Last updated: May 2026
SWL Rope Lifting & Testing Ltd (“we”, “us”, “our”) is committed to protecting and respecting your privacy. This policy explains how we collect, use and safeguard your personal data when you visit our website at https://swl.org.uk, get in touch with us, or use our services.
This policy is issued on behalf of SWL Rope Lifting & Testing Ltd. We are the controller of your personal data and are responsible for it under the UK General Data Protection Regulation (UK GDPR) and the Data Protection Act 2018.
1. Who We Are
SWL Rope Lifting & Testing Ltd
Unit 4 Monza House
Third Avenue
Millbrook
Southampton
Hampshire
SO15 0LD
United Kingdom
Email: sales@swl.org.uk
Phone: 02380 338 286
2. The Personal Data We Collect
We may collect, use, store and transfer different kinds of personal data about you, which we have grouped together as follows:
- Identity data – first name, last name, job title, company name.
- Contact data – email address, telephone numbers, business or delivery address.
- Enquiry data – details of products, services, hire requirements, training requests or feedback you submit through our website forms or by phone or email.
- Transaction data – details about payments, products and services we have provided to you, and quotes or orders we have produced for you.
- Technical data – IP address, browser type and version, time zone setting, operating system, device type, and other technology on the devices you use to access our website.
- Usage data – information about how you use our website, including pages visited, time spent and links clicked.
- Marketing data – your preferences in receiving marketing from us.
3. How We Collect Your Personal Data
We use different methods to collect data from and about you, including:
- Direct interactions – when you fill in a form on our website, request a quote, place an order, sign up for training, or contact us by phone, email, or post.
- Automated technologies – as you interact with our website, we may automatically collect technical data about your equipment, browsing actions and patterns. We collect this through cookies and similar technologies. See our Cookie Policy for details.
- Third parties or publicly available sources – we may receive personal data about you from analytics providers (such as Google), advertising networks, search information providers, or business directories.
4. How We Use Your Personal Data
We will only use your personal data when the law allows us to. Most commonly, we will use your personal data in the following circumstances:
- To respond to your enquiry or request a quotation.
- To provide you with the products, services, hire equipment, inspections, testing or training you have requested.
- To manage our relationship with you, including notifying you about changes to our terms or policies.
- To meet legal, regulatory and certification obligations, for example, retaining inspection and testing records under LOLER 1998 and PUWER 1998 requirements.
- To improve our website, services and customer experience.
- To send you marketing communications you have consented to receive, or which we believe may be of legitimate interest to you as a business contact.
- To prevent fraud and ensure the security of our website.
5. Lawful Basis For Processing
Under the UK GDPR, we rely on the following lawful bases to process your personal data:
- Contract – where processing is necessary to perform a contract with you or take steps at your request before entering into a contract.
- Legitimate interests – where processing is necessary for our legitimate business interests (such as responding to enquiries, improving our services, or protecting our business), provided your rights do not override these interests.
- Consent – where you have given us clear consent to process your data for a specific purpose, such as receiving marketing emails or non-essential cookies.
- Legal obligation – where processing is necessary to comply with a legal or regulatory requirement, including health and safety, accounting, and engineering certification obligations.
6. Disclosures of Your Personal Data
We may share your personal data with the following categories of recipients:
- Service providers – including IT, hosting, email, CRM and payment service providers acting as processors on our behalf.
- Group companies – other companies within the SWL Group (including Lloyds Beal Ltd, Lloyds Ship Safety Services Ltd, SWL NDT Ltd, and SWP Compressed Air Services Ltd) where this is necessary to deliver a product or service you have requested.
- Professional advisers – including accountants, auditors, lawyers and insurers.
- Regulators and authorities – including HMRC, the Health and Safety Executive (HSE), the Maritime and Coastguard Agency (MCA), and other authorities where required by law.
- Certification bodies – including LEEA, BSI, DNV, Lloyds Register, RINA and other accreditation or certification organisations relevant to the work we carry out.
We require all third parties to respect the security of your personal data and to treat it in accordance with the law. We do not allow our service providers to use your personal data for their own purposes.
7. International Transfers
Most of our service providers are based in the United Kingdom or the European Economic Area (EEA). Where we transfer personal data outside the UK, we ensure appropriate safeguards are in place, for example, by using providers in countries the UK has deemed to provide an adequate level of protection, or by using approved standard contractual clauses.
8. Data Security
We have put in place appropriate security measures to prevent your personal data from being accidentally lost, used or accessed in an unauthorised way, altered or disclosed. We limit access to your personal data to those employees, agents, contractors and other third parties who have a business need to know.
We have procedures in place to deal with any suspected personal data breach and will notify you and the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) where we are legally required to do so.
9. Data Retention
We will only retain your personal data for as long as reasonably necessary to fulfil the purposes we collected it for, including to satisfy any legal, regulatory, tax, accounting or reporting requirements.
To determine the appropriate retention period, we consider the amount, nature and sensitivity of the personal data, the potential risk of harm from unauthorised use or disclosure, the purposes for which we process the data, and applicable legal requirements.
Inspection and testing records, certificates and related documentation may be retained for longer periods to comply with engineering, health and safety, and contractual record-keeping obligations.
10. Your Legal Rights
Under the UK GDPR, you have the following rights in relation to your personal data:
- Right of access – to request a copy of the personal data we hold about you.
- Right to rectification – to request correction of any incomplete or inaccurate data.
- Right to erasure – to request deletion of your personal data where there is no good reason for us to continue processing it.
- Right to restrict processing – to ask us to suspend the processing of your data in certain circumstances.
- Right to data portability – to receive a copy of your data in a structured, commonly used and machine-readable format.
- Right to object – to object to the processing of your data where we are relying on a legitimate interest, or for direct marketing purposes.
- Right to withdraw consent – where we are processing your data on the basis of your consent, you may withdraw that consent at any time.
To exercise any of these rights, please contact us using the details in section 1. You will not have to pay a fee, and we will respond within one month.
11. Marketing Communications
We may use your contact data to send you information about our services, news, or events that we believe will be of interest to you. You can ask us to stop sending marketing communications at any time by clicking the unsubscribe link in any email we send, or by contacting us directly.
12. Cookies
Our website uses cookies and similar technologies. For full details, please see our Cookie Policy.
13. Third-Party Links
Our website may include links to third-party websites, plug-ins and applications. Clicking on those links may allow third parties to collect or share data about you. We do not control these third-party websites and are not responsible for their privacy statements. We encourage you to read the privacy policy of every website you visit.
14. Changes To This Policy
We may update this privacy policy from time to time. Any changes will be posted on this page with an updated revision date. We encourage you to review this policy periodically.
15. Complaints
If you are unhappy with how we have handled your personal data, please contact us first so we can try to resolve the issue. You also have the right to lodge a complaint with the UK supervisory authority, the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO), at ico.org.uk.