Musa Patels LLP Solicitors take your privacy very seriously and is committed to protecting your personal date. This privacy policy outlines information on who we are and how and why we collect, store, use and share your personal data and should be read carefully. This privacy policy will also tell you about your privacy rights and how the law protects you.
We are regulated under the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) which applies across the European Union (including in the United Kingdom) from 25th May 2018 and we are responsible as ‘controller’ of that personal data for the purposes of the GDPR. Our use of your personal data is subject to your instructions, the GDPR, other relevant UK and EU legislation and our professional duty of confidentiality.

Who we are
We are Musa Patels LLP (“we”, “us”, “our”), a limited liability partnership registered in England and Wales (OC359700) and regulated by the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA registration number: 533645). Our registered address is 73 Bradford Road, Dewsbury, West Yorkshire, WF13 2EG.
We are registered with the Information Commissioners Office (“ICO”) with registration number ZA028215. This registration covers the uses of personal information set out in the privacy policy below.

We have appointed a data protection compliance manager who is responsible for overseeing questions in relation to this privacy notice. If you have any questions about this privacy notice, including any requests to exercise your legal rights, please contact the data protection compliance manager using the details set out below.

Contact details

Our full details are:
Full name of legal entity: Musa Patels LLP Solicitors Name or title of data protection compliance manager: Zafar Iqbal, Director/ Managing Partner Email address: z.iqbal@musapatels.co.uk Postal address: 73 Bradford Road, Dewsbury, West Yorkshire, WF13 2EG. Telephone number: 01924 437800

You have the right to make a complaint at any time to the ICO, the UK supervisory authority for data protection issues (www.ico.org.uk). We would, however, appreciate the chance to deal with your concerns before you approach the ICO so please contact us in the first instance. Changes to the privacy notice and your duty to inform us of changes

We may change this privacy notice from time to time. Any changes we make to this privacy notice in the future will be posted on our website and, where appropriate, notified to you by email. This version was last updated on 11th February 2019.

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

Data we collect about you
Personal data, or personal information, means any information about an individual from which that person can be identified.

We may collect, use, store and transfer different kinds of personal data about you depending on the nature of services we are providing and what we are contracted to do for you or the business on whose behalf you are acting. We may collect the following personal data from you:

• Personal Identity Data :   including first name, middle name, last name, marital status, title, date of birth, gender and photographic information (passport), national insurance number and tax details.  Personal Information in relation to your spouse/partner and dependents or other family members for example when instructed to make a will.
• Contact information including residential address, billing address, delivery address, email address and telephone numbers  Financial information including, bank accounts, payment details and source of funding for Conveyancing matters and to enable us to undertake financial checks 
• Your criminal record if we are acting for you in a criminal matter. 
• Transaction Data including details of the legal services you have instructed us in respect of
• Usage information about how you use our website and our services
  We also collect, use and share Aggregated Data such as statistical or demographic data for any purpose. Aggregated Data may be derived from your personal data but is not considered personal data in law as this data does not directly or indirectly reveal your identity. For example, we may aggregate your Usage Data to calculate the percentage of users accessing a specific website feature. However, if we combine or connect Aggregated Data with your personal data so that it can directly or indirectly identify you, we treat the combined data as personal data which will be used in accordance with this privacy notice.
• Where it is necessary to act in your best interests, and for the establishment, exercise, or defence of your legal matter (or as otherwise authorised by data protection laws), we may need to process information in accordance with this privacy notice which is sensitive in nature such as details about your race or ethnicity or information about your health. If you volunteer sensitive personal data, you will be allowing us to process it as part of instructing us in respect of our services.
• In certain circumstances, for example, where we provide personal services to you which involves children, we may need to process personal data relating to children. Where this is the case, we shall explain to you why we need the information and how it will be used, both at the time when we collect the data and as your matter progresses.If you fail to provide personal data
  Where we need to collect personal data by law, or under the terms of a contract we have with you or the business on whose behalf you are acting and you fail to provide that data when requested, it may delay our firm assisting you or we may not be able to perform the contract we have or are trying to enter into with you or the relevant business (as the case may be), for example, to provide legal services. In this case, we may have to cancel such services but we will notify you if this is the case at the time.

How your personal data is collected
However we may also collect information from:

• publicly available sources such as Companies House and HM Land Registry;
• directly from a third party, for example, sanction screening providers, credit reference agencies, client due diligence providers
• from third party with your consent, for example, bank, building societies and other financial institutions, your doctors, medical and occupational health professional, your employer or professional bodies. 
• Identity and Contact information from other parties involved in the legal matter (for example, the solicitor acting on behalf of the other party or financial institutions) and/or other professional services firms (such as accountants and tax specialists)
• via our website – we use cookies on our website. For more information on cookies, please see our cookies policy 
• via our information technology (IT) systems, for example, case management, document management and reception logs
• Technical data from analytics providers such as Google in connection with the use of our website.
• Information collected from you about others

When you provide personal information to us which does not relate directly to you but is personal information of a third party (for example, details of other officers or employees where our client is the business on whose behalf you are acting or details of family members where we are providing personal services to you), you confirm that you are authorised to do so and shall ensure that this privacy notice is brought to the attention of such individuals so that those individuals understand how their data will be used by us. We will hold and use such personal information in accordance with this privacy notice and data protection laws.

Third-party links on our website
Our website may include links to third-party websites, plug-ins and applications. Clicking on those links or enabling those connections may allow third parties to collect or share data about you. We do not control these third-party websites and are not responsible for their privacy statements. When you leave our website, we encourage you to read the privacy notice of every website you visit.

How we use your personal data
In accordance with data protection law, we will only use your personal date when the law allow us to such as in the following circumstances:

• To comply with our legal and regulatory obligations
• Where we need to perform the contract we are about to enter into or have entered into with you or to take steps at your request before entering into a contract; 
• Where it is necessary for our legitimate interest or those of third party and your interest and fundamental rights do not override those interest. 
• Where you have given consent
  A legitimate interest is when we have a business or commercial reason to use your information, so long as this is not overridden by your own rights and interests.

We do not use your information for automated decision making.
We have set out below, in a table format, what we use your personal data for and which of the legal bases (our reasoning) for doing so.

What we use your personal data for

• To provide legal services to you and to communicate with you in connection with our services. Performance of our contract with you where we have contracted directly with you or to take steps at your request before entering into a contract.
• Necessary for our legitimate interests where you are acting on behalf of a company or a limited liability partnership (LLP) (to enable us to take instructions and understand the requirements of the company or LLP and provide estimates in terms of the scope of work involved)
• To conduct checks to identify our clients and verify their identity and record you/your business as a new client.
• Screening for financial and other sanctions or embargoes
• Other processing necessary to comply with professional, legal and regulatory obligation that apply to our business,
• To comply with our legal and regulatory obligations
• To deliver legal services to you where we have contracted directly with you or to deliver services to your company/LLP where you are acting on its behalf.
• Performance of our contract with you where we have contracted directly with you or to take steps at your request before entering into a contract.
• Necessary for our legitimate interests where you are acting on behalf of a company or a limited liability partnership (LLP) (to run our business effectively and to enable to us to act in your best interest as your legal adviser and provide the best possible service to you)
• Gathering and providing information required by or relating to audits, enquiries or investigation by regulatory bodies.
• To comply with our legal and regulatory obligations
• Ensuring business policies are adhered to To comply with our legal and regulatory obligations
• For our legitimate interest or those of a third party
• Statistical analysis to help us in the performance of your contract, to improve our website, services, marketing, client relationships and experiences.
• For our legitimate interest or those of a third party for example, to keep our records updated and to evaluate client feedback for the purposes of developing and growing our business), to be as efficient as we can so we can deliver the best service for you at the best price to define types of clients for our services, to keep our website updated and relevant, to develop our business and to inform our marketing strategy. Statutory Returns To comply with our legal and regulatory obligations External audits and quality checks, for example Lexcel, Legal Aid Agency, accreditation and audit of our accounts. To comply with our legal and regulatory obligation For our legitimate interest or those of a third party for example, maintaining our accreditation.

Who we share your personal data with
We may have to share your personal data with selected people or organisation for the purposed set out in the table above. This will include, but is not limited to , sharing personal data with:

•  Professional advisers who we instruct on your behalf or refer you to including barristers, lawyers, auditors, insurers who provide consultancy, banking, legal insurance, accountants, tax advisors and other experts. 
• Service providers who provide IT and system administration services, marketing platforms and web hosting services.
• A court or tribunal where are acting for you in litigation 
• Experts such as medical and healthcare professionals to assist with your matter 
• Law enforcement agencies where required by law 
• Other third parties where necessary to carry out your instructions, eg your mortgage provider, HM Land Registry in the case of a property transaction, Companies House, HM Revenue & Customs, Legal Aid Agency 
• Our bank 
• Our regulators, the Solicitors Regulation Authority, in connection with any ongoing regulatory matters. 
• Our insurers and brokers; 
• External auditors, eg in relation to Lexcel accreditation, the audit of our accounts and statutory regulators;
• Third parties to whom we may choose to sell, transfer, or merge parts of our business or our assets. Alternatively, we may seek to acquire other businesses or merge with them. If a change happens to our business, then the new owners may use your personal data in the same way as set out in this privacy notice.

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

We only allow our service providers to handle your personal data if we are satisfied they take appropriate measures to protect your personal data. We also impose contractual obligations on service providers relating to ensure they can only use your personal data to provide services to us and to you.
Where your personal date is held

Information may be held at our offices and third party agencies, service providers, representatives and agents as described above (see ‘Who we share your personal data with’).

Where your personal data is held
We will only retain your personal data for as long as necessary to fulfil the purposes we collected it for, including for the purposes of satisfying any legal, accounting, or reporting requirements.

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.

We shall retain your data for one of these reasons:

• to respond to any questions, complaints or claims made by you or on your behalf; 
• to show that we treated you fairly;
• to keep records required by law.
  When it is no longer necessary to retain your personal data, we will delete or anonymise it.

Your rights
Under certain circumstances, you have rights under data protection laws in relation to your personal data.

You have the right to:

• Request access to your personal data (commonly known as a “data subject access request”). This enables you to receive a copy of the personal data we hold
• Request correction of the personal data that we hold about you. This enables you to have any incomplete or inaccurate data we hold about you corrected, though we may need to verify the accuracy of the new data you provide to us.
• Request erasure of your personal data. This enables you to ask us to delete or remove personal data in certain situations. Note, however, that we may not always be able to comply with your request of erasure for specific legal reasons which will be notified to you, if applicable, at the time of your request.
• Object to processing of your personal data where we are relying on a legitimate interest (or those of a third party) and there is something about your particular situation which makes you want to object to processing on this ground as you feel it impacts on your fundamental rights and freedoms. In some cases, we may demonstrate that we have compelling legitimate grounds to process your information which override your rights and freedoms.
• Request restriction of processing of your personal data in certain circumstances, for example if you contest the accuracy of the data.
• Withdraw consent at any time where we are relying on consent to process your personal data. However, this will not affect the lawfulness of any processing carried out before you withdraw your consent. If you withdraw your consent, we may not be able to provide certain services to you. We will advise you if this is the case at the time you withdraw your consent.

For further information on each of those rights, including the circumstances in which they apply, please contact us or see the Guidance from the UK Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) on individuals’ rights under the General Data Protection Regulation

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

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 your personal data (or to exercise any of your other rights). This is a security measure to ensure that personal data is not disclosed to any person who has no right to receive it. We may also contact you to ask you for further information in relation to your request to speed up our response.

How to complain
We hope that we can resolve any query or concern you may raise about our use of your information.
From 25 May 2018 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.

Time limit to respond
We try to respond to all legitimate requests within one month. Occasionally it may take us longer than a month if your request is particularly complex or you have made a number of requests. In this case, we will notify you and keep you updated.

Changes to this privacy policy
This privacy policy was published on 11th February 2019
We may change this privacy policy from time to time, when we do we will inform you via email or post, as appropriate.

How to contact us
Please contact us by post, email or telephone if you have any questions about this privacy policy or the information we hold about you.

Our contact details are shown below:
Musa Patels LLP Solicitors, 73 Bradford Road, Dewsbury, WF13 2EG