Privacy & Cookie Policy

Ash & Associates is committed to ensuring that the privacy of its clients is protected and has taken appropriate security measures to safeguard the transfer and storage of personal data. 

During the course of our activities we will collect and process personal data in respect of our clients. This data may be held on paper, electronically or otherwise. 

We recognise the need to treat this information in an appropriate and lawful manner, in accordance with the General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR).

Scope of this notice

This notice applies to the following businesses:

  • Ash & Associates Limited

This policy explains how we use any personal information that we collect about you when you use our services or visit our website.

We may change this privacy notice from time to time. If there are any material changes we will make the updated privacy policy available on our website. The date at the top of this privacy notice indicates the date from which this notice applies.

Whose personal data do we collect?

We collect and process data about individuals who may be:

  • current, former or prospective clients and where relevant their spouses or civil partners, individual intermediaries (e.g. financial advisors) and representatives, directors, officers, authorised signatories, employees, agents, shareholders and ultimate beneficial owners.
  • Employees of the above companies
  • Suppliers and trading partners of the above companies
  • Users of the website

What kind of personal data do we collect?

Personal data refers to any information about a person that makes that person identifiable. It may include (but is not limited to)

  • Contact details such as names addresses and emails
  • National insurances details and personal tax references
  • Employment history
  • Credit history
  • Bank account details
  • Passport or driving licence numbers

It may also include more sensitive personal data such as:

  • Photographs (such as a passport photo)
  • Nationality, racial or ethnic origin
  • Religious or political views

How do we collect personal data?

We collect information in the following ways:

  • You may provide it to us in an application form, related documents, and on our website. You may also provide it to us in correspondence and conversations with our employees and other representatives
  • When you engage us as your accountants we will collect personal data from you such as contact details, date of birth, national insurance number. You will also be required to provide identification such as your passport or driving licence.
  • If we process your payroll we will also obtain the personal data of your employees
  • We may obtain data from third parties if this is permitted by law or from legal sources of information (e.g. Companies House,HMRC)
  • If you use our website or otherwise interact with us online we may also collect certain information automatically form your computer(e.g. cookies, IP Addresses)

How will we use your personal data?

We require this information in order to fulfil our contract with you, to understand your needs and to provide you with a better service, and in particular for the following reasons:

  • To provide our clients with the services that we have agreed in our engagement letter and accompanying Terms and Conditions;
  • To fulfil any legal obligations that we have, including those laid down in tax and company law, for example we may be required to disclose information to HMRC, The Pension Regulator or crime prevention agencies
  • To confirm your identity for the purpose of preventing money laundering and terrorist financing;
  • In order to fulfil our contract with you we may need to pass your information to third party service providers. However we disclose only the information necessary to deliver the services and have contracts in place which require them to keep your information secure and not to use it for their own marketing purposes;
  • We may collect information on our website to process enquiries or deal with event registration.
  • We may use your contact details for the promotion of our services and to keep you updated on news and regulatory updates. We will not pass your data to any third party marketing companies and you can unsubscribe from this service at any time.

How do we protect your personal data?

In order to prevent unauthorised access or disclosure, we have put into place appropriate technical and organisational security measures. These include physical and technical security safeguards and managerial processes to ensure that there are adequate policies, procedures and controls in place within our organisation.

For how long do we retain your personal data?

We may retain your personal data for as long as it remains necessary in relation to the purposes for which we collected it. When assessing the appropriate retention period, we consider our contractual, legal and regulatory obligations, internal data retention policies and our legitimate business interests. 

What are you rights in respect of your personal data?

Subject to the conditions prescribed in applicable laws, you have the right to:

  • Request a copy of the information that we hold about you
  • Ask us to correct or remove information that you think is inaccurate
  • Ask us to completely delete all the information we hold about you where it is not required to be held for legal or regulatory purposes
  • Object to the processing of your personal data if you believe the data is inaccurate or if you believe the processing of the data is unlawful or would cause unwarranted substantial damage or distress
  • Move, copy or transfer your personal data easily from one IT environment to another under the right to data portability

You can exercise your rights by contacting our Data Protection Officer. 

Transfer of information outside the EU

In order to fulfil our contractual and other obligations to you, the information you give to us may be transferred to countries outside the European Union. Where this is the case we will take steps to make sure that the correct security measures are taken to protect your privacy rights.

Our Website

When you visit our website, certain non-personal data will be collected, such as the identity of your internet browser, the type of operating system you use, your IP address and the domain name of your internet service provider.

Personally identifiable information will also be collected on occasion.  Such data could include your name, address and gender, information relating to your occupation and employer and details about your salary, tax liabilities and bank statements. 

Non-personal data will be collected automatically from your computer when you visit the website. Personal data will be collected when visitors to the site voluntarily submit such information through the registration or contact forms. 

This website does not use cookies to collect personally identifiable information about you. However, if you wish to restrict or block the cookies which are set by this site, or indeed any other website, you can do this through your browser settings. The Help function within your browser should tell you how.

The information we collect is used for internal review, used to improve the content of our Web page, used to customise the content and/or layout of our page for individual consumer and used by us to contact consumers for marketing purposes.

We maintain appropriate safeguards to ensure the security, integrity and privacy of any personally identifiable information collected through the website and periodically review and updates our security measures in the light of current technologies.  Unfortunately, no data transmission over the Internet can be guaranteed to be totally secure.  Although we strive to protect your personal information, we cannot ensure or warrant the security of any information you may transmit to us or from our online products and services.  This is done so at your own risk.  Once we do receive your transmission, however, we will make our best effort to ensure its security on our systems.

Our website contains links to other websites. This privacy policy applies only to our own website. When you link to other websites you should read their own privacy policies.

Our Terms and Conditions

We draw your attention to our Terms and Conditions, a copy of which is available on our website or by request from our office. These give further information in respect of the above policies. If they vary in any respect from the contents of this privacy notice then the contents of this notice are to be considered to supersede those of the Terms and Conditions.

Complaints

If you feel that your data has been used in a way that does not comply with the provisions of GDPR then you have the right to lodge a complaint with the relevant supervisory authority of your EU Member state. The supervisory authority in the UK is the Information Commissioners Office