Privacy Policy

Morgan Elliot Planning Ltd (MEP) is committed to meeting its General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR) obligations and ensuring the protection and security of all personal information within our control. This Privacy Policy explains how we use the personal information that we collect and process and outlines the procedures that are in place to safeguard your privacy.

Should we ask you to provide any information by which you can be identified when attending an event, making an e-mail enquiry or visiting our website, or through a relationship with us, you can be assured that it will only be used in accordance with this privacy statement.

With regards to our business, our website and our e-marketing and other associated marketing activities, MEP will continue to manage client data and be compliant with GDPR.

MEP’s registered office Planning Chambers, 3A New Church Street, Tetbury, Glos, GL8 8DS.

What types of data do we collect and hold?

The personal data that we hold about you will be specific to your relationship with MEP but may include some or all of the following:

  • Personal identifiers: such as your name and title;
  • Contact information: such as your work address, work email, work telephone number;
  • Business information including current and previous employers where we have a long term relationship with you;
  • Information to assist us to verify your identity;
  • Information you provide to us as part of our services, or when you contact us directly;
  • Personal contact information for our private clients;
  • Information about your visits to our website, and engagement with our online information services;
  • Information collected as part of our recruitment and employment practices.

When we collect data

Via our website: When you use the form to contact us online with an enquiry, we collect your name, addresses and phone number in order for us to respond to you.

Phone or email: If you make an enquiry over the phone or email, we will use the details you give us to assist with your query or registration with us as a client, as applicable.
We also collect data when we enter into a contract with suppliers.

What we do with the information that we obtain

Our primary use of personal information is to enable MEP to deliver services to our clients and their customers. Where we are instructed by you, it is necessary for us to process certain personal data to provide our services.

We also use personal information for our legitimate business interests in monitoring, developing and promoting our products and services. To do this we perform a number of administrative tasks including confirming identity of those we are contracting with; dealing with feedback or complaints; managing invitations and registrations for corporate events, publicising our services; supporting quality and risk management reviews; administrating our website and reviewing our online services and communications, and to monitor or enforce our terms of engagement.

Communicating with you: We also use your personal information to offer you town planning updates or information on our services that we think will be of interest to you. We will also provide information on events we are holding. These events may be seminars or networking opportunities. We may occasionally use your information to contact you for market research purposes.
We may contact you by email, post or telephone. If you do not wish to receive these communications, please let us know by contacting annepawsey@morganelliot.co.uk

We rely on one or more of the following lawful conditions to process your personal identifiable data:

  • To perform our obligations under a client engagement that we have with you, or that we may have with a third party;
  • To satisfy legal or regulatory obligations that we are obliged to meet;
  • To deliver our legitimate business interests in the effective performance of our services; and developing new contacts for marketing and business development (and we will take steps to mitigate the impact on an individual’s privacy in pursuing these interests);
  • Where there are no other lawful conditions, we may process information with your consent.

Sharing personal data with third parties

MEP sometimes shares your personal data with trusted third parties which act only on our instruction (known as “data processors”).

Data processors might be, for example, a third-party supplier, or the local council.

Where we share information with these companies, public organisations or individuals, we make sure that they also keep your data secure and that they also protect your rights. To this end, we make sure that:

  • We provide only the information they need to perform their specific services.
  • They may only use your data for the exact purposes we specify in our contract with them or where their terms and conditions of processing contain the correct data processor clauses under GDPR
  • If we stop using their services, any of your data held by them will either be deleted or rendered anonymous.
  • We sometimes also share your data with third parties for their own purposes (“joint controllers”) e.g. HMRC, accountants, legal advisors or public organisations.
  • We will only do this in very specific circumstances, for example:
    • With your consent
    • Where we have a data sharing agreement in place with the other party
    • Where we are obliged to share the information for legal reasons

Storing and retaining personal information

We will hold your personal information on our systems for as long as it is necessary for the purpose for which it was collected. Information on client files is stored for up to 5 years following completion of an engagement, and we will review this retention periodically.

EP treats all personal information as confidential; we train and encourage our staff to treat all personal information the same way. Where we record your information electronically, we have implemented accepted standards of organisational and technical security measures to protect and secure it, for example, using secure passwords; ensuring our staff are trained, and only recording the minimum data sets necessary to complete a specific task.

Your rights under the protection law

As an individual you have a number of rights under the relevant data protection laws, including:

  • The right to request from us access to your own personal information;
  • The right to ask us not to process your personal data for direct marketing;
  • The right to request any inaccurate information we hold about you is corrected;
  • The right to request your information is deleted in certain circumstances;
  • A right to request that we stop using your personal information for certain purposes;
  • A request to request that decisions are not taken by wholly automated means.

These rights may be limited to certain defined circumstances and we may not be able to comply with your request. If you request to exercise these rights, we aim to respond to you within one month. If you wish to receive a copy of your personal data or exercise these rights, please write to Data Protection Officer, Planning Chambers, 3A New Church Street, Tetbury, Glos, GL8 8DS.
If you have any concerns about our use of your personal information, you can make a complaint to us at annepawsey@morganelliot.co.uk.

You can also complain to the ICO if you are unhappy with how we have used your data.

The ICO’s address:
Information Commissioner’s Office
Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow, Cheshire, SK9 5AF
Helpline number: 0303 123 1113
ICO website: https://www.ico.org.uk

Cookies

Cookies are small pieces of information which are stored by your browser on your computer’s hard drive. MEP use cookies on their site to reduce the need to re-enter personal data when submitting information. You can set your browser to alert you prior to accepting cookies.

Third party websites

We may occasionally include links to third party websites that are not controlled or managed by MEP, and which do not operate under this privacy notice. We would encourage you to check the privacy notice for each additional website that you may visit.

Changes to this privacy notice

Any changes we may make to our privacy notice in the future will be posted on our website.

This policy is effective from 1st April 2023.