Privacy & Cookie Policy

1 Who we are

SAR Driving School ("we", "us", "our") provides manual, automatic and refresher driving lessons across Milton Keynes, Bletchley, Bedford, Leighton Buzzard and surrounding areas.

For the purposes of UK data protection law, SAR Driving School Ltd is the data controller for the personal information described in this policy.

• Registered name: SAR Driving School Ltd
• Registered in England and Wales, company number 16949309
• Registered office: 10 Western Road, Wolverton, Milton Keynes MK12 5BE
• Email: info@sardrivingschool.co.uk
• Phone: 079 02 02 37 37

2 The information we collect

We collect only what we need to answer your enquiry and deliver driving lessons.

• Enquiry details — your name, phone number, email address, pickup postcode or area, whether you want manual or automatic lessons, your experience level, your availability and any instructor preference you tell us
• Booking and lesson records — lessons booked, attended and cancelled, and notes on your progress kept by your instructor
• Payment information — where you pay online, your payment is processed by Stripe. We receive confirmation that a payment succeeded and the amount. We never see or store your full card number.
• Website usage — if you accept advertising cookies, information about how you reached our site and which pages you viewed. See section 7.

We do not knowingly collect information from anyone under 17. If a parent or guardian arranges lessons on behalf of a learner, we will hold the learner’s details for the purpose of delivering those lessons.

3 How we collect it

• Forms on this website
• WhatsApp messages you send us
• Phone calls, text messages and callback requests
• Email
• Direct messages on Instagram, TikTok and Facebook
• Online payments made through Stripe

4 Why we use it, and our lawful basis

• To answer your enquiry and arrange lessons — steps taken at your request before entering into a contract, and performance of that contract
• To deliver and manage your lessons, including allocating a suitable instructor and keeping progress records — performance of our contract with you
• To take payment and keep accounting records — performance of our contract, and our legal obligations
• To measure how well our advertising works — your consent, given through the cookie banner
• To handle complaints and protect our legal position — our legitimate interests in running the business fairly

We do not sell your personal information, and we do not use it for automated decision-making or profiling.

5 Who we share it with

We share your information only where we need to. The organisations below act as our service providers or, where indicated, as separate controllers.

• Your driving instructor — the SAR instructor allocated to you receives the details needed to contact you and teach you
• FormSubmit — delivers the enquiry and booking forms on this website to us by email
• Stripe — processes online card payments
• Google — where you accept advertising cookies, Google receives information about your visit so we can measure our advertising. Google acts as a separate controller for some of this data.
• WhatsApp / Meta — if you choose to message us on WhatsApp or social media, that platform processes the message under its own privacy policy
• Our accountant, and professional or legal advisers where necessary

We may also disclose information where we are required to by law, or to establish or defend legal claims.

Some of these providers are based outside the UK. Where information is transferred abroad, it is protected by the safeguards recognised under UK data protection law, such as the UK International Data Transfer Agreement or an adequacy decision.

6 How long we keep it

• Enquiries that do not become bookings — up to 12 months, then deleted
• Pupil and lesson records — for the duration of your lessons and up to 3 years afterwards, in case of a query or dispute
• Payment and accounting records — 6 years, as required by HMRC

You can ask us to delete your information sooner — see section 8.

7 Cookies

A cookie is a small file stored on your device. We use two kinds.

• Essential cookies — needed for the site to work and to remember your cookie choice. These are always set, and do not require your consent.
• Advertising cookies — set by Google so we can measure how well our Google Ads perform. These are only set if you press “Accept” on our cookie banner. Until you do, they are switched off.

You do not have to accept advertising cookies, and the site works normally if you refuse. You can change your mind at any time using the cookie settings link, or by clearing cookies in your browser.

Our payment pages are hosted by Stripe and may set their own cookies that are strictly necessary for the payment to work. Our enquiry forms are part of this website and set no cookies of their own.

8 Your rights

Under UK data protection law you have the right to:

• Ask for a copy of the personal information we hold about you
• Ask us to correct anything that is wrong
• Ask us to delete your information
• Ask us to restrict how we use it, or object to our using it
• Ask us to transfer it to another provider
• Withdraw your consent to advertising cookies at any time

To exercise any of these, email info@sardrivingschool.co.uk. We will respond within one month. There is no charge.

9 Complaints

If you are unhappy with how we have handled your information, please contact us first at info@sardrivingschool.co.uk so we can put it right.

You also have the right to complain to the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO), the UK regulator for data protection:

• Website: ico.org.uk/make-a-complaint
• Helpline: 0303 123 1113

10 Changes to this policy

We may update this policy from time to time. The current version is always the one published on this page, and the date below tells you when it last changed.