This page explains what personal information we collect, how we use it, and the rights you have. It covers everything from your first enquiry through to us advising you and arranging your mortgage or cover. We have tried to write it in plain English rather than legal language.
Who we are
UK Lending is a trading name of Hassen Draper, who is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority under firm reference number 918885. We are the people responsible for your information, which in data protection language makes us the data controller.
You can reach us at info@uklending.london, on 0203 355 3565, or by post at One Canada Square, Fora 8th Floor, Canary Wharf, London E14 5AA. We are registered with the Information Commissioner's Office, which is the UK regulator for data protection.
What we collect
When you fill in one of our forms we collect the details you give us. Depending on which form you use, that can include your name, email address, phone number, when you would like us to call, your current lender, your fixed rate expiry date, the value of your property, and how much you want to borrow.
If you go on to become a client, we will need a good deal more than that. Depending on what you are arranging, it can include your title, date of birth, gender, nationality, marital status and National Insurance number; documents that verify your identity; your employment history and what you earn, including bonuses, overtime and sick pay; your bank details, tax information, credit commitments and credit history; your family circumstances and any dependents; and any mortgage or insurance products you already hold. We only ask for what the lender or insurer needs to make a decision.
Our mortgage comparison tool works differently. It only sends the figures you type in, such as the property value and the loan amount. It does not send your name or your contact details anywhere.
Where we get it from
Mostly from you, in conversation, on our forms, and by email. If you become a client we may also get information from other places to check what you have told us and to work out what you can borrow: a credit check, confirmation from your employer, electronic identity checks, and public sources such as the electoral roll. We will tell you when we do this, and where your consent is needed we will ask for it first.
Health and other sensitive information
If you ask us about life cover or protection, we need some sensitive information. At the quote stage this is usually limited to your date of birth and whether you smoke. If you decide to apply, it goes further: the insurer will ask detailed questions about your health and medical history, and may ask for medical reports. Depending on the cover, we may also need your ethnic origin, and some types of insurance require you to tell us about any criminal convictions or offences.
If you have parental responsibility for a child under 13 and the cover involves them, we will hold information about that child too, which may include information about their health.
Data protection law treats all of this as a special category, which means it gets extra protection. In practice that means three things. We only collect it with your explicit consent, and we will ask you for that consent clearly rather than burying it. We only use it to get you quotes, to arrange cover, and to deal with claims and underwriting. You can withdraw your consent at any time by emailing us, and we will stop using it, although we may not be able to continue arranging your cover if you do.
Insurers cannot quote for you without this information, so it has to be able to pass between us and them. We never use it for anything else.
Why we use it
- To answer your enquiry and arrange callbacks.
- To give you mortgage and protection advice.
- To remind you before your fixed rate ends, if you asked us to.
- To send our newsletter, but only if you subscribed. Every email has an unsubscribe link and we stop as soon as you use it.
- To keep the records we are required to keep as a regulated firm.
- To answer questions from lenders, insurers and our compliance advisers about the advice we gave you, including after your case has finished.
- To ask you how we did, so we can improve our service.
Data protection law says we need a reason for using your information. Ours are straightforward. When you ask us to advise you or arrange a mortgage, we use your details because that is the service you asked for and we cannot do it otherwise. For our newsletter, we use your details because you chose to subscribe. For our record keeping, we use them because the regulator requires it. For health and other sensitive information, we use your explicit consent. For the last two points above, we rely on it being a reasonable and expected part of running a regulated advice business, and we will always stop if you ask us to.
In short, we use your details to do the job you asked us to do. We never sell them, and we never use them for anything unrelated.
Who sees it
Inside the business, your details are seen by Hassen Draper and by the mortgage advisers who work with us, so that whoever picks up your case can help you properly.
Outside the business, a small number of trusted providers help us run things. These include the software we use to manage enquiries, the platforms that send our emails, the sourcing system that searches mortgage products, and a professional call answering service that picks up our phone line. They work under contract, they follow our instructions, and they cannot use your details for their own purposes.
If you decide to go ahead with an application, we share your details with the lender or insurer you choose. That is a normal and necessary part of arranging a mortgage or a policy.
Depending on what you are arranging, we may also need to share your details with others who help move things along. That can include our compliance advisers, who check the quality of the advice we give; product specialists; and, where your circumstances call for it, estate agents, conveyancers, surveyors, valuers and estate planners. We only ever share what is needed for the job in hand, and sharing your details with them does not entitle them to market to you.
We will also share information where the law requires it, for example with the Financial Conduct Authority or to meet our obligations on fraud and money laundering.
If you accepted advertising cookies (see Cookies below), we also share a hashed version of your email address or phone number, and the advertising click reference from the link you followed, with Google and Meta (Facebook), so they can match your enquiry back to the ad that brought you here. A hash is a one-way scrambled version of your details that Google and Meta cannot reverse back into your actual email or phone number; it lets them recognise a match without us handing over the details themselves.
Where we keep it
Our own systems, including this website, the software that handles your enquiry when you send it, and the software that counts visits, all run on servers located in the United Kingdom.
Your enquiry details are then stored, and your confirmation email sent, using the business software we use to run the office. A provider of that kind runs data centres in more than one country, so your information may be handled outside the United Kingdom. Where that happens it is covered by the standard protections data protection law requires when information leaves the UK, and the provider is contractually bound to keep it confidential and to use it only on our instructions.
We also use an error monitoring service that tells us when something on the website breaks. It processes limited technical information on servers in the European Economic Area. We have set it up so that it does not receive your personal details, and transfers to the European Economic Area are covered by the UK's adequacy rules.
How long we keep it
If you get in touch but do not become a client, we keep your details only as long as we need them to deal with your enquiry.
If you become a client, we keep your file for at least six years after the advice or service we gave you. We may keep it longer where our regulators require it. Six years is longer than the minimum the mortgage rules set, but it is the period over which a claim could still be brought, so it is the point at which we can safely let records go.
We also keep a timestamped record of the advice steps we took, which is how we demonstrate we did things properly if we are ever asked.
Newsletter details are kept until you unsubscribe.
Phone calls
Our phone line is answered by a professional call answering service. Calls are not recorded.
Credit checks
Talking to us and getting an initial view of your options does not affect your credit score. If you decide to apply, the lender will run their own credit check at that point, and they will tell you what kind it is.
Counting visits
We count visits so we can see which pages people find useful and which ones are not working. We do this with our own software, running on the same United Kingdom servers as the rest of our systems, so these figures are never handed to an outside company.
It does not use cookies and it does not store anything on your device. It does not store your IP address, and it cannot follow you to other websites. What it records is the page you looked at, the website that sent you here if one did, roughly where in the world you are, and the general type of device and browser you used. None of that identifies you, and we cannot use it to pick you out.
Cookies
Our own visit counting still does not use cookies and needs no consent, for the reasons above. Separately, if you choose to accept them in the banner shown on your first visit, we use advertising cookies from Google and Meta (Facebook) so that ads we run can be measured and shown to relevant people. These are only set if you say yes, and you can withdraw that choice at any time by clearing your browser's cookies for this site and revisiting.
If you arrived here from a Google or Meta ad, we also read the click reference in that link so we can tell which enquiries came from which ad. We only send that reference on to Google or Meta, together with a hashed (not plain text) version of your email or phone number if you submit an enquiry, if you accepted advertising cookies. We do not otherwise track you across other websites or build a profile of you.
Your rights
You can ask us for a copy of the information we hold about you. You can ask us to correct it if it is wrong, or to delete it. You can ask us to stop using it, and where we rely on your consent you can withdraw that consent at any time. You can also ask us to send your information to someone else.
Just email info@uklending.london and we will sort it out. We will respond within one month. There is no charge. Please bear in mind that where the regulator requires us to keep a record, we may not be able to delete everything, and we will explain if that applies to you.
If you are unhappy with how we have handled your information, please 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, by calling 0303 123 1113, or by writing to the Information Commissioner's Office, Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow, Cheshire SK9 5AF.
Security
Your details are held in our files and on our computer systems, and everything you send us travels over an encrypted connection. It is stored either on systems we control or with trusted providers acting under contract for us. Only the people who need your details to handle your case can see them.
It helps if you look after your side too. Please avoid sending confidential information over unprotected email, and use a secure postal method if you are sending us original documents.
If something ever does go wrong, we have a plan for dealing with it, and where the law requires it we will tell both the regulator and you. If you ever become aware that your information has been seen by someone who should not have seen it, please tell us straight away so we can look into it.
Changes
If we change this policy we will update this page and the date at the top.