PRIVACY POLICY

 

Last updated: 10 October 2026

This policy explains how PMA Accountants uses personal data collected through this website, enquiries and our marketing.

1. Who we are

PMA Accountants Limited (company number 05610804) is the controller of your personal data. We are registered with the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) under registration number Z2364395.

You can contact us about anything in this policy:

  • Email: hello@pmaaccountants.co.uk

  • Phone: 0203 189 1736

  • Post: PMA Accountants, 302 Kirkdale House, Third Floor, 7 Kirkdale Road, Leytonstone, London, E11 1HP

If you become a client, we will give you a separate client privacy notice. It explains how we handle the financial, tax, payroll and identity information we need to provide our services.

2. What personal data we collect

We collect only what we need to respond to you and run this website:

  • Contact details: name, email address, phone number and business name, from our contact forms, emails and phone calls.

  • Enquiry details: the services you’re interested in and any information about your business you choose to share with us.

  • Marketing preferences: whether you have opted in to or out of our emails.

  • Website usage: pages visited, time on site, browser and device type, approximate location, IP address and cookie identifiers, collected through cookies and our website platform.

Please don’t send us sensitive information, such as health details, through our website forms. If you need to share it as part of our work for you, we will agree a secure way to do so.

3. Why we use your data and our lawful basis

The law says we must have a lawful basis for each way we use your data. Ours are:

  • Replying to your enquiry and preparing a quote or proposal. Lawful basis: steps you have asked us to take before entering into a contract, or otherwise our legitimate interest in responding to people who contact us.

  • Identity and anti-money laundering checks before we take you on as a client. Lawful basis: legal obligation under the Money Laundering Regulations 2017.

  • Sending you marketing emails about our services and news. Lawful basis: your consent, or for existing clients our legitimate interests under the “soft opt-in” rule (see section 4).

  • Website analytics, so we can understand how the site is used and improve it. Lawful basis: your consent (see section 8).

  • Keeping our website and systems secure, and dealing with legal claims. Lawful basis: our legitimate interests.

Where we rely on legitimate interests, we have checked that our interests are not outweighed by your rights. You can ask us for details of that assessment.

We do not use your data for automated decisions that have a legal or similarly significant effect on you.

4. Marketing emails

We only send marketing emails to people who have opted in, or to existing clients about services similar to the ones they already use. Sending us an enquiry does not add you to our mailing list unless you tick the box to opt in.

Every marketing email includes an unsubscribe link. You can also opt out at any time by emailing hello@pmaaccountants.co.uk. Opting out won’t affect the service emails we need to send you as a client.

5. Who we share your data with

We never sell your personal data. We share it only where we need to, with:

  • Service providers who process data on our behalf. Our contracts with them require them to keep it secure and use it only on our instructions. They include providers of:

    • email and office software (Google Workspace)

    • practice management and document storage (Sodium, Workiro)

    • proposals (Socket)

    • identity verification (Xama Technologies)

    • website hosting and payments (Squarespace)

    • analytics (Google Analytics)

  • Freelance and outsourced professionals who help us deliver our services, under confidentiality and data protection agreements.

  • Our professional advisers, such as lawyers, insurers and auditors, where needed.

  • Regulators and authorities, where the law requires us to share data. These include HMRC, Companies House, our anti-money laundering supervisor (the Institute of Financial Accountants) and the National Crime Agency.

International transfers

Some of our providers, including Google and Squarespace, may process data outside the UK, for example in the United States. When this happens, we make sure appropriate safeguards are in place. These include UK adequacy regulations (such as the UK–US “data bridge”) and the ICO’s International Data Transfer Agreement or Addendum. Contact us if you would like more information.

6. How long we keep your data and how we protect it

We keep personal data only for as long as we need it:

  • Enquiries that don’t lead to us working together: 2 years from our last contact.

  • Identity and anti-money laundering records: 5 years after our business relationship ends, as the law requires.

  • Marketing preferences: until you unsubscribe. After that we keep a minimal record so that we don’t contact you again.

  • Website analytics data: up to 14 months.

  • Client records: as set out in our client privacy notice and engagement letter.

We use appropriate technical and organisational measures to protect your data. These include secure, access-controlled systems and confidentiality agreements with everyone who works for us. Only people who need your data to do their job can access it.

7. Your rights and how to complain

Under data protection law you have the right to:

  • Access a copy of the personal data we hold about you.

  • Correct data that is wrong or incomplete.

  • Delete your data, where we no longer have a reason to keep it.

  • Restrict how we use your data in certain circumstances.

  • Object to our use of your data where we rely on legitimate interests, and to direct marketing at any time.

  • Data portability: receive the data you gave us in a commonly used format, or have it sent to another organisation.

  • Withdraw consent at any time, where we rely on it. This doesn’t affect anything we did before you withdrew it.

To use any of these rights, contact us using the details in section 1. In most cases we won’t charge a fee. We will respond within one month. We may extend this where the law allows, and we will tell you if we do. We may need to confirm your identity first.

Some rights have exceptions. For example, we must keep anti-money laundering records even if you ask us to delete them.

Complaints

If you’re unhappy with how we’ve handled your data, please tell us first. Email hello@pmaaccountants.co.uk with the subject line “Data protection complaint”. We will acknowledge your complaint within 30 days, look into it, and tell you the outcome without undue delay.

You also have the right to complain to the Information Commissioner’s Office at ico.org.uk/make-a-complaint, or by phone on 0303 123 1113.

8. Cookies and analytics

Cookies are small files stored on your device when you visit a website. We use:

  • Strictly necessary cookies. These are set by our website platform, Squarespace. They keep the site secure, make the shopping cart and checkout work, and remember your cookie choices. They are always on, because the site can’t work properly without them.

  • Analytics cookies. These are set by Squarespace Analytics and Google Analytics. They help us understand how visitors use the site, such as how many people visit and which pages they view. We only set them if you accept analytics cookies in our cookie banner.

Analytics cookies use identifiers that can count as personal data, and Google and Squarespace may process this data in the United States (see section 5). You can find out more in Google’s privacy policy at policies.google.com/privacy.

You can change your cookie choices at any time using the cookie settings on our website. You can also block or delete cookies in your browser settings, although parts of the site, such as the checkout, may not work properly if you do.

9. Changes to this policy

We review this policy regularly and will update it when the law, or the way we use personal data, changes. The latest version will always be on this page, with the date it was last updated at the top. If we make significant changes that affect you, we will let you know directly where we can.