Privacy Policy

Energy Procurement Organisation E-PO
Privacy policy & Data Protection

This privacy policy sets out how the Energy Procurement Organisation Ltd (“E-PO”) uses and protects any information that you provide us with via email or through face to face meetings. E-PO collects and processes personal data to manage the relationship between us. The organisation is committed to being transparent about how it collects and uses that data and to meeting its data protection obligations.

E-PO are committed to protecting the privacy of our employees, clients and users of our website, providing a safe and secure service. We will ensure that the information you submit to us via our website, office or emails is only used for the purposes set out in this policy.

What information does E-PO collect?

E-PO collects and processes a range of information about you. This includes:

Clients

  • Your name, address and contact details, including email address and telephone number and date of birth where applicable;
  • Supply Information in the shape of MPAN or MPRN, Meter Serial numbers, site addresses, Contract end Dates, Unit Rates and Annual consumption data;
  • Details of your financial accounts if not in the public domain already;
  • Details of your bank account enable E-PO to provide Energy Suppliers information required for direct debits;
  • Letters of authority (LOA’s) are used as a means of providing suppliers confirmation that we are permitted to speak on your behalf with them.

Employees

  • Your name, address and contact details, including email address and telephone number, date of birth and gender;
  • The terms and conditions of your employment;
  • Details of your qualifications, skills, experience and employment history, including start and end dates, with previous employers and with the organisation;
  • Details of your bank account and national insurance number enable E-PO to pay Temporary Workers, Contractors and Employees;
  • Information about your nationality and entitlement to work in the UK;
  • Information about your criminal record
  • Information about your marital status, next of kin, dependants and emergency contacts.
  • Information about medical or health conditions, including whether or not you have a disability for which the organisation needs to make reasonable adjustments; and
  • Equal opportunities monitoring information including information about your ethnic origin, sexual orientation and religion or belief.

E-PO will collect this information in a variety of ways. For example, data might be collected through CVs or resumes, application forms, obtained from your passport or other identity documents such as your driving licence; from forms completed by you at the start of or during your employment; from correspondence with you; or through interviews, meetings or other assessments.

E-PO may also collect personal data about you from third parties such as references supplied by former employers, information from employment background check providers, information from credit reference agencies and information from criminal record checks permitted by law.

Suppliers

 Your name, address and contact details, including email address and telephone number;

  • Details of your bank accounts to allow E-PO to advise clients how they pay you;
  • Your terms and conditions to allow E-PO to provide clients with information to complete Energy Supply contracts

Why does E-PO process personal data?

Clients

We constantly strive to understand your requirements, so that we can tailor our service to you.  This includes, but is not limited to the following:

  • Identifying current contractual obligations, consumptions, unit rates and end dates which in turn are used to better understand your current position;
  • Assessing relevant products from the Energy Suppliers and tailoring them to your portfolio and approach to risk;
  • Logging termination notices on your accounts with Energy Suppliers as and when required;
  • Contacting Energy Suppliers on your behalf to resolve billing queries or complex problems and making the appropriate changes;
  •  Internal record keeping;
  • We may use the information to improve our products and services;
  • We may periodically send promotional emails about new products, special offers or other relevant information you may find interesting using the email address which you have provided;
  • We may use your information from time to time to contact you for market research purposes. We may contact you by email or phone;
  • We may use the information to customise our website according to your interests.

Employees

We will need to process data to ensure that we are complying with legal obligations. For example, it is required to check an employees entitlement to work in the UK, to deduct tax, to comply with health and safety laws and to enable employees to take period of leave when they are entitled.

We require this information particularly for the following reasons:

  • Maintain accurate and up-to-date employment records and contact details including details of who to contact in the event of an emergency, and records of employee contractual and statutory rights;
  • Internal record keeping;
  • Process payroll in order to pay you;

How does E-PO protect data?

E-PO take the security of your data seriously. We have internal policies and controls in place to try to ensure that your data is not lost, accidentally destroyed, misused or disclosed. To prevent unauthorised access or disclosure, we have put in place suitable physical, electronic and managerial procedures to safeguard and secure the information we collect online.

How long does E-PO keep data?

We will hold your personal data for the duration of your Energy Supply contract and where the data forms a part of our source documents for accounting purposes, the data will be retained for the duration required under statute for source documents (currently six years).

Your Rights

As a data subject, you have a number of rights. You can:

  • Access and obtain a copy of your data on request;
  • Require E-PO to change incorrect or incomplete data;
  • Require E-PO to delete or stop processing your data, for example where the data is no longer necessary for the purposes of processing; and
  • Object to the processing of your data where the organisation is relying on its legitimate interests as the legal ground for processing.

If you would like to exercise any of these rights, please contact:

Chief Data Officer
Energy Procurement Organisation.
Suite 302, Collingwood Buildings
38 Collingwood Street
Newcastle Upon Tyne
Tyne and Wear
NE1 1JF

If you believe that E-PO has not complied with your data protection rights, you can complain to the Information Commissioner.

What if you do not provide personal data?

Certain information, such as contact details, direct debit details, date of birth and credit checking details, have to be provided to enable the organisation to secure an Energy Supply contract. If you do not provide this information, it will hinder our ability to obtain quotations and ultimately Energy Supply contracts for you.

How we use cookies

A cookie is a small file which asks permission to be placed on your computer’s hard drive. Once you agree, the file is added, and the cookie helps analyse web traffic or lets you know when you visit a particular site. Cookies allow web applications to respond to you as an individual. The web application can tailor its operations to your needs, likes and dislikes by gathering and remembering information about your preferences.

We also use Google Analytics log cookies to identify which pages are being used. This helps us analyse data about webpage traffic and improve our website in order to tailor it to customer needs. We only use this information for statistical analysis purposes and no personal data is captured.

Overall, cookies help us provide you with a better website by enabling us to monitor which pages you find useful and which you do not. A cookie in no way gives us access to your computer or any information about you, other than the data you choose to share with us.

You can choose to accept or decline cookies. Most web browsers automatically accept cookies, but you can usually modify your browser setting to decline cookies if you prefer. This may prevent you from taking full advantage of the website.

Links to other websites

Our website may contain links to other websites of interest. However, once you have used these links to leave our site, you should note that we do not have any control over that other website. Therefore, we cannot be responsible for the protection and privacy of any information which you provide whilst visiting such sites and such sites are not governed by this privacy statement. You should look at the privacy statement applicable to the website in question.

Controlling your personal information

You may choose to restrict the collection or use of your personal information in the following ways:

If you have previously agreed to us using, your personal information for direct marketing purpose you may change your mind at any time by writing to or emailing us at paul@e-po.co.uk

We will not sell, distribute or lease your personal information to third parties unless we have your permission or are required by law. We may use your personal information to send you promotional information about third parties which we think you may find interesting If you tell us that you wish this to happen.

We will continue to hold your data with the view to providing future services to you. You may request details of personal information which we hold about you under the Data protection act 1998. A small fee will be payable. If you would like a copy of the information held on you, please email us at paul@e-po.co.uk

Equal Opportunities

We are an equal opportunities employer and a company committed to diversity. All job applicants and members of staff will receive equal treatment and we will not discriminate on grounds of gender, race, ethnic origin, colour, marital status, nationally, national origin, disability, sexually orientation, religion or age.

We may occasionally use information provided by you for the purposes of diversity monitoring as part of our commitment to equal opportunities. This information will be used on an entirely anonymous basis.

Contact

If you believe that any information we are holding on you is incorrect or incomplete, please write to us at the below address or email paul@e-po.co.uk. We will promptly correct any information found to be incorrect.

Chief Data Officer
Energy Procurement Organisation.
Suite 302, Collingwood Buildings
38 Collingwood Street
Newcastle Upon Tyne
Tyne and Wear
NE1 1JF