Introduction

This privacy notice tells you what we do with your personal data when you contact us or use our services.

If you have any questions about how we use your personal data or believe any of your rights have been infringed, please contact our Data Protection Officer.

Our Contact Details

Name: SV Law

Address: 1 Triton Square, London NW1 3DX

Enquiries email address:  contact@sv-law.co.uk

Website: https://www.sv-law.co.uk

Data Controller

We are the “Data Controller” of your personal data. This means we have decided how and why your personal data is used.

We are registered with the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO). Our registration number is 21329613.

Our Data Protection Officer Contact Details

Our Data Protection Officer can be contacted by email at contact@sv-law.co.uk. 

How We Get Your Personal Data

There are various ways we may collect your personal data, which include:

Directly - This means you have given us your personal data, for example when you contacted us to enquire about our services, to engage us for a particular service, to apply for a job with us, or to attend an event we are hosting. 

Indirectly - This means someone else has given us your personal data, or we have sourced it from information you have made public, or we have inferred information about you. For example, we may have received your data from: 

• Local Authorities
• The First-tier Tribunal (Special Educational Needs and Disability)
• The NHS
• Educational Settings 

We also collect personal data about you automatically. This is done when you visit our website, and we collect information from the cookies that are deposited on the device you are using. You can control which cookies are deposited to your device and you can change your settings at any time you wish. To find out more about the cookies we use, please read our Cookie Policy, found on our website. 

Personal Data We Collect About You

Personal data is any information that relates to a person who is or can be identified from it. We will collect and use some or all the following types of personal data:

• Name
• Telephone number(s)
• Email address
• Home address
• Work address
• Work telephone number(s)
• Work email address
• Child/young person name
• Child/young person date of birth
• School name(s)
• Name of Local Authority
• Health Information 
• Educational Information 
• Social Care Information 
• Dietary Requirements 
• Mobility Requirements 

How We Use Your Personal Data

We need your personal data to allow us to:

• To deal with your enquiry
• To deal with complaints
• To provide legal advice
• To process your job application 
• To help our clients comply with their legal obligations
• To create matters on our secure case management system
• To register you at an event we are hosting

If Our Purposes of Processing Change

We will only use your personal data for the purposes set out above, unless we reasonably consider that we need to use it for another purpose that is compatible with any of the above. If we need to use your personal data for an unrelated purpose, we will always inform you about this and explain the GDPR lawful ground which allows us to do so.

The GDPR Lawful Basis We Rely On To Collect and Use Your Personal Data

We can only collect and use your personal data when we have a lawful basis to do so. The lawful basis we rely on depends on the reason we need your personal data, which are set out above.

Generally, our lawful basis will be one of the following:

• Legal obligation
• Contractual obligation
• Consent
• Vital interest

Legal Obligation

There are times when we must process your personal data for us to comply with a legal or regulatory requirement. In these cases, we will usually rely on the “legal obligation” lawful basis as the processing is necessary for use to fulfil our legal obligation to which we are subject to. For example:

• We have a legal obligation to submit documents to a Tribunal on behalf of a client.
• We have a legal obligation under finance and tax laws to keep certain information relating to payments and tax.
• We have a legal obligation to provide the police or other law enforcement body with information if they are investigating a potential crime. This can include processing your data in compliance with money laundering legislation. 

Contractual Obligation

This means at your request we have entered into a contract with you or have taken steps to be able to enter into a contract with you, for example to respond to your enquiries about our services and to deliver our service to you if you engage us for one of our services.

Consent

When we rely on consent you will always have the choice to provide your personal data and there will be no detriment to you should you decide not to give your consent. If you have given us your consent to process your personal data for a specified reason, you can always withdraw that consent later.

Vital Interests

In rare situations, we might need to share your personal data with the emergency or care services if we believe it is in your ‘vital interests’, or those of another person (i.e., a vulnerable person or a child), to do so. For example:

• if you are taken ill, or
• if any safeguarding concerns are raised.

Am I Under A Contractual Or Legal Obligation To Provide My Personal Data?

If you are not able to provide the specific personal data that is required to meet either a contractual or legal obligation we have with you, we may not be able to continue our contract with you.

The GDPR Conditions We Rely On To Collect and Use Your Special Category Personal Data

We may collect and use personal data that falls under the GDPR definition of special category personal data. This may include, for example: 

• Health Information 
• Racial or Ethnic Origin Information 
• Biometric information 

When we collect and use personal data that falls under the GDPR definition of special category personal data, we need to identify a GDPR condition to allow us to process your special category personal data. This is in addition to the GDPR lawful basis which is set out above.

We generally only require special category personal data to allow us to provide legal advice to you and to progress legal cases.

The conditions we rely on to collect and use your special category personal data will be one of the following: 

• Explicit Consent
• Legal Claims and Judicial Acts

Explicit Consent

Similar to the lawful basis of consent, you always have the choice to provide your special category personal data and there will be no detriment to you should you decide not to. We will ask you to consent to providing special category personal data separately from any other consents we ask and we will clearly specify the type of special category personal data we are asking you to provide.

Legal Claims and Judicial Acts

We may also collect and use special category data under the legal claims and judicial acts condition. Under this condition, we use such data as it is necessary to establish, exercise, or defend legal claims. This will include situations where we represent a Respondent Local Authority in a SEND Tribunal Appeal and you are an Appellant in such a case. We are conscious that a lot of this data applies to children and young people. Our use of this data will always be relevant and proportionate, and will be securely held in accordance with our data policy. 

Children's Data

Some of the data which we collect carries additional sensitivity, as it is related to children or young people. We take this into consideration in applying the above legal bases and conditions, and our use of children’s data is always relevant and proportionate to our legal or contractual obligations. 

Data Sharing

We will only share your personal data with other organisations when required to by law or when GDPR allows us to do so. 

We may share your personal data with the following types of organisations:

• Local Authorities
• NHS
• Educational Placements
• Independent Experts
• Barristers
• UK Courts and Tribunals
• Regulatory Bodies (if required to do so under anti-money laundering or other such legislation)

Using Your Personal Data Outside Of The UK

Sometimes it is not possible for us to deal with your personal data solely in the UK. When dealing with your data outside of the UK, this will be done securely in accordance with our data policy, and we will only work on your data outside of the UK on secure laptops using protected internet connections.

How Long We Keep Your Personal Data

Where you have contacted us in relation to a legal matter (or we have received your information from a third party in relation to a legal matter to which you are a party) our general retention period is 6 years from the closure of that enquiry or matter. We believe that this is a legitimate time period taking into consideration our legal obligations and applicable UK law.

Where you have provided your data to us for any other purpose, we will retain your data for as long as the purpose for which we collected the data remains. This time period will vary depending on why your data was collected.

Your Rights

Depending on the purpose and GDPR lawful grounds we rely on for processing your personal data, there are various rights available to you. You can:

• Request access to the personal data we keep about you and be given specific information about the processing - this right always applies regardless of the processing activity we undertake.
• Request we rectify personal data we hold about you if you believe it to be inaccurate - this right always applies regardless of the processing activity we undertake.
• Request us to delete your personal data - this right only applies in specific circumstances; this means we don’t always need to comply with this type of request.
• Request a restriction of the processing of your personal data - this right only applies in specific circumstances; this means we don’t always need to comply with this type of request.
• Object to the processing when we have relied on the “legitimate interest” lawful ground to undertake the processing activity and you believe we have infringed your rights - we don’t always have to comply with such objections if we can demonstrate compelling grounds to continue with the processing.
• Transfer your personal data from us to another service provider or give it to you - this right only applies to personal data you have given to us and when the processing is based on your consent or contractual basis and the processing is automated.

We do not undertake any solely automated decision making, including profiling, about you.

To find out more about the rights that apply to individuals under GDPR please refer to the guidance on the Information Commissioner’s Office website - https://ico.org.uk/for-the-public/.

If you want to exercise one of your rights, please contact our Data Protection Officer. We shall respond to a valid request within one month of receiving it.

How To Make A Complaint About Us To The Information Commissioner's Office

If you are not happy with how we are processing your personal data, or you believe we have not dealt with one of your rights correctly you can make a complaint to us at contact@sv-law.co.uk. 

If you, after following our complaints process, you are still not happy with how we use your personal data you are entitled to make a complaint to the ICO. The ICO has several ways in which you can get in touch with them, including post, email, and online forms. For full details how to make a complaint please refer to their website - https://ico.org.uk/make-a-complaint/.

Changes To Our Privacy Notice

We keep our Privacy Notice under review to ensure it remains accurate and up to date and we reserve the right to modify it at any time.