Brookson Legal

Privacy Policy

Brookson Legal Services Limited of Brunel House, 320 Firecrest Court, Centre Park, Warrington, WA1 1RG is a “data controller” in relation to data we hold and process relating to our employees and customers.

As a Data Controller, this means that we are responsible for deciding how we hold and use personal information about you. We are required under data protection legislation to notify you of the information contained in this Privacy Notice.

This notice applies to prospective, current and former customers of the entity referenced above. This notice does not form part of any contract for the provision of services and we may update this notice at any time.

It is important that you read this notice, together with any other Privacy Notice we may provide on specific occasions when we are collecting or processing personal information about you, so that you are aware of how and why we are using such information.

DATA PROTECTION PRINCIPLES

We will comply with data protection law. This says that the personal information we hold about you must be:

Used lawfully, fairly and in a transparent way.
Collected only for valid purposes that we have clearly explained to you and not used in any way that is incompatible with those purposes.
Relevant to the purposes we have told you about and limited only to those purposes.
Accurate and kept up to date.
Kept only as long as necessary for the purposes we have told you about.
Kept securely.

THE KIND OF INFORMATION WE HOLD ABOUT YOU

Personal data, or personal information, means any information about an individual from which that person can be identified. It does not include data where the identity has been removed (anonymous data).

Due to the services we offer, we are unlikely to hold any “special categories” of more sensitive personal data about you, but if we are provided with any such data we will ensure it receives a higher level of protection.

We will collect, store, and use the following categories of personal information about you:

Name
Home address
Residential address
Work location
Date of birth
Title
IP address/location
Financial details

In the unlikely event that the services we offer to you require us to collect, store and use “special categories” of more sensitive personal information, we would expect this to include the following information:

Information about your health, including any medical condition, health and sickness records from any Sick Note, Fit Note or other note or records provided by your doctor or medical professional from time to time, in order to assist you with any legal advice / legal services or relating to state benefits which you may be claiming.
Information about criminal convictions and offences which you may inform us about from time to time which may be used to provide advice to you in connection with the matter on which we are instructed to provide advice.

In some circumstances we will act as a Data Processor (we will be processing strictly on the instructions of a controller). As they decide what is being done with your personal information it is for them to ensure you are notified that this processing will take place via their own privacy notice.

Whilst there is no requirement on us to incorporate our processing activities within a privacy notice where we are acting as a Data Processor and not a Data Controller, for completeness and our commitment to being open and transparent with how we use personal information, we have included these activities within this notice.

HOW IS YOUR PERSONAL INFORMATION COLLECTED?

We collect personal information about customers throughout our engagement, starting with our initial contact via our website, email or telephone conversation. Such information being provided by you either directly from you (over the telephone), or by you submitting information to us via email. We may also collect additional information from third parties including credit reference agencies or other background check agencies to confirm your identity and suitability for our services, or from your use of services provided by other Brookson Group companies (including but not limited to Brookson Limited, Brookson Financial Limited, InTouch Accounting Limited, Brookson Solutions Limited, Boomerang Support Services Limited and/or 1 st Option Consulting Limited).

We will also collect additional personal information in the course our engagement relating to the services which we provide.

We will collect this data from the following sources:

· E-mail
· Instant messaging
· Letters
· Online data capture forms
· Telephone calls (these may be recorded)
· Information from received directly from end clients
· Information received from recruitment businesses

All data received and recorded will only be used in accordance with the purposes set out below and where we have a legal basis for processing this data.

IP addresses and cookies

As is the case with most websites, we may obtain information about your usage of our web services through the use of cookies on our website. A cookie is a small piece of data placed on your hard drive in order to assist us in ensuring that your experience of using our website is optimised for your personal circumstances. Cookies cannot pass on computer viruses, retrieve other data from your computer’s hard drive or capture your email address. Cookies can be used to save users time on the site, by securely storing a user’s ID and password, personalise web pages and identify visited parts of a site and keep track of user’s selections. We use cookies to estimate our audience size, usage pattern, interest in services being offered by us, to speed up your searches and to collect information about your browsing habits and tailor our content, support and advertising in a manner relevant to our users. The data may then be used to track the user’s sites, via third-party vendors such as Google and may show adverts from us or other parts of the Brookson Group on those internet sites.

You have the option to opt-out and manage the cookies by altering the “help” settings on their browser. However, if you choose to disable the cookies, this can impair the functionality of our website and web services being used.

Where we are acting as a Data Processor we will receive personal information from the Data Controller. You should be notified by the Data Controller that the information is being sent to us, usually this will be contained within their privacy notice.

HOW WE WILL USE INFORMATION ABOUT YOU

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

Where we need to perform the contract we have entered into with you.
Where we need to comply with a legal obligation.
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.

We may also use your personal information in the following situations, which are likely to be rare:

Where we need to protect your interests (or someone else’s interests).
Where it is needed in the public interest or for official purposes.

We will use information about you for the following purposes:

Advising and assisting you to make decisions about the legal or moral issue on which we are instructed to provide you with advice, guidance or support.
Providing legal advice and support services to you and/or your business.
To provide you support and advice in relation to the completion, and filing, of relevant forms (including benefits forms and claim forms where appropriate).
Making decisions about your continued engagement with us.
Making arrangements for the termination of our working relationship.
Education and training on relevant information applicable to you/your business.
Dealing with disputes involving you.
Ascertaining your fitness to act as a director of your business in compliance with legislation.
Analysing assignment information which you are engaged on our behalf (including location of work, duration of working time, income, timesheet and invoicing information).
Understanding and analysing working patterns to provide advice and guidance with legal (including tax) obligations.
To prevent fraud.
To provide you with assistance in relation to complying with obligations under the Pensions Act 2008.
Analysing and processing eligibility for, and making payment in respect of, legal advice.
To monitor your use of our information and communication systems.
To ensure network and information security, including preventing unauthorised access to our computer and electronic communications systems and preventing malicious software distribution.
To conduct data analytics studies to review and better understand our customer base, remuneration, retention and attrition rates.
To provide you with information and guidance on anything which may impact on your business, your working in the recruitment/temporary worker sector (such as legislative changes, government consultations, sourcing statistical information to support our contribution to this sector of society) or which may otherwise affect the legal services being provided to you.
To provide you with information and guidance on considerations for working via a personal service company, as sole trader/self-employed worker, working in the construction sector and/or other models/vehicles available in the market.
To enable other businesses within the Brookson Group to notify you of support services which may be of interest to you or your business.
To notify you of offers, promotions, which may interest you or your business should you wish to refer a friend to instruct us for legal advice, guidance or support.
To provide you with updates, guidance, general and tailored advice which is (or may be in the future) relevant to you or your business.
To enable third parties (such as insurance providers), to offer you products or services to enable you to comply with your legal obligations or otherwise support your business.
Equal opportunities monitoring in relation to providing access to our services.

Some of the above grounds for processing will overlap and there may be several grounds which justify our use of your personal information.

Where are acting as a data processor:

To fulfil our contractual obligations with the Data Controller (in these situations the Controller will be required to identify their legal basis for processing)
- Providing advice to our clients on the IR35 / off-payroll rules in relation to a contract which you are party to.

Data Security

Where we are acting as Data Processors we will only use the information for the purpose set out in our contractual agreement with the Data Controller. Steps have been taken to limit the information we require to fulfil this purpose and, if we receive any information we do not require, this will be deleted and/or returned to the Data Controller securely. We and the Data Controller both have a requirement to put in place appropriate security measures to protect the information that has been shared.

If you fail to provide personal information

If you fail to provide certain information when requested, we may not be able to perform the contract we have entered into with you (such as providing our services to you or your business), or we may be prevented from complying with our legal or regulatory obligations (such as to report financial impropriety in relation to anti-money laundering),

Change of purpose

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

HOW WE USE PARTICULARLY SENSITIVE PERSONAL INFORMATION

“Special categories” of particularly sensitive personal information require higher levels of protection. We need to have further justification for collecting, storing and using this type of personal information. We may process special categories of personal information with your explicit written consent.

Less commonly, we may process this type of information where it is needed in relation to legal claims or where it is needed to protect your interests (or someone else’s interests) and you are not capable of giving your consent, or where you have already made the information public. We may also process such information about members or former members in the course of legitimate business activities with the appropriate safeguards.

Our obligations as a Legal Services Provider

We will use information relating to leaves of absence, which may include sickness absence or health, or disability status, to advise you in relation to statutory/state benefits to which you may be entitled and/or to assist you with any legal rights or obligations you may be required to comply with.

Do we need your consent?

Usually, we will approach you for your explicit consent to allow us to process certain particularly sensitive data. We will provide you with full details of the information that we would like and the reason we need it, so that you can carefully consider whether you wish to consent. You should be aware that it is not a condition of your contract with us that you agree to any request for consent.

INFORMATION ABOUT CRIMINAL CONVICTIONS

We may only use information relating to criminal convictions where the law allows us to do so. This will usually be where such processing is necessary to carry out our obligations and provided we do so in line with our privacy policy.

Less commonly, we may use information relating to criminal convictions where it is necessary in relation to legal claims, where it is necessary to protect your interests (or someone else’s interests) and you are not capable of giving your consent, or where you have already made the information public.

We may also process such information about customers or former customers in the course of legitimate business activities with the appropriate safeguards.

We do not envisage that we will hold information about criminal convictions unless there are exceptional circumstances.

We will only collect information about criminal convictions if it is appropriate given the nature of the services we provide and where we are legally able to do so. Where appropriate, we will collect information about criminal convictions as part of the initial engagement process or otherwise throughout our engagement. We will use information about criminal convictions and offences to provide legal advice to you/ your business in accordance with the terms of our engagement and/or your ongoing instructions to us.

We are allowed to use your personal information in this way to carry out our obligations during our engagement and in compliance with legal obligations.

AUTOMATED DECISION-MAKING

Automated decision-making takes place when an electronic system uses personal information to make a decision without human intervention. We are allowed to use automated decision-making in the following circumstances:

Where we have notified you of the decision and given you 21 days to request a reconsideration.
Where it is necessary to perform the contract with you and appropriate measures are in place to safeguard your rights.
In limited circumstances, with your explicit written consent and where appropriate measures are in place to safeguard your rights.

If we make an automated decision on the basis of any particularly sensitive personal information, we must have either your explicit written consent or it must be justified in the public interest, and we must also put in place appropriate measures to safeguard your rights.

You will not be subject to decisions that will have a significant impact on you based solely on automated decision-making, unless we have a lawful basis for doing so and we have notified you.

We may use some automated decision making in order for us to understand the information required from you in order for us to comply with our anti-money laundering obligations as we will use online search tools to assist us in the performance of Know Your Client and Identity Checking activities from time to time.

We may have to share your data with third parties, including third-party service providers and other entities in the Brookson Group.

We require third parties to respect the security of your data and to treat it in accordance with the law.

We may transfer your personal information outside the EU. If we do, you can expect a similar degree of protection in respect of your personal information.

”Third parties” includes third-party service providers (including contractors and designated agents) and other entities within our group. The following activities are carried out by third-party service providers: payroll, pension administration, benefits provision and administration, IT services, legal services, financial services. The following third-party service providers process personal information about you for the following purposes:

Brookson Legal Services Limited:	For the provision of legal support for the business during the course of your engagement with us. The reason for processing will be performance of a contract but we may also be share data to offer you products that may be of interest to you in which there is a legitimate interest to share.
Brookson Financial Limited:	Auto enrolment and pension compliance activities as well as advice and guidance on mortgages, investments and protection products and services. There is a legitimate interest to share data for this purpose.
RCAF VI Mallard Group Limited	Managerial oversight of our business, strategy and services.
FCSA Institute of Chartered Accountants of England & Wales Solicitors Regulation Authority Financial Conduct Authority	For audit and regulatory compliance activities. There is a public interest to share data for this purpose and we do so to comply with the terms of our contracts with employees and customers. These audits and regulatory activities are intended to offer additional comfort to employees and customers that we act in compliance with legal and regulatory obligations. We share payslips, contracts of employment, grievances and disciplinary data, business data, accountancy and payroll processes and information, engagement letters along with internal processes and guidance.
HMRC	For tax compliance activities. We have a legal obligation to share data for this purpose.
Recruitment businesses	To enable them to manage the assignment on which you are engaged to provide services on our behalf and comply with their legal and regulatory obligations (including quarterly off-payroll worker reports to HMRC) in relation to the same. There is a legitimate interest to share data for this purpose, it is also referenced in our contracts as an obligation that we comply with.
End clients	To whom you are engaged to provide services to enable them to manage your engagement; protect your health and safety at work; process working time and comply with their legal, regulatory and contractual obligations in relation to the same. There is a legitimate interest to share data for this purpose, it is also referenced in our contracts as an obligation that we comply with.
Credit Safe / Lexis Nexis	To assist us with our anti-money laundering checks. We have a legal obligation to share data for this purpose, it is also referenced in our contracts as an obligation that we comply with.
Solicitors and legal advisors	To provide legal advice and services to our business. Our solicitors include Lewis Silkin LLP, Littler Global, Reach Commercial Finance Limited (t/a Leonard Curtis)
Kingsbridge Risk Solutions Limited	To support your business with insurance requirements in order for you to comply with best corporate governance or legal obligations. There is a legitimate interest to share data for this purpose.
Zempler Bank	To provide banking services to your business which work seamlessly with our online services. There is a legitimate interest to share data for this purpose.
Other banking providers / banking partners from time to time	To provide banking services to your business and which may work seamlessly with our online services. There is a legitimate interest to share data for this purpose.
GoTo	For the provision of telecommunication services and recording facilities.
SafeRec	To provide payslip reviewing and auditing services for group businesses to ensure they are calculated appropriately with details of our audits and reviews provided to recruitment businesses that we work with from time to time. We provide SafeRec with details of payslips, employee names, addresses and dates of birth, recruitment businesses that we work with, tax codes and ensure there are appropriate confidentiality provisions in place to protect the data.
Accountants and auditors	We work with accountants such as EY, Grant Thornton and RSM to provide tax, accountancy and financial audits for our group businesses. We provide our accountants and auditors with details of payroll, employees, customers, tax references, addresses and dates of birth, litigation, customer queries and ensure there are appropriate confidentiality provisions in place.
Fair Work Agency, ACAS, Employment Agency Standards Inspectorate	We share employee and customer data to comply with legal and regulatory obligations. Information can include contracts of employment, payroll information, tax codes, name, addresses and dates of birth

How secure is my information with third-party service providers and other entities in our group?

All our third-party service providers and other entities in the group are required to take appropriate security measures to protect your personal information in line with our policies. We do not allow our third-party service providers to use your personal data for their own purposes. We only permit them to process your personal data for specified purposes and in accordance with our instructions.

When might you share my personal information with other entities in the group?

We will share your personal information with other entities in our group as part of our regular operations, to provide information about services and support available to you or your business and reporting activities on company performance, in the context of a business reorganisation or group restructuring exercise, for system maintenance support and hosting of data, for back office support and legal support.

What about other third parties?

We may share your personal information with other third parties, for example in the context of the possible sale or restructuring of the Brookson Group; and regulatory compliance activities (as a member of Solicitors’ Regulation Authority).

DATA SECURITY

We have put in place measures to protect the security of your information. Details of these measures are available upon request.

Third parties will only process your personal information on our instructions and where they have agreed to treat the information confidentially and to keep it secure.

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

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.

DATA RETENTION

How long will you use my information for?

We will only retain your personal information for as long as necessary to fulfil the purposes we collected it for, including for the purposes of satisfying any legal or reporting requirements. Details of retention periods for different aspects of your personal information are available in our data retention policy which is available from our Group Data Protection Officer by emailing dpo@brookson.co.uk. To determine the appropriate retention period for personal data, we consider the amount, nature, and sensitivity of the personal data, the potential risk of harm from unauthorised use or disclosure of your personal data, the purposes for which we process your personal data and whether we can achieve those purposes through other means, and the applicable legal requirements.

In some circumstances we may anonymise your personal information so that it can no longer be associated with you, in which case we may use such information without further notice to you. Once you are no longer an employee, worker, contractor or customer of the company we will retain and securely destroy your personal information in accordance with our data retention policy or applicable laws and regulations (where appropriate).

RIGHTS OF ACCESS, CORRECTION, ERASURE, AND RESTRICTION

Your duty to inform us of changes

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

Your rights in connection with personal information

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

Request access to your personal information (commonly known as a “data subject access request”). This enables you to receive a copy of the personal information we hold about you and to check that we are lawfully processing it.
Request correction of the personal information to ensure it remains accurate and up to date.
Request erasure of some or all of your information which we hold on you, subject to us complying with our legal and regulatory obligations which may override your right to request erasure.
Right to request that we cease processing some or all of your information, in whole or in part, subject to our legal and regulatory obligations which may override your right to request that we either pause our processing activities or cease processing your personal data entirely.
Right to request that your data is transferred to a third party (portability) in the event that you look to use the services of a third party (such as if you chose to use another accountant or apply for a mortgage), we will share data relating to your engagement with us with such third party (for example, your new accountant or mortgage provider), upon request.
Right to object to some or all of your data no longer being processed by us (either temporarily or permanently). This will be subject to our legal and regulatory obligations which may override your right to request this, but we will ensure that such obligations and or/legitimate interest or ours (or others) are sufficiently compelling in order to override you rights in this regard.
If we use automated decision making or profiling you will be able to request manual/human intervention to ensure appropriate decisions are taken or advice provided.

No fee usually required

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

What we may need from you

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.

RIGHT TO WITHDRAW CONSENT

In the limited circumstances where you may have provided your consent to the collection, processing and transfer of your personal information for a specific purpose, you have the right to withdraw your consent for that specific processing at any time. To withdraw your consent, please email contact@brooksonlegalservices.co.uk. Once we have received notification that you have withdrawn your consent, we will no longer process your information for the purpose or purposes you originally agreed to, unless we have another legitimate basis for doing so in law.

DATA PROTECTION OFFICER

We have appointed a data protection officer (DPO) to oversee compliance with this privacy notice. If you have any questions about this privacy notice or how we handle your personal information, please contact the DPO by emailing dpo@brookson.co.uk. You have the right to make a complaint at any time to the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO), the UK supervisory authority for data protection issues.

CHANGES TO THIS PRIVACY NOTICE

We reserve the right to update this privacy notice at any time, and we will provide you with a new privacy notice when we make any substantial updates. We may also notify you in other ways from time to time about the processing of your personal information.

If you have any questions about this privacy notice, please do not hesitate to contact your legal advisor.

Terms & Conditions

1. Location & Hours of Business
Our office location is clearly stated on all correspondence from us. The office is open from Monday to Friday, 8.00 a.m. until 6.00 p.m. Alternatively, you can email the person who has care and conduct of your matter directly and they will respond during office hours.

2. Appointment
Should you wish to visit the office, please contact us and someone will arrange an appointment for you at a mutually convenient time.

3. Standard of Service
We endeavour to provide you with a friendly and efficient service and aim to ensure that we meet your expectations in terms of the service to be provided with the right level and area of expertise. In particular;

We will always act in your best interests and give you our best advice;
We will update you with progress on your matter regularly, and keep you informed of any changes in the law, circumstances or risk which may have an effect on the matter;
We will explain to you the legal work that is required as your matter progresses and the likely timescale and costs involved.
We are regulated by the Solicitors Regulation Authority and abide by the Solicitors Code of Conduct. Details of the Solicitors Code of Conduct can be accessed at: http://www.sra.org.uk/solicitors/code-of-conduct.page

4. Our Responsibilities
We are confident that we will provide you with a friendly and efficient service. The person dealing with your work is set out in the accompanying letter and we will work hard to avoid changing the people that you deal with. If this cannot be avoided we will notify you as soon as practicable of the name and status of that person.

5. Your Responsibilities
To assist us in providing an efficient and effective service, we ask that you:

Provide us with clear, timely and accurate instructions;
Provide all documentation required to complete the transaction in a timely manner;
Safeguard any documents that are likely to have an effect on the work being carried out;
Not ask us to carry out unrealistic instructions or to work in an improper or unreasonable way;
Not deliberately mislead us;
Cooperate with us as much as possible.

6. Liability
We hold professional indemnity insurance in the best interests of our clients. Details of our insurer are as follows:

Travelers Insurance Company Limited
61-63 London Road
Redhill
Surrey
RH1 1NA

Full details of our insurance policy can be found at our registered office.

Our liability to you for a breach of your instructions shall be limited to 3 million unless we expressly state a higher amount in our Engagement Letter. We will not be liable for any consequential, special, indirect or exemplary damages, costs or losses or any damages, costs or losses attributable to lost profits or opportunities, whether by post, fax or email, being misdirected or intercepted by third parties.

We can only limit our liability to the extent the law allows. In particular, we cannot limit our liability for death or personal injury caused by our negligence.

7. Charges and Expenses

We offer sensible and realistic fees which you are responsible for paying. Wherever possible, we will calculate our charges on a fixed fee basis which will be detailed in the Engagement Letter that we agree with you. The charges that we have provided to you in relation to your matter cover the work that we have been instructed to carry out. However such charges may increase depending on the type of case that we are carrying out, its importance and the complexity involved in carrying out the work. Additionally, if we are instructed to carry out further work by you then we will provide you with an estimate of what the revised charges will be.

You are expected to pay for the full cost of the matter regardless of whether we have been successful or not.

If your instructions mean that we have to work outside normal working hours then we reserve the right to increase our charges. You will be notified in writing of any such increase.

Should we incur any additional expenses (disbursements) we reserve the right to only pay them when we have received confirmation from you that you will refund such additional costs or agree to pay such costs in advance of them being incurred.

8. Invoices & Payment Terms

Invoices provided by us will clearly show the work that is being charged for.

We will provide you with regular invoices to help you to keep on top of the charges we incur on your behalf. Where disbursements are incurred, we reserve the right to send you an invoice immediate upon those disbursements being paid or falling due.

We will provide invoices to you at timely intervals during the matter. However, where we have agreed a fixed fee for a matter, we reserve the right to submit our invoice at the outset of the matter.

All our invoices require immediate payment and we reserve the right to obtain money on account of some or all of our charges in advance (“payment on account”). We may also require payment of disbursements before they are incurred.

VAT will be charged on all our invoices and our VAT registration number is 165 4734 91.

9. Communication, Data Protection & Client Confidentiality

We will communicate with you by the most appropriate means, be it by telephone, email, via the Brookson Connect Portal, Brookson or post.

We use the information you provide primarily for the provision of legal services to you and for related purposes including:

updating and enhancing client records
analysis to help us manage our practice
statutory returns
legal and regulatory risk analysis and compliance

Our use of the information you provide is subject to your instructions, the Data Protection Act 2018 and our duty of confidentiality. Please note that our work for you may require us to give information to third parties such as your accountants, expert witnesses and other professional advisers which may be working for you. By providing us with your instructions you agree to information being disclosed as appropriate. We will notify you in the event that we need to share information with a third party. You may withdraw your consent at anytime by notifying us by post, fax, telephone call or email and this will not affect the quality of the service you receive from us. You have a right of access under data protection legislation to the personal data that we hold about you.

Solicitors are under a professional and legal obligation to keep the affairs of the client confidential. This obligation, however, is subject to a statutory exception: recent legislation on money launder and terrorist financing has placed solicitors under a legal duty in certain circumstances to disclose information to the Serious Organised Crime Agency. Where a solicitor knows or suspects that a transaction on behalf of a client involves money laundering, the solicitor may be required to make a money laundering disclosure.

If, whilst we are acting for you, it becomes necessary to make a money laundering disclosure, we may not be able to inform you that a disclosure has been made or the reasons for it.

10. Conflicts of Interest

We try our best to avoid conflicts of interest, but they are inevitable in some transactions. In the event of a conflict of interest arising at any point during the transaction, we will notify you of the conflict of interest and may be required to cease to act on your behalf for the remainder of the transaction. We will co-operate with you insofar as we are permitted to do so by the Solicitors’ Code of Conduct 2019 to minimise any disruption caused by the conflict of interest.

In the event of a conflict of interest between you and Brookson Limited, Brookson Solutions Limited, Brookson Insurance Services, Brookson Financial Services Limited, or Brookson CIS Limited or any other part of the Brookson Group, we will decline to act for both parties.

Any advice that we give to you will be independent of any Brookson company and will be tailored to your circumstances. You are free to raise questions on all aspects of the transaction.

11. Anti-Money Laundering

The law requires solicitors to get satisfactory evidence of the identity of their clients and sometimes people related to them. This is because solicitors who deal with money and property on behalf of their client can be used by criminals wanting to launder money.

To comply with the law, we will need to get evidence of your identity as soon as possible. We may also carry out electronic searches from information provided by leading agencies. In the even that we incur any fees in relation to these searches, we reserve the right to pass these charges on to you as a disbursement. We will of course inform you of these charges and ensure that you are happy to cover the costs before the charge is incurred.

If you cannot provide us with the specific identification requested, please contact us as soon as possible to discuss other ways to verify your identity.

12. Equality and Diversity

Brookson Legal Services is committed to promoting equality and diversity in all of its dealing with clients, third parties and employees. Please contact us if you would like a copy of our equality and diversity policy.

13. Storage of documents

After completing the work, we will be entitled to keep all your papers and documents while there is still money owed to us for fees and expenses.

We will keep a file of your papers for up to 6 years, except those papers that you ask to be returned to you. We keep files on the understanding that we can destroy them 7 years after the date of the final bill. We will not destroy documents you ask us to deposit in safe custody, but there may be additional charges for this.

If we take papers or documents out of storage in relation to continuing or new instructions to act for you, we will not normally charge for such retrieval. However we may charge you for:

Time spent producing stored papers that are requested;

Reading, correspondence or other work necessary to comply with your instructions in relation to the retrieved papers.

14. Financial Arrangements

Our practice’s policy is to only accept payments from clients in the form of a direct bank transfer. It is therefore essential that you provide the reference printed on all of our correspondence anytime you pay money to us.

Where we have to pay money to you, it will be paid by cheque or bank transfer. It will not be paid in cash or to a third party.

Some clients are introduced to us from third parties (including businesses within the Brookson Group or recruitment businesses). In some instances, we pay for these introductions. Such payments range up to 10% of our fee income; or where our fees are based on a percentage of the total cost by a client to engage contractors’ services (including service fees, salary, taxes, agency fees, National Insurance Contributions, pensions and Apprenticeship Levy payments, where applicable), our referral payments may amount to up to 0.5% of this cost. As our referral payments vary from client to client, we can not specify the amount to be paid in each instance, but they will always be calculated based on the above methods and full details of payments made for your instructions will be provided upon request.

We share business premises and have a financial arrangement in place with Brookson Limited for the use of equipment, secondment of staff and the use of business services (such as HR services and Information Technology). We also share common ownership with other businesses within the Brookson Group.

Whilst these financial arrangements may involve us paying monies to other Brookson Group Companies (including Brookson Limited, Brookson Projects Limited, +Us Workforce Services LLP and/or Brookson Group Limited) in respect of these items, it is not possible to quantify the amount paid by reference to any specific introduction as we do not pay Brookson Group companies for client referrals made to us, nor do we receive payment for any client referrals.

Any information you disclose to us will not be disclosed to any third party without your prior written consent. Where our Engagement Letter provides that we will provide documentation/information to a third party, you signing and returning the Engagement Letter to us will be taken as your express written consent to such information being disclosed. Alternatively, continuing to instruct us without disputing our Engagement Letter will also confirm your consent to information being disclosed. You can withdraw your consent at any time by notifying us in writing or over the telephone.

The advice we provide will be independent and specific to your circumstances. You are free to raise questions at any time in relation to any aspect of the transaction.

15. Complaints handling procedure

We are confident of providing a high quality service in all respects. However, if you have any queries or concerns regarding the services that you are receiving please raise these concerns in the first instance with the person that is dealing with the everyday conduct of the matter concerned. If that does not resolve the problem then you may raise your concerns with Matt Fryer who is the Group Compliance Director. If you are not satisfied with our handling of your complaint you can ask the Legal Ombudsman (at Legal Ombudsman, PO Box 6806 Wolverhampton WV1 9WJ) to consider the complaint or the Solicitors Regulation Authority. Normally, you will need to bring a complaint to the Legal Ombudsman within six months of receiving a final written response from us about your complaint.

We have a procedure in place which details how we handle complaints which is available on our website or otherwise upon request.

All correspondence relating to complaints should be sent to our registered office at: 320 Firecrest Court, Centre Park, Warrington, WA1 1RG.

16. Distance Selling

In the event that we do not meet with you, the Consumer Protection (Distance Selling) Regulations 2000 may apply to this matter. This means you may have the right to cancel your instructions to us within seven working days of receiving this letter. You can cancel your instructions by contacting us by post to this office or by sending an email to contact@brooksonlegalservices.co.uk

Once we have started work on your file, you may be charged if you then cancel your instructions. We will start work on your file when we receive either:

your signed Engagement Letter confirming your instructions; or
payment from you

17. Termination

You may terminate your instructions to us in writing at any time, but we can keep all your papers and documents while there is still money owed to us for fees and expenses.

We may decide to stop acting for you only with good reason, e.g. if you do fail to pay an interim bill or there is a conflict of interest. We will give you at written notice of our intention to cease to act on your behalf.

If either of us decides that Brookson Legal Services should stop acting for you, you agree to pay our charges up until that point. If either of us decides to that Brookson Legal Services should stop acting for you, you agree to pay our charges up until that point. Such charges are detailed in the Engagement Letter.

18. Data Protection

In this paragraph 18, the following definitions shall apply:

‘Client Personal Data’ means any personal data provided to us by you, or on your behalf, for the purpose of providing our services to you, pursuant to our Engagement Letter with you;
‘Data Protection Legislation’ means all applicable privacy and data protection legislation and regulations including PECR, the GDPR, the Data Protection Act 2018 and any other applicable national laws, regulations and secondary legislation in the UK relating to the processing of personal data and the privacy of electronic communications, as amended, replaced or updated from time to time;
‘Controller’, ‘Data Subject’, ‘Personal Data’, ‘Process’ and ‘Processor’ shall have the meanings given to them in the Data Protection Legislation;
‘Sub-processor’ means a Processor engaged by us to carry out some or all of the obligations imposed on us under the terms of this engagement
‘GDPR’ means the General Data Protection Regulation ((EU) 2016/679); and
‘PECR’ means the Privacy and Electronic Communications (EC Directive) Regulations 2003 (SI 2426/2003).

You shall be considered to be the Data Controller in relation to the Client Personal Data and we are the Data Processor. Each of us will comply with all requirements and obligations applicable to us under the Data Protection Legislation in respect of the Client Personal Data.

You shall only disclose Client Personal Data to us where:

you have provided the necessary information to the relevant Data Subjects regarding its use (and you may use or refer to our Privacy Notice available at https://brooksonlegal.co.uk/about-us)
you have a lawful basis upon which to do so, which, in the absence of any other lawful basis, shall be with the relevant Data Subject’s consent; and
you have complied with the necessary requirements under the Data Protection Legislation to enable you to do so.

Should you require any further details regarding our treatment of Personal Data, please contact our Data Protection Officer by emailing: DPO@brookson.co.uk

We shall only process the Client Personal Data:

in order to provide our services to you and perform any other obligations in accordance with our engagement with you; and
in order to comply with our legal or regulatory obligations.

In relation to any Personal Data processed in connection with our engagement with you, we shall ensure that reasonable steps are taken to ensure the reliability and the integrity of any individual who has access to the Personal Data and ensure that they:

are aware of and comply with our duties under this clause;
are subject to appropriate confidentiality undertakings;
are informed of the confidential nature of the Personal Data and do not publish, disclose or divulge any of the Personal Data to any third party unless directed in writing to do so by the Controller or as otherwise permitted by our engagement with you; and
have undergone adequate training in the use, care protection, and handling of Personal Data.

For the purposes of our engagement with you and in accordance with your instructions we will Process the following types of Personal Data:

First and Surnames of individual workers;
First and Surname of client managers/client points of contact;
Rates of pay;
Telephone Numbers;
Email Addresses;
Job titles;
Work location of the worker; and
Any other types of Personal Data that may be necessary in order for us to fulfil our obligations in relation to our engagement with you.

For the purpose of providing our services to you, pursuant to our Engagement Letter, we may disclose the Client Personal Data to our regulatory bodies (such as the Law Society or Solicitors Regulation Authority) or other third parties (for example, our professional advisors or service providers), the courts or other third parties as required by law or regulatory authority from time to time.

Third parties to whom we disclose such Personal Data may be located outside of the European Economic Area (EEA).

We will only disclose Client Personal Data to a third party (including a third party outside of the EEA) provided that the transfer is undertaken in compliance with the Data Protection Legislation.

We may disclose the Client Personal Data to other third parties in the context of a possible sale, merger, restructuring or financing of or investment in our business. In this event we will take appropriate measures to ensure that the security of the Client Personal Data continues to be ensured in accordance with Data Protection Legislation. If a change happens to our business, then the new owners may use our Client Personal Data in the same way as set out in these terms.

Before allowing any Sub-Processor to process any Personal Data in relation to our engagement with you, we will:

notify you in writing of the intended Sub-processor and processing;
obtain your written consent;
enter into a written agreement with the Sub-processor which gives effect to the terms set out in this Schedule such that they apply to the Sub-processor; and
provide you with such information regarding the Sub-processor as you may reasonably require.

We shall remain fully liable for all acts or omissions of any Sub-processor.

We shall maintain commercially reasonable and appropriate security measures, including administrative, physical and technical safeguards, to protect against unauthorised or unlawful processing of the Client Personal Data and against accidental loss or destruction of, or damage to, the Client Personal Data.

In respect of the Client Personal Data, and provided that we are legally permitted to do so, we shall promptly notify you and provide our full assistance in the event that:

we receive a request, complaint or any adverse correspondence from or on behalf of a relevant Data Subject, to exercise their Data Subject rights under the Data Protection Legislation or in respect of our processing of their Personal Data;
we are served with an information, enforcement or assessment notice (or any similar notices), or receive any other material communication in respect of our processing of the Client Personal Data from a supervisory authority as defined in the Data Protection Legislation (for example in the UK, the Information Commissioner’s Officer or the Solicitors Regulation Authority); or
we reasonably believe that there has been any incident which resulted in the accidental or unauthorised access to, or destruction, loss, unauthorised disclosure or alteration of, the Client Personal Data.

Our above obligation to notify shall include the provision of further information to you in phases, as details become available.

We each agree to maintain complete and accurate records and information to demonstrate compliance with this clause 18. Upon the reasonable request of the other, we shall each co-operate with the other and take such reasonable commercial steps or provide such information as is necessary to enable each of us to comply with the Data Protection Legislation in respect of the services provided to you in accordance with our Engagement Letter with you in relation to those services.

Upon your written direction, we will delete or return Personal Data (and any copies of such) to you on termination of our engagement with you, unless we are required by law or regulatory authority to retain the Personal Data.

Either party may, at any time on not less than 30 working days notice, revise this clause 18 by replacing it with any applicable Controller to Processor standard clauses or similar terms forming part of an applicable certification scheme (which shall apply when incorporated by attachment to this agreement).

Both parties agree to take account of any guidance issued by the Information Commissioner’s Office. Either party may on not less than 30 working days notice to the other party amend this agreement to ensure that it complies with any guidance issued by the Information Commissioner’s Office.

19. Applicable Law

We provide advice based on English law, legal principles and precedents. Accordingly, we are unable to provide any advice on the law applicable to other jurisdictions including (but not limited to) Scotland and Ireland). In the event that you require advice on the law relating to jurisdictions outside of England or Wales, we recommend that you seek legal advice from a local professional.

Any dispute or legal issue arising from our terms of business will be determined by the law of England and Wales, and considered exclusively by the English and Welsh courts.

20. Acceptance

Your continuing instructions will amount to acceptance of these Terms and we hope that the information set out in these Terms has been of assistance to you.

Our aim is to provide you with a friendly and efficient service and we aim to ensure that we meet your expectations in terms of the service to be provided with the right level and area of expertise. In particular;

We will always act in your best interests and give you our best advice;
We will update you with progress on your matter regularly, and keep you informed of any changes in the law, circumstances or risk which may have an effect on the matter;
We will explain to you the legal work that is required as your matter progresses and the likely timescale and costs involved.
We are regulated by the Solicitors Regulation Authority and abide by the Solicitors Code of Conduct. Details of the Solicitors Code of Conduct can be accessed at http://www.sra.org.uk/solicitors/code-of-conduct.page

Modern Slavery Statement

Introduction from the CEO

We are committed to acting in an ethical manner and are aware of our obligations to assist in eradicating modern slavery and human trafficking.

We are aware that by taking a best practice approach, this will aid with combatting slavery and human trafficking and ensure as a business we respect people and the communities in which they live. In addition, it is essential that our suppliers understand and appreciate the standards of business conduct that are expected of any company that we do business with and we only seek to engage with reputable organisations.

Organisation’s Structure

Our Businesses provide accountancy, financial, legal and business support services in various sectors within the UK labour market. We have our head office in Warrington and the Brookson Group has over 4,500 employees. We primarily operate in the United Kingdom, with some overseas travel being undertaken as and when required.

Our Businesses

Brookson Financial Limited – independent financial advisory services to temporary workers, personal service companies and micro-businesses in the UK.
Brookson Limited – an accountancy practice providing specialist business support services to micro-businesses and personal services companies in the UK, as well as payroll services and back office support services to small, medium and large UK based businesses.
Brookson Legal Services Limited – a legal practice providing specialist legal support services to micro-businesses, personal service companies and public and private organisations throughout the UK.
Intouch Accounting Limited – an accountancy practice providing specialist business support services contractors and personal services companies in the UK.
Boomerang Support Services Limited – back office support for UK recruitment businesses.

Our Supply Chains

Our supply chains include the below who operate and specialise in various sectors within the UK and have a requirement for skilled labour, services and/or personnel:

Recruitment Businesses
End-Hirers in the public and private sector
Contractors operating via a personal service company

Our Policies on Slavery and Human Trafficking

Our Modern Slavery Policy reflects our commitment to acting ethically and with integrity in all our business relationships and to implementing and enforcing effective systems and controls to ensure slavery and human trafficking is not taking place anywhere within our business or supply chains.

Due Diligence Processes for Slavery and Human Trafficking

We undertake comprehensive ‘Know Your Client’ checks on all new clients across our Businesses to ensure we are only engaging with reputable organisations.

We have in place processes and systems to:

Identify and assess potential risk areas in our supply chains with the use of an escalation process through our Compliance Team.
Mitigate the risk of slavery and human trafficking occurring in our supply chains.
Monitor potential risk areas in our supply chains.
Report potential instances of modern slavery and human trafficking.
Protect whistle blowers.

Supplier Adherence to Our Ethics

We have zero tolerance to slavery and human trafficking and we are keen to ensure that all those in our supply chain comply with our ethics.

We have a dedicated Compliance Team, which consists of senior personnel from legal and accountancy businesses within the Group and this team will field any queries or comments from suppliers, customers, employees or regulators in relation to our approach to combatting slavery and human trafficking.

Training

To ensure a high level of understanding of the risks of modern slavery and human trafficking in our supply chains and our business, we provide ongoing training to our staff. Training is also provided to all new employees to ensure they are aware of our stance on preventing slavery and human trafficking within the businesses and supply chains and how to identify if someone is being trafficked.

This statement is made pursuant to section 54(1) of the Modern Slavery Act 2015 and constitutes our Group’s slavery and human trafficking statement for the financial year ending 30 September 2022.

Andrew Fahey
Chief Executive Officer

Complaints Procedure

Brookson Legal Services (BLS) is committed to providing a high quality legal service to all our clients. When something goes wrong, we need you to tell us about it. This will help us to improve our standards.

A complaint may be made to BLS about any matter connected with the exercise of the BLS functions or by anyone affected by the actions of BLS. This policy and the supporting procedures aims to:

Find out what happened
Satisfy the complainant that their concerns have been addressed, and involve them in decisions about how their complaint is handled
Make sure a complainant receives an apology where this is appropriate in line with the Principles for Remedy
Take into account the outcome of any investigation from the complaints in order to improve the way the BLS functions

Our complaints handling procedure

We are confident of providing a high quality service in all respects. However, if you have any queries or concerns regarding the services that you are receiving please raise these concerns in the first instance with the person that is dealing with the everyday conduct of the matter concerned. If that does not resolve the problem then you may raise your concerns with Carl Henning who is the Group Compliance Manager. If you are not satisfied with our handling of your complaint you can ask the Legal Ombudsman (at Legal Ombudsman, PO Box 6806 Wolverhampton WV1 9WJ) to consider the complaint or the Solicitors Regulation Authority. Normally, you will need to bring a complaint to the Legal Ombudsman within six months of receiving a final written response from us about your complaint.

All correspondence relating to complaints should be sent to our registered office at: 320 Firecrest Court, Centre Park, Warrington, WA1 1RG.

What will happen when you raise a concern with us?

We will send you a letter acknowledging receipt of your complaint and enclose a copy of this procedure. If you have any special needs to requirements in relation to your complaint (for example you require documents in braille) please let us know as soon as you raise an issue with us.
We will then investigate your complaint. This will normally involve passing your complaint to our Complaints Officer, who will review your matter file and speak to the member of staff who acted for you.
The Complaints Officer will then invite you to a meeting to discuss and, it is hoped, resolve your complaint. They will do this within a reasonable period of sending you the acknowledgement letter.
Following the meeting, the Complaints Officer will write to you to confirm what took place and any solutions agreed with you.
If you do not want a meeting or it is not possible, the Complaints Officer will send you a written reply to your complaint, including any suggestions for resolving the matter, within 30 days of sending you the acknowledgement letter.
At this stage, if you are still not satisfied, you should contact us again to explain why you remain unhappy with our response and we will review your comments. Depending on the matter we may at this stage arrange for another manager to review the matter.
We will write to you within 21 days of receiving your request for a review, confirming our final position on your complaint and explaining our reasons.
If we have to change any of the timescales above, we will let you know and explain why.
If you are still not satisfied, you can then contact the Legal Ombudsman (using the contact details below) about your complaint. They will look at your complaint independently and it will not affect how we handle your case.
Before accepting a complaint for investigation, the Legal Ombudsman will check that you have tried to resolve your complaint with us first. If you have, then you must take your complaint to the Legal Ombudsman:

– Within six months of receiving a final response to your complaint
and
– No more than six years from the date of act/omission; or
– No more than three years from when you should reasonably have known there was cause for complaint.

If you would like more information about the Legal Ombudsman, please contact them using the following contact information:

Legal Ombudsman contact details:

Visit: www.legalombudsman.org.uk

Call: 0300 555 0333 between 9am to 5pm.

Email: enquiries@legalombudsman.org.uk

Legal Ombudsman PO Box 6806, Wolverhampton, WV1 9WJ

The Legal Ombudsman has also produced a leaflet entitled “Making a complaint” which is available from www.legalombudsman.org.uk/aboutus/publications.html.

The Solicitors Regulation Authority can help you if you are concerned about our behaviour. This could be for things like dishonesty, taking or losing your money or treating you unfairly because of your age, a disability or other characteristic.

You can raise your concerns with the Solicitors Regulation Authority directly using the following link: sra.org.uk/consumers/problems/report-solicitor/