Website Terms and Conditions

This Website (the 'Website') and its contents are owned (unless indicated otherwise) by BDO LLP, a limited liability partnership registered in England and Wales with registered number OC305127. Registered address: 55 Baker Street London W1U 7EU. Reference to "BDO", "we", "our", "us" in these terms and conditions and elsewhere in this Website is to BDO LLP. BDO is a member of BDO International, a separate legal entity. No member of BDO International is in partnership with any other member. Reference to BDO Northern Ireland on this website is to BDO, a Northern Ireland partnership and a separate and independent member firm of the BDO International network.

1. Using the website

By using our Website, you are deemed to have accepted the following terms and conditions. If you do not want to be legally bound by these terms and conditions, please do not access or use the Website. We reserve the right to change these terms and conditions at any time and you are advised to review these terms regularly to ensure you are aware of any changes. Your continued use of the Website after such changes are posted will be deemed agreement on your part to these terms and conditions as amended.

2. Intellectual property

2.1 Copyright and all intellectual property rights in the content of the website are vested in BDO and reserved, unless indicated otherwise. The content of the Website belongs to BDO unless indicated otherwise. You may use the content of the Website subject to the following conditions: (a) It is used for information purposes only (b) It is used only for your own personal, non-commercial use (c) Any copies or downloads of any content from the Website must include a notice that copyright in the relevant material is owned by BDO.

2.2 Except as expressly provided above, nothing contained on this Website should be construed as conferring any licence or right to use any trade mark or copyright of BDO's or any third party.

3. Submission of comments/contributions to the website and BDO's blogs

3.1 You may submit comments to BDO, including without limitation for publication on our Blogs.

3.2 Any comments submitted in connection with our Blogs are submitted on the basis that we will review and may edit such comments prior to publication on the Website, and that not all submissions will be published. Publication is entirely at the discretion of BDO. We accept no responsibility or liability in relation to the content of any material posted or published on this Web site by third parties or in relation to contributions by third parties which we publish on the Web site. You are entirely liable for all activities conducted by you or by others authorised by you or otherwise on your behalf.

3.3 If and to the extent that you submit any personal data (such as your name and email address) to BDO through the Blogs, BDO confirms that it will only use any such personal data for the purposes for which you have provided it.

3.4 Any communications which we receive from you in connection with the Blogs and any material that you transmit or post or submit via this Web site will be deemed non-confidential and non-proprietary and we reserve the right to use the content of such communications for any purpose whatsoever. In relation to such contributions you grant us a perpetual, royalty-free, non-exclusive, sub-licensable right and license to use, reproduce, modify, adapt, edit, publish and exercise all copyright and publicity rights with respect to such work world-wide and/or to incorporate it in other works in any media now known or later developed for the full term of any rights that may exist in such content, consistent with the privacy restrictions set forth in the Privacy Policy. If you do not wish to grant such rights to BDO please do not submit your contribution to this Web site. By submitting your contribution to this Website, you also:

3.4.1 Warrant that such contribution is your own original work and that you have the right to make it available to us for all the purposes specified above;

3.4.2 Warrant that such contribution is not defamatory, does not infringe the rights of any third party and does not infringe any law;

3.4.3 Agree to use this Website only for lawful purposes and in a manner that does not restrict or inhibit the use and enjoyment of this Web site by any third party. Prohibited behaviour includes, without limitation, conduct which is unlawful or which may harass or cause distress to any person and the submission or transmission of content which is defamatory, abusive, obscene, offensive, pornographic, indecent, discriminatory, inflammatory, in breach of confidence or privacy or which in the opinion of BDO may cause offence to any person or damage our reputation. You must not use any abusive or aggressive language, swear, threaten, harass or abuse any other person, including other users;

3.4.4 Agree to indemnify, defend and hold harmless BDO against any claim, liability, cost, damage, or loss we may incur (including without limitation legal fees) as a result of any violation by you of the provisions set out in this clause 3;

3.4.5 Agree to waive any moral rights in your contribution for the purposes of its submission to and publication on the Website and other purposes specified above.

3.5 You must not intentionally violate any laws, rules or regulations.

3.6 No user must post nor recommend any other Website nor refer to specific URLs (Website addresses) where those linked Web sites would infringe any of the above provisions. No user must post any advertisement on the Website.

3.7 In using this Website, you agree not to impersonate another person or use a false name or a name you are unauthorised to use or create a false email address or try to mislead others as to the identity or origin of any communication.

3.8 You must not corrupt the site, flood the site with information so as to cause the site not to function or use anything which may affect the function of the site for example viruses, worms, logic bombs or similar. You must not interfere or tamper with, remove, delete or otherwise alter in any way, any information which is included on the Web site.

3.9 BDO reserves the right to fail any messages and/or remove any material whatsoever submitted to our Blogs or otherwise to the Website for any reason. BDO will not notify the contributor of the material of such failure or removal.

3.10 BDO reserves the right to take any action against any account or user, at any time, for any reason. We may at our discretion terminate your access to the Website or to the registration areas of the Web site, or prevent you from submitting comments via the Website immediately and without giving you advance notice. If you engage in behaviour which breaches these terms and conditions, and we consider such behaviour to be serious and/or repeated, we may use whatever information is available to us to prevent further breaches. If your access to the Website or to registration areas of the Web site is terminated, you may not open another account with us or register again and we reserve the right to terminate any such account or cancel any such registration.

3.11 Should you have any complaint regarding any material published on the Website, you can notify us of the nature and details of your complaint by emailing info@bdo.co.uk.

4. Registration to the website

When you register, you are registering as a personal user of the Website and you must use your own identity. You are obliged to provide accurate and complete registration information. Registration is for a single user only. Your username and password are personal to you and may not be used by anyone else to gain access to areas restricted to registered users.

5. Disclaimer and limitation of liability

5.1 This information has been carefully prepared, but it has been written in general terms and should be seen as broad guidance only. The information cannot be relied upon to cover specific situations and you should not act, or refrain from acting, upon the information contained therein without obtaining specific professional advice. Please contact BDO LLP to discuss these matters in the context of your particular circumstances. BDO LLP, its partners, employees and agents do not accept or assume any liability or duty of care for any loss arising from any action taken or not taken by anyone in reliance on this information or for any decision based on it. BDO LLP, a UK limited liability partnership registered in England and Wales under number OC305127, is a member of BDO International Limited, a UK company limited by guarantee, and forms part of the international BDO network of independent member firms. A list of members' names is open to inspection at our registered office, 55 Baker Street, London W1U 7EU. BDO LLP is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority to conduct investment business. BDO is the brand name for the BDO network and for each of the BDO Member Firms.

5.2 The content of this Website is intended to provide general guidance on matters of interest and about the services provided by BDO. The content of this Website does not constitute, nor should it be relied upon as, professional advice. Please contact BDO for advice on any particular area of interest.

5.3 In preparing and maintaining this Website every effort has been made to ensure the content is up to date and accurate. However, law and regulations change continually and unintentional errors can occur and the information may be neither up to date nor accurate. BDO makes no representation or warranty (including liability towards third parties), express or implied, as to the accuracy, reliability or completeness of the information published on this Web site.

5.4 Except for death or personal injury caused by negligent acts or omissions, BDO accepts no liability for any loss or damage whatsoever (including but not limited to any indirect, consequential, special, exemplary or similar damages) arising as a result of any decision or action taken or refrained from as a result of information contained on the Website or other Websites to which it may be linked, or as a result of your use or misuse of the Website.

5.5 Without prejudice to the generality of clause 3.4.4, you agree to indemnify, defend and hold harmless BDO against any claim, liability, cost, damage, or loss we may incur (including without limitation legal fees) as a result of any violation by you of your obligations under these terms and conditions.

6. Third party websites

This Website contains links to Websites maintained by parties other than BDO. These links are provided simply to increase the information available to you and we accept no responsibility or liability in respect of the accuracy, timeliness, suitability or lawfulness of the information contained on third party Websites. The inclusion of a link to a third party Website does not constitute an endorsement or an indication of a joint venture, partnership or other legal arrangement not expressly stated between us and that third party.

7. Privacy policy

This section contains information about BDO's policies governing the collection and use of your personal information. From time to time we may need to make changes to this privacy policy. Any updates to our privacy policy will be clearly posted in this section of the Website. We advise you to regularly review this policy when you visit the Website.

7.1 Information collected when you visit the Website

7.1.1 It will normally be clear when personal information is being collected. We may request your name, email address, postal address and post code, telephone number and company name, depending on the particular purpose for which your personal information is being collected.

7.1.2 The personal information required will be the minimum to enable BDO to deal expeditiously with your request or enquiry. In certain circumstances, additional information may be requested to enable us to provide the most appropriate response to your request or enquiry, or to enable us to send you additional information where you have indicated you would like to receive this. Where additional personal information is requested this will be marked and its provision is voluntary.

7.1.3 Sensitive information is not required or collected through the Website except where legally required as part of the recruitment process. Sensitive information includes data relating to race or ethnic origin, political opinions, religious or similar beliefs, trade union membership, physical or mental health, sexual life or criminal matters. Where you do provide sensitive personal information as part of the recruitment process, your submission of such information will be deemed to constitute explicit consent to BDO's use of that information in connection with the purpose for which it has been provided.

7.1.4 We do not require you to register in order to access the Web site. However, registration is required to access certain areas of the Web site or services provided via the Web site.

7.1.5 IP addresses of visitors are logged for administration and trouble shooting purposes. The IP address indicates the location of your computer on the internet. IP addresses are not used to track your session and are not linked to anything personally identifiable. This information may be aggregated to provide statistical information about the users of our Web site. No individual user will be identifiable from such information, which will be used to ensure that the Web site reflects the needs of our users.

7.1.6 To ensure that our Website is well managed and to facilitate improved navigation within the Website, we may use cookies (small text files stored in a user's browser) or Web beacons (electronic images to count visitors who have accessed a particular page) to collect aggregate data. We use cookies to:

7.1.6.1 Manage our Website. Cookies identify individual users when they log in to the Web site and enable us to personalise the Website.

7.1.6.2 Track information on our systems and identify categories of users by items such as address, browser type and pages visited.

7.1.6.3 Analyse the number of visitors to different areas of the Website and to make sure that our Website is serving as a useful, effective information source.

7.2 Use of your personal information

7.2.1 We will only use your personal information for the specific purpose for which it was provided, except where you have indicated you would like to receive other information from BDO. When requesting material or asking someone to contact you, you might be given the option to receive further information from us which may be of interest. If you select this option, we will use your personal information to contact you with information about our products and/or services which we believe may be of interest to you.

7.2.2 If you wish to unsubscribe from communications sent by BDO, you may do so at any time by clicking on the 'unsubscribe' link that appears in all messages or by emailing unsubscribe@bdo.co.uk.

7.3 Your information and third parties

7.3.1 Although we may provide the personal information to service providers that handle information, under a data processor agreement, on our behalf, we do not share, sell or distribute personal data to or with third parties unless the transfer of your data to third parties is necessary for the performance of the purpose for which it was provided.

7.3.2 Information is not provided to third parties for their own marketing purposes and mailings are not undertaken by BDO for third parties.

7.3.3 Personal data collected by BDO will not be transferred to other Member Firms of BDO International.

7.3.4 We may disclose, transfer, sell or assign any of the information described above, including personally identifiable information, to third parties, as a result of or in preparation for the sale, merger, consolidation, change in control, transfer of substantial assets, reorganisation or liquidation of BDO and you consent to such disclosure, transfer, sale or assignment.

7.4 Retention of your information Information is only kept for the period required for fulfilling your request and for a reasonable period of time thereafter for our administration and marketing purposes.

7.5 Security of your information

7.5.1 Generally accepted standards of technology and operational security have been implemented to protect personal information from loss, misuse, alteration and destruction. However, as you may be aware, no data transmission over the internet can be entirely secure. As a result, while we will always use reasonable endeavours to protect your personal information, we cannot guarantee that any information you submit to us will be free from unauthorised third party use or intrusion. Therefore, we cannot guarantee the security of your personal information, or your use of the Website.

7.5.2 We cannot guarantee that the Website is free from viruses or malicious codes. You agree that it is your responsibility to satisfy yourself that your own information technology/equipment used to access the Website is protected against such viruses and/or codes.

7.5.3 All employees and principals are required to keep personal information confidential and only authorised personnel have access to this information.

7.6 Monitoring emails We may intercept, monitor and/or keep records of email communications entering and leaving our systems. If you communicate through our systems you will be deemed to have consented to such interception and monitoring.

7.7 Links

7.7.1 BDO is not responsible for the privacy policies of third party Websites to which links are provided and you are advised to read the privacy policies on these Websites before providing any personal information.

7.7.2 We cannot guarantee that third party Websites to which links are provided are free from viruses or malicious codes. You agree that it is your responsibility to satisfy yourself that your own information technology/equipment used to access a third party Web site is protected against such viruses and/or codes.

7.8 Accessing personal information

7.8.1 You can ask to review the personal information we hold about you and ask us to change or delete any of this information. You can do this by contacting us by email at dpo@bdo.co.uk.

7.8.2 We may charge a small administration fee of £10 in relation to any requests for access to personal information.

7.8.3 BDO assumes responsibility for keeping an accurate record of your personal information as it is submitted. However, we cannot ensure the ongoing accuracy of your personal information after it has been submitted without your assistance. Please help us keep your personal information current and accurate by contacting us if your personal information becomes out of date.

7.9 Data controller The data controller collecting the information described in this statement is BDO. BDO LLP is registered on the Data Protection Register, registration number Z5799637.

7.10 Comments and questions If you have any comments or questions about this privacy policy please email dpo@bdo.co.uk. For information about data protection, visit www.dataprotection.gov.uk.

8. Severability

If any of these terms are determined to be illegal, invalid or otherwise unenforceable by reason of the laws of any state or country in which these terms are intended to be effective, then to the extent and within the jurisdiction in which that term is illegal, it shall be severed and deleted from these terms and the remaining terms shall survive, remain in full force and effect and continue to be binding and enforceable.

9. Governing law and jurisdiction

These terms and conditions shall be governed by and construed in accordance with the laws of England and Wales. As the BDO UK Website can be visited from locations around the world with different laws from those of England, when you access the Website you agree that the laws of England will apply to all matters relating to your use of the Website. You and we also agree to submit to the exclusive jurisdiction of the English courts with respect to such matters. Notwithstanding this, we reserve the right to bring enforcement proceedings in any court or courts including, if appropriate, in the courts of your country of residence.