be transparent with why we need your personal data and we will take the necessary measures to handle your data fairly and legally.

This policy will provide you with information about how we use your data, what personal data we will collect, how we ensure your privacy is maintained and your legal rights relating to your personal data.  This policy applies whether you visit our offices, contact us or use our website.

How we use your data

We will endeavour to collect only personal data that is necessary for purpose.  Personal data is defined as any information relating to an identifiable person who can be directly or indirectly identified in particular by reference to an identifier.  Wilkinson Cowan Partnership Ltd are required to maintain records of employees electronically and manually for PAYE, HMRC, website, training and development purposes and marketing via the website and social media.  Data collected from our website on the “contact us” page will be directed to only management and senior management level who will use your personal data to deal with the enquiry.

We will not retain your data for longer than necessary for the purposes set out in this Policy.  Different retention periods apply for different types of data, however the longest we will normally hold any personal data is 6 years.

What personal data do we collect?

Wilkinson Cowan Partnership Ltd need to gather, use and maintain certain information about individuals.  These can include clients, customers, suppliers, business contacts, employees and other people the organisation has a relationship with or may need to contact.  When we employ a new member of staff we will collect name, address, telephone number, marital status, National Insurance number, date of birth, nationality, bank account details and (where necessary) evidence to prove an employee is legally permitted to work in the UK.  We may also collect details of previous education, training and employment.  Photographs of employees can be taken and held on record or used for marketing purposes.  You can usually visit our website without telling us who you are, however we do have the ability to gather personal data if you submit an enquiry via the contact us page this will include your name, address, email address and contact number.

How do we protect your data?

The security of your personal data is very important to us, but no method of contact over the internet or any method of electronic storage or cloud base is 100% secure.  Whilst we are committed to ensuring your personal data is secure, we cannot guarantee its absolute security.

Our security measures include:

  • encryption of data wherever available
  • regular cyber security assessments
  • security controls which protect from Wilkinson Cowan Partnership Ltd from external attack and
  • internal policies setting out internet and email safety and training for employees

What you can do to protect your data

Wilkinson Cowan Partnership Ltd will never ask for bank or card details via email.  If you are using a public or shared computer, you should ensure you log out of your accounts and close the web browser at end of your session.

Wilkinson Cowan Partnership recommends keeping passwords safe, anyone who know your passwords may access your accounts.  Avoid using the same password for multiple accounts.

Your rights

You have the following rights:

  • the rights to ask for a copy of personal data that we hold about you (the right of access)
  • the right (in certain circumstances) to request that we delete personal data held on you;

where we no longer have any legal reason to retain it (the right of erasure or to be forgotten)

  • the right to ask us to update and correct any out-of-date or incorrect personal data that we hold about you (the right of rectification);
  • the right to opt out of any website, social media and marketing communications that we may wish to include your name and/or photographs
  • to object to us using / holding your personal data if we have no legitimate reasons to do so (the right to objects);
  • the right (in certain circumstances) to ask us to ‘restrict processing of data’; which means that we would need to secure and retain the data for your benefit but not otherwise use it (the right to restrict processing); and
  • the right (in certain circumstances) to ask us to supply you with some of the personal data we hold about you in a structured machine-readable format and/or to provide a copy of the data in such a format to another organisation (the right to data portability)

If you wish to exercise any of the above rights, please contact us using the contact details set out below.

Legal basis for processing personal data

Generally, Wilkinson Cowan Partnership Ltd collects and uses personal data because it is necessary for:

  • the pursuit of our legitimate interests for the purposes of complying with our duties and exercising our rights under a contract for providing our services; or complying with our legal obligations
  • our obligation to ensure we can remunerate employees

In general, we only rely on consent for processing personal data in relation to marketing communications.  Employees, suppliers, business contacts, clients, customers and other people WCP have a relationship with or who we may need to contact, have the right to withdraw consent at any time.

Employees will be issued a consent form to opt in or opt out of the use of personal data to be used in various circumstances.  Where consent is the only legal basis for processing, we will cease to process data after consent is withdrawn.

Our legitimate interests

The normal legal basis for processing personal data, is that it is necessary for the legitimate interests of WCP, including:

  • providing services to our clients;
  • protecting customers, employees and other individuals and maintaining their safety, health and welfare;
  • promoting, marketing and advertising services;
  • improving existing services and developing new relationships;
  • complying with our legal and regulatory obligations;
  • handling new enquiries, queries, complaints and disputes
  • fulfilling our duties to our employees, clients, suppliers, customers, colleagues, shareholders and other stakeholders

Cookies

What are cookies?

Like most websites, our website uses a small number of cookies to collect information.  Cookies are small data files which are placed on your computer or other devices as you browse this website.  Some cookies are essential for the effective operation of our website.

We use a web analytics tool to monitor site usage however this tool does no store personal data.  The cookies contained in the contact us page will store the information included on the enquiry form.

You will be asked to confirm if you accept cookies, please be aware if you block some or all of the cookies from our website, parts of the site may not work.

To find out more about cookies, including seeing what cookies have been set and how to manage and delete them, visit www.allaboutcookies.org

If you do not wish to accept cookies from our website, please leave immediately and then delete and block all cookies.

Data Protection Officer

Wilkinson Cowan Partnership Ltd have appointed Mark Davies as Data Protection Officer to ensure we protect the personal data of our employees, clients, customers, suppliers and others and comply with data protection legislation.

If you have any questions about how Wilkinson Cowan Partnership Ltd uses your personal data that are not answered here, or if you want to exercise your rights regarding your personal data, plea contact our Data Protection Officer’s team by:

phone: 0161 486 6966

e-mail: stockport@wilcowan.com

write to: Data Protection Officer, Wilkinson Cowan Partnership Ltd, Stanley House, 15 Ladybridge Road, Cheadle Hulme, SK8 5BL

You have the right to lodge a complaint with the Information Commissioner’s Office.  Furthermore information, including contact details, is available at https://ico.org.uk

Third Party Connections

In certain circumstances Wilkinson Cowan Partnership Ltd will be required to disclose personal data without consent of the data subject, for example

  • HMRC
  • Enforcement agencies
  • Company accountant

If such a request is made Wilkinson Cowan Partnership will ensure the request is legitimate.

Our website contains links to third party sites, for example

  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Twitter
  • RICS
  • CIOB

Any links you click on from our website is not our responsibility. Once you click on a link to an external site you will be subject to that organisations privacy policy not ours.

Updates

This policy was last updated in May 2023.

Signed:

Position: Director

Date: May 2023