We are committed to ensuring your privacy is protected

We collect and process personal information from our clients. We take utmost care to keep it secure and use it only for the purposes for which it was provided. This Notice explains how we use the personal information that you provide to us.

How we use your personal information

We will only use your personal information for the following purposes:

1. To administer and manage our relationship with you
2. To produce work and provide services as set out in your engagement letter
3. To deal with enquiries we receive from you
4. For the purposes of any corrective action
5. To comply with applicable laws, regulations and rules
6. To provide you with details of our services from time to time
7. To notify you of changes to what we do
8. For the purposes of recovery of a debt in case of non-payment

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.

Provision of information to third parties

Information is normally only provided to a third party if it is required to deal with the services that we provide to you, but there may be other circumstances where Acquis is required to provide information. In addition, we may occasionally be required, either by law or to carry out our responsibilities as a professional body, to collect, use and share certain types of personal information to comply with the requirements of government departments, agencies and regulators.

Aside from this we do not share information with any third parties, unless prior authorisation to do so has been received. Acquis does not undertake marketing activities for third parties, nor does it provide information to third parties for their own marketing purposes.

Retention of information

In accordance with the new General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) which is applicable as of 25 May 2018, we will not keep your personal information longer than is necessary to fulfil the requirement to complete your accounts, tax return and/or provide advice requested, taking into account applicable legal requirements and limitation periods as set out by the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales retention periods guidance.

Retention of records

During the course of our work we will collect information from you and others acting on your behalf. We will return your documentation to you following preparation of accounts and tax returns. Clients need to retain these financial records for six years from the 31 January following the end of the accounting year.

This period can be extended if HM Revenue and Customs enquire into your tax return. Unless you tell us not to, we intend to destroy correspondence, papers and electronic data that we store, which is more than seven years old, unless we consider them to be of continuing significance.

Protecting your information

Acquis complies with the new GDPR legislation and fully endorses and adheres to the principles of data protection as set out in the Data Protection legislation and will:

• fully observe the conditions regarding the fair collection and use of personal information
• meet our legal obligations to specify the purposes for which we use personal information
• only collect and process the personal information needed to carry out our business or to comply with legal requirements
• ensure that the personal information we use is as accurate as possible
• ensure that we don’t hold personal information for longer than is necessary
• ensure that people know about their rights, to see the personal information we hold about them
• take appropriate technical and organisational security measures to safeguard personal information; and
• ensure that personal information is not transferred abroad without suitable safeguards

In addition, we will ensure that:

• we regularly review and audit how we handle personal information
• the ways that we handle personal information are clearly described
• everyone handling personal information understands that they are responsible for following good practice
• everyone handling personal information is appropriately trained and properly supervised
• we regularly assess the performance of people who handle personal information
• anybody wanting to make enquiries about handling personal information knows what to do; and
• queries about handling personal information are dealt with promptly and courteously

Rights of Access

Under certain circumstances, by law you have the right to request a copy of the personal information that we hold about you. You will not have to pay a fee to access your personal data. However, we may charge a reasonable fee if your request for access is clearly unfounded or excessive. Alternatively, we may refuse to
comply with the request in such circumstances.

All enquiries related to your personal data should be emailed to: gdpr@acquis.co.uk.

Changes to our Privacy Policy

Any changes to our Privacy Notice will be posted on our website – acquis.co.uk and our Privacy Notice is available on request at any time – please call: 01306 881884 or email: gdpr@acquis.co.uk. We would encourage users to check the Privacy Statement each time they visit our website.

Acquis Staff Training

All Acquis staff sign a confidentiality agreement at the start of their employment and are trained to be compliant with security and confidentiality legislation. We have a strict clear desk policy so that confidential information is kept secure at all times, in accordance to GDPR good practice.

Our Data Security and Website Security

We are committed to ensuring that your information is secure. To prevent unauthorised access or disclosure, we have put in place suitable physical, electronic and managerial procedures to safeguard and secure the information we collect and process.

If you have any concerns or questions about the security of our website or any personal information we collect from you, please do not hesitate to contact us on 01306 881884.