Privacy Policy

Who we are

Imran & Co Solicitors Ltd, trading as Imran & Co Solicitors, is the data controller for the personal data described in this policy. We are authorised and regulated by the Solicitors Regulation Authority under SRA number 8006961, and you can check our entry on the SRA register at any time.

You can reach us about anything in this policy at:

• Post: First Floor, 221 Whitechapel Road, London E1 1DE
• Email: info@imransolicitors.co.uk
• Telephone: 020 7871 5365

We have not appointed a Data Protection Officer, as we are not required to. Enquiries about data protection are handled by the solicitor responsible for your matter, or by the principal solicitor where no matter is open.

What we collect

• Details you give us through an enquiry form, by email, on WhatsApp, by telephone or in person: your name, contact details, and the description of your matter you choose to share.
• Information needed to advise you, which for immigration and family work usually includes immigration history, family relationships, employment, finances and travel history.
• Identity and source-of-funds documents required by the Money Laundering Regulations before we can act.
• Special category data where your matter turns on it — for example health records in a medical or human rights claim, or information revealing ethnicity, religion or sexual orientation in an asylum or family matter. We collect this only where it is necessary for the legal work you have asked us to do.
• Correspondence between us, and file notes of calls and meetings.
• Technical data from this website, limited to what our host needs to serve and secure the pages you request, such as the IP address a request comes from and the page it asked for.

We do not buy personal data from third parties, and we do not use your data to build marketing profiles.

Why we process it, and on what basis

What we do	Lawful basis
Answer your enquiry and give an initial view	Steps taken at your request before entering a contract
Carry out the legal work you instruct us to do	Performance of our contract with you
Identity, sanctions and anti-money-laundering checks	Legal obligation
Keep files, ledgers and records after a matter closes	Legal obligation, and our legitimate interest in defending claims
Respond to our regulator, insurer or auditor	Legal obligation, and legitimate interests
Improve the security and reliability of this website	Our legitimate interest in a site that works and is not abused

Where we handle special category data, we rely on the additional condition of establishing, exercising or defending legal claims, or on your explicit consent where that condition does not apply.

Where we rely on legitimate interests, we have considered the effect on you and process no more than is needed for the purpose stated.

Who we share it with

We share what is necessary, and only where the work requires it:

• The Home Office, courts, tribunals and other decision-making bodies dealing with your matter.
• Barristers, experts, interpreters, translators, agents and process servers instructed on your file.
• Third parties you ask us to deal with, such as a sponsor, an employer, a family member or another adviser.
• Our IT, case-management, email, telephony and secure-storage providers, who act on our instructions under written contracts.
• Our accountants, auditors, insurers and the Solicitors Regulation Authority, where they are entitled to see it.

We never sell personal data, and we do not disclose your matter to anyone outside these categories without your instruction, unless the law requires it. Anti-money-laundering law can require us to make a report without telling you.

Sending data outside the UK

Our systems are hosted in the UK or the European Economic Area. Where a matter requires information to go elsewhere — an overseas post, an embassy, an expert or a client abroad — we transfer only what that step needs, and we rely on UK adequacy regulations or the ICO’s International Data Transfer Agreement or Addendum where the destination has no adequacy decision.

How long we keep it

• Client files: six years from the closure of the matter, unless the file contains original documents or a continuing interest — wills, deeds, orders affecting children or property — in which case we keep it for as long as that interest lasts.
• Anti-money-laundering records: five years from the end of the business relationship or the completion of the transaction, as the Money Laundering Regulations require.
• Enquiries that do not become matters: twelve months, then deleted.
• Accounting records: six years, as tax and accounts rules require.

At the end of the applicable period, files are securely destroyed or permanently deleted.

How we protect it

Files are held in access-controlled systems, encrypted in transit and at rest, backed up, and reachable only by the people working on your matter. Everyone here is under a professional duty of confidentiality that outlives the retention periods above. This website is served over HTTPS, with HTTP Strict Transport Security enforced, and it collects nothing from you beyond what you choose to send us.

No system is perfect. If a breach ever affects your rights and freedoms, we will tell you and the Information Commissioner’s Office within the time limits the law sets.

Your rights

Under the UK GDPR you may:

• ask for a copy of the personal data we hold about you;
• ask us to correct data that is wrong or incomplete;
• ask us to delete data, where we are not required to keep it;
• ask us to restrict or object to processing;
• ask us to transfer data you gave us to another provider, where that right applies; and
• withdraw consent at any time, where consent is what we rely on.

Write to us at the postal or email address above. We will respond within one month, and will tell you if a matter is complex enough to need longer. There is no charge for a reasonable request. Some rights are limited where legal professional privilege applies, or where we must keep records for regulatory reasons — we will explain if that is the case.

Cookies

This website’s use of cookies and embedded content is set out separately in our Cookie Policy.

Complaints

If you are unhappy with how we have handled your personal data, please tell us first so that we can put it right. You may also complain to the Information Commissioner’s Office, Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow, Cheshire SK9 5AF — 0303 123 1113 — ico.org.uk.

Changes to this policy

We review this policy at least once a year and whenever our systems or obligations change. The date at the top of this page shows when it was last revised.