Data Protection Notice for Clients

This notice provides you with information about how your personal data is handled by Horizon Legal Advice Clinic (also referred to in this notice as “Horizon LAC”, “we” or “us”). It was last updated on 29 May 2020.

1. SUMMARY

We use information about you (known as personal data) in order to provide you with our legal services. See section 3.
In using your data, we act as a ‘data controller’; in other words, we decide what data to collect and how to use it in accordance with data protection laws. See section 2.
Our volunteer advisors assist us in providing our services to you. They act on our behalf, and we are responsible for their use of your data. See section 3.4.
Our partner law firms (and volunteer solicitors employed by them), and other qualified solicitors, also assist us in providing our legal services to you (as referred to within our client care letter). These parties may also maintain their own records of their services (as data controllers) separate to Horizon LAC. See section 3.4.
The personal data we collect and use may include information about your health, as relevant to your matter. This information may be collected directly from you, or, with your permission, from your GP or other medical professional. See section 3.3.
We may also share information about you and your matter with tribunals and the DWP, as part of legal proceedings relating to the matter. See section 3.5.
We may use your data for other purposes relevant to our relationship, including equality of treatment, health and safety, compliance with legal requirements and protection of our legal rights. See section 4.
We do not generally transfer your data outside the UK, except where our technology providers have data centres located in another country. See section 6.
You have certain rights in relation to our use of your data, including the right to obtain a copy of the data we hold, to correct inaccurate data, and to object to our use in some circumstances. See section 8.

Please contact us with any queries relating to our use of your data, and to exercise your data protection rights. Our contact details are at section 9.

The remainder of this notice is set out in the following sections:

2. Who we are

3. Use of your information to provide you with legal services

4. Other use and sharing of your information

5. Legal basis for use of your information

6. Location of our activities

7. Retention of your information

8. Your data protection rights

9. Our contact details

2. WHO WE ARE

Horizon LAC is a charitable incorporated organisation, providing legal advice to individual clients in respect of Personal Independence Payment and Employment Allowance. We act as a ‘data controller’ in the use of your personal data, meaning that we decide the purposes for which and the way in which your data is used for the purposes of our legal services. We are registered with the Information Commissioner’s Office under registration number *.

3. USE OF YOUR INFORMATION TO PROVIDE YOU WITH LEGAL SERVICES

3.1 Initial contact with you

You may be referred to us by a Citizens Advice Bureau or a law centre (a referrer), at your request or with your consent. Alternatively, you may contact us directly via our website, telephone or other method. At this stage, we collect basic information about you, either from the referrer or directly from you. These details include your name, contact details, and brief details of the issue you are facing.

3.2 Legal services

Following the initial referral or enquiry, we may discuss more details of your matter with you, in person (at our offices), over the telephone or by email. We and you may then agree for us to provide you with legal services, as outlined in our client care letter.

During the course of us providing our legal services, we will collect or record additional information about you and your matter, including the following:

information collected directly from you relating to your matter;
information collected from other people involved with or assisting with the matter, including our partner law firms or qualified lawyers who assist us (see section 3.4 below);
records which we create about you, such as our internal notes and assessments; and
information collected from other parties with your permission. For example, we may also contact your GP to find out medical information which may assist with your matter (see also section 3.3 below).

The personal data which we record at these stages includes your name, contact details, details and relating your matter and any associated legal proceedings, the legal advice we provide to you (and associated notes and assessments), and communications with (or about) you. It also includes health data about you – see section 3.3 below.

We use this data in order to provide you with the agreed legal services, and to manage our relationship with you.

3.3 Health data

The activities described above may involve collection and use of information relating to your physical and mental health, including GP records and medical history. This information is used understand the difficulties and challenges that you may face on a day to day basis, in in order to assist with your legal case and our services to you.

We may collect this information directly from you, or, with your permission, from other medical professionals such as your GP.

3.4 Legal advisors who assist us to provide our services

Legal advisors who assist us in providing our services to you include the following.

Our volunteer advisors. These advisors act on behalf of Horizon LAC, and use your data as described in sections 3.1 to 3.3, and 3.5. We remain responsible for how they use your data.
Our partner law firms, and their volunteer solicitors. These parties use your personal data to assist us in providing our legal services (as described in sections 3.1 to 3.3, and 3.5), but may also retain their own separate records of the advice and assistance they provide, in accordance with their own record-keeping procedures and regulatory requirements.
Our qualified solicitor. A qualified solicitor (as referred to in our client care letter) uses your personal data to assist us in providing our legal services (as described in sections 3.1 to 3.3, and 3.5), and may also retain their own records of the assistance which they provide, in accordance with their own record-keeping procedures and regulatory requirements.

3.5 Sharing your data with tribunals and the DWP

As part of any legal proceedings relating to your matter, relevant information relating to you and the matter may need to be shared with the tribunal determining your claim and the Department of Work and Pensions (against whom a claim is being made).

4. OTHER USE AND SHARING OF YOUR INFORMATION

4.1 Additional use of sensitive categories of data

In addition to the use of your health data as outlined in section 3 above, we (and our partner law firms and qualified solicitor) may also use sensitive categories of data about you as follows.

Information about your health and any disabilities may be used to facilitate your access to our services, and to ensure health and safety when providing our services, or for safeguarding purposes if you may be in need of care and support.
We may collect diversity information including data about ethnicity, age, gender, income, disability and sexuality, in order to review equality of opportunity and treatment. Each piece of information is optional to provide, and is collected on a separate form and stored separately to the other background information we collect about you. The form does not contain other identifying details about you. Aggregated and anonymous diversity information may be shared with LawWorks. More information about LawWorks is provided at section 4.6 below.
Investigations into fraud or unlawful activities may involve processing information about any suspected or actual involvement which you have in such activities.

4.2 Additional purposes of use

Your personal data may also be used by us (and our partner law firms and qualified solicitor):

to ensure the security of premises. This may include taking images of you by CCTV, both outside and within our premises;
to comply with legal requirements, such as regulatory requirements (of the Solicitors Regulation Authority or other relevant regulator), to detect or prevent fraud or unlawful activities; and
to protect or enforce legal rights, or for other purposes permitted or required by law (including data protection law).

For these purposes, your personal data may also be shared with other relevant parties, such as law enforcement bodies, our professional advisors, or other legal or regulatory authorities.

4.3 Service providers

Our service providers, for example, those providing technology services, may also store or process your personal data on behalf of Horizon LAC. They act as our ‘data processors’, meaning that we decide how they use your personal data, and we are responsible for their use of your data.

4.4 LawWorks

LawWorks (www.lawworks.org.uk) is a charity which assists those seeking or providing pro bono legal advice. LawWorks provides us with some resources, including our main client management system. We may also share diversity information with LawWorks, as described at section 4.2 above.

5. LEGAL BASIS FOR USE OF YOUR INFORMATION

Data protection laws require us to identify the legal basis for the collection, use and disclosure of your personal data, as described above. The following apply to our activities as described in this notice.

At the early stages of an enquiry or referral (see section 2.1 above), we collect information in our legitimate interests in responding to your enquiry, or such information is otherwise provided to us with your consent.
Where we collect, use and share data to provide you with legal services (see sections 3.2 to 3.5 above), our legal basis is that such activities are necessary for performance of the contract for legal services between you and us. This includes collection and use of data before we enter into a formal contract with you, as we are taking steps at your request in order to set up the contract for legal services.
We may also share your data with tribunals and the DWP (see section 3.5 above) as necessary to comply with a legal obligation in relation to the claim process.
We seek your consent to collecting your personal data from your GP or other medical professional (see section 3.3 above). You may withdraw your consent at any time – see section 8 below.
The additional uses and sharing of your data described in section 4 above are as necessary for compliance with our legal obligations (such as equality laws, and health and safety laws) or are otherwise as necessary in our legitimate interests in managing our relationship with you, managing our business, monitoring diversity, safeguarding, and investigating fraud or unlawful activities.

6. LOCATION OF OUR ACTIVITIES

Horizon LAC is based in the UK, and uses your personal data within the UK. We do not generally transfer your personal data outside of the UK.

In some cases, where our technology systems are provided by third parties (see section 3.3 above), their data centres may be located in countries outside the UK.

7. RETENTION OF YOUR INFORMATION

We will retain your personal data for as long as we need it for the purposes specified above, in accordance with our records retention procedures.

This includes retention of your personal data following the end of our legal services, for example to resolve any potential queries or issues with arise, to maintain business records, and otherwise to comply with our legal obligations and to defend our legal rights. Most records are retained for six years following the end of our services to you, but there are variations to this.

Please contact us if you would like more information about our records retention procedures.

8. YOUR DATA PROTECTION RIGHTS

In accordance with data protection laws, you have a right:

to obtain a copy of the personal data we hold about you, together with other information about how we process it;
to request rectification of inaccurate or incomplete data, and, in some circumstances, to request us to erase or restrict our use of your data, or otherwise to object to our processing of your data for reasons relating to your particular situation;
to receive a copy (in a machine-readable format) of personal data which you have provided to us, where we process it electronically based on your consent or that it is necessary for performance of our contract with you (see section 5 above);
not to be subject to a decision based solely on automated processing, which significantly affects you;
to make a complaint about how we handle your data to the UK Information Commissioner’s Office. Please visit ico.org.uk for further information about how to do this; and
to withdraw any consent which you have given relating to use of your data (see section 5).

Note that there are certain limitations and exemptions to these rights which we may apply depending on the circumstances.

Please contact us (using the contact details at section 9 below) to send us requests to exercise these rights (specifying what you are requesting), or if you would like further information about them.

9. OUR CONTACT DETAILS

Horizon Legal Advice Clinic

Address: Mansfield House, 30 Avenons Road, Plaistow, E13 8HT

Email: contactus@horizon-lac.co.uk

Telephone: 020 3637 6781