How we look after your information.

Who we are

Holgate Court Accountants Limited is the data controller for the personal data described here. That means we decide how and why it is used, and we are responsible for looking after it.

Company

Holgate Court Accountants Limited, registered in England and Wales, number 07297155

Registered office

128 City Road, London, EC1V 2NX

Privacy contact

Mark Ball, mark@holgateaccountants.com, 07905 625061

Information we collect

When you get in touch

If you use the enquiry form, email or phone us, we receive what you choose to tell us. That can include your name, email address and phone number, how you'd like us to reply, your business name and what it does, its approximate turnover and team size, who currently looks after your finances, and your question.

When you become a client

• Contact details for you and the people we work with in your business.
• Identity information we are required by law to check before we start work, such as a passport or driving licence and proof of address.
• Your business's financial information: management accounts, bank and sales records, payroll summaries, budgets, forecasts and tax information. Some of this may include personal data about you, your staff, customers or suppliers.
• Our correspondence with you, your bookkeeper and your accountant.

When you visit this website

We don't use analytics, advertising or tracking tools. Our hosting provider briefly processes technical details such as your IP address and browser type to deliver pages and protect the site from attacks. Any accessibility settings you choose are kept only on your own device. Our cookie policy explains this in full.

How the enquiry form works

The form on our Let's talk page doesn't send or store anything on this website. When you press send, it opens your own email app with your message ready to go to mark@holgateaccountants.com. Nothing is shared until you send that email yourself.

Your message then travels through your email provider and ours, and is kept in our inbox as described under how long we keep information.

How we use it, and why we're allowed to

UK GDPR requires a lawful reason for each use of personal data. Ours are:

Replying to your enquiry

Our legitimate interest in answering you, and taking steps you've asked for before any agreement.

Doing the work you engage us for

To carry out our contract with you, set out in our engagement letter.

Identity checks and keeping records

Legal obligations, including the Money Laundering Regulations 2017 and tax and company law.

Meeting professional standards

Legal obligations and our legitimate interest in complying with ACCA's rules, including quality monitoring.

Running and protecting this website

Our legitimate interest in keeping the site available and secure.

We won't add you to a mailing list or send marketing without your consent. We never sell personal data, and we don't make decisions about you by automated means.

Who we share it with

Only where it's needed, and only as much as is needed:

• Your bookkeeper and accountant, as part of working with them on your behalf, with your agreement.
• Service providers who help us run the practice, such as email, document storage, accounting software and website hosting. They act only on our instructions, under contracts that require them to keep data secure.
• Our professional advisers and insurers, where necessary.
• ACCA, our professional body, when it reviews our work as part of its regulatory monitoring.
• HMRC, the National Crime Agency, courts or other authorities, where the law requires us to.

Some providers may store data outside the UK. When they do, we make sure it's protected by UK adequacy regulations or approved safeguards such as the UK International Data Transfer Agreement.

How we protect it

Client financial information is confidential. As ACCA members we are bound by its Code of Ethics and Conduct, which includes a duty of confidentiality that continues after our work together ends.

• Access to client information is limited to the people who need it for your work.
• Information is kept in password-protected systems and sent over encrypted connections.
• We choose service providers with recognised security standards.
• If a breach puts your rights at risk, we will tell you and, where required, the Information Commissioner's Office within 72 hours.

How long we keep information

Enquiries that don't go further

Deleted 12 months after our last contact.

Client files and correspondence

Kept for 6 years after our work for you ends, in line with tax and limitation periods.

Identity check records

Kept for 5 years after our business relationship ends, as the Money Laundering Regulations 2017 require.

Website technical data

Kept only briefly by our hosting provider for security.

After these periods we delete or securely destroy the information.

Your rights

Under UK data protection law you can ask us to:

• give you a copy of the personal data we hold about you;
• correct anything that's wrong or incomplete;
• delete your data, where we don't need to keep it by law;
• restrict or stop using your data in certain circumstances;
• send your data to you or another organisation in a reusable format.

To make a request, email mark@holgateaccountants.com or call 07905 625061. There's no charge, and we'll reply within one month. We may need to confirm your identity first.

Concerns and complaints

If you're unhappy with how we've handled your data, please talk to Mark first so we can put it right.

You can also complain to the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) on 0303 123 1113 or at ico.org.uk/make-a-complaint (opens in a new tab).

Changes to this policy

We'll update this page if the way we handle personal data changes. The date below shows the latest version.