Privacy Policy for Cogent Accountants Limited

Cogent Accountants Limited takes the protection of your privacy very seriously.  We will only use your personal information to deliver the products and services you have requested from us, and to meet our legal responsibilities.

How do we collect information from you?

We obtain information about you when you engage us to deliver our products and services and when you use our website, for example, when you contact us about our services.

What type of information do we collect from you?

The personal information we collect from you will vary depending on which products and services you engage us to deliver.  The personal information we collect might include your name, address, telephone number, email address, your Unique Tax Reference (UTR) number, your National Insurance number, bank account details, your IP address, which pages you may have visited on our website and when you accessed them.

How is your information used?

In general terms, and depending on which products and services you engage us to deliver, as part of providing our agreed services we may use your information to:

• contact you by post, email or telephone
• verify your identity where this is required
• understand your needs and how they may be met
• maintain our records in accordance with applicable legal and regulatory obligations
• process financial transactions
• prevent and detect crime, fraud or corruption
• communicate with HMRC, Companies House or any other government body

Data retention

Generally we will only retain your personal data for as long as is necessary to fulfil the purposes for which it is collected.

When assessing what retention period is appropriate for your personal data, we take into consideration:

• the requirements of our business and the services provided
• any statutory or legal obligations
• the purposes for which we originally collected the personal data
• the lawful grounds on which we based our processing
• the types of personal data we have collected
• the amount and categories of your personal data
• whether the purpose of the processing could reasonably be fulfilled by other means

We are required by legislation, other regulatory requirements and our insurers to retain your data where we have ceased to act for you. The period of retention required varies with the applicable legislation but is typically five or six years. To ensure compliance with all such requirements it is the policy of the firm to retain all data for a period of seven years from the end of the period concerned.

Change of purpose

Where we need to use your personal data for another reason, other than for the purpose for which we collected it, we will only use your personal data where that reason is compatible with the original purpose.

Should it be necessary to use your personal data for a new purpose, we will notify you and communicate the legal basis which allows us to do so before starting any new processing.

Who has access to your information?

We will not sell or rent your information to third parties.

We will not share your information with third parties for marketing purposes.

Any staff with access to your information have a duty of confidentiality under the ethical standards that this firm is required to follow.

Third Party Service Providers working on our behalf

We may pass your information to our third party service providers, agents, subcontractors and other associated organisations for the purposes of completing tasks and providing services to you on our behalf. However, 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 purposes.

Please note that we may use the services of a Credit Reference Agency as part of our due diligence process when taking on a new client.  We may also use the services of a Credit Reference Agency when any fundamental change is made to the shareholding of a client’s limited company. We currently use SmartSearch to carry out the relevant assessment and the SmartSearch Privacy Policy can be seen at https://www.smartsearch.com/privacy-policy

Please be assured that we will not release your information to third parties other than for the reasons shown above unless you have requested that we do so, or we are required to do so by law, for example, by a court order or for the purposes of prevention and detection of crime, fraud or corruption.

How you can access and update your information

Keeping your information up to date and accurate is important to us.  We commit to regularly review and correct where necessary, the information that we hold about you.  If any of your information changes, please email or write to us, or call us using the ‘Contact information’ noted below.

You have the right to ask for a copy of the information Cogent Accountants Limited holds about you.

Security precautions in place to protect the loss, misuse or alteration of your information

Whilst 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 information, you are responsible for keeping this password confidential.  We ask you not to share your password with anyone.

Your data will usually be processed in our offices in the UK.  However, to allow us to operate efficient digital processes, we sometimes need to store information in servers located outside the UK, but within the European Economic Area (EEA).  We take the security of your data seriously and so all our systems have appropriate security in place that complies with all applicable legislative and regulatory requirements.

Your choices

We may occasionally contact you by email, post or telephone with details of any changes in legal and regulatory requirements or other developments that may be relevant to your affairs and, where applicable, how we may assist you further.  If you do not wish to receive such information from us, please let us know by contacting us as indicated under ‘Contact information’ below.

Your rights

Access to your information: You have the right to request a copy of the personal information about you that we hold.

Correcting your information: We want to make sure that your personal information is accurate, complete and up to date and you may ask us to correct any personal information about you that you believe does not meet these standards.

Deletion of your information: You have the right to ask us to delete personal information about you where:

• you consider that we no longer require the information for the purposes for which it was obtained
• you have validly objected to our use of your personal information – see ‘Objecting to how we may use your information’ below
• our use of your personal information is contrary to law or our other legal obligations
• we are using your information with your consent and you have withdrawn your consent – see ‘withdrawing consent to use your information’ below.

Restricting how we may use your information: In some cases, you may ask us to restrict how we use your personal information.  This right might apply, for example, where we are checking the accuracy of personal information about you that we hold or assessing the validity of any objection you have made to our use of your information.  The right might also apply where there is no longer a basis for using your personal information but you do not want us to delete the data.  Where this right is validly exercised, we may only use the relevant personal information with your consent, for legal claims or where there are other public interest grounds to do so.

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.

Changes to our privacy notice

We keep this privacy notice under regular review and the latest version can be viewed at https://cogentaccountants.co.uk/privacy-policy Paper copies of the privacy notice may also be obtained by emailing our Data Controller Carolyn Popkin carolyn@cogentaccountants.co.uk with your request.

This privacy notice was last updated on 10 January 2022.

Contact information

Carolyn Popkin
Data Controller
Cogent Accountants Limited
Anglo Dal House
5 Spring Villa Park
Edgware
Middx
HA8 7EB

Telephone:   020 8952 2234
Email:           carolyn@cogentaccountants.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