This privacy notice contains important information on who we are, the services we provide and how and why we collect, store, use and share personal information during the course of business. It also sets out your rights in relation to your personal information.
Maclaine & Co is a partnership regulated by the Law Society of Northern Ireland. During the course of our business including the delivery of legal services to our clients we collect, use and are responsible for certain personal information, in respect of which we are regulated under the General Data Protection Regulation which applies across the European Union (including in the United Kingdom). We are responsible as ‘controller’ of that personal information for the purposes of those laws.
It is necessary for us to collect and use personal information:
There are two types of personal data that may be provided to us:
Personal data: This is general information such as names, address, gender, dates of birth, contact details, national insurance numbers and financial information.
Special category data: This is, by its nature, more sensitive information and may include information about race or ethnicity, religion, sexual orientation, politics, health, trade union membership, genetics and biometrics.
The type of information we will request will depend upon what type of work we are instructed to do.
In the majority of cases personal data will be restricted to basic information needed to complete identification checks. Typically, we will need your full name, address, date of birth, e-mail, contact telephone numbers and National Insurance number. We will also request copies of passports, driving licences, utility bills, bank statements and similar to assist in confirming your identity.
If a financial transaction is involved, we will need details to support the funding of the transaction in order to comply with our obligations under Anti-Money Laundering and Law Society Regulations.
Whilst we appreciate that such requests can be intrusive, we are prevented by law from proceeding with your work until these checks have been completed.
Some of the work we do may require us to ask for special category data. Any such request will require your explicit consent and will only be made if this information is specifically required. In certain cases, we may need to share this information with third parties such as medical professionals. This is only done when there are safeguards in place to ensure that the information remains confidential and secure.
We may also obtain personal information from third parties in order that we can carry out legal work on your behalf. Typically, these organisations will include banks, building societies, other financial institutions or other firms such as accountants or independent financial advisors. It may also include information received from a medical professional.
The primary reason for asking you to provide us with your personal data, is to allow us to represent you and carry out your legal work.
The following are other examples, although not exhaustive, of what we may use your information for:
Generally, we will only use your information within Maclaine & Co, however, there may be circumstances where we may need to disclose some information to third parties in carrying out your legal work. For example:
We will not share your personal information with any third party for marketing purposes.
Your personal information will be retained for as long as may be necessary:
We will at a minimum retain all personal information in accordance with the Law Society of Northern Ireland’s Guidelines in force from time to time but thereafter we may at our discretion destroy or delete all or any such information without further reference to you.
In addition:
We have appropriate security measures in place to prevent personal information from being accidentally lost or used or accessed in an unauthorised way.
We limit access to your personal information to those who have a genuine business need to know it.
Those processing your information will do so only in an authorised manner and are subject to a duty of confidentiality.
We also have procedures in place to deal with any suspected data security breach. We will notify you and any applicable regulator of a suspected data security breach where we are legally required to do so.
Under the General Data Protection Regulation, you have a number of important rights including:
For further information on each of those rights, including the circumstances in which they apply, see the Guidance from the UK Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) on individuals’ rights under the General Data Protection Regulation.
If you would like to exercise any of those rights, please:
If you wish to contact us write to:
Maclaine & Co
Imperial Buildings
72 High Street
Belfast,
BT1 2BE
Or email info@maclaines.co.uk
We hope that we can resolve any query or concern you raise about our use of your information.
The General Data Protection Regulation also gives you right to lodge a complaint with a supervisory authority, in particular in the European Union (or European Economic Area) state where you work, normally live or where any alleged infringement of data protection laws occurred. The supervisory authority in the UK is the Information Commissioner who may be contacted at https://ico.org.uk/concerns/ or telephone: 0303 123 1113.
We may change this privacy notice from time to time and the current notice will always be displayed on our website. Any material changes will be advised to you.
This privacy notice was published on 14th October 2018.
Send us your contact information and one of our team will be in touch to discuss your requirements.
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