Privacy notice & policies

Introduction

The Privacy Notice below explains how we use information about you and how we protect your privacy in line with the UK General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR).

UK GDPR is enforced in the UK by the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) with whom Nathaniel Lichfield & Partners Limited (Lichfields) is registered: registration number Z6193122.

Changes to this privacy notice

We keep our privacy notice under regular review.

This notice was last revised 25 March 2024.

We may modify or amend this privacy notice from time-to-time at our discretion. When we make changes to this notice we will amend the revision date.

Your rights

The UK GDPR sets legislative requirements for organisations processing personal data which we follow when handling your data:

the right to be informed;
the right of access;
the right to rectification;
the right to erasure;
the right to restrict processing;
the right to data portability;
the right to object; and
rights in relation to automated decision making and profiling.

How we use your information

This privacy notice tells you what to expect when Lichfields collects personal information and how we protect your information gathered via this Website.

What is personal information?

Personal information can be anything that identifies and relates to a living person. This can include information that when put together with other information can then identify a person. This could include information such as your name, contact details, date of birth, email address or any information about you which would allow us to identify you.

Some personal information is classified as "special" data under data protection legislation. This includes information relating to health, racial or ethnic origin, religious beliefs or political opinions and sexual orientation. This information is more sensitive and we need to have further justifications for collecting, storing and using this type of personal information.

What personal information do we collect?

Under data protection legislation we are only permitted to use your personal information if we have a legal basis for doing so. We rely on the following legal bases to use your information:

For employment-related purposes;
Where you have given your consent;
Where we need information to perform the contract we have entered into with you;
Where we need to comply with a legal obligation;
Where the processing is necessary for us to carry out activities for which it is in Lichfields’ legitimate interests (or those of a third party) to do so and provided that your interests and fundamental rights do not override those interests, including:
- Processing which is necessary for us to promote our business, brands and products and measure the reach and effectiveness of our campaigns – this will include sending you marketing information from time to time to provide services, or receive services from us which may be similar and of interest to you or where you have expressly indicated that you would like to receive such information. You have the right to opt out of receiving this information at any time.
- Processing which is necessary to improve our knowledge of the town planning and development consultancy sector – this will include undertaking market analysis and research so that we better understand trends in the property sector and provide better knowledge along with more tailored and relevant services for our clients in the future.
- Processing necessary for us to operate the administrative and technical aspects of our business efficiently and effectively – this will include verifying the accuracy of information that we hold about you and create a better understanding of you as a client; processing for administrative efficiency purposes such as where we outsource certain administrative functions to third parties who specialise in such services; processing for network and information security purposes e.g. in order for us to take steps to protect your information against loss, damage, theft or unauthorised access or to comply with a request from you in connection with the exercise of any of your rights outlined below.

In more limited circumstances we may also rely on the following legal bases:

Where we need to protect your interests (or someone else's interests); and/or
Where it is needed in the public interest or for official purposes

Visitors to our websites

As a visitor you do not have to submit any personal information in order to use the Website.

We do not make any attempt to find out the identities of those visiting our Website and we will not associate any data gathered with any personally identifying information from any source.

Accuracy and liability

We do not provide any warranty or guarantee to the accuracy of the information on our Website. By using the Website you acknowledge that such information may contain inaccuracies or errors. We exclude liability for any such inaccuracies or errors to the extent permitted by law.

Use of any information or materials found on this Website is entirely at your own risk for which we shall not be liable. It shall be your responsibility to ensure any products, services or information available through this Website meets your specific requirements.

This Website contains material which is owned by or licensed to Lichfields. This material includes, but is not limited to: the wording; design; layout; look; appearance and graphics. Reproduction of any content is prohibited other than in accordance with the copyright notice (below).

Copyright notice

You may download and print extracts from this website, but you must not sell or republish our content without our express written permission.

Any enquiries should be directed to: dpo@lichfields.uk.

Your use of this Website and any dispute arising out of such use of the Website is subject to the laws of England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales.

Use of cookies by Lichfields

When visiting lichfields.uk (or any subsequent microsites), information and details of visitor behaviour patterns is collected. Our data collection methods do not identify individual visitors or collect personal data of any kind.

If we do want to collect personally identifiable information through our Website, we will ask your permission and make it clear at the time of the request what we intend to do with it.

The Website will give you the choice of accepting cookies by confirming our policy at the top of the first page you visit. By continuing to use our site, we will assume your implicit permission to use cookies.

What is a cookie?

A cookie is a small text file which asks permission to be placed on your computer’s hard drive. Once you agree the file is added and the cookie helps analyse web traffic data. We use traffic log, analytics, and social media cookies to identify when and how our Website is being used.

How we use cookies

This data helps us analyse web traffic and interactions, which in turn helps us to improve our Website and tailor it to our visitors’ needs. We do not use tracking cookies which follow your actions to other sites or continue to gather information about your online activities.

A cookie in no way gives us access to your computer or any information about you, other than the data you choose to share with us. If you don’t want to receive cookies you can modify your browser so that it notifies you when cookies are sent to it, or you can refuse cookies altogether.

You can also delete cookies which have already been stored on your computer. If you wish to restrict or block web browser cookies which are set on your device, you can do this through your browser settings. Alternatively, you may wish to visit aboutcookies.org which contains comprehensive information on how to do this on a wide variety of desktop browsers.

Which cookies we use

Web analytics cookies

We use third party services, Google Analytics and Hotjar, to track standard internet log information including: pages visited; duration of visit; referring pages; and page interactions. Privacy policies for these services can be found on their respective websites: Google and Hotjar.

We do not make, and do not allow these third parties to make, any attempt to find out the identities of those visiting our Website. If we do want to collect personally identifiable information through our website, we will be up front about this. We will make it clear when we collect personal information and will explain what we intend to do with it.

Social media cookies

The Website provides visitors with the opportunity to share content via social media channels. Each service sets a number of cookies which may be used to track you beyond this Website. You can read about their privacy and cookie policies here: Facebook; X (formerley Twitter); and LinkedIn.

Search functions

Search queries and results are logged anonymously to help us improve our website and search functionality. No user-specific data is collected by either Lichfields or any third party.

Subscriber emails

The Website allows visitors to register for updates produced by Lichfields or partner organisations. Visitors will only be provided with content they’ve requested e.g. blog posts, insights and/or news. The information provided (visitor’s email address) will not be shared with any external organisations unless requested by law enforcement agencies, the Government or legal counsel. We will however always take note of any duty of confidence we owe to you as part of our decision on whether to disclose or not. Lichfields has the right to remove any subscriber from content circulation without warning.

All correspondence from us will contain an option to unsubscribe from further communications.

Mailing Lists

If you are subscribed on one of our mailing lists and wish to be removed, your first step should be to unsubscribe from the link that will be on every marketing email we send out. If it’s broken, just send us an email at dpo@lichfields.uk with UNSUBSCRIBE in the subject line and we will suppress your contact details from future marketing.

Guests to our site who complete the ‘Download report’ form

In order to access some content on the site, the Website requests personal data from the guest (full name, company name and email address). Guests will only be provided with content they’ve requested. The information provided will not be shared with any external organisations unless explicitly stated on the page or requested by law enforcement agencies, the Government or legal counsel. We will, however, always take note of any duty of confidence we owe to the guest as part of our decision on whether to disclose or not.

Lichfields may use information given by the guest on the form to correspond with them about the content they have downloaded, as well as any future related content.

All correspondence from Lichfields will contain instructions on how to unsubscribe from further communications.

Guests to our site who submit an ‘Ask the author’ question

The Website provides guests the function to ask authors questions on their blog/s. In order to do this the following personal information is requested: full name, company name, email address and the question. All questions will be vetted before being delivered to the blog author. Lichfields will use the personal information from the form to correspond with the guest about the blog.

The information provided will not be shared with any external organisations unless requested by law enforcement agencies, the Government or legal counsel. We will, however, always take note of any duty of confidence we owe to the guest as part of our decision on whether to disclose or not.

All correspondence from Lichfields will contain instructions on how to unsubscribe from further communications.

Security and performance

We have in place reasonable commercial standards of technology and operational security to protect all information provided by visitors via this Website from unauthorised access, disclosure, alteration, or destruction.

Umbraco

Lichfields’ content management system, Umbraco, does not collect, store or process any personal or sensitive data of any kind. Website subscriptions are directed to a Lichfields employed data controller who processes your request.

People who contact us via social media

If you send Lichfields a private or direct message via social media the message will be stored by official social media provider only e.g. X (formerly Twitter) Analytics or LinkedIn Admin. We will not share the data with any other organisations.

People who email us

We use SPF, DKIM and DMARC - authentication protocols used to identify and shield against email spoofing. All our traffic is at least TLS 1.2 to authenticate and encrypt data securely when transferred over our network. We scan all emails sent to us, including file attachments, for viruses and malicious software.

Job applicants

We use a third party provider, iCIMS, to supply a recruitment portal to unify our recruitment process.

Information we may collect from you

We may collect and process the following data about you:

Information you provide by filling in forms or registering your CV on our site:

https://jobs-lichfields.icims.com (“site”). This includes information provided at the time of registering to use our site, subscribing to our service, posting material or requesting further services. This information will include (but is not limited to) your name, address, employment history, and education history. We also ask candidates to provide equality, diversity and inclusion (EDI) data, although it is not a requirement to submit these details. Diversity monitoring data is provided to us directly by you where you choose to provide it. Diversity monitoring data is special category data under the UK GDPR and includes information regarding:

ethnicity
information about disability
sexuality and gender identification, including reassignment
religious beliefs.

The information you provide will be kept safely and confidentially and will be used for monitoring purposes only. As diversity monitoring data is special category data, we also require an additional legal basis for processing. We process diversity monitoring data under Article 9 of the UK GDPR for reasons of Legitimate interests, to ensure compliance with the Equality Act 2010 and Schedule 1 of the Data Protection Act 2018 and to promote and maintain equality in Lichfields.

It is not a requirement to submit diversity monitoring data.

Use of social media

To reach the widest pool of talent we may use social media as well as recruitment agencies to advertise and recruit for job openings. All our hiring managers are trained not to use personal social media, such as Facebook, when making selection decisions.

Uses of the information

We use information held about you in the following ways:

To ensure that content from our site is presented in the most effective manner for you and for your computer;
To provide you with information regarding potential job vacancies that you request from us or which we feel may interest you. You may at any time request that we stop sending you such information by logging onto our careers website to update your profile and “Manage Your Email Subscriptions Preferences” to indicate you “no longer wish to receive any future mass emails of any kind”; and
To notify you about changes to our service.

Storage of your information

Once your data has been submitted to Lichfields, either directly by you or through a recruitment agency, only Lichfields’ HR team; our relevant hiring managers; and supporting administration staff will have access to your data. iCIMS’ support team can also access your data but only at the request of Lichfields’ HR team. Your personal data will be used solely by Lichfields and will not be disclosed or sold to third parties. We will retain your personal information for a reasonable period or for so long as either you or legislation permits.

Unsolicited CVs

All CVs received by post or email will be deleted or confidentially destroyed and the sender informed. The sender can register their interest via our website (http://lichfields.uk/careers/). If the sender does not have access to, or does not wish to apply electronically, they are advised to contact the HR team on 020 7837 4477.

Disclosure of your information

We may disclose your personal information in order to comply with any legal obligation, or to protect the rights, property or safety of our clients, others and us.

Access to information

You may request a copy of the information we hold on our site about you subject to the relevant legislative process.

Automatic decision making

Lichfields only performs automated decision making during the recruitment process to determine if a candidate has the right to work in the UK. If you wish to contest this automated decision please contact a member of the HR Team on 020 7837 4477.

Complaints or queries

If you are concerned about Lichfields’ personal data practices please contact us; contact details are in the ‘how to contact us’ section below. We will respond as soon as possible to your query and always within a month.

Once we have verified your identity, we can: delete; rectify; stop processing; give you access to; or clarify how we have processed, your personal data.

Children's privacy protection

We understand the importance of protecting children's privacy in the interactive online world. This Website is not designed for or intentionally targeted at children. It is not our policy to intentionally collect or maintain information from children.

Access to personal information

We try to be as open as we can be in terms of giving people access to the personal information we’ve processed. Individuals can find out if we hold any personal information by making a ‘subject access request’ in writing to the Data Protection Officer, contact details can be obtained in the ‘how to contact us’ section below. If we do hold information about you we will:

give you a description of it;
tell you why we are holding it;
tell you who it could be disclosed to; and
let you have a copy of the information in an intelligible format.

Links to other websites

This privacy notice does not cover the links within this site linking to other websites. We encourage you to read the privacy notices on other websites you visit.

How to contact us

If you have wish to contact us or have further questions regarding data protection, please write to the: Data Protection Officer, Lichfields, The Minster Building, 21 Mincing Lane, London, EC3R 7AG or email: dpo@lichfields.uk.