(i) Who are we?

The Academy of Experts is an unincorporated association with registered office at 3 Gray’s Inn Square, London, WC1R 5AH (“TAE”). When we refer to “we”, “us” or “our” we mean The Academy of Experts and our partner training provider organisation ARA Conference Services (“ARACS”), a company incorporated in England and Wales (Company Number 04295914) and having its registered office at 3 Gray’s Inn Square, London, WC1R 5AH.

TAE and ARACS are joint controllers in respect of some of the personal information which we hold about you as ARACS provide services such as training and events on behalf of TAE and process data in conjunction with TAE for the joint purposes of running TAE and providing associated services such as administration and membership management. TAE and ARACS are acting as joint controllers for the following purposes:

(a) Recruitment Applicants;
(b) Speakers and Trainers/Tutors (for TAE events and/or seminars);
(c) Next of Kin/Emergency Contacts;
(d) Event/Training Attendees (TAE events and/or seminars)
(e) Referees (employees and trainers/tutors);
(f) Suppliers and Service Providers; and
(g) Visitors.

For the following purposes, ARACS are acting as a processor on behalf of TAE who is the controller:

(h) TAE Website Users;
(i) Subscribers;
(j) Members/Assessors/Office Bearers/Committee Members;
(k) Lawyers/Litigants;
(l) Referees (members);
(m) Complainants; and
(n) Customers.

TAE provides accreditation of Expert Witnesses and a comprehensive range of training courses to enable members and others to develop their expert skills. TAE is also a training and accreditation body for ADR Neutrals, including Mediators, Conciliators and Expert Determiners.

TAE was founded in 1987 with the objective of providing, for the first time, a professional body for experts to establish and promote high objective standards. Although there is representation on the Academy’s Council from the legal profession the majority of the officers, including the Chairman, are practising Experts – The Academy of Experts is run by Experts for Experts and those using them.

(ii) Purpose of this privacy policy

We take your privacy seriously and are committed to protecting your personal information. This privacy policy sets out the way in which your personal information will be used by us. This privacy policy applies whenever we collect your personal data.

(iii) Contact Us

If you have any questions regarding this privacy policy or are unhappy with how we handle your personal information in relation to a-g above, you can contact either TAE or ARACS at:

The Academy of Experts
3 Gray’s Inn Square
London
WC1R 5AH

ARA Conference Services
3 Gray’s Inn Square
London
WC1R 5AH

or e-mail us at admin@academy-experts.org or admin@aracs.co.uk

If you have any questions regarding this privacy policy or are unhappy with how we handle your personal information in relation to h-n above, please contact TAE (the controller) at:

The Academy of Experts
3 Gray’s Inn Square
London
WC1R 5AH

or e-mail us at admin@academy-experts.org

If we are unable to deal with your complaint to your satisfaction, you have the right to notify the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) by calling their helpline on: 0303 123 1113 or by writing to them at:-

Information Commissioner’s Office
Wycliffe House
Water Lane
Wilmslow
Cheshire
SK9 5AF

(iv) Key Terms

When we refer to Data Protection Legislation we mean the General Data Protection Regulation (Regulation (EU) 2016/679) (“GDPR“) and the Data Protection Act 2018 (“DPA“).

Personal information is information that can be used to identify or contact a specific individual, such as a name, address, telephone number, email address, etc., and also online identifiers and location data such as IP addresses and mobile device IDs.

Special category data means personal data revealing your racial or ethnic origin; political opinions; religious or philosophical beliefs; or trade union membership; and genetic data; biometric data; data related to your health or data concerning your sex life or sexual orientation; and Criminal convictions data.

Criminal convictions data means personal data relating to the alleged commission of offences by you; or proceedings for an offence committed or alleged to have been committed by you or the disposal of such proceedings, including sentencing.

A controller is someone who decides why personal data is to be collected and how it will be used and treated.

A processor is someone who processes personal data on behalf of the Controller and in accordance with the Controller’s instructions.

Website means the whole of any part of the website controlled or operated by TAE and located at https://academyofexperts.org/.

(v) Updating your personal information

Please contact us soon as possible after there is any change to your personal details, including your contact details.

(vi) How do we keep your personal data safe

We take the security of your personal information seriously. When you submit personal information to us, we use industry standard security technology to guard your information. In addition, we have security procedures in place to protect our paper-based systems and computerised databases from loss and misuse, and only allow access to them when it is necessary to do so, and then under strict guidelines as to what use may be made of the personal information contained within them.

Where we issue you with a password, for access to certain areas of our digital platforms, you are responsible for keeping your password secure and confidential. Please do not share or disclose your password to any other person. If you think that your password to our systems has been compromised, please contact us immediately.

We cannot guarantee the security of your home computer or the internet, and any online communications (e.g. information provided by email or our website) are at the user’s own risk.

(vii) Third party links

Please note that our Websites and other digital platforms may contain links to third party websites/digital platforms which are provided for your convenience.
We are only responsible for the privacy practices of our own Websites and digital platforms. We recommend that you refer to the privacy policy of each website/digital platform you visit.

(viii) Your Rights to Your Personal Information

You have certain rights under the Data Protection Legislation which can be exercised by contacting us at
The Academy of Experts
3 Gray’s Inn Square
London
WC1R 5AH

ARA Conference Services
3 Gray’s Inn Square
London
WC1R 5AH

or e-mail us at admin@academy-experts.org or admin@aracs.co.uk

Please contact TAE and/or ARACS in relation to a-g above however where your request relates to h-n above, please only contact TAE (as the controller).

including:

• the right to access the personal data held about the you by making a subject access request in accordance with the Data Protection Legislation. We may charge a reasonable fee when a request is manifestly unfounded or excessive;
• the right to have your personal data rectified if it is inaccurate or incomplete;
• the right to request to have your personal data deleted in certain specific circumstances as set out in the Data Protection Legislation;
• the right to request to restrict the processing of your personal data in certain specific circumstances as set out in the Data Protection Legislation;
• the right to ask us not to process your personal data for marketing purposes or for purposes based on our legitimate interests in certain specific circumstances as set out in the Data Protection Legislation;
• the right to ask us to not undergo automated decision making; and
• where you have provided consent, the right to withdraw such consent at any time.

Further details about your rights can be found on the ICO’s website at https://ico.org.uk/.

There are some exemptions to the above rights that are permitted under the data protection legislation. If you have any queries as to what these are then please get in touch.

Please note that if you choose to exercise your rights to have personal data restricted or deleted, then we may not be able to provide you with a full service.

We will need you to provide identification in order to comply with your request to exercise your rights. Once we have received your information request, and your identification, we will respond within the required timescales unless a permitted exemption applies.

(ix) Do We Share Your Personal Information?

We will not sell, trade or lease your personal information to others.

We contract with third party service providers and suppliers to deliver certain services. We have or will have data processing agreements in place with each of these providers so that they process your personal information in accordance with this privacy policy.

The following third parties may also have access to your personal information and, in some circumstances, your special category data (if applicable), for the purposes noted below:

• Any other person who is authorised to act on your behalf;
• Regulators, government departments, law enforcement authorities, tax authorities and insurance companies;
• Any relevant dispute resolution body or the courts;
• We may need to disclose your details, if required, to the police, regulatory bodies or legal advisors, to comply with our legal obligations;
• We share your personal information with our partner training provider organisation, ARA Conference Services, who run all of our training courses and events and who manage the day-to-day operations of TAE;
• Where you attend an event/training session outside of our premises, we may also share your information with the venue and/or trainer;
• We may share your personal information with our trainers, assessors and committee members to allow us to administer your membership and ensure that you are a fit and proper person for TAE;
• If you are a member of our Accredited Accounting Expert Witness Register (“Register”), we may share your information with ICAEW (Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales) who assist us inmaintaining this Register;
• We may share your personal information with our independent auditors who are currently Greenaway;
• We may share your personal information with our independent auditors;
• We may share your personal details (if you are a member of TAE) with our Professional Indemnity Insurance Scheme for members of TAE;
• We may share your personal data with our current confidential waste management providers;
• We may share your personal data with our email and document management system;
• We may share your personal data with our CCTV camera hosting company;
• We may share your personal data to print our journal and send on to our members;
• We may share your personal data with the organisations we use to process all of our payments;
• Where we host an event outside of the EEA, we may share your personal information with venues/hotels in accordance with their rules;
• We may share your personal data with our landlords;
• We may share your personal data with our e-mail generator organisation for sending emails to members and those interested in receiving our updates;
• Where you are a member who is subject to disciplinary proceedings, we may publish your information (your name and date and time of hearing) on the TAE website as well as, when the matter has concluded, provide an update on the outcome of such disciplinary action (which will include your name, occupation, skills/qualifications and other relevant information, which shall include details of the matter investigated and may include details of the Disciplinary Tribunal and the complainant) on the TAE website as well as in the TAE Journal, which is circulated to all members of TAE. We will also share your personal information with those third parties involved in the disciplinary hearing (e.g. the Investigations Committee and TAE’s legal representatives).
• We may share your personal data with our cloud storage provider; and
• We may share your personal data with the organisation we use to back up our files.

Our service providers change from time to time and we will inform you if this is the case by updating this privacy policy.

(x) General Retention Periods

We will not hold your personal information for any longer than is necessary, unless we are required to keep your personal data longer to comply with the law and any regulatory requirements, including tax requirements.

To determine the appropriate retention period for personal data, we consider the amount, nature, and sensitivity of the personal data, the potential risk of harm from unauthorised use or disclosure of your personal data, the purposes for which we process your personal data and whether we can achieve those purposes through other means, and the applicable legal requirements.

We will destroy your credit or debit card details as soon as we have processed your payment. If you make a payment via our website then your payment is processed through SagePay by WorldPay or PayPal and we cannot access this information.

Please note that this section refers to general retention only and specific retention conditions may apply depending on how you interact with us. Please refer to the Specific Section(s) below for further details.

(xi) Surveys, feedback forms and questionnaires

We may ask you to fill in questionnaires or surveys via one of our digital channels or by post. The anonymous data collected by such questionnaires or surveys will only be used by us to:

• to carry out market research so that we can improve the products and services we offer;
• respond to Government Consultations and make representations on behalf of Experts and Dispute Resolvers;
• to personalise and improve your experience.

There may be circumstances where you are given the opportunity to receive the results of our surveys by giving us your name and/or email address. This is with your consent only.

(xii) European Economic Area

The data that we collect from you will usually be stored inside the UK or the European Economic Area (EEA).

However, if you live or work outside of the UK or the EEA, we may need to transfer your personal data outside of the UK or the EEA to correspond with you and or organise services you have purchased from us. Where this applies, we will take all steps reasonably necessary to ensure that your data is treated securely and in accordance with this privacy policy.

We also may transfer data outside the UK or the EEA where our, service providers host, process, or store data outside the UK or the EEA. Where we do this, we will ensure that the transfer is to a country covered by a decision of the European Commission or is otherwise made in circumstances where we have put appropriate safeguards are in place to protect your data in accordance with the Data Protection Legislation. Any service providers which are out with the EEA are all certified under the EU-US Privacy Shield:

We may also have to transfer your data outside of the EEA where you sign up to an event or training course run and hosted by us outside of the EEA.

(xiii) Changes to this Privacy Policy

We aim to meet high standards and so our policies and procedures are constantly under review. From time to time we may change this privacy policy, so please check this page regularly to ensure that you are happy with any changes that may have been made.

Cookies

A cookie is a small 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 or lets you know when you visit a particular site. Cookies allow web applications to respond to you as an individual. The web application can tailor its operations to your needs, likes and dislikes by gathering and remembering information about your preferences.

We use traffic log cookies to identify which pages are being used which are provided by Google Analytics. This helps us analyse data about web page traffic and improve our website in order to tailor it to customer needs. We only use this information for statistical analysis purposes and then the data is removed from the system. All of this data is anonymised.

Overall, cookies help us provide you with a better website, by enabling us to monitor which pages you find useful and which you do not. 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.

You can choose to accept or decline cookies. Most web browsers automatically accept cookies, but you can usually modify your browser setting to decline cookies if you prefer. This may prevent you from taking full advantage of the website.

To reset your cookie preferences for this website  click here.

Queries and complaints

If you contact us using any of the email addresses, phone numbers or postal addresses provided on the Websites to submit a query or a complaint to us we will use the contact details you provide to respond to your query or complaint. Our legal basis for utilising your personal information in this way is your legitimate interests in that you would like us to respond to questions or queries you have raised.

If you contact us about an event enquiry, we will ue the information you provide to correspond with you about the event and register you for the event, if requested. Our legal basis for utilising your personal information in this way is your legitimate interests in that you would like us to respond to your query about an event or training session we are hosting. When you enquire about an event or training course, we collect your name, telephone number, email address, company name and address and billing name and address along with details of your enquiry.

For more information on how we use your information when you sign up for an event/training course, please see Section 6 below.

Forms

We have forms on our Websites to allow you to sign up and/or register for an event/training course. You are able to download these forms and email or post them to us to be registered for an event/training course or alternatively you can phone or email us to book you a place on an event/training session.

Our legal basis for utilising your personal information in this way is your legitimate interests in that you would like us to book you a place on an event/training course.

For more information on how we use your information when you sign up for an event/training course, please see Section 6 below.

Specific Retention Periods for Website Users

We will retain your personal information for the following time periods:

Information we collect from you when you contact us: please refer to specific section below (for example if you have contacted us about an event/training session, please see section 6 below or if you have contacted us about a complaint, please see section 8 below).

Information we collect through our Websites: 2 years.

Generally, we will use your personal data for the purposes of the application process. We have set out in the table below further detail in this regard.

Specific retention periods for recruitment applicants

• Speculative applications (e.g. vacancy enquiries or non-specific applications) – will be will be held within the HR records for a period of 6 months after receipt before being deleted or destroyed.
• Unsuccessful applications (e.g. not short-listed after initial application or unsuccessful after interview) – will be held within the HR records for a period of 6 months once the recruitment campaign has closed before being deleted or destroyed. This information is mainly used for providing candidate feedback, monitoring and statutory reporting purposes and should we need to contact a reserve candidate, if agreed in advance, in the event of a withdrawal or a similar position were to become vacant within a 6-month period.
• Successful applications – once a successful candidate has taken up employment with TAE, they should refer to the HR Privacy Policy. Once employment with TAE has ended, we will retain your information in accordance with the requirements of our retention schedule and then delete it. Generally this is 1/2 years after employment has ended unless records form part of accounting records, they are held for 7 years after termination of employment.

If you have signed up to our online Expert Search function on our Website, your details will be available to the general public. Our legal basis for utilising your personal information in this way is contractual obligation (i.e. the service that we are providing to you). If you no longer wish to be on this public Expert Search function, please let us know by using the contact details given about in section (iii) of the General Section and we will remove you.

You have access to a Members Area via our Website which allows you to view your personal information and amend certain fields. When you update details on your member profile, we are able to access this and approve the changes. Our legal basis for utilising your personal information in this way is based on our contractual obligations in terms of your membership with us and our legitimate interests in ensuring that your personal information is up to date.

Specific Retention Periods for Membership

If you have purchased a membership we will hold your membership information throughout the duration of your membership, and indefinitely after your last point of contact. This retention period allows us to correspond with you in case we need to contact you, or if there are any other updates, news or offers which we think may be of interest to you.

Specific Retention Periods for Event/Training Attendees

We will retain your data indefinitely, however this would be in an archived format after 7 years.

Specific Retention Periods for Lawyers/Litigants and related case details

We will retain your data for 7 years to comply with our accounting requirements.

Specific Retention Periods for Complainants

We will retain your data for the duration of the investigation and outcome of any complaint made and indefinitely thereafter.

Specific Retention Periods for Next of Kin/ Emergency Contact

We will retain your data for three years after last contact with employee/trainer.

Specific Retention Periods for referees

In the case of employee referees we will retain your data for 7 years.
In the case of members referees we will retain your data indefinitely as part of the membership record.

Specific Retention Periods for Trainers/Tutors and Speakers

We will retain your data for the duration of any contract we have with you and for a period of seven years after the contract has expired or has been terminated.

Specific Retention Periods for Supplier and Service Providers

Please refer to our general retention periods in section 1.

Specific Retention Periods for Customers

If you have purchased any item as a customer from our Websites, we will hold your contact information for a period of seven (7) years after your last point of contact. This is so that we can send you information and marketing materials related to goods, services and activities which we feel may be relevant to you.

Specific Retention Periods for Visitors

We will retain your data for seven (7) years.