This notice describes what Smith Design Engineering Ltd does with personal data. It describes the website as it is actually built, not as a template says a website usually works, and it is updated when the site changes rather than annually.
Who we are
Smith Design Engineering Ltd, registered in Scotland, company number SC713846, is the data controller for personal data processed through this website and in the course of its work.
For any question about your personal data, or to exercise any of the rights below, write to sales@smithde.co.uk or use the details on the contact page.
What we collect
- Enquiry information. Your name, organisation, email address, telephone number and whatever you tell us, when you contact us.
- Project information. Contact details of the people involved in projects we are appointed on, and the correspondence and documents that go with them.
- Fee estimator inputs. Building type, floor area, number of storeys, region, specification level and the RIBA stages you select.
We do not ask for and do not want special category data. Please do not send it to us.
The fee estimator
The inputs you choose are sent to our server, the range is calculated there, and the result is returned to your browser. This is deliberate — the rate card the calculation uses is not published, so the calculation cannot run in your browser.
The inputs are not stored, not logged and not linked to you. Nothing about your use of the estimator reaches us unless you separately send an enquiry. There is no account, and you are not asked to identify yourself.
Analytics and tracking
This site runs no analytics. There is no Google Analytics, no tag manager, no advertising pixel, no session recording and no third-party embed that could track you. We do not build a profile of visitors and we cannot, because we do not collect the data that would be needed to.
The only cookies set are the strictly necessary ones used when SDE staff sign in to the content management system, which are never set for ordinary visitors. That is why this site shows no cookie banner: asking consent for cookies that do not exist is theatre. The cookie policy sets this out in full.
If analytics are ever added, this notice and the cookie policy are updated before they go live, and a consent mechanism is required first.
Why we process it
- To answer enquiries and produce fee proposals — legitimate interests, and steps taken at your request before entering a contract.
- To deliver projects we are appointed on — performance of a contract.
- To meet legal and professional obligations, including keeping records for professional indemnity purposes — legal obligation and legitimate interests.
We do not use personal data for automated decision-making or profiling.
Who we share it with
We do not sell personal data and we do not share it for anyone else's marketing.
Personal data is handled by the service providers we use to run the practice — website hosting, email, and document storage — acting on our instructions as processors under written terms. On a project, contact details are shared with the other parties to that project where the work requires it: the client, the lead consultant, the contractor and any subconsultant we engage. Where we engage a subconsultant, they are held to equivalent standards.
We will tell you which providers hold your data if you ask.
How long we keep it
Enquiries that do not lead to an appointment are kept only while they are useful and then deleted.
Project records are kept for as long as a claim relating to that project could still be brought and our professional indemnity insurance requires them to be available. In Scotland that period is governed by prescription under the Prescription and Limitation (Scotland) Act 1973, and for work in England and Wales by the Limitation Act 1980. Records are deleted once that period has passed.
Transfers outside the UK
Where a service provider processes data outside the United Kingdom, that transfer is made under the safeguards UK GDPR requires — an adequacy decision, or the International Data Transfer Agreement or Addendum.
Your rights
Under UK GDPR you may ask us for a copy of your personal data, ask us to correct it if it is wrong, ask us to delete it, ask us to restrict or stop processing it, object to processing carried out on the basis of legitimate interests, and ask for it in a portable form where that applies. Where processing is based on consent, you can withdraw consent at any time.
There is no charge, and we will respond within one month. Write to sales@smithde.co.uk.
Complaints
If you are not satisfied with how we have handled your personal data, tell us first so we can put it right. You also have the right to complain to the Information Commissioner's Office at ico.org.uk, or by telephone on 0303 123 1113.