Sterling Accreditation - Privacy Policy
Sterling Accreditation understands that your privacy is important to you and that you care about how your personal data is used and shared online. We respect and value the privacy of everyone who visits this website; www.sterlingaccreditation.com (“Our Site”) and will only collect and use personal data in ways that are described here, and in a manner that is consistent with our obligations and your rights under the law.
Please read this privacy policy carefully and ensure that you understand it. Your acceptance of our privacy policy is deemed to occur upon your first use of our site. If you do not accept and agree with this policy, you must stop using our site immediately.
1. Definitions and Interpretation
In this Policy, the following terms shall have the following meanings:
• “Account” means an account required to access and/or use certain areas and features of our website;
• “Cookie” means a small text file placed on your computer or device by our sites when you visit certain parts of our sites and/or when you use certain features of our sites. details of the Cookies used by our sites are set out below;
• “Cookie Law” means the relevant parts of the Privacy and Electronic Communications (EC Directive) Regulations 2003 and of EU Regulation 2016/679 General Data Protection Regulation (“GDPR”);
• “Personal Data” means any and all data that relates to an identifiable person who can be directly or indirectly identified from that data. In this case, it means personal data that you give to us via our sites. This definition shall, where applicable, incorporate the definitions provided in the EU Regulation 2016/679 – the General Data Protection Regulation (“GDPR”); and
• “We/Us/Our” means Sterling Accreditation Limited, a limited company registered in England under company number 6864378; whose registered address is Sterling Accreditation Limited, Heywood Hall, Bolton Road, Pendlebury, Manchester M27 8UX
2. Information about us
• This website is owned and operated by Sterling Accreditation Limited
• Mike Gordon is the Scheme Manager and data protection compliance officer, Mike can be contacted by email at mikegordon@sterlingaccreditation.com, by telephone on +44 (0)161 727 4303, or by post at Sterling Accreditation Limited, Heywood Hall, Bolton Road, Pendlebury, Manchester, M27 8UX
• Our VAT number is GB 985 3051 04.
• As a Government Licensed accreditation scheme, Sterling Accreditation is subjected to third party audits by the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (“MHCLG”) and the Scottish Government or their nominated individuals.
3. What Does This Policy Cover?
This privacy policy applies only to your use of our website; www.sterlingaccreditation.com. Our sites may contain links to other websites. Please note that Sterling Accreditation Limited have no control over how your data is collected, stored, or used by other websites and we advise you to check the privacy policies of any such websites before providing any data to them.
4. Your Rights
As a data subject, you have the following rights under the GDPR, which this policy and our use of personal data have been designed to uphold:
• The right to be informed about our collection and use of personal data;
• The right of access to the personal data we hold about you (see section 13);
• The right to rectification if any personal data we hold about you is inaccurate or incomplete (please contact us using the details in section 15);
• The right to be forgotten – i.e. the right to ask Sterling Accreditation to delete any personal data we may hold about you (Sterling Accreditation only holds your personal data in accordance with the regulations published in the MHCLG Scheme Operating Requirements, please contact us using the details in section 15);
• The right to restrict (i.e. prevent) the processing of your personal data;
• The right to data portability (obtaining a copy of your personal data to re-use with another service or organisation);
• The right to object to Sterling Accreditation using your personal data for particular purposes; and
• Rights with respect to automated decision making and profiling.
If you have any cause for complaint about our use of your personal data, please contact Sterling Accreditation using the details provided in section 15 and we will do our best to solve the problem for you. If we are unable to help, you also have the right to lodge a complaint with the UK’s supervisory authority, the Information Commissioner’s Office.
For further information about your rights, please contact the Information Commissioner’s Office or your local Citizens Advice Bureau.
5. What Data Do We Collect?
Depending upon your use of our website, Sterling Accreditation may collect some or all of the following personal and non-personal data (please also see section 13 on our use of Cookies and similar technologies):
In accordance with the Scheme Operating Requirements; Appendix 11, Table 1 applicants are required to provide the following personal data.
• Name: Prefix, Forename, Middle Name, Surname and if applicable former/Maiden Name
• Address: Address 1 (building name/number)
• Postcode
• date of birth: DD/MM/YYYY
• E-mail address
• Phone Number
• Gender
• Nationality
• Digital Photo of yourself
• A form of identification: Driving Licence, Passport or Birth Certificate
• Employers/Company Name
• Employers Address; address line 1, address line 2, address line 3, Post Town, Postcode
• Website
• Copies of Professional Indemnity and Public Liability Insurance Certificates
• Your Qualifications
• Details of previous Professional Conduct
By applying for membership you agree to Sterling Accreditation Limited sharing data with the Government Central Register operator and other Accreditation bodies who you are also registered with.
6. How Do We Use Your Data?
All personal data is processed and stored securely in line with Government requirements for an approved Accreditation Scheme. We will comply with our obligations and safeguard your rights under the GDPR at all times. For more details on security, see section 7 below.
Our use of your personal data will always have a lawful basis, either because it is necessary for our performance of a contract with you, because you have consented to our use of your personal data (e.g. by applying for membership of the scheme), or because it is in our legitimate interests. Specifically, Sterling Accreditation may use your data for the following purposes:
• Providing and managing your account;
• Providing and managing your access to our website;
• Personalising and tailoring your experience on our website;
• Supplying our products and services to you (please note that we require your personal data in for you to become a member of the scheme);
• Personalising and tailoring our products and services for you;
• Replying to emails from you;
• Supplying you with emails that you have opted into (you may unsubscribe or opt-out at any time by sending an email to privacy@sterlingaccreditation.com ensuring that you specifically ask to be removed from our mailing list;
• Market research;
• Analysing your use of our websites and gathering feedback to enable us to continually improve our sites and your user experience;
With your permission and/or where permitted by law, Sterling Accreditation may also use your data for marketing purposes which may include contacting you by email, telephone, text message or post with information, news and offers on our products and services. We will not, however, send you any unsolicited marketing or spam and will take all reasonable steps to ensure that we fully protect your rights and comply with our obligations under the GDPR and the Privacy and Electronic Communications (EC Directive) Regulations 2003.
You have the right to withdraw your consent to us using your personal data at any time, and to request that we delete it. For applicants, members, suspended or withdrawn members personal data will be held in accordance with the Government regulations and may not be deleted, for further information on these regulations please contact Sterling Accreditation using the details provided in section 15.
We do not keep your personal data for any longer than is necessary in light of the reasons for which it was first collected. Data will therefore be retained for the following periods (or its retention will be determined on the following bases):
• Personal data, in accordance with Government Scheme Operating Requirements, will be held for a period of no more than 10 years. Unless otherwise instructed, this period is deemed to ‘reset’ upon further interaction with Sterling Accreditation, its website, its staff or sub-contractors.
• Anonymised data collected by analytics services is stored for a period of at least 25 months. As this data is unidentified in nature, anonymised data will be held indefinitely.
• Public data (i.e. data that is freely accessible from public authorities), where appropriate/necessary, will be held by Sterling Accreditation indefinitely.
7. How and Where Do We Store Your Data?
Sterling Accreditation maintains a record of your personal data for as long as we need to in order to use it as described above in section 6, and/or for as long as we have your permission to keep it.
Sterling Accreditation maintains a central database of applicants, registered, withdrawn, suspended and stuck off members in accordance with the Government requirements.
Data security is very important to Sterling Accreditation, and to protect your data we have taken suitable measures to safeguard and secure data collected through our sites.
8. Sterling Accreditation take the following steps to secure and protect your data include:
• SSL Encryption;
• TLS Transit encryption;
• Data encryption;
• Network firewalls;
• Restricted access;
• Password management policies and procedures.
9. Do We Share Your Data?
In accordance with the scheme operating requirements Sterling Accreditation are required to share the data you provide with the central register keeper and other accreditation schemes.
Sterling Accreditation may sometimes contract with third parties to supply products and services to you on our behalf. These may include payment processing, delivery of goods, search engine facilities, advertising, and marketing. In some cases, the third parties may require access to some or all of your data. Where any of your data is required for such a purpose, Sterling Accreditation will take all reasonable steps to ensure that your data will be handled safely, securely, and in accordance with your rights, our obligations, and the obligations of the third party under the law.
We may compile statistics about the use of our sites including data on traffic, usage patterns, user numbers, sales, and other information. All such data will be anonymised and will not include any personally identifying data, or any anonymised data that can be combined with other data and used to identify you. We may from time to time share such data with third parties such as prospective investors, affiliates, partners, and advertisers. Data will only be shared and used within the bounds of the law.
In certain circumstances, Sterling Accreditation may be legally required to share certain data held by us, which may include your personal data, for example, where we are involved in legal proceedings, where we are complying with legal requirements, a court order, or a governmental authority.
10. What Happens If Our Business Changes Hands?
In accordance with the Government Scheme Operating requirements Sterling Accreditation has a cease to trade policy. A copy of this policy can be made available on request.
In the event that any of your data is to be transferred in such a manner, you will be contacted in advance and informed of any changes.
11. How Can You Control Your Data?
In addition to your rights under the GDPR, when you submit personal data via our website you may be given options to restrict our use of your data.
You may also wish to sign up to one or more of the preference services operating in the UK: The Telephone Preference Service (“the TPS”), the Corporate Telephone Preference Service (“the CTPS”), and the Mailing Preference Service (“the MPS”). These may help to prevent you receiving unsolicited marketing. Please note, however, that these services will not prevent you from receiving marketing communications that you have consented to receiving.
12. Your Right to Withhold Information
You may access our sites without providing any personal data at all. However, to use all features and functions available on our sites you may be required to submit or allow for the collection of certain data.
13. How Can You Access Your Data?
You have the right to ask for a copy of any of your personal data held by Sterling Accreditation (where such data is held). Under the GDPR, no fee is payable and we will provide any and all information in response to your request free of charge. Please contact us for more details at privacy@sterlingaccreditation.com
14. Our Use of Cookies
Our sites may place and access certain first party Cookies on your computer or device. First party Cookies are those placed directly by us and are used only by us. We use Cookies to facilitate and improve your experience of our sites and to provide and improve our products and services. By using our sites you may also receive certain third party Cookies on your computer or device. Third party Cookies are those placed by websites, services, and/or parties other than Sterling Accreditation. Third party Cookies are used on our sites for chat functionality, anonoymous market research and customer relationship management tracking. In addition, our sites use analytics services provided by Google, which also use Cookies. Website analytics refers to a set of tools used to collect and analyse usage statistics, enabling us to better understand how people use our sites. For more details, please refer to our Cookie Policy.
15. Contacting Us
If you have any questions about our sites or this Privacy Policy, please contact us by email at privacy@sterlingaccreditation.com, by telephone on +44 (0)161 727 4303, or by post at Sterling Accreditation Limited, Heywood Hall, Bolton Road, Pendlebury, Manchester M27 8UX. Please ensure that your query is clear, particularly if it is a request for information about the data we hold about you.
16. Changes to the Privacy Policy
We may change this Privacy Policy from time to time (for example, if the law changes). Any changes will be immediately posted on Our Site and you will be deemed to have accepted the terms of the Privacy Policy on your first use of Our Site following the alterations. We recommend that you check this page regularly to keep up-to-date.
Have any questions about our Privacy Policy?
Please get in touch with a member of staff on +44 (0)161 727 4303or send us an email to: privacy@sterlingaccreditation.com
