Welcome!

Welcome to my website, maintained and run by me, Kirsty Howarth.  You can contact me with any questions at any time on kirsty@kirstyhowarth.co.uk or via the Contact Us button on my website. I’d love to hear from you!

Here’s what you need to know about using my website (the Website):

The terms and conditions set out here (the “Terms and Conditions”) govern your use of my Website.  So please read them carefully as they might affect your legal rights. By using my Website, you confirm that you accept and agree to comply with and be bound by these Terms and Conditions. If you do not agree, then you must not use my Website. Please also refer to my Privacy [link please ] and Cookies [link please] policies which apply to your use of the Services

Intellectual Property

All content on the Website, including all the intellectual property in it as a whole and in each individual element and in my branding is owned by or licensed to me and may not be copied or used without my prior written consent.

Availability of my Website and disclaimers 

Any online facilities, tools, services or information that I make available through the Website (“the Service”) is provided “as is” and on an “as available” basis.

I give no warranties that the Service will be free of defects and/or faults and provide no warranties (express or implied) of fitness for a particular purpose, accuracy of information, compatibility and satisfactory quality.

I am under no obligation to update information on my Website.

I accept no liability for any disruption or non-availability of my Website and reserve the right to alter, suspend or discontinue the whole or any part of the Website at any time and for any reason. Unless explicitly stated otherwise, the Terms and Conditions shall continue to apply to any modified version of the Website.

I will use reasonable endeavours to ensure that the Website is free and secure of any errors, viruses and malware. However, no warranties or guarantees are given to the users, and all users must take responsibility for their own security, including that of their personal details and computers.

Limitation of Liability 

Nothing in these Terms and Conditions limits or excludes my or your

• liability for death or personal injury resulting from my or your negligence as applicable;
• liability for fraud or fraudulent misrepresentation; or
• liabilities in any way that is not permitted by law.

I will not be liable to you in respect of any losses arising as a result of events beyond my reasonable control.

To the maximum extent permitted by law, I accept no liability for any of the following alleged to have arisen out of the use of the Services:

• any business losses, such as loss of profits, income, revenue, anticipated savings, business, contracts, goodwill or commercial opportunities;
• loss or corruption of any data, database, software or hardware;
• any special, indirect or consequential loss or damage
• any other non-excluded loss

General 

You may not transfer any of your rights under the Terms and Conditions to any other person. I may transfer my rights under the Terms and Conditions where I reasonably believe that your rights will not be affected.

These Terms and Conditions may be varied by me from time to time. Such revised terms will apply to the Website from the date of publication. Users should check the Terms and Conditions regularly to ensure familiarity with the most current version.

These Terms and Conditions together with my Privacy Policy contain the whole agreement between you and me in relation to my Website and supersede any other arrangements or agreements that might have taken place in relation to the Terms and Conditions. For the avoidance of doubt, the Contracts (Rights of Third Parties) Act 1999 shall not apply to these Terms and Conditions and no third party will have any right to enforce or rely on any provision of these Terms and Conditions.

If any provision of these Terms and Conditions (or part of any provision) is found to be invalid, illegal or unenforceable, that provision or part-provision will, to the extent required, be deemed to be deleted and the validity and enforceability of the other provisions of these Terms and Conditions will not be affected.

Unless otherwise agreed, no delay, act or omission by a party in exercising any right or remedy will be deemed a waiver of that or any other right or remedy.

These Terms and Conditions and the Privacy Policy shall be governed by and interpreted according to the law of England and Wales and all disputes arising out of them shall be subject to the exclusive jurisdiction of the English and Welsh courts.

These Terms and Conditions were last updated 12 January 2024

PRIVACY POLICY

I hate spam as much as you.  I don’t sell or lease your information to third parties.  I am committed to handling it properly and transparently.  I am registered with the Information Commissioner’s Office (the ICO), the UKs’ data protection regulatory.

Here is how I use your personal data in the course of my work as a freelance media lawyer, specialising in providing pre-publication and pre-broadcast legal, business affairs and compliance advice to clients across the media industry including tv and film companies, newspapers, magazines, book publishers, digital first publishers and podcasters.

Security 

I take the security of all the data I hold seriously. I have implemented appropriate measures and safeguards to ensure that your personal information is kept safe and secure including the following:

• all personal data is stored in a secure way
• I regularly review the security of the data I hold and will update procedures as necessary
• the transmission of information via the internet is not completely 100% secure and although I will do my best to protect your personal data, I cannot guarantee the security of your data transmitted by this means; any transmission is at your own risk.

 Data that I process and hold

The data I process and hold will depend on the nature of my interaction with you. Where I engage with individuals, I request that individuals only provide the personal data that is necessary for the purposes of our engagement.

Why do I process data?

I may process personal data for various purposes, including:

• responding to queries from clients or potential clients, or their staff or associates/contributors;
• providing legal, business affairs or compliance advice to clients;
• advising on material for publication or broadcast which contains personal data;
• operating, managing and marketing my business effectively and lawfully;
• making payments to individuals.

What data do I process and what is the basis for that processing?

The data that is processed and the lawful basis for that processing depends on the purposes for which I have gathered the data and who it is from:

Clients or potential clients (who contact us by phone, e-mail or otherwise in writing, online or in person):

• your name, contact details and handwriting – to correspond with you and for administrative purposes (with such processing being necessary for the purposes of my legitimate interests and for the performance of my contract with you or steps taken prior to entering into it).
• your image and the other information in your passport, driving licence and other official documents – to verify your identity and address and to ensure compliance with relevant laws (with such processing being necessary for the purposes of my legitimate interests and for the performance of my contract with you or steps taken prior to entering into it);
• your financial details including your bank details – to pay or reimburse pre-approved costs or expenses (with such processing being necessary for the purposes of my legitimate interests and for the performance of my contract with you or steps taken prior to entering into it)

Subjects of journalistic material being reviewed and advised on:

• Information contained in material provided by client for legal or other review including a very wide range of personal information about you which may include but is not limited to :
  • your image; your age; date of birth; handwriting; information about your personal; home and family life and your work history; qualifications and experiences
  • information about your racial and ethnic origin, political opinions, religious or philosophical beliefs, membership of a trade union, health, sex life or sexual orientation

This processing is necessary for the purposes of my legitimate interests which include advising my clients on material for broadcast or publication, fulfilling contractual obligations I have to you and/or third parties.  Data may also be processed in connection with public interest journalism.

If I intend to process your personal information with your consent, I will seek your explicit consent.

I will only process your personal information for my legitimate interests where my legitimate interests do not override your own legitimate rights and interests.

Following the broadcast or publication of any such data, such data may become public and I will also continue to process it on that basis.

How long will I hold data for?

I retain personal data for as long as is considered necessary for the purpose(s) for which it was collected. For those featuring in material on which I am asked to advise, I am likely to retain the personal data for a period of six years after providing my final advice in relation to the data in order to comply with my professional obligations. Personal data that is no longer required will be deleted/destroyed.

Sharing personal data 

As promised at the start of this document, I will not lease or sell your information.  I will also only share your personal data with others when I am legally permitted to do so. When I share data with others, I put contractual arrangements and security mechanisms in place to protect the data and to comply with my data protection, confidentiality and security standards. If my business is sold or transferred to another entity your data may be transferred as part of that transfer but only if suitable protections are in the place in the new entity.

Your personal information is processed by me and I use third parties to support me in providing my services including as follows, and your data may be shared with them as is necessary for the purposes of pursuing my legitimate business interests or for executing the contract entered into with you:

• A book keeper and an accountant with whom the only data I share will be clients’ names and contact details, amounts invoiced to them and the dates and amounts of payments received
• Other legal professionals or others working with clients or others in relation to work projects to which the data relates eg  other business affairs or legal advisers engaged in the same project, Ofcom, IPSO, the ASA or the police.
• My insurance company and IT supplier if necessary.

 Locations of processing 

I am in the UK but as my clients may be based anywhere in the world, your data may be transferred to and stored at a destination outside the European Economic Area (“EEA”). Where that is the case, I will ensure that adequate safeguards are in place to ensure the safety and security of your personal information and that it is processed in accordance with this privacy statement.

Individual’s Rights 

Individuals have certain rights over their personal data including the following:

• to request access to their personal data held by me as a data controller;
• to request that I rectify any inaccurate personal data I hold about you;
• to request that I erase your personal data;
• where I process personal data based on consent, to withdraw consent at any time;
• to exercise other rights to restrict or object to my processing of personal data and the right to data portability; and
• to request information about any automated data processing that I may undertake.

If you wish to exercise any of these rights, or if you have you have any questions about this privacy policy or how and why I collect, process, store and transfer personal data, please contact me at kirsty@kirstyhowarth.co.uk

Please note that most of these rights are not absolute and are limited to certain defined circumstances. Accordingly, I may not be able to comply with any such request.

Complaints 

I hope that you will not need to complaint about my use of your personal data, but if you do, please send an email with the details of your complaint to kirsty@kirstyhowarth.co.uk. I will review and respond to any complaints I receive.

You also have the right to complain to the Information Commissioner’s Office (“ICO”), the UK’s data protection regulator. For further information on your rights and how to complain to the ICO, please refer to the ICO website 

Changes to my privacy statement

I may update or amend this privacy statement from time to time. Updates to this privacy statement will appear on this website.

This privacy policy was last updated on 12 January 2024

COOKIES POLICY

My Website uses cookies, and by using the Website you consent to the use of Cookies.

Cookies are small text files that are placed on your machine. Cookies do lots of different jobs, like letting you navigate between pages efficiently, storing your preferences, and generally improving your experience of a website. They make the interaction between you and the website faster and easier. In general, cookies are used to retain user preferences, store information for things like shopping carts (I don’t have a shopping cart!) and provide anonymised data to third party applications like Google analytics.

If a website doesn’t use cookies, it will think you are a new visitor every time you move to a new page on the site – for example, for any sections you have to subscribe to, when you enter your login details and move to another page it won’t recognise you and it won’t be able to keep you logged in.

I use traffic log cookies to identify which pages are being used. This helps me analyse data about web page traffic and improve my website in order to tailor it to customer needs. I only use this information for statistical analysis purposes and then the data is removed from the system.

My system will record the date and time of your visit to the site, the pages viewed and any information downloaded. However, my systems do not record any personally identifiable information.

Cookies will generally make your browsing experience better. However, you may prefer to disable cookies on the Website (and on other websites too). The most effective way to do this is to disable cookies in your browser. Details of how to do this may be found in the Help section of your browser or by taking a look at www.aboutcookies.org or www.cookiesandyou.com which offer guidance for all modern browsers.

This Cookie Policy was last updated 12 January 2024