PRIVACY POLICY
Last updated: 6 July 2026
- WHO WE ARE
Steady Start Driver Training Ltd provides driving lessons, driving instructor training, trainee licence support and driving school franchise opportunities.
In this privacy policy, “Steady Start Driver Training”, “we”, “us” and “our” refer to:
Steady Start Driver Training Ltd
Company number: 17292650
Registered office: 71-75 Shelton Street, Covent Garden, London, WC2H 9JQ, UNITED KINGDOM
Website: www.steadystart.co.uk
Email: info@steadystart.co.uk
Telephone: 07534 978605
Steady Start Driver Training Ltd is the data controller for the personal information covered by this policy. This means that we decide how and why personal information is used.
The person responsible for data protection within the business is:
The Director
- WHAT THIS POLICY COVERS
This privacy policy explains how we collect, use, store and protect personal information relating to:
• Visitors to our website
• People making an enquiry
• Learner drivers
• Parents or guardians where appropriate
• Trainee and qualified driving instructors
• People enquiring about instructor training
• People enquiring about trainee licence support
• People enquiring about franchise opportunities
• Customers, suppliers and professional contacts
• People who contact us by telephone, email, WhatsApp, social media or through our website
It also explains your rights under UK data-protection law.
- PERSONAL INFORMATION WE MAY COLLECT
The information we collect depends on your relationship with us.
Identity and contact information may include:
• Your name
• Postal address and postcode
• Telephone number
• Email address
• Date of birth
• Parent or guardian details where appropriate
• Emergency contact details
Driving lesson and training information may include:
• Driving licence information
• Driving licence check information or check codes
• Previous driving experience
• Lesson availability and bookings
• Lesson attendance
• Lesson plans and progress records
• Driving strengths and development needs
• Instructor or trainer notes
• Driving test dates, locations and results
• Instructor-training records
• ADI or PDI details
• Trainee licence information
• Qualifications and professional history
• Information relating to franchise applications
Payment and financial information may include:
• Payment records
• Invoices
• Refunds
• Outstanding balances
• Bank transfer references
• Limited transaction information supplied by a bank or payment provider
We do not normally store complete debit or credit card details.
Health and accessibility information may include information you choose to provide about:
• Medical conditions
• Disabilities or accessibility requirements
• Medication that may affect driving
• Anxiety or additional learning needs
• Other information relevant to providing safe and suitable training
Health information is treated as special-category personal data and receives additional protection.
Please only provide health information that is relevant to your lessons, training or safety.
Communications may include:
• Emails
• Contact-form submissions
• Text messages
• WhatsApp messages
• Social-media messages
• Telephone notes
• Complaints
• Feedback
• Reviews
• Other correspondence
Website and technical information may include:
• IP address
• Browser and device type
• Operating system
• Approximate location
• Pages visited
• Time and date of visits
• Referring website
• Cookie preferences
• Information about how the website is used
Photographs, videos and reviews may include:
• Test-pass photographs
• Training photographs or videos
• Testimonials
• Reviews
• Social-media content
We will obtain appropriate permission before using an identifiable pupil’s photograph, video or testimonial for marketing or social-media purposes.
- HOW WE COLLECT INFORMATION
We may collect personal information:
• Directly from you when you contact us
• Through our website contact form
• When you book or attend lessons or training
• By telephone, email, WhatsApp, text message or social media
• From a parent or guardian
• Through an instructor, trainer or franchisee working with us
• Through a booking or pupil-management system
• When you make a payment
• When you provide a review, photograph or testimonial
• From publicly available sources where appropriate
• Automatically through website logs, cookies and similar technologies
- HOW AND WHY WE USE PERSONAL INFORMATION
We may use personal information to:
• Respond to enquiries
• Provide prices or quotations
• Arrange and deliver driving lessons
• Arrange and deliver instructor training
• Manage bookings and attendance
• Record pupil or trainee progress
• Plan future lessons or training sessions
• Provide trainee licence information or support
• Respond to franchise enquiries
• Manage instructor or franchise relationships
• Take payments and issue invoices
• Maintain accounting and tax records
• Communicate about bookings, payments or service updates
• Adapt lessons to health, disability or accessibility needs
• Protect pupils, instructors, vehicles and members of the public
• Handle complaints, incidents or disputes
• Prevent fraud, misuse or security incidents
• Improve our services and website
• Send marketing communications where legally permitted
• Publish photographs, videos, reviews or testimonials where permission has been given
The lawful basis we rely on may include:
Contract
We may need to use your information to provide driving lessons, training or another service you have requested.
Steps before entering into a contract
We may use your information to answer enquiries, provide prices or discuss training, trainee licence or franchise opportunities.
Legal obligation
We may need to retain or disclose information to comply with tax, accounting, regulatory or other legal requirements.
Legitimate interests
We may use information where it is reasonably necessary to operate, protect and improve our business, provided that your rights and interests do not override those interests.
Consent
We may rely on your consent when using health information, photographs, testimonials or certain marketing communications.
You can withdraw your consent at any time. This will not affect processing that took place before consent was withdrawn.
Vital interests
In an emergency, we may use or disclose information where necessary to protect someone’s life or safety.
- HEALTH AND ACCESSIBILITY INFORMATION
We will only use health or accessibility information where it is relevant to:
• Providing driving lessons or training safely
• Adapting our teaching approach
• Managing risks during a lesson
• Meeting an accessibility requirement
• Responding to an emergency
We will normally ask for your explicit consent before using this information.
We will not use health information for unrelated marketing.
You remain responsible for notifying the DVLA of any medical condition where the law requires you to do so.
- INFORMATION ABOUT PEOPLE UNDER 18
Some learner drivers may be under 18.
We will handle their information carefully and will only collect information that is reasonably necessary to:
• Arrange and provide lessons
• Communicate about bookings
• Manage payments
• Record progress
• Maintain safety
Where appropriate, we may:
• Communicate with a parent or guardian
• Obtain parent or guardian contact details
• Involve a parent or guardian in payment or booking arrangements
• Request consent before using photographs, testimonials or promotional material
- WHO WE MAY SHARE INFORMATION WITH
We do not sell personal information.
Where necessary, we may share limited information with:
• Driving instructors, trainers, employees or franchisees working with us
• Website, email and hosting providers, including IONOS
• WordPress and website-form providers
• Booking and pupil-management providers, including Total Drive where used
• Banks and payment providers
• Accountants, bookkeepers and tax advisers
• Insurers and insurance advisers
• Legal advisers and debt-recovery providers
• IT, cybersecurity and data-storage providers
• The DVSA or another regulatory organisation where required
• Law-enforcement agencies, courts or public authorities where required by law
• WhatsApp, Meta or another communication platform when you choose to contact us through that service
• A purchaser or successor if the business is sold, transferred or reorganised
We only aim to share the information necessary for the relevant purpose.
An instructor or franchisee who operates as an independent data controller may also provide their own privacy information.
- INTERNATIONAL TRANSFERS
Some website, software, communication or storage providers may process information outside the United Kingdom.
Where personal information is transferred internationally, we will take reasonable steps to ensure that an appropriate legal safeguard applies.
- HOW LONG WE KEEP INFORMATION
We only retain personal information for as long as reasonably necessary.
Our usual retention periods are:
Enquiries that do not proceed
Normally up to 12 months after the last communication.
Pupil lesson and progress records
Normally up to six years after the final lesson where required for contractual, insurance, safeguarding or legal purposes.
Instructor-training records
Normally up to six years after training ends.
Franchise enquiries that do not proceed
Normally up to 12 months after the last communication.
Instructor and franchise contractual records
Normally up to six years after the relationship ends.
Financial, invoice and tax records
For the period required by tax and accounting law, normally at least six years.
Complaints, accidents and incident records
Normally up to six years, or longer where a claim or investigation remains active.
Marketing records
Until consent is withdrawn, an objection is received or the information is no longer required.
Photographs and testimonials
Until consent is withdrawn or the content is no longer required.
Website logs and technical records
For no longer than reasonably necessary, according to the settings used by our website, security and hosting providers.
Information may remain within secure backups for a limited period after it has been deleted from active systems.
We may retain information for longer where required by law, an insurer, a regulator, an investigation or an ongoing legal claim.
- MARKETING COMMUNICATIONS
We may contact you about our services where:
• You have asked us to do so
• You have provided consent
• The law permits us to contact an existing customer about similar services
You can unsubscribe or object to direct marketing at any time by:
• Using the unsubscribe option within a message
• Replying and asking us to stop
• Contacting us using the details at the end of this policy
We may keep a limited suppression record to make sure that someone who has opted out is not contacted again.
- COOKIES AND WEBSITE TECHNOLOGIES
Our website may use cookies and similar technologies.
These may include:
Strictly necessary cookies
These are required for website security, website operation, form submission or storing privacy preferences.
Functional cookies
These support website features and user preferences.
Analytics cookies
These help us understand how visitors use the website and identify areas that could be improved.
Marketing cookies
These may be used to measure advertising or show relevant content.
Where consent is legally required, non-essential cookies will not be placed until you have made a choice through our cookie banner or settings tool.
You can also manage or delete cookies through your browser settings. Blocking some cookies may affect how the website works.
- HOW WE PROTECT INFORMATION
We use reasonable technical and organisational measures designed to protect personal information against:
• Unauthorised access
• Accidental loss
• Alteration
• Misuse
• Disclosure
• Destruction
These measures may include:
• Password protection
• Access controls
• Secure website hosting
• Encrypted website connections
• Software and security updates
• Backups
• Device security
• Limiting access to people who need the information
• Appropriate arrangements with service providers
No internet or electronic-storage system can be guaranteed to be completely secure.
Please contact us promptly if you believe your personal information has been lost, misused or accessed without authorisation.
- YOUR DATA-PROTECTION RIGHTS
Depending on the circumstances, you may have the right to:
• Request access to your personal information
• Ask us to correct inaccurate or incomplete information
• Ask us to delete information
• Ask us to restrict how information is used
• Object to processing based on legitimate interests
• Object to direct marketing
• Request the transfer of information in a portable format
• Withdraw consent
• Ask about safeguards used for international transfers
• Complain about how your information has been handled
Not every right applies in every situation.
We may need to retain certain information where required by law, contractual obligations, insurance requirements or legal claims.
We may ask for proof of identity before responding to a request.
- AUTOMATED DECISION-MAKING
We do not currently make decisions that have a legal or similarly significant effect using solely automated processing.
We will update this policy if this changes.
- DATA-PROTECTION COMPLAINTS
If you believe we have not handled your personal information properly, please contact us.
Email: info@steadystart.co.uk
Subject: Data protection complaint
Post: 71-75 Shelton Street, Covent Garden, London, WC2H 9JQ, UNITED KINGDOM
Please include:
• Your name and contact details
• A description of your concern
• Relevant dates or communications
• What you would like us to do
We will investigate your complaint and explain the outcome.
You may also complain to the Information Commissioner’s Office.
Information Commissioner’s Office
Website: www.ico.org.uk
Telephone: 0303 123 1113
- LINKS AND THIRD-PARTY SERVICES
Our website may contain links to external websites, social-media platforms or third-party services.
We do not control how those organisations use personal information. You should review their privacy information before providing personal data.
When you contact us through WhatsApp or social media, the relevant platform may also process information under its own privacy terms.
- CHANGES TO THIS PRIVACY POLICY
We may update this policy when:
• Our services change
• We introduce new software or service providers
• Our data-handling practices change
• Legal or regulatory requirements change
The latest version will be published on our website with an updated revision date.
- CONTACT US
For privacy questions, rights requests, withdrawals of consent or complaints, contact:
Steady Start Driver Training Ltd
Registered office: 71-75 Shelton Street, Covent Garden, London, WC2H 9JQ, UNITED KINGDOM
Company number: 17292650
Email: info@steadystart.co.uk
Telephone: 07534 978605
Website: www.steadystart.co.uk