Privacy Policy

Last updated: 25 October 2026

This notice explains how Goddard Accounting Limited ("we", "us", "our") uses personal information collected through our website, goddardaccountants.co.uk. It applies to people who visit the site or send us an enquiry. If you become a client, we will give you separate information about how we handle your data as part of our engagement letter.

1. Who we are

We are the "controller" of your personal information, which means we decide how and why it is used. We are responsible for complying with the UK General Data Protection Regulation (UK GDPR) and the Data Protection Act 2018.

Goddard Accounting Limited is registered in England and Wales under company number 17477828. Our registered office is 8 Larchwood, Bishop’s Stortford, CM23 4JS.

For anything to do with data protection, contact Lewis Goddard ACA, Founder & Director, at lewis@goddardaccountants.co.uk.

Our ICO registration number is ZC280439.

2. What information we collect

Information you give us: when you use our contact or enquiry form, request a consultation or email us, we collect your name, email address and telephone number, the service you are interested in, the details you choose to include in your message, and anything else you tell us when we correspond with you, including records of our communications.

We do not take payments through our website, so we do not collect payment card or bank details through it.

Sensitive information: some information is particularly sensitive, such as details about health, racial or ethnic origin, political opinions, religious or philosophical beliefs, trade union membership, genetic or biometric data, or sex life or sexual orientation. We do not ask for this through our website, and we ask that you do not include it in an enquiry. If you become a client and we need to handle this kind of information, we will only do so where UK data protection law allows it, for example with your explicit consent, or where it is necessary to establish, exercise or defend legal claims. We will ask for anything we need securely.

Please also do not include bank details, passwords or national insurance numbers in an enquiry form.

Information collected automatically: when you visit the site, our website platform and, where you agree to it, our analytics tools collect information such as your IP address, your browser, network and device, the page you visited before ours, and how you use the site, including clicks, internal links, pages visited, scrolling, searches and timestamps. Some of this is collected through cookies and similar technologies. We use it to learn about website traffic and activity. We do not use it to make decisions about you that have legal or similarly significant effects. Our site uses analytics tools provided by Squarespace. Please see our Cookie Notice for details and how to manage your choices.

3. How and why we use your information

We must have a lawful basis for using your personal information. The ones we rely on are set out below.

To respond to your enquiry, provide a quote or arrange a consultation, we use your name, contact details and enquiry details. Our lawful basis is legitimate interests (running our practice and responding to people who contact us), or taking steps at your request before entering into a contract.

To keep a record of enquiries and follow up with you if you ask us to, we use your name, contact details and enquiry details. Our lawful basis is legitimate interests.

To keep the website secure and working properly, we use technical and device data. Our lawful basis is legitimate interests.

To understand how the site is used so we can improve it, we use analytics and cookie data. Our lawful basis is consent, where non-essential cookies are used.

To meet our legal and regulatory duties, for example anti-money-laundering checks before we act for you, or requests from regulators, we use the information required by law. Our lawful basis is legal obligation.

To send you updates or marketing, if you ask for them, we use your name and email address. Our lawful basis is consent, which you can withdraw at any time.

We do not sell your personal information. We do not use it for automated decision-making or profiling that has legal or similarly significant effects on you.

4. Who we share your information with

We only share information where it is needed and with organisations that are bound to protect it. These include:

Squarespace, which hosts our website and stores website form submissions on our behalf. Squarespace acts as our processor for this information. Squarespace also acts as an independent controller for some information about how visitors use its platform, such as usage data, and is responsible for that under its own privacy policy, which you can read on its website.

Microsoft 365 and OneDrive, which we use for email, documents and storage, including to store information you send us through website forms.

Our professional advisers, insurers and IT support, where necessary and under confidentiality obligations.

Regulators, public authorities and law enforcement, such as ICAEW, HMRC or the ICO, where we are required to by law or professional regulation.

Service providers act on our instructions and are not allowed to use your information for their own purposes, except where they act as independent controllers under their own privacy terms, as described above.

5. Fonts and other third-party services on our website

Our website uses Google Fonts and Adobe Fonts to display text properly. When you visit, these providers may receive information about your browser, network or device, information about our site and the page you are viewing, and your IP address. Our site contains links to our Instagram and LinkedIn profiles, and may link to other websites, such as HMRC, Companies House or ICAEW. These have their own privacy policies and we are not responsible for how they use your information. If you contact us through Instagram or LinkedIn, that platform’s own privacy policy applies to your message, and we will only use the details you give us to respond to you.

6. Transfers outside the UK

Squarespace is a US-based company, and some of our other providers, including Microsoft, Google and Adobe, may also process information in the United States or other countries outside the UK. Where this happens, these providers rely on safeguards recognised under UK data protection law. These include UK adequacy regulations, such as the UK Extension to the EU-US Data Privacy Framework (sometimes called the UK-US data bridge) for US organisations certified under it, and the UK International Data Transfer Agreement or the UK Addendum to standard contractual clauses. You can contact us for more information about these safeguards.

7. How long we keep your information

If you make an enquiry that does not lead to us working together, we keep your information for 12 months from our last contact and then delete it.

If you become a client, we keep your information for the period needed to meet legal and professional requirements, normally six years after the end of our engagement, and at least five years after the end of the relationship for anti-money-laundering records.

Website analytics data is kept for up to 14 months, or as set by our analytics provider.

Marketing preferences are kept until you withdraw your consent or ask us to stop.

8. Keeping your information secure

We use appropriate technical and organisational measures to protect personal information, including encrypted connections (HTTPS) between our website and its servers, access controls and strong passwords for administrative accounts, and keeping the information we collect to the minimum we need. No online system is completely secure, so please take care over what you send us. If there is a personal data breach that is likely to put your rights at risk, we will notify you and the ICO as the law requires.

9. Your rights

Under data protection law you have the right to be told how your information is used (this notice); to ask for a copy of the personal information we hold about you; to ask us to correct information that is inaccurate or to complete information that is incomplete, and where we have shared incorrect information, we will tell the recipients where we can; to ask us to delete your information, in certain circumstances; to ask us to restrict how we use your information, in certain circumstances; to object to us using your information where we rely on legitimate interests, and to object at any time to direct marketing, in which case we will always stop; to ask for information you gave us to be provided in a structured, commonly used and machine-readable format where we use it on the basis of consent or a contract and by automated means; and to withdraw consent at any time, where we rely on it, which will not affect earlier use. Withdrawing consent should be as easy as giving it.

To use any of these rights, email lewis@goddardaccountants.co.uk. We will respond within one month and will not usually charge a fee. We may need to confirm your identity first. Some rights are limited where we have a legal or professional duty to keep records.

10. Complaints

If you are unhappy with how we have handled your personal information, please tell us and we will try to put it right. You can send a complaint by email to lewis@goddardaccountants.co.uk. We will acknowledge your complaint within 30 days of receiving it, investigate it and respond without undue delay, keeping you informed of progress.

You also have the right to complain to the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO), the UK data protection regulator, at ico.org.uk or on 0303 123 1113. You can do this at any time, whether or not you have complained to us first.

11. Children

Our website and services are aimed at adults and businesses. We do not knowingly collect information from anyone under 16 through the site. If you are a parent or guardian and believe your child has given us personal information, please contact us and we will delete it.

12. Cookies

Our website uses cookies and similar technologies. Strictly necessary cookies are always used so that our website platform can serve the site securely. Analytics and performance cookies are only used if you accept them through our cookie banner. You can read more in our Cookie Notice.

13. Changes to this notice

We may update this notice from time to time. The latest version will always be on our website with the date it was last updated shown at the top.