Terms and Privacy

ENERGY LAW UNLIMITED LLP DATA PROTECTION POLICY

Introduction

Energy Law Unlimited LLP (ELU) is a law firm which provides legal advice and assistance to its clients and is regulated by the Law Society of Scotland.

The personal data that ELU processes to provide these services relates to its clients and other individuals as necessary. This includes staff and suppliers’ staff.

This policy sets out ELU’s commitment to ensuring that any personal data, including special category personal data, processed by ELU, is carried out in compliance with data protection law. ELU processes the personal data of staff from all around the world. This includes personal data of a large number of non-EU citizens, but ELU is committed to ensuring that all personal data that it processes is handled in accordance with Data Protection Law.

ELU ensures that good data protection practice is imbedded in the culture of our staff and our organisation.

ELU’s core data protection policies and procedures are (these should be considered and may not all be necessary):
keeping record of processing activities;

maintaining accessible privacy notices for clients and employees;
creating a personal data breach reporting procedure and a breach register;
keeping to our data retention policy;
maintaining and communicating our data subject rights procedure;
complete regular data protection impact assessments; and
putting in place IT security policies.
‘Data Protection Law’ includes the:
General Data Protection Regulation 2016/679;
Data Protection Act 2018;
The Privacy and Electronic Communications (EC Directive) Regulations 2003; and
other relevant EU and UK data protection legislation.

Scope

This policy applies to all personal data processed by ELU and is part of ELU’s approach to compliance with Data Protection Law. All ELU staff are expected to comply with this policy.

Data protection principles

ELU complies with the data protection principles set out below. When processing personal data, it ensures that:
it is processed lawfully, fairly and in a transparent manner in relation to the data subject (‘lawfulness, fairness and transparency’)
it is collected for a specified, explicit and legitimate purpose and not processed further in a manner that is incompatible with those purposes (‘purpose limitation’)
it is all adequate, relevant and limited to what is necessary in relation to the purposes for which they are processed (‘data minimisation’)it is accurate and, where necessary, kept up to date. Reasonable steps will be taken to ensure that personal data that is inaccurate, having regard to the purposes for which they are processed, is erased or rectified without delay (‘accuracy’)
it is kept in a form which permits identification of data subjects for no more than is necessary for the purposes for which the personal data are processed (‘storage limitation’)
it is processed in a manner that ensures appropriate security of the personal data, including protection against unauthorised and unlawful processing and against accidental loss, destruction or damage, using appropriate technical or organisational measures (‘integrity and confidentiality’)
it is processed in accordance with ELU’s core data protection policies (‘accountability’)

Process/procedures/guidance

ELU will:
ensure that the legal basis for processing personal data is identified in advance and that all processing complies with Data Protection Law;
not do anything with your data that you would not expect, given the content of this policy, our privacy notice and fair and lawful processing;
ensure that appropriate privacy notices are in place advising staff and others how and why their data is being processed, and, most importantly, advising data subjects of their rights;
only collect and process the personal data needed for the purposes identified in advance;
ensure that, the personal data it holds is accurate, and implement a system for keeping personal data it holds up to date where necessary;
only hold onto personal data for as long as it is necessary, after which time, ELU will securely erase and delete the personal data – ELU’s data retention policy sets out the necessary period of time; and
ensure that appropriate security measures are in place to ensure that personal data can only be accessed by those who require to access it and that personal data is held and transferred securely.
ELU 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, and that they are adequately trained and supervised.
Breaching this policy may result in disciplinary action for misconduct, including dismissal. Obtaining (including accessing) or disclosing personal data in breach of Data Protection Law may also result in criminal prosecution.

Data Subject Rights

ELU has processes in place to ensure that it can comply with data subject rights under Data Protection Law. All staff have received training and are aware of data subject rights. Staff can identify such a request and know to follow internal policies to handle the request appropriately. These policies allow ELU to comply with the following rights.
Subject access: the right to request information about how personal data is processed, including what personal data is being processed, 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:
the purpose of the processing;
the categories of personal data;
the recipients to whom data has been disclosed or which will be disclosed;
the retention period;
the right to lodge a complaint with the Information Commissioner’s Office;
the source of the information if not collected direct from the subject; and
the existence of any automated decision making
ELU will facilitate any request from a data subject who wishes to exercise their rights under data protection law as appropriate. Information will be communicated in a concise, transparent, intelligible and easily accessible form and without undue delay. Data subjects will receive a response to requests within one month of receipt.
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:
the data is no longer necessary in relation to the purpose for which it was collected, or
where consent is withdrawn, or
where there is no legal basis for the processing, or
there is a legal obligation to delete data.
Restriction of processing: the right to ask for certain processing to be restricted in the following circumstances:
if the accuracy of the personal data is being contested, or
if our processing is unlawful but the data subject does not want it erased, or
if the data is no longer needed for the purpose of the processing but it is required by the data subject for the establishment, exercise or defence of legal claims, or
if the data subject has objected to the processing, pending verification of that objection
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 ELU 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 ELU 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.
Credit referencing: please note that ELU utilising services of a credit reference agency, details can be found via the following link: https://www.callcredit.co.uk/legal-information/bureau-privacy-notice.

Special category personal data

This includes the following personal data revealing:
racial or ethnic origin;
political opinions;
religious or philosophical beliefs;
trade union membership;
the processing of genetic data, biometric data for the purpose of uniquely identifying a natural person;
an individual’s health;
a natural person’s sex life or sexual orientation; and
criminal convictions or offences.
ELU 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.
ELU 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. ELU also has a data retention policy which sets out how long special category data will be held onto.
Responsibility for the processing of personal data
The partners of ELU 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:
David Bowman
Energy Law Unlimited LLP
231 Saint Vincent Street, Glasgow, G2 5QY, Scotland
dbowman@ru-llp.com
(+44) 0141 221 0276

Monitoring and review

This policy was last updated on 25 May 2018 and shall be regularly monitored and reviewed, at least every two years.