This notice is given to you under Articles 13 and 14 of the UK General Data Protection Regulation ("UK GDPR"), which require us to tell you what we do with information about you. We have kept the legal terms in, because they are the terms the law and our regulators use, and explained each one as it appears.
Dominick French Mediation is the data controller for the information covered by this notice. A data controller is whoever decides what information is collected and what it is used for, and is answerable in law for those decisions.
We are registered with the Information Commissioner's Office ("the ICO" — the UK's independent data protection regulator) under registration number ZC175876.
You can contact us about anything in this notice:
A postal address for correspondence is available on request.
Almost all of it comes from you directly: by email, by telephone, through our website contact form, and in meetings and mediation sessions. Sometimes a solicitor or another professional provides information at your request or with your consent. If you fall into category 3 above, we will usually hold nothing more than the contact details we were given, so that we can offer you a meeting.
In the course of mediation we also handle financial information, health information, and information about children.
Health information is special category data — a class of particularly sensitive information (health, race, religion, sexual life and a few others) which the law protects more tightly than ordinary personal data. We are only allowed to handle it if one of the extra conditions in Article 9 of the UK GDPR applies. Two apply here: your explicit consent, which you give in writing when you sign our Agreement to Mediate (Article 9(2)(a)); and, if it later becomes necessary, the establishment, exercise or defence of legal claims (Article 9(2)(f)).
We sometimes hold limited information about children over 13. We do not consider it proportionate to send each of them a separate notice. Children invited to a child-inclusive session receive their own age-appropriate privacy notice.
The law does not let us use personal data simply because it would be convenient. We must have a lawful basis — one of the six grounds listed in Article 6 of the UK GDPR — before we use it at all. Ours depends on how you came to us.
If you have signed our Agreement to Mediate, our lawful basis is contract (Article 6(1)(b)): we need your information in order to do what we have agreed to do for you. The Agreement covers our use, retention and storage of your data, and your written consent to us sharing it as described in paragraph 5.
If you have contacted us to find out whether mediation suits your family, our lawful basis is still contract, which covers steps taken at your request before a contract is signed. At this stage we normally hold only your contact details and enough information to assess suitability.
If someone else gave us your contact details, our lawful basis is legitimate interests (Article 6(1)(f)): a ground that applies where we have a genuine reason to use your data and that reason is not outweighed by your rights. Our reason is to give you the opportunity to consider mediation before anyone goes to court. Section 10 of the Children and Families Act 2014 requires most people to attend a mediation information and assessment meeting ("MIAM") before applying to court, so contacting you protects your own position in the family justice system. Because this basis is legitimate interests, you have the right to object — see paragraph 7. Tell us and we will not contact you again.
Your information will not be shared outside the mediation process without your knowledge and prior consent, with one exception: the professional obligations placed on us by the Family Mediation Council ("the FMC" — the body that regulates family mediation in England and Wales) under its Code of Practice.
Those obligations mean our files may be seen by our Professional Practice Consultant (the experienced mediator who supervises our practice), by a complaints handler appointed by the FMC, by the Legal Aid Agency where a case is publicly funded, and by our professional indemnity insurers. Access is strictly controlled and confidential in every case.
Our IT and file storage suppliers act as data processors — organisations that handle data on our instructions and cannot use it for their own purposes. They are bound by written contract. Data is stored within the UK/EEA.
We keep your information for as long as the Agreement to Mediate requires, and for two years after the mediation ends, in case of a complaint. Where an enquiry does not lead to mediation, we delete your details after six months.
We may keep data for research and statistical purposes, but only once it has been anonymised — stripped of every detail that could identify you.
The UK GDPR gives you the following rights over your own data. You exercise any of them by contacting us at dom@dominickfrenchmediation.co.uk, and we will respond within one month.
Copies are free of charge. We may charge a reasonable fee based on administrative cost for additional copies, or for a request that is manifestly unfounded, excessive or repetitive.
Two practical limits apply. We cannot give you information about another person without that person's permission. And if you ask us to erase your data, that will normally mean mediation is no longer possible.
We will use your data only in ways you would reasonably expect and never unlawfully. We do not make automated decisions about you, and we do not use your data for marketing.
Please raise any concern with us first, at dom@dominickfrenchmediation.co.uk. You also have the right to complain to the ICO at ico.org.uk or on 0303 123 1113.
Our full Complaints Policy sets out how we handle complaints about the mediation itself.
