60 St. Martin’s Lane, London WC2N 4JS.
Registered in England and Wales under number 10557561.

Privacy Notice & E-mail Confidentiality Disclaimer

Background:

Westminster Legalisation Services LTD understands that your privacy is important to you and that you care about how your personal data is used. We respect and value the privacy of all of our Clients and will only collect and use personal data in ways that are described here, and in a way that is consistent with our obligations and your rights under the law.

1. Who we are

Westminster Legalisation Services Ltd (“WLS”, “we”, “us” or “our”) is a company registered in England and Wales under company number 10557561. Our registered address is 60 St. Martin’s Lane, London WC2N 4JS, United Kingdom. WLS is registered with the Information Commissioner’s Office under registration number ZA380527. Questions about this Privacy Policy or our use of Personal Data may be sent to info@wlegalisation.co.uk.
These terms form part of our General Terms and Conditions of business.

2. What this policy covers

This Privacy Policy explains how we collect, use, share, protect and retain Personal Data when you contact us, request a quotation, place an order, visit our offices or website, or use our legalisation, certification, notarisation, translation, verification, document handling or delivery services.

It applies when WLS acts as a Controller and decides why and how Personal Data is used. When a corporate or professional Client provides Personal Data for WLS to process only on that Client’s instructions, WLS may act as a Processor. In that situation, the Client’s privacy notice and the WLS Corporate Data Processing Terms may also apply.

3. Personal Data we collect

Depending on the service requested, we may collect or receive:

identity, contact and verification details about customers and people identified in the materials supplied to us;
the information contained in any documents you submit, including information about other people;
payment, invoicing, order, transaction and delivery details, although we do not normally retain complete payment-card details;
emails, telephone notes, application forms, quotations, complaints and other communications;
copies and scans created to process an order, verify completion or provide a PDF copy;
website, device, cookie and technical information such as IP address, browser type and website activity;
CCTV or building-access information where this is collected at an office location;
Special Category Data and criminal offence data, if they appear in the documents supplied to us;

The documents supplied to us may contain information about people other than the person placing the order. By instructing us to provide the service and submitting a document, you authorise us to access its contents and share relevant information as reasonably necessary to carry out your instructions. This contractual instruction is not, by itself, a data protection consent or a substitute for any lawful basis or additional condition required by law. Please provide only what is reasonably required.

4. How we obtain Personal Data

We may obtain Personal Data:

directly from you through our website, application forms, email, telephone, WhatsApp, post or office visits;
from a notary, solicitor, agency, employer, family member, representative or other person acting for you;
from a corporate Client that asks us to process documents for its customer, employee or representative;
from the FCDO, embassies, consulates, government departments, universities, professional bodies, verification services and other organisations involved in checking or legalising documents;
from payment providers, couriers, postal operators, fraud-prevention services and publicly available sources where appropriate.

5 Why we use Personal Data and our lawful bases

We use Personal Data only where we have a lawful basis. More than one lawful basis may apply to the same activity.

Purpose	Lawful basis
Responding to enquiries and preparing quotations	Taking steps at your request before entering into a contract; legitimate interests in responding to business enquiries
Providing legalisation, certification, notarisation, translation, verification, document handling and delivery services	Performance of a contract for the customer’s own information; legitimate interests in fulfilling the requested service where information relates to another person, subject to any additional condition required for sensitive information
Checking identity, documents, signatures and service requirements	Performance of a contract; legal obligation where applicable; legitimate interests in preventing errors and fraud
Processing payments, invoices, refunds and accounts	Performance of a contract; legal obligation; legitimate interests in financial administration and debt recovery
Sending order updates, scanned copies and collection or delivery information	Performance of a contract
Keeping service, compliance and quality-control records	Legal obligation; legitimate interests in demonstrating completion, handling complaints and improving services
Protecting our offices, systems, staff, customers and legal rights	Legal obligation; legitimate interests in security, fraud prevention, incident investigation and legal claims
Requesting feedback or sending relevant service marketing	Consent where required; legitimate interests or the existing-customer exception where permitted by data protection and electronic-marketing law

6. Sensitive and criminal-record information

Documents may contain Special Category Data or criminal offence data. We process this information only when it is necessary for the requested service, and an additional legal condition applies. Depending on the circumstances, this may include your explicit consent, the establishment, exercise or defence of legal claims, or another condition permitted by the UK GDPR and the Data Protection Act 2018.

Criminal offence data is processed only where permitted by the Data Protection Act 2018. Where a corporate Client provides this information, and WLS acts only as Processor, the Client is responsible for identifying the relevant lawful basis and additional condition.

7. Who we share Personal Data with

Where necessary, we may share Personal Data with:

our employees, contractors and authorised representatives;
the FCDO and other UK government departments or public bodies;
foreign embassies, consulates, ministries, government bodies and document-receiving authorities;
notaries, solicitors, translators, educational institutions, professional bodies and verification providers;
couriers, postal operators and delivery partners;
banks, card processors, payment providers, accountants and invoicing providers;
website hosting, cloud storage, email, customer-service, CRM, document-management, security and IT providers;
professional advisers, insurers, auditors, debt-recovery providers and legal representatives;
police, courts, regulators or other authorities where disclosure is required or permitted by law.

We share only the information reasonably necessary for the relevant purpose.

We do not sell or rent Personal Data and do not provide it to third parties for their own unrelated marketing.

Some recipients, including government bodies, embassies, consulates, notaries, solicitors, payment providers and couriers, may act as independent Controllers where they decide their own purposes and means of processing. They may handle information under their own legal obligations and privacy notices.

8. International transfers

Legalisation and delivery services may require Personal Data or documents to be sent to, or accessed from, countries outside the United Kingdom. This may occur when documents are submitted to a foreign authority, returned to an overseas address or processed by an international service provider.

Where UK international-transfer rules apply, we use a lawful transfer mechanism such as UK adequacy regulations, the UK International Data Transfer Agreement, the UK Addendum to approved contractual clauses or a permitted exception. Where required, we also assess the protection available in the receiving country. You may contact us for further information about safeguards relevant to your Personal Data.

9. How long we keep Personal Data

We keep Personal Data only for as long as reasonably necessary for the purpose for which it was collected and to meet legal, tax, accounting, insurance and dispute-resolution requirements. Our usual periods are:

Record	Usual retention period
Original documents	Returned or dispatched after completion. Uncollected documents may be securely destroyed 90 days after we notify the Client that they are ready.
Supporting documents	Supporting documents might be kept on record indefinitely in order to fulfil our due diligence requirements for fraud prevention or other legal obligations.
Working scans and complimentary PDF copies	Normally deleted within 12 months after completion unless a shorter or longer period is reasonably required for the service, a complaint, fraud prevention or a legal obligation.
General enquiries, application forms and quotations	E-mail storage is normally cleaned after 12 months after the last meaningful contact, but might be retained indefinitely. Text messages and other electronic messages might also be retained indefinitely.
Order, contract, invoice, payment and accounting records	Normally six years after the end of the relevant financial year or business relationship.
Material correspondence, complaints and legal claims	Normally six years after closure, or longer where a claim, investigation or legal requirement remains active.
Marketing records	Until you unsubscribe or we determine that the information is no longer required. We may keep a minimal suppression record to ensure that we respect an opt-out.
Security and access records	For a short period set by the relevant security or building provider, and longer only where required to investigate an incident or protect legal rights.
Backups	Until overwritten or securely deleted through our normal backup cycle, with access restricted while retained.

We may retain information for longer where the law requires it, a regulator or court directs us to keep it, or it is reasonably required for an active complaint, investigation or legal claim.

10. How we protect Personal Data

We use appropriate technical and organisational measures designed to protect Personal Data against unauthorised access, accidental loss, alteration or disclosure. These measures include restricted access, confidentiality obligations, password and account controls, physical office security, secure storage, malware protection, backups, staff procedures and secure disposal.

No transmission or storage system is completely secure. If a Personal Data Breach occurs, we will investigate it and notify affected people and the Information Commissioner’s Office where the law requires us to do so.

11. Your data protection rights

Depending on the circumstances, you may have the right to:

request access to your Personal Data and receive a copy;
ask us to correct inaccurate or incomplete Personal Data;
ask us to delete Personal Data where there is no lawful reason to continue keeping it;
ask us to restrict how Personal Data is used;
object to processing based on legitimate interests;
object at any time to the use of Personal Data for direct marketing;
receive certain Personal Data in a portable electronic format;
withdraw consent at any time where we rely on consent, without affecting earlier lawful processing;
complain about how we have used Personal Data;

These rights are not absolute, and exemptions may apply. We may ask for proportionate proof of identity or authority before responding. We will normally respond to a valid request without undue delay and within one month. We may extend this by up to two further months where permitted for complex or multiple requests. Where we reasonably need clarification, the response period may pause until the clarification is received.

12. Marketing and service communications

Order confirmations, service updates, requests for information, collection notices and delivery messages are service communications and may be sent where necessary to perform the contract.

We send marketing emails or messages to individuals only with consent or where the existing-customer exception applies. We may contact corporate business addresses where permitted, but we will respect objections. Every marketing message will provide a simple way to opt out. An opt-out will not prevent essential service communications about an active order.

13. Cookies and website information

Our website may use essential cookies and, with consent where required, analytics, functionality or advertising cookies. The website cookie banner and Cookie Policy explain the cookies in use, their purposes and how preferences can be changed.

14. Third Party Service Providers working on our behalf

We may pass your information to our third party service providers, agents, subcontractors and other associated organisations for the purposes of completing the contract and providing services to you on our behalf, for example to process legalisation of documents, translation and certification and submission to relevant government bodies in the United Kingdom. However, when we use third-party service providers, we disclose only the personal information that is necessary to deliver the service, and we have a contract in place that requires them to keep your information secure and not to use it for their own purposes.

15. Complaints

You can make a data protection complaint by emailing info@wlegalisation.co.uk or by using the contact form at https://wlegalisation.co.uk/contact/. Please explain what happened and provide your order number where relevant.

We will acknowledge a data protection complaint within 30 days, make appropriate enquiries and respond without undue delay. We will keep you informed if the investigation takes longer than expected.

16. Automated decision making

We do not normally make decisions about customers based solely on automated processing where the decision would produce legal or similarly significant effects.

17. Changes to this Privacy Policy

We may update this Privacy Policy to reflect changes in our services, systems or legal obligations.

The latest version will be published on our website with its revision date.

18. Contact us

Data protection contact: Emerson De Queiroz, Managing Director

Email: info@wlegalisation.co.uk

Telephone: 0203 633 4575

Postal address: 60 St. Martin’s Lane, London WC2N 4JS, United Kingdom

E-mail Confidentiality Disclaimer:

Any e-mail correspondence and its attachments (if any) that contain information from Westminster Legalisation Services LTD are intended exclusively for the named addressee(s) and are intended to be privileged and confidential. If you received it in error, please immediately notify the sender about the error and delete all copies of the e-mail correspondence from your system along with its attachments (if any). If you are not the intended recipient, you are notified that disclosing, copying, distributing, or taking any action in reliance on the contents of this information is prohibited.

Your personal data will be processed in connection with the legalisation and consultancy services provided by Westminster Legalisation Services LTD and related business activities only.