W.A Hoare & Sons (Sculptors) Limited t/a Hoare Banks Stonemasons Privacy Policy
Last Update: 9 June 2025
Introduction
We take your privacy very seriously. Please read this privacy policy carefully as it contains important information on who we are and how and why we collect, store, use and share your personal data. It also explains your rights in relation to your personal data and how to contact us or supervisory authorities in the event you have a complaint.
We collect, use and are responsible for certain personal data about you. When we do so we are subject to the UK Data Protection Act (2018), which is the UK’s implementation of the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).
Key terms
It would be helpful to start by explaining some key terms used in this policy:
| We, us, our | W.A Hoare & Sons (Sculptors) Limited t/a Hoare Banks Stonemasons |
| Our data protection officer | Marcus Hoare |
| Personal data | Any information relating to an identified or identifiable individual |
| Special category personal data | Personal data revealing racial or ethnic origin, political opinions, religious beliefs, philosophical beliefs or trade union membership Genetic and biometric data (when processed to uniquely identify an individual) Data concerning health, sex life or sexual orientation |
| Data subject | The individual who the personal data relates to |
Personal data we collect about you
We may collect and use the following personal data about you:
your name, job title and contact information, including email address and telephone number and company details
your address, for delivery purposes
location data
your billing information, transaction and payment details (including card or bank information for transfers and direct debits
information to enable us to undertake credit or other financial checks on you
information about how you interact with and use our website, products and services
your responses to surveys, competitions and promotions
your preferences in receiving marketing from us and our third parties and your communication preferences
audio recordings, such as phone calls
We collect and use this personal data to provide products and services to you. If you do not provide personal data we ask for, it may delay or prevent us from providing products and services to you.
How your personal data is collected
We collect most of this personal data directly from you—in person, by telephone, text or email and/or via our website.
However, we may also collect information:
from publicly accessible sources, such as Companies House
directly from a third party, we may receive personal data about you from various parties which we use in order to provide our services such as payment processors;
filling in required forms or by correspondence with us by post, phone, email or otherwise;
when you contact us for information or request a quotation;
As you interact with our website, we may automatically collect data about your equipment, browsing actions and patterns. We collect this personal data by using cookies on our website and other similar technologies;
How and why we use your personal data
Under data protection law, we can only use your personal data if we have a proper reason, eg:
where you have given consent;
to comply with our legal and regulatory obligations;
for the performance of a contract with you or to take steps at your request before entering into a contract; or
for our legitimate interests or those of a third party.
A legitimate interest is when we have a business or commercial reason to use your information, so long as this is not overridden by your own rights and interests. We will carry out an assessment when relying on legitimate interests, to balance our interests against your own.
The table below explains what we use your personal data for and why.
| What we use your personal data for | Our reasons |
| Providing products and services to you | To fulfil our contract with you or to take steps at your request before entering into a contract |
| Preventing and detecting fraud against you or us | For our and/or your legitimate interests, i.e. to minimise fraud that could be damaging for you and/or us |
| To check whether there is any conflict of interest between us and you and/or between you and another customer | To comply with our legal and regulatory obligations |
Conducting checks to identify our customers and verify their identity Other activities necessary to comply with legal and regulatory obligations that apply to our business, e.g. under health and safety law | Depending on the circumstances: —to comply with our legal and regulatory obligations —for our legitimate interests |
| To enforce legal rights or defend or take legal proceedings | Depending on the circumstances: —to comply with our legal and regulatory obligations —for our legitimate interests, i.e. to protect our business, interests and rights |
| Gathering and providing information required by or relating to audits, enquiries or investigations by regulatory bodies | Depending on the circumstances: —to comply with our legal and regulatory obligations —for our legitimate interests |
| Ensuring internal business policies are complied with, e.g. policies covering security and internet use | For our legitimate interests, i.e. to make sure we are following our own internal procedures so we can deliver the best service to you |
| Operational reasons, such as improving efficiency, training and quality control | For our legitimate interests, i.e. to be as efficient as we can so we can deliver the best service to you at the best price |
| Ensuring the confidentiality of commercially sensitive information | Depending on the circumstances: —for our legitimate interests, i.e. to protect trade secrets and other commercially valuable information —to comply with our legal and regulatory obligations |
| Statistical analysis to help us manage our business, e.g. in relation to our financial performance, customer base, services range or other efficiency measures | For our legitimate interests, i.e. to be as efficient as we can so we can deliver the best service to you at the best price |
| Protecting the security of systems and data used to provide services, prevent unauthorised access and changes to our systems | Depending on the circumstances: —for our legitimate interests, i.e. to prevent and detect criminal activity that could be damaging for you and/or us —to comply with our legal and regulatory obligations |
| Updating and enhancing customer records | Depending on the circumstances: —to fulfil our contract with you or to take steps at your request before entering into a contract —to comply with our legal and regulatory obligations —for our legitimate interests, e.g. making sure we can keep in touch with our customers about existing and new services |
| Statutory returns | To comply with our legal and regulatory obligations |
| Ensuring safe working practices, staff administration and assessments | Depending on the circumstances: —to comply with our legal and regulatory obligations —for our legitimate interests, e.g. to make sure we are following our own internal procedures and working efficiently so we can deliver the best service to you |
| Providing information updates and/or marketing our services and those of selected third parties to existing and former customers and third parties | Depending on the circumstances: —for our legitimate interests, i.e. to promote our business —consent (which you can withdraw at any time) |
| Dealing with complaints or claims | Depending on the circumstances: —to comply with our legal and regulatory obligations —for our or your legitimate interests, e.g. to make sure any potential claim is reported to our insurer |
| External audits and quality checks, e.g. for ISO or Investors in People accreditation and the audit of our accounts | Depending on the circumstances: —for our legitimate interests, i.e. to achieve and maintain relevant accreditations so we can demonstrate we operate at the highest standards —to comply with our legal and regulatory obligations |
SPECIAL CATEGORY PERSONAL DATA
We do not process special category personal data.
MARKETING
We may use your personal data to send you updates (e.g. by email, text message, telephone, post or social media channels) about our services, including exclusive offers, promotions or new services.
We have a legitimate interest in using your personal data for marketing purposes (see above ‘How and why we use your personal data’). This means we do not usually need your consent to send you marketing information. However, where consent is needed, we will ask for this separately and clearly. If we change our marking approach in the future so that consent is needed, we will ask for this separately and clearly.
You have the right to opt out of receiving marketing communications at any time by contacting us at office@hoarebanks.co.uk.
We may ask you to confirm or update your marketing preferences if you ask us to provide further products and services in the future, or if there are changes in the law, regulation, or the structure of our business. Who we share your personal data with
We routinely share personal data with:
third parties we use to help deliver our services to you, eg providers of our finance system, IT service providers including cloud service providers such as data storage platforms, shared service centres and financial institutions in connection with invoicing and payments;
other third parties we use to help us run our business, e.g. marketing agencies or website hosts;
third parties approved by you, e.g. social media sites you choose to link your account to or third party payment providers;
our banks; and
our insurers and brokers.
We only allow our service providers to handle your personal data if we are satisfied they take appropriate measures to protect your personal data. We also impose contractual obligations on service providers to ensure they can only use your personal data to provide services to us and to you.
We may also need to:
share personal data with external auditors, e.g. the audit of our accounts;
disclose and exchange information with law enforcement agencies and regulatory bodies to comply with our legal and regulatory obligations;
share some personal data with other parties, such as potential buyers of some or all of our business or during a restructuring—usually, information will be anonymised but this may not always be possible, however, the recipient of the information will be bound by confidentiality obligations.
If you would like more information about who we share our data with and why, please contact us (see ‘How to contact us’ below).
We will always treat your personal data with the utmost respect and never share it with other organisations for marketing purposes.
For more information on your right to object at any time to your right to object at any time to your personal data being used for marketing purposes, see ‘Your rights’ below.
WHERE YOUR PERSONAL DATA IS HELD
Personal data may be held at our offices and those of our third party agencies, service providers (including cloud based service providers), representatives and agents as described above (see above: ‘Who we share your personal data with’).
Some of these third parties may be based outside the UK. For more information, including on how we safeguard your personal data when this happens, see below: ‘Transferring your personal data out of the UK’.
HOW LONG YOUR PERSONAL DATA WILL BE KEPT
We will keep your personal data while you have an account with us or we are providing products and services to you. Thereafter, we will keep your personal data for as long as is necessary:
to respond to any questions, complaints or claims made by you or on your behalf;
to show that we treated you fairly;
to keep records required by law.
We will not keep your personal data for longer than necessary. Different retention periods apply for different types of personal data.
When it is no longer necessary to keep your personal data, we will delete or anonymise it.
TRANSFERRING YOUR PERSONAL DATA OUT OF THE UK
To deliver services to you, it is sometimes necessary for us to share your personal data outside the UK, e.g.:
with your and our service providers located outside the UK;
if you are based outside the UK;
where there is a European and/or international dimension to the services we are providing to you.
Under data protection law, we can only transfer your personal data to a country or international organisation outside the UK where:
the UK government has decided the particular country or international organisation ensures an adequate level of protection of personal data (known as an ‘adequacy decision) further to Article 45 of the UK GDPR.
there are appropriate safeguards in place (e.g. standard contractual data protection clauses published or approved by the relevant data protection regulator), together with enforceable rights and effective legal remedies for you; or
a specific exception applies under data protection law
These are explained below.
Adequacy decision
We may transfer your personal data to certain countries, on the basis of an adequacy decision.
These include:
all European Union countries, plus Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway (collectively known as the ‘EEA’); Gibraltar; and
Andorra, Argentina, Canada, Faroe Islands, Guernsey, Israel, Isle of Man, Japan, Jersey, New Zealand, Switzerland, Uruguay and USA.
The list of countries that benefit from adequacy decisions will change from time to time. We will always seek to rely on an adequacy decision, where one exists.
Other countries or international organisations we are likely to transfer personal data to do not have the benefit of an adequacy decision. This does not necessarily mean they provide poor protection for personal data, but we must look at alternative grounds for transferring the personal data, such as ensuring appropriate safeguards are in place or relying on an exception, as explained below.
Transfers with appropriate safeguards
Where there is no adequacy decision, we may transfer your personal data to another country or international organisation if we are satisfied the transfer complies with data protection law, appropriate safeguards are in place, and enforceable rights and effective legal remedies are available for data subjects.
The safeguards will usually include using legally approved standard data protection contract clauses.
To obtain a copy of the standard data protection contract clauses and further information about relevant safeguards, please contact us (see ‘How to contact us’ below).
Transfers under an exception
In the absence of an adequacy decision or appropriate safeguards, we may transfer personal data to a third country or international organisation where an exception applies under relevant data protection law, e.g.:
you have explicitly consented to the proposed transfer after having been informed of the possible risks;
the transfer is necessary for the performance of a contract between us or to take pre-contract measures at your request;
the transfer is necessary for a contract in your interests, between us and another person; or
the transfer is necessary to establish, exercise or defend legal claims
We may also transfer information for the purpose of our compelling legitimate interests, so long as those interests are not overridden by your interests, rights and freedoms. Specific conditions apply to such transfers and we will provide relevant information if and when we seek to transfer your personal data on this ground.
Further information
If you would like further information about data transferred outside the UK, please contact our Data Protection Officer (see ‘How to contact us’ below).
YOUR RIGHTS
You generally have the following rights, which you can usually exercise free of charge:
| Access | You have the right to ask us for copies of your personal data. You can request other information such as where we get personal data from and who we share personal data with. There are some exemptions which means you may not receive all the information you ask for. |
| Rectification | You have the right to ask us to correct or delete personal data you think is inaccurate or incomplete. |
| Erasure (also known as the right to be forgotten) | You have the right to ask us to delete your personal data—in certain situations |
| Restriction of processing | You have the right to ask us to limit how we use your personal data—in certain situations, e.g. if you contest the accuracy of the data |
| Data portability | You have the right to ask that we transfer the personal data you gave us to another organisation or to you—in certain situations |
| To object | You have the right to object: —at any time to your personal data being processed for direct marketing (including profiling); —in certain other situations to our continued processing of your personal data, e.g. processing carried out for our legitimate interests unless we demonstrate compelling legitimate grounds for the processing which override your interests or for establishing, exercising or defending legal claims |
| Not to be subject to automated individual decision making | The right not to be subject to a decision based solely on automated processing (including profiling) that produces legal effects concerning you or similarly significantly affects you |
| The right to withdraw consent | When we use your consent as our lawful basis, you have the right to withdraw that consent at any time. Withdrawing consent will not affect the lawfulness of our use of your personal data in reliance on that consent before it was withdrawn |
For further information on each of those rights, including the circumstances in which they apply, please contact us (see ‘How to contact us’ below) or see the Guidance from the UK Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) on individuals’ rights.
If you would like to exercise any of those rights, please:
email, call or write to us—see below: ‘How to contact us’; and
provide enough information to identify yourself (e.g. your full name, address and customer or matter reference number) and any additional identity information we may reasonably request from you;
let us know what right you want to exercise and the information to which your request relates.
KEEPING YOUR PERSONAL DATA SECURE
We have appropriate security measures to prevent personal data from being accidentally lost, or used or accessed unlawfully. We limit access to your personal data to those who have a genuine business need to access it. Those processing your information will do so only in an authorised manner and are subject to a duty of confidentiality.
If there is a suspected data breach, we will notify our IT support provider, who manages our information database, to rectify the problem. We will notify you and any applicable regulator of a suspected data security breach where we are legally required to do so.
COOKIES
Cookies are small files that a site or its service provider transfers to your computer’s hard drive through your Web browser (if you allow) that enables the Website’s or a service provider’s system to recognise your browser and capture and remember certain information. They are also used to help us understand your preferences based on previous or current site activity, which enables us to provide you with improved services and to enable us to understand the use of our website better. We also use cookies to help us compile aggregate data about site traffic and site interaction so that we can offer better site experiences and tools in the future. This help us to ensure that our Website is up to date and relevant to your interests and needs.
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.
HOW TO SUBMIT A COMPLAINT
Please contact us if you have any query or concern about our use of your information (see below ‘How to contact us’). We hope we will be able to resolve any issues you may have.
You also have the right to lodge a complaint with the Information Commissioner. The Information Commissioner may be contacted at https://ico.org.uk/make-a-complaint or telephone: 0303 123 1113.
Changes to this privacy policy
This privacy notice was published on 9 June 2025 and last updated on 9 June 2025.
We may change this privacy notice from time to time – when we do we will inform you via website and/or email.
HOW TO CONTACT US
Individuals in the UK
You can contact us and/or our Data Protection Officer by post, email or telephone if you have any questions about this privacy policy or the information we hold about you, to exercise a right under data protection law or to make a complaint.
Our contact details are shown below:
| Our contact details | Marcus Hoare |
W.A Hoare & Sons (Sculptors) Limited Hoare Banks House Gloucester Road Boscombe Bournemouth BH7 6DA office@hoarebanks.co.uk 01202 397231 | Hoare Banks House, Glocuester Road, Boscombe, Bournemouth, BH7 6DA
marcus@hoarebanks.co.uk |
