Allens Accountants Ltd (Allens)

General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR)

From 25th May 2018, GDPR replaced the previous Data Protection Act (1998).  Allens take data security very seriously and have significant controls in place to ensure that our servers, PC’s and both internal and external communications are secure.  Our clients’ privacy and the treatment of all data held is of paramount importance to us.
 

Our Firm’s Policy

Allens hold client data safely and securely for the following specific objectives:

1. Compliance with the Anti-Money Laundering regulations;

2. Accounts preparation and submission to the relevant organisations;

3. Personal and business tax computations and submission to the relevant organisations;

4. Specific assignments requested by clients; and

5. Payroll submissions and transactions.

The above frames the types of data that we work with, as well as the extent of the information that we will request from you.
 

Your Rights

1. Allens will not hold or process your personal data without first obtaining your written consent to gain, maintain and process it - in practice, we achieve this via our Letter of Engagement, which you must sign to confirm that you are happy for us to proceed with any work;

2. We will be always be explicit with you as to the rationale underpinning our use of client data, as outlined above;

3. Clients of Allens have the following rights:
   a) The right to be informed about the data that we hold about you;
   b) The right to have errors in your data rectified, upon request;
   c) The right to have your data erased, unless so doing would interfere with our own statutory responsibilities under ICAEW regulation.  In practice, if we have provided regulated services to you, this would involve your data being archived, rather than erased;
   d) The right to restrict the data Allens have available to work from - which in practice may well prevent us from doing our job properly.  We will confirm to you if such restrictions would prevent us from delivering a satisfactory service; and
   e) The right to obtain and re-use your personal data, for your own purposes - this could apply if you are resigning as a client of our firm, and moving to a new accountant.

 

Our Process in Holding Your Data

1. Initial meeting (if applicable) - in our introductory discussion, we will usually take some written notes in order to have a record of the main points. If you decide not to proceed any further with our services, this information will then be destroyed;

2. We confirm that we will actively seek to maintain and update any financial or personal data that we hold about you, so long as you remain a client of Allens;

3. To be absolutely clear, if you refuse to share financial or personal data with us, we will withdraw from the provision of service, as non-cooperation prevents us from safely supplying a regulated service.  We will only ever ask for information which is entirely relevant to the objectives of our assignment; and

4. Client data will at all times be subject to internal checks and balances designed to maximise security.

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