Last Updated 17 December 2021

LMJ Accountants Limited is dedicated to protecting the confidentiality and privacy of information entrusted to us in accordance with the EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and the UK Data Protection Act 2018. Please read this Privacy Policy abbreviated as “Policy” to learn about your rights, what information we collect, how we use and protect it.

This Policy

This Policy applies to LMJ Accountants Limited and explains when and why we collect personal information about people who visit our website, how we use it, the conditions under which we may disclose it to others and how we keep it secure.

We may change this Policy from time to time so please check this page occasionally to ensure that you’re happy with any changes. By using our website, you’re agreeing to be bound by this Policy.

Contact for privacy questions or concerns

Any questions regarding this Policy and our privacy practices should be sent by email to info@lmjaccountants.co.uk or by writing to LMJ Accountants Limited, Basepoint Business Centre, 110 Butterfield, Great Marlings, Luton, LU2 8DL. Alternatively, you can call us on 03303905959. We aim to respond within 30 days from the date we receive privacy-related communications.

You may contact the UK Information Commissioner’s Office at https://ico.org.uk/concerns/handling/ to report concerns you may have about our data handling practices.

How do we collect personal data?

DIRECT SOURCED DATA: We obtain personal data directly from individuals in a variety of ways, including obtaining personal data from individuals who provide us with their business card(s), complete our online forms, subscribe to our newsletters and preference centre, register for webinars, attend meetings or events we host, visit our offices or for recruitment purposes. We may also obtain personal data directly when, for example, we are establishing a business relationship, performing professional services through a contract, or through our hosted software applications.

INDIRECT SOURCED DATA: We obtain personal data indirectly about individuals from a variety of sources, including recruitment services and our clients. We may attach personal data to our customer relationship management records to better understand and serve our business clients, subscribers and individuals, satisfy a legal obligation, or pursue our legitimate interests.

  • Public sources — Personal data may be obtained from public registers (such as Companies House), news articles, sanctions list, and Internet searches.
  • Social and professional networking sites — If you register or login to our websites using social media (e.g., LinkedIn, Google, or Twitter) to authenticate your identity and connect your social media login information with us, we will collect information or content needed for the registration or login that you permitted your social media provider to share with us. That information may include your name and email address and depending on your privacy settings, additional details about you, so please review the privacy controls on the applicable service to set how much information you want shared with us.
  • Business clients — Our business clients may engage us to perform professional services which involves sharing personal data they control as part of that engagement. For example, we will process and/or payroll data as part of a service and we often need to use personal data to provide global mobility and pension services. Our services may also include processing personal data under our clients’ control on our hosted software applications, which may be governed by different privacy terms, policies and notices.
  • Recruitment services. We may obtain personal data about candidates from an employment agency, and other parties including former employers, and credit reference agencies.

What categories of personal data do we collect?

We may obtain the following categories of personal data about individuals through direct interactions with us, or from information provided through client engagements, from applicants, our suppliers and through other situations including those described in this Privacy Notice.

Personal data. Here is a list of personal data we commonly collect to conduct our business activities.

  • Contact details (e.g., name, company name, job title, work and mobile telephone numbers, work and personal email and postal address).
  • Professional details (e.g., job and career history, educational background and professional memberships, published articles).
  • Family and beneficiary details for insurance and pension planning services (e.g., names and dates of birth).
  • Financial information (e.g., taxes, payroll, investment interests, pensions, assets, bank details, insolvency records).

Sensitive personal data. We typically do not collect sensitive or special categories of personal data about individuals other than our own employees. When we do need to process sensitive personal data from data subjects who are not our employees, it is either on the instructions of a third party, with the express consent of the individuals or as required by law. Examples of sensitive personal data we may obtain, or otherwise hold, include:

  • Personal identification documents that may reveal race, religion or ethnic origin, possibly biometric data of private individuals, beneficial owners of corporate entities, or applicants.
  • Expense receipts submitted for individual tax or accounting advice that reveal affiliations with trade unions or political opinions.
  • Adverse information about potential or existing clients and applicants that may reveal criminal convictions or offences information.
  • Information provided to us by our clients in the course of a professional engagement.

What type of information is collected from you?

The personal information we collect might include your name, address, email address, IP address, and information regarding what pages are accessed and when.

How is your information used?

We may rely on the following lawful reasons when we collect and use personal data to operate our business and provide our products and services:

  • send you information and communications which you have requested and/or that may be of interest such as changes in legislation, business advice and promotions of our services;
  • to perform our contractual obligations owed to (or to enter into a contract with) the relevant individuals/businesses;
  • seek your feedback or comments on the services we provide;
  • notify you of changes to our services and products;
  • deliver timely market insights and speciality knowledge we believe is welcomed by our business clients, subscribers and individuals who have interacted with us;
  • respond and/or process information relating to vacancies and job applications; (please see our recruitment privacy policy)
  • to meet our legal and regulatory obligations or mandates.

We are legally required to hold some types of information to fulfil our statutory obligations and we will hold your personal information on our systems for as long as is necessary for the relevant activity, or as long as is set out in any relevant contract you hold with us.

Why we need personal data?

We desire to be transparent when we collect and use personal data and tell you why we need it, which typically includes:

  • Providing professional advice and delivering reports related to our tax, accounting, advisory, company secretarial and other professional services. Our services may include compiling and reviewing client files and data for quality assurance purposes, which may involve processing personal data for the relevant client.
  • Promoting our professional services, products and capabilities to existing and prospective business clients.
  • Sending invitations and providing access to guests attending our events and webinars or our sponsored events (where applicable).
  • Personalising online landing pages and communications we think would be of interest based on interactions with us.
  • Administering, maintaining and ensuring the security of our information systems, applications and websites.
  • Authenticating registered users to certain areas of our sites.
  • Seeking qualified candidates, and forwarding candidate career inquiries to our People team, which may be governed by different privacy terms and policies.
  • Processing online requests, including responding to communications from individuals or requests for proposals and quotations.
  • Complying with legal and regulatory obligations relating to anti-money laundering, terrorist financing, fraud and other forms of financial crime.
  • Compiling health and safety data (directly or indirectly) following an incident or accident. Indirect data can take many forms including an incident report, first aider report, witness statements and CCTV footage (where applicable).

Do we share personal data with third parties?

We do not sell or rent your personal data and information to third parties. Also, we will not share your information with third parties for marketing purposes.

However, we may share personal data with trusted third-party suppliers agents subcontractors and other associated organisations for the purposes of completing tasks and providing services to you on our behalf (for example to send you mailings). The purpose is to help us deliver efficient and quality services. These recipients are contractually bound to safeguard the data we entrust to them. Hence, when we use third party service providers, we disclose only the personal information that is necessary to deliver the service and we have a contract in place that requires them to keep your information secure and not to use it for their own direct marketing purposes.

We will not release your information to third parties to use for their own direct marketing purposes, unless you have requested us to do so, or we are required to do so by law, for example, by a court order or for the purposes of prevention of fraud or other crime.

We may transfer your personal information to a third party as part of a sale of some or all of our business and assets to any third party or as part of any business restructuring or reorganisation, or if we’re under a duty to disclose or share your personal data in order to comply with any legal obligation or to enforce or apply our terms of use or to protect the rights, property or safety of our supporters and customers. However, we will take steps with the aim of ensuring that your privacy rights continue to be protected.

How you can access and update your information

It’s important for us to hold your information safely and accurately. If your email address has changed, or any of the other information we hold is inaccurate or out of date, please contact us at info@lmjaccountants.co.uk.

You have the right to ask for a copy of the information LMJ hold about you.  We may charge you a fee to cover any costs incurred in providing you with details of the information we hold about you. When the request is made, we will send you a fee notice, detailing the fees that will be charged. We will not send the information until we have received the fee.

Security precautions to protect your information and personal data

When we receive your personal information, we ensure that it’s treated securely. Any sensitive information is encrypted and protected with the following software – Encrypted with 128 bit keys on SSL. When you are on a secure page, a lock icon will appear on the bottom of web browsers such as Microsoft Internet Explorer.

Non-sensitive details (your email address etc.) are transmitted normally over the Internet, and this can never be guaranteed to be 100% secure. As a result, while we strive to protect your personal information, we cannot guarantee the security of any information you transmit to us, and you do so at your own risk. Once we receive your information, we make our best effort to ensure its security on our systems. Where we have given (or where you have chosen) a password which enables you to access certain parts of our websites, you are responsible for keeping this password confidential. We ask you not to share your password with anyone.

Do we use cookies?

Our websites uses cookies in range of ways to improve your experience on our website. Where cookies are used, a statement will be sent to your browser explaining the use of cookies. To learn more, visit allaboutcookies.

What type of cookies do we use?

There are several different types of cookie that websites use, some of these include:

Functionality cookies. These cookies automatically remember choices that users have previously made in order to improve their experience next time they visit a website. For example, where users select their preferred settings and layout.

Advertising cookies. These cookies collect information about users’ behaviour, including the contents viewed, linked followed and information about visitor’s browser, device and IP address. This information is used at individual user level to advertise products and services to users on the basis of the behavioural information collected.

Strictly necessary cookies. These are cookies that are essential to make a website work and enable features that users have specifically asked for. These types of cookies are commonly used with e-billing. Without use of cookies, these features of the website could not operate.

Performance cookies. These cookies collect anonymous information about users for the purpose of assessing the performance of a website. Common uses include well-known web analytics tools such as ‘Google Analytics’.

How to manage cookies

You can set your browser not to accept cookies, and the above website tells you how to remove cookies from your browser. However, in a few cases, some of our website features may not function as a result.

Privacy policy for other websites

Our website may contain links to other websites. Our privacy policy applies only to our website, so if you click on a link to another website, you should read their privacy policy.

Personal Information & data for Under 17’s

We take the privacy and protection of children aged under 17 very seriously. If you are aged 16 or under‚ please get your parent/guardian’s permission beforehand whenever you provide us with personal information.

Sharing Information outside UK

As part of the services offered to you through this website, the information which you provide to us may be transferred to countries outside the European Union (“EU”). These countries may not have similar data protection laws to the UK. By submitting your personal data, you’re agreeing to this transfer, storing or processing. If we transfer your information outside of the EU in this way, we will take steps to ensure that appropriate security measures are taken with the aim of ensuring that your privacy rights continue to be protected as outlined in this Policy.

What about personal data security?

We have put appropriate security policies and procedures in place to protect personal data (including sensitive personal data) from loss, misuse, alteration or destruction. We aim to ensure that access to your personal data is limited only to those who need to access it. Those individuals who have access to the data are required to maintain the confidentiality of such information. We may apply pseudonymisation, de-identification and anonymisation techniques in efforts to further protect personal data.

If you have access to parts of our websites or use our services, you remain responsible for keeping your user ID and password confidential. Please be aware that the transmission of data via the Internet is not completely secure. Whilst we do our best to try to protect the security of your personal data, we cannot ensure or guarantee the security of your data transmitted to our site; any transmission is at your own risk.

How long do we retain personal data?

We retain personal data to provide our services, stay in contact with you and to comply with applicable laws, regulations and professional obligations that we are subject to. Unless a different time frame applies as a result of business need or specific legal, regulatory or contractual requirements, where we retain personal data in accordance with these purposes, we retain such personal data for seven years.

When do we change this Privacy Notice?

We regularly review this Privacy Notice and will post any updates to it on this webpage. This Privacy Notice was last updated 10 February 2020.

What are your data protection rights? 

  • Access to your information: You can ask us to verify whether we are processing personal data about you, and if so, to provide more specific information.
  • Correcting your information:  You can ask us to correct our records if you believe they contain incorrect or incomplete information about you.
  • Deletion of your information: You can ask us to erase (delete) your personal data after you withdraw your consent to processing or when we no longer need it for the purpose it was originally collected.
  • Restricting how we may use your information: You can ask us to temporarily restrict our processing of your personal data if you contest the accuracy of your personal data, prefer to restrict its use rather than having us erase it, or need us to preserve it for you to establish, exercise, or defend a legal claim. A temporary restriction may apply while verifying whether we have overriding legitimate grounds to process it. You can ask us to inform you before we lift that temporary processing restriction.
  • Data portability: In some circumstances, where you have provided personal data to us, you can ask us to transmit that personal data (in a structured, commonly used, and machine-readable format) directly to another company if is technically feasible.
  • Objecting to how we may use your information: Where we use your personal information to perform tasks carried out in the public interest then, if you ask us to, we will stop using that personal information unless there are overriding legitimate grounds to continue.
  • Withdrawing consent to use your information: Where we use your personal information with your consent you may withdraw that consent at any time and we will stop using your personal information for the purpose(s) for which consent was given.

If you would like to exercise your Data Subject Rights, you can contact us in any of the ways set out in ‘Contact information’ below.  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 helps us to ensure that personal data is not disclosed to any person who has no right to receive it.

Contact information

In the first instance, please contact LMJ accountants, who will support and resolve your query:

LMJ Accountants Limited
Basepoint Business Centre
110 Butterfield, Great Marlings,
Luton, LU2 8DL

Telephone:  03303905959
Email: info@lmjaccountants.co.uk

 

Complaints

We seek to resolve directly all complaints about how we handle your personal information, but you also have the right to lodge a complaint with the Information Commissioner’s Office at:

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