About This Policy
Britlaw Solicitors is committed to protecting your privacy and handling your personal data responsibly. This policy explains how we collect, use, and safeguard personal information when you visit our website, contact us, or instruct us as a client.
This policy applies regardless of how we obtain your information — whether through our website, by phone or email, in person, or through any other channel.
Britlaw Solicitors is the "data controller" of personal information processed under this policy. We are registered with the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) under the trading name of Britlaw Chambers Ltd, ICO Registration Reference: ZC182044. Our data protection contact is Zaheer Ul Hassan Cheema.
We may update this policy from time to time. Please check this page periodically for any changes.
What Is Personal Information?
Personal information is any data that can be used to identify you, directly or indirectly — including your name, contact details, immigration status, and information about how you use our website.
When and How We Collect Your Data
We may collect personal data:
- When you contact us by phone, email, or our website's contact form to enquire about our services
- When you instruct us and we carry out client onboarding, identity verification, and conflict checks
- When you provide information and documents in connection with your immigration matter
- Automatically, through your use of our website (see Cookies, below)
- From third parties where relevant to your matter (for example, a sponsoring employer, a family member, or another professional adviser)
What We Collect
This may include:
- Your name, contact details, and occupation
- Demographic information such as your postcode
- Details of your immigration status and the nature of your enquiry or matter
- Identity verification and background check information, as required for our anti-money laundering obligations
- Financial information relating to payment of our fees
- Information about your travel or access requirements for meetings
- Sensitive personal data (referred to in data protection law as "special category data") where relevant to your immigration matter — for example, information about health, nationality, or family circumstances
- Any other information you choose to share with us
Where a matter requires us to hold information about someone other than our direct client — for example, a family member or sponsored employee — we will only retain that information for as long as reasonably necessary to deliver the legal service in question.
Our Legal Basis for Processing Your Data
We rely on the following legal bases, depending on the data and the purpose of processing:
How We Use Your Information
We use your personal data to:
- Respond to your enquiry and assess how we can assist you
- Provide legal services to you, including preparing and submitting applications, correspondence with the Home Office, tribunals, or other bodies, and advising you on your matter
- Carry out identity verification and anti-money laundering checks
- Maintain internal records and meet our regulatory and legal obligations
- Manage our relationship with you, including billing and administration
- Improve our website and services
- Send you updates about immigration law developments or our services, where you have agreed to receive these — you may unsubscribe at any time
Sharing Your Information
We may need to share your personal data with:
- The Home Office, courts, and tribunals, where necessary to progress your matter
- Experts, interpreters, or counsel instructed on your behalf
- Our professional advisers, including accountants and auditors
- IT and cloud service providers who support our case management and communication systems
- Regulatory bodies, including the SRA, where required by law
We will only disclose your information where we have your consent, where necessary to deliver the services you have instructed us to provide, or where we are legally required to do so.
We will never sell, rent, or trade your personal information to third parties for marketing purposes.
Cookies
We use cookies on our website to understand how it is used and to improve the experience for visitors. Our website uses Google Analytics, which places cookies to help us see which pages are visited and how.
This data is used for statistical analysis and does not personally identify you. You can disable cookies through your browser settings at any time, though this may affect some website functionality.
Keeping Your Information Safe
We take appropriate technical and organisational measures to protect your personal data against unauthorised access, loss, or damage. We use reputable cloud-based service providers for case management, document storage, and communications, and we review the security standards of any third party we work with.
Where any service provider is based outside the UK or European Economic Area, we take steps to ensure appropriate safeguards are in place for the transfer of your data.
Please note that any information you send to us by email is sent at your own risk, as no method of electronic transmission is completely secure.
How Long We Keep Your Information
We retain client files, including personal data, for six years from the conclusion of your matter or the date of our final invoice, in line with our professional record-keeping obligations. Enquiry data from prospective clients who do not go on to instruct us is generally retained for no longer than 18 months.
We will only keep your information for as long as is necessary for the purpose it was collected, and in line with our legal and regulatory retention requirements.
Your Rights
Under UK GDPR, you have the right to:
Please note that if you request information that was provided to us by a client in connection with their legal matter, we may not be able to disclose it where it is protected by legal professional privilege.
To exercise any of these rights, please contact us at zaheer@britlawsolicitors.com. We aim to respond within 14 days.
You also have the right to complain to the Information Commissioner's Office if you believe we have not handled your data correctly:
Website: www.ico.org.uk | Make a complaint
Contact
If you have any questions about this Privacy Policy or how we handle your personal data, please contact us:
- Britlaw Solicitors, 125 Deansgate, Manchester M3 2BY
- Email: contact@britlawsolicitors.com
- Telephone: 0161 240 6969