Privacy notice

About us and the purpose of this notice

Sayer Vincent LLP (“Sayer Vincent”, “we”, “us”, “our” and “ours”) is an audit and advisory firm with a social purpose. Established over 30 years ago we provide a full range of audit, assurance, tax and consultancy services targeted exclusively at charities and other social purpose organisations. We are registered in England and Wales as a limited liability partnership under number OC390403. Our registered office is at 110 Golden Lane, London, EC1Y 0TG.

For the purpose of the Data Protection Legislation and this policy, we are the ‘data controller’. This means that we are responsible for deciding how we hold and use personal data about you. We are required under the Data Protection Legislation to notify you of the information contained in this privacy policy. We have appointed a Data Protection Lead. Our Data Protection Lead is our point of contact. They are responsible for assisting with enquiries relating to this privacy notice or our treatment of your personal data. Contact details can be found at the end of this notice.

We may obtain your personal data directly from you. For example, when:

  • You contact us by email, telephone, post, or social media
  • You request a proposal from us in respect of the services we provide
  • You engage us to provide our services and also during the provision of those services, for example when you book onto an event
  • You apply for a job with us
  • You sign up to our newsletter or other marketing activities
  • You visit our website and accept the use of cookies (see our cookie policy)

We may also obtain your personal data indirectly:

  • When an organisation, where you may be a trustee, employee, subcontractor, supplier, member, donor or customer, engages us to provide our services and also during the provision of those services
  • From third parties and/or publicly available resources, for example Companies House

The information we hold about you depends on the reason for processing, but may include the following:

  • Your personal details such as your name and contact details
  • Details of contact we have had with you in relation to the provision, or the proposed provision, of our services
  • Details of any services you have received from us, for example if you have attended an event
  • Information provided as part of a job application
  • Our correspondence and communications with you
  • Information about any complaints and enquiries you make to us
  • Information from feedback surveys and marketing activities that you chose to take part in

As part of our engaged work we may also hold information we receive from other sources, such as information provided by our clients where you may be a trustee, employee, subcontractor, supplier, member, donor or customer. The categories of personal data provided to us from our clients depends on the service we are providing them, but may include employment or payment information depending on your relationship with our client.

We may process your personal data for purposes necessary for the performance of our contract with you or our clients, and to comply with our legal obligations. This may include processing your personal data where you are a trustee, employee, subcontractor, supplier, member, donor or customer of our client.

We may process your personal data for the purposes of our own legitimate interests provided that those interests do not override any of your own interests, rights and freedoms which require the protection of personal data. This includes processing for business development, administrative and management purposes.

Please note that we may process your personal data for more than one lawful basis depending on the specific purpose for which we are processing your data.

Situations in which we may use your personal data

We may use your personal data in order to:

  • Carry out our obligations arising from any agreements entered into between you and us
  • Carry out our obligations arising from any agreements entered into between our clients and us, where you may be a trustee, employee, subcontractor, supplier, member, donor or customer of our client
  • Provide you with information related to our services and our events and activities that you request from us or which we feel may interest you, provided we have a legitimate interest to do so or you have consented to be contacted for such purposes
  • Seek your thoughts and opinions about our services, where we have a legitimate interest to do
  • Notify you about any changes to our services

In some circumstances we may anonymise the personal data so that it can no longer be associated with you, in which case we may use it without further notice to you.

We may also process your personal data without your knowledge or consent, in accordance with this notice, where we are legally required or permitted to do so.

Data retention

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 and the purposes for which we originally collected the personal data.

Change of purpose

Where we need to use your personal data for a reason other than the purpose for which we originally collected it, we will only do so where that reason is compatible with the original purpose. If we need to use your data for a new purpose we will notify you and communicate our lawful basis for this new processing.

We may share your personal data with third parties where we are required by law, where it is necessary to administer the relationship between us or where we have another legitimate interest in doing so. This may include sharing your personal data with a regulator or to otherwise comply with the law.

“Third parties” includes third-party service providers. The following activities may be carried out by third-party service providers: IT and cloud services, some professional advisory services, some event and marketing services. We only permit our third-party service providers to process your personal data for specified purposes and in accordance with our instructions.

We may also share your personal data with other third parties, for example in the context of a possible sale or restricting of the business.

In some instances we may transfer the personal data we collect about you to outside of the UK in order to provide our services.

Where data is transferred outside of the UK it is done on the basis of appropriate safeguards, for example using adequacy regulations or Standard Contractual Clauses (SCCs).

We have put in place commercially reasonable and appropriate security measures to prevent your personal data from being accidentally lost, used or accessed in an unauthorised way, altered or disclosed. In addition, we limit access to your personal data to those employees and third parties who have a business need to know. They will only process your personal data on our instructions, and they are subject to a duty of confidentiality.

We have put in place procedures to deal with any suspected data security breach and will notify you and any applicable regulator of a suspected breach where we are legally required to do so.

Your duty to inform us of changes

It is important that the personal data we hold about you is accurate and current. Should your personal information change, please notify us of any changes of which we need to be made aware by contacting us, using the contact details at the end of this notice.

Your rights in connection with personal data

Under certain circumstances, by law you have the right to:

  • Request access to your personal data. This enables you to receive details of the personal data we process about you as a data controller and to check that we are processing it lawfully.
  • Request correction of the personal data that we process about you
  • Request erasure of your personal data. This enables you to ask us to delete or remove personal data where there is no good reason for us continuing to process it. You also have the right to ask us to delete or remove your personal data where you have exercised your right to object to processing (see below).
  • 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 basis. You also have the right to object where we are processing your personal information for direct marketing purposes.
  • Request the restriction of processing of your personal data. This enables you to ask us to suspend the processing of personal data about you, for example if you want us to establish its accuracy or the reason for processing it.
  • Request the transfer of your personal data to you or another data controller if the processing is based on consent, carried out by automated means and this is technically feasible.

If you want to exercise any of the above rights, please get in touch with our Data Protection Lead using the contact details at the end of this notice.

You will not usually have to pay a fee to access your personal data (or to exercise any of the other rights). However, we may charge a reasonable fee for the administrative costs of complying with the request if your request is manifestly unfounded or excessive. Alternatively, we may refuse to comply with the request under such circumstances.

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 is another appropriate security measure to ensure that personal information is not disclosed to any person who has no right to receive it.

In the limited circumstances where you may have provided your consent to the collection, processing and transfer of your personal data for a specific purpose you have the right to withdraw your consent for that specific processing at any time, for example in relation to direct marketing that you previously consented to receive.

To withdraw consent please email our Data Protection Lead using the contact details at the end of this notice. To withdraw consent for direct marketing you also have the option to click ‘unsubscribe/amend your preferences’ on any direct marketing emails you receive.

Once we have received notification that you have withdrawn your consent, we will no longer process your personal information for the purpose or purposes you originally agreed to, unless we have another legitimate basis for doing so in law.

Please contact us if you have any questions regarding this notice or if you would like to speak to us about the manner in which we process your personal data.

Email dataprotection@sayervincent.co.uk or telephone 020 7841 6360.

You may also contact us in writing addressed to: Data Protection, Sayer Vincent LLP, 110 Golden Lane, London, EC1Y 0TG

You also have the right to make a complaint to the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO), the UK supervisory authority for data protection issues, at any time. The ICO’s contact details can be found at https://ico.org.uk/global/contact-us/.

This policy was last updated in August 2021.