Privacy Statement

Introduction

Oury Clark Chartered Accountants, Oury Clark Solicitors, Arlington Recruitment Ltd, American Tax Returns Ltd and Oury Clark Consultants LLP (“Oury Clark”, “our”, “we”) are committed to protecting your personal information.

This privacy policy is issued on behalf of Oury Clark as a whole, and so when we say Oury Clark in this policy we are referring to the relevant Oury Clark entity that is responsible for providing you with our services and processing your personal information.

This Privacy Policy explains how Oury Clark may collect, use, and share information that we collect about you when you use our website and when we provide our services to you, in accordance with applicable data privacy laws.

Where you use our services, Oury Clark will be the data controller of and responsible for such information.

Where the services or communication that you receive from us are received as a result of our, or our teams, role as an Insolvency Practitioner, there may be a different data controller:

• Where an Insolvency Practitioner of Oury Clark is not appointed as office holder, the data controller is either Oury Clark Chartered Accountants, or the company/individual on whose instructions Oury Clark Accountants is acting for.
• Where an Insolvency Practitioner of Oury Clark is appointed as office holder and the data processing is carried out as part of their statutory duties, the office holder(s) (generally being the specified Insolvency Practitioner) may be the data controller(s).

This Privacy Policy does not apply to, and Oury Clark is not responsible for, any third party websites which may be accessible through links from this website.

Our contact details and the Privacy Officers, or Insolvency Practitioners, who are responsible for overseeing questions in relation to this Privacy Policy are listed at the end of this Privacy Policy.

Scope of Privacy Policy

This Privacy Policy explains and describes:

• When this Privacy Policy applies.
• The types of personal data we collect.
• How we use the personal data we collect.
• How and when we may disclose personal data that we collect.
• How we protect your personal data and keep it secure.
• What cookies are and how we use them.
• What happens when you access third-party services and content.
• Your legal choices and rights.
• The status of this policy and any changes that are made to it.
• How to contact us.

Our client confidentiality obligations are not addressed by this policy but are set out in our terms of engagement.

When this Privacy Policy applies

This Privacy Policy applies:

• to your use of any of our services, including when you request information from us, engage our accounting, tax, financial planning, insolvency, payroll, back office support, regulatory compliance and other services;
• where you apply to us for a job or work placement;
• as a result of your relationship with one or more of our clients;
• to any personal information collected as a result of our appointment as an Insolvency Practitioner; and/or
• to any personal information collected from third parties where we are the data controller of such information.

This Privacy Policy also applies to our website and online services, including www.ouryclark.com and any other website, mobile app or other online service created or hosted by us (together, our “online services“) through which we may collect certain details if, for example, you want to subscribe to our publications.

How we collect your personal data

“Personal data” or “personal information” is any information that can be used to identify you or that we can link to you. It does not include data where the identity has been removed (anonymous data).

Where you use our services, engage with us in connection with the professional services that we provide, we will collect personal data directly from you, from clients, or from authorised representatives.

We may also collect personal data from third parties such as regulatory authorities, your employer, other organisations with whom you have dealings, government agencies, credit reporting agencies, recruitment agencies, information or service providers, publicly available records and the third parties described in section 7 (Disclosure of your information) below.

We collect personal information that you voluntarily provide to us, including when you communicate with us via email or other channels; when you sign up for or request that we send you newsletters, alerts, or other materials; when you sign up for a webinar or event; and when you respond to our communications or requests for information.

The personal information you provide may include current and historical personal data including your name, contact details, title, identification, employment, positions held and enquiry/complaint details, and information about the organisation with which you are affiliated.

We may also collect personal data about your other dealings with us and our clients, including any contact we have with you in person, by telephone, email or online. This may include storing recordings, and AI generated notes, of meetings we have with you via Zoom.

We will handle any unsolicited information in accordance with law, including destroying or de-identifying such information where we are required to do so.

When you use our online services, we may collect the following:

• Personal information you provide by completing forms (this includes information you give us, submitting material, requesting services, registering for any of our online offerings or subscribing to our newsletters or other services).
• Personal information you provide to us if you contact us, for example to report a problem with our online services or raise a query or comment.
• Details of visits made to our online services including, but not limited to, the volume of traffic received, logs (including, where available, the IP address and location of the device connecting to the online services and other technical information and identifiers about the device and the nature of the visit) and the resources accessed.
• Where our online services require that you enter a password or other personal information in order to access certain features, we will collect such credentials when you enter them.

If we are acting as an Insolvency Practitioner, and generally during an insolvency process, we may require your contact details, financial information and location.  In rare cases, we may need to collect and hold some special category data (e.g. trade union membership or information about individuals’ health), which will be necessary to administer the insolvency process in line with our legal obligations.

Except where your personal data was provided by you or your representative, the personal data we have used to contact you was provided by the company/individual (or persons acting on their behalf) on whose instructions we are acting or in relation to which our Insolvency Practitioner has been appointed.  We also access information from the Registrar of Companies and other similar public-access data providers.

If you apply for a job or work placement with Oury Clark then you may need to provide personal information about your education, employment and state of health. As part of your application you will be asked to provide your express consent to our use of this personal information to assess your application and to allow us to carry out both recruitment analytics and any monitoring activities which may be required of us under applicable law as an employer. We may also carry out screening checks (including reference, background, directorship, financial probity, identity, eligibility to work, vocational suitability and criminal record checks) and consider you for other positions.

We may exchange your personal data with academic institutions, recruiters, screening check providers, health service providers, professional and trade associations, law enforcement agencies, recruitment analytics providers, referees and your current and previous employers. We may also gather additional information about you from publicly available resources such as LinkedIn or other social or professional media platforms and collate this with the information that you provide to us. Without your personal data we may not be able to progress considering you for positions with us.

If you submit your CV or other personal data to Arlington Recruitment in connection with their recruitment services, you may need to provide information about your education, employment and state of health. Such information may be exchanged, collated or otherwise handled in the same manner as with Oury Clark’s internal recruitment process detailed above, however your CV and personal information will additionally be stored in Arlington Recruitment’s database and with your permission under Arlington Recruitment’s terms of business, may also be shared with third party employers in respect of positions that may be appropriate for you.

Legal basis for usage of personal data

Where we intend to use your personal data, we rely on the following legal grounds:

Performance of a contract: We may need to collect and use your personal information to enter into a contract you or to perform a contract that you have with us. For example, when you use our legal or accountancy services we will use your personal information to provide advice to you, respond to your requests and provide you with such services in accordance with our terms of engagement.

Legitimate interests: Where we otherwise consider such use of your personal information as not detrimental to you, within your reasonable expectations and necessary to fulfil our legitimate interests, we may use your personal information, including for our own marketing purposes.

Compliance with a legal obligation: We may be required to process your personal information due to legal requirements, including employment laws, anti-money laundering regulations, tax laws and other regulatory provisions due to ours status as providers of regulated professional services.

Consent: You may be asked to provide your consent in connection with certain services that we offer, for example in respect of any processing of your personal information for our marketing purposes, or in respect of certain special categories of personal data such as your health for which we are legally obliged to gain your consent due to the sensitive nature of such information. To withdraw your consent to such use, you can contact us in accordance with the section 15 (Contact and further information) below. You can also unsubscribe by clicking the relevant link in our marketing emails and newsletters.

Legal basis for usage of personal data, specifically as an Insolvency Practitioner

We generally process your personal data in our capacity as an Insolvency Practitioner in order to comply with our legal obligations (as determined under statute or by other regulatory obligations) related to the insolvency process.

We may also be required to collect and use personal information for the legitimate interests of all stakeholders in the insolvency process, as such stakeholders are entitled to be kept informed and may wish to engage in the insolvency process.

Otherwise, where Oury Clark has been engaged to perform a service, we will be required to collect and use your personal information to enter into a contract you or to perform a contract, in accordance with those contractual terms.

How we use your personal data

We use your personal information in order to provide you with, and improve, our services, for example:

• To respond to your enquiries.
• To provide you with professional or other advisory services that you, your employer, your clients, or your authorised representatives request.
• To carry out our obligations arising from any contracts entered into between you and us.
• To ensure we can act for you as a new or existing client and facilitate our internal business operations, including to fulfil our legal or regulatory compliance requirements (including in relation to anti-money laundering) and professional obligations.
• To maintain and develop our relationship with you.
• For our business purposes, including data analysis, submitting invoices, detecting, preventing, and responding to actual or potential fraud, illegal activities, or intellectual property infringement.
• To maintain and update our records including our database of contacts, and the notes (whether AI generated or otherwise) and recordings of advice we have provided to you in person, by telephone, video calls (including via Zoom), email or online.
• To provide you on an ongoing basis with information and services, including professional advice, legal updates, marketing communications, and other information or materials, that you request from us or which we feel may interest you.
• To evaluate, recruit, and hire personnel.
• To measure the popularity and effectiveness of services such as newsletters and seminar invitations, in order to improve what we offer to you and other recipients.
• To ensure that content from our online services is presented in the most effective and secure manner for you and the device on which you are accessing our services, and to troubleshoot, and improve such online services.
• To allow you to use or access interactive features or secure areas of our online services, when you choose to do so.
• For research, planning, service development, security or risk management.
• As we believe reasonably necessary or appropriate to: comply with our legal obligations; respond to legal process or requests for information issued by government authorities or other third parties; or protector your, our, or others’ rights.
• In addition to the above and with specific reference to the insolvency process, where we are acting as an Insolvency Practitioner, we may need to process your personal information for the purposes of:
  • Delivering the services required throughout the insolvency process, and meet any legal responsibilities owed during that time.
  • Verifying the identity of individuals involved in the insolvency process.
  • Communicating with those subject to, or interested in (by virtue of being a stakeholder), the insolvency process by post, email or telephone.
  • Understanding the needs of the insolvency process, and those subject to it, and determining how those need may be met.
  • Maintain proper and complete records of the insolvency process, and decisions made throughout, in order to comply with our obligations.
  • Process financial transactions as required by the insolvency process.
  • Preventing and detecting crime, fraud and/or corruption.
  • Defending or taking legal actions related to insolvency process, or any of the above.

We may not be able to do some or all of these things without your personal data.

Disclosure of your information

We may, in providing our services and operating our business, allow access to your personal data to the different departments and/or business units within Oury Clark as set out on our website for our internal administrative purposes such as billing, promoting our events and services, and providing you or your organisation with services.

For example, our payroll department may share your personal information with our chartered tax advisors where our service offering to you overlaps, and such processing is consistent with the section 5 (Legal basis for usage of personal data) above and applicable law.

This data sharing initiative is subject to a Data Sharing Agreement between each of the Oury Clark departments and/or business units. In accordance with the relevant data protection legislation, this agreement sets out the purpose and standards of, and responsibilities involved in, the data sharing. Subject to the removal of any confidential information, the Data Sharing Agreement is available on request.

In addition, we may exchange your personal data with third parties where:

• You have consented to us sharing your personal data in this way.
• We deem reasonably necessary to provide you with the professional services that you have required at any particular time.
• We are under a legal, regulatory or professional obligation to do so (for example, in order to comply with anti-money laundering requirements or a Court Order).
• Such sharing is provided for under contract, including our terms of engagement for any particular service that we may provide to you.
• Such sharing is to law enforcement bodies or other government authority. For example, on occasion, we may receive requests from such third parties in order to check that we are complying with applicable law and regulation, to investigate an alleged crime, to establish, exercise or defend legal rights.  In addition, as part of our statutory duties, we may be required to share some personal data with government agencies (e.g. Companies House and the Insolvency Service) and this may result in some data being made available by these agencies in the public domain.  We will only fulfil requests for personal data where we are permitted to do so in accordance with applicable law or regulation.
• We need to enforce or apply our terms of engagement to which you have agreed (or other client terms).
• It is necessary to protect the rights and interests, property, or safety of Oury Clark, our clients or others.
• It is relevant in the circumstances to disclose the information to our client, your employer or place of work, your professional advisers and parties with whom we have co-promotional arrangements (such as jointly sponsored events).
• Our agents or contractors who assist us in providing our services require such information, for example in fulfilling requests for information, receiving and sending communications, updating marketing lists, analysing data, providing support services or in other tasks from time to time. Our agents and contractors will only use your information to the extent necessary to perform their functions.
• We use third party service providers to provide services that involve data processing, for example archival, web-hosting, analytics providers in connection with the operation of our online services, event hosting, information technology providers, auditing, reference checking, professional advisory (including auditors, legal, accounting, financial and business consulting), mailing vendor, delivery, technology, website, research, banking, payment, client contact, data processing, insurance, forensic, litigation support, marketing and security services. You may request to view a copy of our vendor list that is relevant to you, by email to the contact details below.
• In the unlikely event that all, or most, of the assets of Oury Clark or any single business unit within Oury Clark are merged with or acquired by a third party, or we expand or re-organise our business, your personal data may form part of the transferred or merged assets.

We also provide anonymous statistical information about users of our websites and related usage information to reputable third parties, including analytics and search engine providers.

We own the database rights in the information collected via our online services. We do not sell, rent, or otherwise share personal information that reasonably identifies you or your organisation with unaffiliated entities for their independent use except as expressly described in this Privacy Policy or with your express prior permission.

We may share information that does not reasonably identify you or your organisation as permitted by applicable law.

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.

International Transfers

Where you are submitting personal data from within the UK, or the European Economic Area (“EEA”), such information may be transferred to countries outside the UK and/or the EEA.

By way of example, some of our third party service providers with whom we share personal data in accordance with section 7 (Disclosure of your information) are located, or have their servers located, outside your country or the country from which the data were provided so their processing of your personal data will involve a transfer of data outside the UK.

Whenever we transfer your personal data out of the UK or the EEA, we ensure a similar degree of protection is afforded to it by ensuring at least one of the following safeguards is implemented:

• We will only transfer your personal data to countries that have been deemed to provide an adequate level of protection for personal data; or
• Where we use certain service providers, we may use specific contracts approved for use in the UK and the EEA which give personal data the same protection it has in the UK and the EEA.

Retention of your data

We retain the personal information we collect no longer than is reasonably necessary to fulfil the purposes that such data was originally collected in accordance with our internal data retention polices or to comply with our legal and regulatory obligations. We may retain your personal data for a longer period in the event of a complaint or if we reasonably believe there is a prospect of litigation in respect to our relationship with you.

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, regulatory, tax, accounting, or other requirements.

For example, we retain most records until the time limit for claims arising from the activities or services has expired or otherwise to comply with statutory or regulatory requirements regarding the retention of such records.

Our online services or different service offerings may have different retention periods which are available on request. These may be updated from time to time to reflect changes to our internal systems, or the law or best practice.

Security

We take reasonable steps to hold information securely in electronic or physical form.

Our information security policy is supported by a number of security standards, processes and procedures, and we store information in access controlled premises or electronic databases requiring logins and passwords. All partners and staff and third party providers with access to confidential information are subject to access controls and confidentiality obligations, and we require our third party data storage providers to comply with appropriate information security industry standards.

Whilst we continually strive to ensure that our systems and controls are updated to reflect technological changes, the transmission of information via the internet is not completely secure, and as such we cannot guarantee the security of your data transmitted to our online services which is at your own risk.
If you communicate with us using a non-secure web platforms, you assume the risks that such communications between us are intercepted, not received, delayed, corrupted or are received by persons other than the intended recipient.

Once we have received your information, we will take reasonable steps to use procedures and security features to try to prevent unauthorised access, modification or disclosure.

You can help us to keep your information secure by ensuring that any user name or password in relation to our online services is kept strictly personal to you and not be made available to any other person. You should stop using your username and password and notify us immediately if you suspect that someone else may be using your user details or password.