TERMS AND CONDITIONS FOR THE GSC GRAYS FARM BUSINESS ADVICE SERVICE (FBAS)

INTRODUCTION

Your agreement is regulated by the terms and conditions set out below.

As it is in the interests of both parties that there is a full understanding of the terms and conditions and the service to be provided, this document sets out our terms and conditions.

1. SERVICES

The services which GSC Grays will provide are:

A one-to-one on farm assessment meeting. One to one

Should it be deemed that you would benefit from further one-to-one support, then at the discretion of the project board, access to further one-to-one support in the form of either an additional ½ day consultancy or a detailed 2-day consultancy package may be offered. GSC Grays cannot guarantee that a farm business will receive this further consultancy. Access to this will based on need and availability.

Should further one-to-one support not be required, additional support in the form of group activity may be made available via on-farm workshops or business groups. GSC Grays cannot guarantee that a farm business will have access to the group support. Access to this will be based on need and availability.

2. FEES

The fees for the provision of the FBAS services described above are covered by DEFRA (the client) and will not be charged to participating farm businesses.

Any additional services provided outside of the FBAS remit (as outlined in section 1) which might be required by participating farm businesses will be subject to a separate letter of confirmation, whereby the farm business will become a direct client of GSC Grays.

3. WITHDRAWAL OF INSTRUCTIONS

This Agreement shall continue until both parties agree that all work has been completed, or 31st March 2025.

GSC Grays shall be entitled to withdraw its services if:

i. it has reason to believe that your instructions may involve GSC Grays in an actual or possible contravention of any relevant legislation or if a withdrawal is justified for any other reasonable cause including the inability of GSC Grays to comply with RICS Regulations.

ii. Defra withdraws the Future Farm Resilience Scheme.

4. DISPUTES

GSC Grays has an internal Complaints Handling Procedure, in accordance with the Regulations and Byelaws of the RICS, details of which are attached at Appendix 1.

5. CONFLICTS OF INTEREST

The Farm business is required to inform GSC Grays of any known conflicts of interest. In the event of a conflict of interest being discovered by GSC Grays, this will be reported to the Farm Business. All conflicts of interest will be investigated and resolved in accordance with prevailing RICS Regulations.

6. LIMITATION OF LIABILITY

The advice you will receive will be based on the information you provide. If you do not inform us or share with us information that would affect the advice given, you agree that we will not be liable for any advice that is given.

Our aggregate liability arising out of, or in connection with the work you are instructing us to undertake as part of this contract, whether arising from negligence, breach of contract or any other cause whatsoever, shall in no event exceed the lesser of ten times our fee for the work undertaken, or £50,000. This clause shall not exclude or limit our liability for actual fraud and shall not limit our liability for death or personal injury caused by our negligence.

As a service funded by DEFRA, neither GSC Grays nor any of our employees, directors or consultants individually has a contract with you or owes you a duty of care or personal responsibility. You agree that you will not bring any claim against any such individuals personally in connection with our services.

If you suffer loss as a result of our breach of contract or negligence, our liability shall be limited to a just and equitable proportion of your loss having regard to the extent of responsibility of any other party. Our liability shall not increase by reason of a shortfall or recovery from any other party, whether that shortfall arises from an agreement between you and them, your difficulty in enforcement, or any other cause.

Our contract with you for the provision of these services is subject to English law. Any dispute in relation to this contract, or any aspect of the work, shall be subject to the exclusive jurisdiction of the Courts of England and Wales, and shall be determined by the application of English law regardless of who initiates the proceedings in relation to the work.

7. PRIVACY AND DATA PROTECTION

In order to comply with the General Data Protection Regulation 2016 (GDPR), we must inform you of how and why GSC Grays will collect, process and store your personal data and your rights to control this data. Our Privacy & Data Protection Notice is set out in Appendix 2. From time to time, GSC Grays will look to use examples of work they have completed as case studies in their marketing and PR campaigns. In all cases, express permission will be sought before publication of any information.

The initial information supplied will be used to verify with DEFRA that you are an eligible recipient of the FBAS service. This is a requirement of the funding and will be the only information shared with DEFRA. Any reports or confidential information relating to your business produced through FBAS will be retained by GSC Grays securely and will not be shared with DEFRA.

8. EQUALITY ACT 2010

As part of our compliance with the above, if we can help you to overcome difficulties you may face in using our services or accessing our offices, please let us know and we shall be happy to discuss suitable alternative arrangements.

9. MONEY LAUNDERING REGULATIONS

We should make you aware that we are required under the Proceeds of Crime Act 2002 and the Anti-Terrorism Crime and Security Act 2001 to make a report to the National Criminal Intelligence Service if we become aware, during the course of our work, of any circumstances which give rise to knowledge, suspicion or reasonable grounds for suspicion of a money laundering offence. The offence of money laundering may be committed by concealing, arranging or acquiring the proceeds of any criminal conduct, including the proceeds of any tax evasion or benefit fraud, even if the conduct occurs outside the United Kingdom.

Our professional relationship with you will not prevent us having to disclose confidential information about you if it is required by law or similar regulatory or professional obligation.

It has been made very clear to our industry that non-compliance with these measures is a criminal offence for which we are at risk of prosecution and as such we abide strictly by these provisions.

APPENDIX 1

GSC GRAYS COMPLAINTS HANDLING PROCEDURE

We are committed to providing a professional service to our clients, but when something goes wrong, we need you to tell us about it. This will help us to improve our service to all our clients.

Please find set out below, the Complaints Handling Procedure (CHP) for GSC Grays which will be followed in dealing with any client or third-party complaint. The appointed person to deal with complaints within GSC Grays is Guy Coggrave, who is the Managing Director; he can be contacted as follows:

Guy Coggrave
GSC Grays
1 Bailey Court
Colburn Business Park
Richmond
North Yorkshire
DL9 4QL

Telephone: 01748 897630

If you have a question, or if you would like to make a complaint, please do not hesitate to contact him.

1. If your initial complaint was made verbally (whether face-to-face or on the telephone), please also make it in writing, addressed to Guy Coggrave at the address above.
2. Once we have received your written complaint, we will acknowledge it within three working days of receiving it, enclosing a copy of this procedure.
3. Guy Coggrave will then investigate your complaint and will write to you again within 15 working days of sending the acknowledgement letter to inform you of the outcome of his internal investigation and to let you know what actions have been taken or will be taken. If, for any reason, Guy Coggrave is away from the office at this time, your complaint will be investigated by the Operations Director, Jerry McGill, who can also be contacted at the above address and telephone number.
4. If, at this stage, you are still not satisfied, you should contact us again and we will arrange for a separate review to take place by another director.
5. We will write to you within 15 working days of receiving your request for a review, confirming our final viewpoint on the matter.
6. If you are still unhappy with the result of any of the above, provision has been made for you to take the case to an independent redress organisation. The independent redress organisation is as follows:

The Centre for Effective Dispute Resolution (CEDR) is an approved provider of alternative dispute resolution services to RICS-regulated firms. They can be contacted via their website at www.cedr.com or by post at the following address:

Centre for Effective Dispute Resolution
70 Fleet Street
London
EC4Y 1EU

Telephone: 0207 536 6000

APPENDIX 2

PRIVACY AND DATA PROTECTION NOTICE

Data Controller: GSC Grays Ltd

This Notice explains how we handle your personal data and what you can do if you have any concerns. We are required to provide you with this information under the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).

GSC Grays is committed to protecting and respecting your privacy. This Notice sets out the basis on which any personal data we hold about you will be processed by us. It includes data that we have received from you or data we may have received about you from others and which we hold electronically and/or in paper files.

The information supplied in this form will be used to verify with DEFRA that you are an eligible recipient of the FBAS service. This is a requirement of the funding and will be the only information shared with DEFRA. Any reports or confidential information relating to your business produced through FBAS will be retained by GSC Grays securely and will not be shared with DEFRA.

Why We Collect and Process Personal Data

We need to collect and process your data in order to be able to deliver the services that GSC Grays will provide to you and to comply with our legal obligations in doing so.

What Data We Collect

Depending on the type of service we provide to you, we may collect and process various types of personal data about you, including:

• Identification information, e.g. name, gender,
• Contact information, e.g. postal address, email address, telephone numbers
• Financial information, e.g. tax status, tax ID, income and other revenues, asset and investment values, bank account details, credit card number, money transfers, debts and expenses, insurance and legal documentation
• Employment information, e.g. employment, employer’s name, remuneration
• Medical details (only on a need-to-know basis)
• Data from your interactions with us, e.g. our website, social media pages, meetings, telephone calls, email, correspondence.

How We Collect Your Data

The data we use about you may be either directly provided by you, other professional service providers including solicitors, accountants and surveyors, and other clients.

How We Use Your Data

Data will be held and processed by GSC Grays for the purposes of delivering the contracted service to you or to comply with our legal obligations.

We will not use your data for marketing or any other purposes without your express consent.

Who Has Access to the Data

Your data will be accessed only by GSC Grays’ staff who have a legitimate need to access it.

DEFRA will be provided access to the limited data outlined above. It will be transferred in a password protected format to prevent unauthorised access.

There may be occasions when, in order to provide the contracted service to you and to meet our legal obligations, we will need to pass your data to third party organisations. These organisations may include, but are not limited to HMRC, the Rural Payments Agency, Natural England and other governmental organisations, law enforcement agencies, other professional organisations such as solicitors and accountants, and to suppliers sub-contracted by GSC Grays to carry out work on your behalf. Other than when we are legally obliged to do this, we will not pass your information to third parties without your consent.

Retention of Data

The data will be retained whilst you remain a client of GSC Grays, in line with our Data Retention Policy, and for a minimum period of 7 years after closure of the project/job

in order to comply with current regulations imposed on us by HMRC and our governing body, the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors. The data may be retained longer than this only where we have a legal obligation or other legitimate reason for doing so.

Your Rights Under the GDPR

Under the GDPR, you have a number of rights:

Right of Access – You have a right, subject to a number of exceptions, to know what information we hold about you.

Right to Rectification – If any of the information we hold about you is inaccurate or incomplete, you have the right to ask for this to be rectified.

Right to Erasure – You have the right to request the deletion or removal of personal data where there is no compelling or legal reason for us to continue to hold it.

Right to Restrict Processing – You have the right to restrict our processing of your data in certain circumstances, such as when there is a question over the way in which we are using it.

Right to Data Portability – You have the right to obtain and reuse your personal data for your own purposes and in a medium that can be used by you or another party to whom you wish to give it.

Right Not to be Subject to Automated Decision-Making (including profiling) – We will not make any decisions about you by purely automated means, without review.

If you wish to exercise any of these rights under GDPR, you should contact our Data Protection Officer at the address below and we will respond to this request within one month of receipt.

Further Information

Further details of our privacy and data protection policies can be found on our website at www.gscgrays.co.uk. If you have any queries about our Data Protection Policy, please contact:

Data Protection Officer
GSC Grays
1 Bailey Court
Colburn Business Park
Richmond
North Yorkshire
DL9 4QL

Email: dataprotection@gscgrays.co.uk

If you are not satisfied with the way in which we manage your personal data, you can seek recourse through our Complaints Procedure, which is detailed at Appendix 1. If you remain dissatisfied, you have the right to refer the matter to the Information Commissioner, who can be contacted at:

Information Commissioner’s Office
Wycliffe House
Water Lane
Wilmslow
Cheshire
SK9 5AF

Telephone: 01625 545745

Email: enquiries@ico.gsi.gov.uk

Date published: 1st October 2022