Privacy Notice

  1. Fiona Wood, CA ( trading as Willis Wood) provides forensic accounting expert witness services , and other litigation support services based at 20A Muirs, Kinross, KY13 8AS. This privacy notice provides information about the personal information we process about you, as a data controller, in compliance with the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).
  2. Our ICO registration number is ZA364575
  3. Please contact Fiona Wood at fiona@williswood.co.uk with any questions or requests about the personal information we process.

Your rights

  1. We are committed to protecting your rights to privacy. They include:
    • Right to be informed about what we do with your personal data;
    • Right to have a copy of all the personal information we process about you;
    • Right to rectification of any inaccurate data we process, and to add to the information we hold about you if it is incomplete;
    • Right to be forgotten and your personal data destroyed;
    • Right to restrict the processing of your personal data;
    • Right to object to the processing we carry out based on our legitimate interest;

The personal data we process, why we process it, where it comes from and the legal basis for doing so

Legal Cases

  1. We process the personal data of individuals who are obtaining legal advice or are engaged in a legal dispute, and also the personal data of witnesses and others with links to the issues in the case.
  2. The personal data may include:
    • Names, contact details and dates of birth;
    • Financial information and bank details;
    • Health information;
    • Information about race, ethnic origin and sex;
  3. The personal data are generally provided by the person instructing us in relation to the legal issues, who is usually a solicitor. Where we are directly instructed by you, the data will comprise data provided by you and any publicly available data we may search for online.
  4. We process the data because it is in our legitimate interests as an expert witness to do so. We need to see and analyse documents containing this information in order to provide our expert advice.
  5. In relation to any special category personal data, such as health records or information concerning, race, ethnic origin, or sex is, we rely on the legal claims basis for processing this data, in addition to our legitimate interest.
  6. In many cases, an individual has consented to the transfer of their personal data to us. Where an individual has consented, he or she may easily withdraw it by notifying Fiona Wood at the e-mail address set out at 3. above.

Other personal data

  1. We also process personal data pursuant to our legitimate interests in running our business such as:
    • Invoices and receipts;
    • Accounts, VAT and tax returns;
    • Insurance policies and related documents;

Retention period

  1. Personal data in legal cases is retained, where necessary, for six years in compliance with our professional indemnity obligations. Where this is not necessary, it is destroyed on the conclusion of the case.
  2. Administrative data is retained for up to six years as necessary, in the unlikely event there are queries from HMRC and the VAT commissioner. Where it is not necessary to retain the data for six years, it is destroyed as soon as possible.

Whom do we share personal data with?

  1. We share personal data internally strictly on a need to know basis.
  2. Special category data and personnel files held electronically are encrypted with restricted access. Hard copy special category and other personal data is stored securely with restricted access.
  3. We do not share personal data with anyone external to the organisation, other than with:
    • Those who have instructed us as an expert witness
    • Outsourced service providers such as cloud IT service providers, other forensic accountants for peer reviews, pursuant to GDPR compliant written contracts
    • Other professional advisers of the data subjects, such as Accountants
    • HMRC and the VAT Commissioner as they require
    • With others pursuant to a court order
    • Willis Wood employs third party suppliers to provide services including utilising the services of a credit reference agency (https://www.transunion.co.uk/legal-information/bureau-privacy-notice).

Information Commissioner’s Office

  1. If you have any concerns about the way your personal information has been processed, please contact Fiona Wood above. Alternatively, you may contact the Information Commissioner’s Office on 0303 123 1113.