Beveridge & Kellas
Solicitors & Estate Agents
Traditional Values... Modern Practice
Introduction
Beveridge & Kellas is a law Firm (“the Firm”) and provides legal advice and assistance to its clients. It is regulated by the Law Society of Scotland.
The personal data that Beveridge & Kellas processes to provide these services relates to its clients and other individuals as necessary including staff and suppliers’ staff.
This policy sets out our commitment to ensuring that any personal data, including special category personal data, which the Firm processes is carried out in compliance with Data Protection Law. Beveridge & Kellas ensures that good data protection practice is embedded in the culture of our staff and our organisation.
Beveridge & Kellas’ other data protection policies and procedures are:
‘Data Protection Law’ includes the General Data Protection Regulation 2016/679; the UK Data Protection Act 2018 and all relevant EU and UK data protection legislation.
Scope
This policy applies to all personal data processed by the Firm and is part of our approach to compliance with Data Protection Law. All Beveridge & Kellas staff are expected to comply with this policy and failure to comply may lead to disciplinary action for misconduct, including dismissal.
Data protection principles
Beveridge & Kellas complies with the Data Protection Principles set out below. When processing personal data it ensures that:
Beveridge & Kellas will facilitate any request from a data subject who wishes to exercise their rights under Data Protection Law as appropriate, always communicating in a concise, transparent, intelligible and easily accessible form and without undue delay.
Process/procedures/guidance
Beveridge & Kellas will:
We will ensure that all staff who handle personal data on its behalf are aware of their responsibilities under this policy and other relevant data protection and information security policies; that they are adequately trained; and adequately supervised.
Breaching this policy may result in disciplinary action for misconduct, including dismissal. Obtaining (including accessing) or disclosing personal data in breach of the Firm’s data protection policies may also be a criminal offence.
Data Subject Rights
The Firm has processes in place to ensure that it can facilitate any request made by an individual to exercise their rights under Data Protection Law. All staff have received training and are aware of the rights of data subjects. Staff can identify such a request and know who to send it to.
All requests will be considered without undue delay and within one month of receipt as far as possible.
Subject access: the right to request information about how personal data is being processed including whether personal data is being processed and the right to be allowed access to that data and to be provided with a copy of that data along with the right to obtain the following information:
Rectification: the right to allow a data subject to rectify inaccurate personal data concerning them.
Erasure: the right to have data erased and to have confirmation of erasure, but only where:
Restriction of processing: the right to ask for certain processing to be restricted in the following circumstances:
Data portability: the right to receive a copy of personal data which has been provided by the data subject and which is processed by automated means in a format which will allow the individual to transfer the data to another data controller. This would only apply if the Firm was processing the data using consent or on the basis of a contract.
Object to processing: the right to object to the processing of personal data relying on the legitimate interests processing condition unless the Firm can demonstrate compelling legitimate grounds for the processing which override the interests of the data subject or for the establishment, exercise or defence of legal claims.
Special category personal data
This includes the following personal data revealing:
The Firm processes special category data of clients and third parties as is necessary to provide legal services for the establishment, exercise or defence of legal claims.
The Firm processes special category data of employees as is necessary to comply with employment and social security law. This policy sets out the safeguards we believe are appropriate to ensure that we comply with the Data Protection Principles set out above. The Firm also has a Data Retention Policy which sets out how long special category data will be retained.
Responsibility for the processing of personal data
The Partners of Beveridge & Kellas take ultimate responsibility for data protection.
If you have any concerns or wish to exercise any of your rights under the GDPR then you can contact the Data Protection Lead in the following ways:
Name: Lynn L Harrison
Address: 52 Leith Walk, Edinburgh, EH6 5HW
Email: l.harrison@beveridgekellas.com
Telephone: 0131 554 6321
Monitoring and review
This policy was last updated on 25 May 2018 and shall be regularly monitored and reviewed, at least every two years.