Last updated: 27 October 2026
This policy explains how Driving Lessons MCR uses your personal information when you visit our website, contact us, book lessons or learn to drive with us. We have written it in plain English. If anything is unclear, email drivinglessonsmcr@gmail.com or call 07555 666 989.
The short version
- We collect what we need to answer your enquiry, arrange and teach your lessons, take payment and keep the records we must keep.
- We share your details with your instructor so they can teach you, and with the service providers that help us run the business. We do not sell your data.
- We keep your data only as long as we need it (see the table below).
- You can ask to see, correct or delete your data, and you can complain to us or to the ICO.
1. Who we are
The data controller is Driving Lessons MCR, Bartle House, 2 Oxford Ct, Manchester M2 3WQ. You can contact us at drivinglessonsmcr@gmail.com or on 07555 666 989. We are responsible for deciding how and why your personal information is used, under the UK General Data Protection Regulation (UK GDPR) and the Data Protection Act 2018.
Our instructors are self-employed. When your instructor uses your details to arrange and give your lessons, they must follow the same rules.
2. What we collect, why, and our lawful basis
The law says we must have a “lawful basis” for using your information. This table shows what we use, why, and which basis applies.
| What we collect | Why we use it | Our lawful basis |
|---|---|---|
| Enquiries (contact form, phone, WhatsApp, email): your name, phone number, email address, the course you are interested in, and your message. | To reply to you and help you choose a course. | Taking steps at your request before a contract (Article 6(1)(b)); our legitimate interests in answering enquiries (Article 6(1)(f)). |
| Booking (booking form, phone, WhatsApp, email): first and last name, email, phone number, full address and postcode, preferred days (weekdays or weekends), manual or automatic, number of hours, and any notes you add. | To set up your package, match you with an instructor near you, arrange pick-up and drop-off, and confirm your booking in writing. | Performing our contract with you (Article 6(1)(b)). |
| Your lessons: dates and times, hours taken and remaining, cancellations and no-shows, your instructor, a note of your progress, and a note that your provisional licence has been checked. | To deliver lessons, keep an accurate record of hours, tell you how you are progressing and apply our Terms & Conditions correctly. | Performing our contract (Article 6(1)(b)); our legitimate interests in keeping accurate lesson records (Article 6(1)(f)). |
| Payments: the amount, date, method and reference of what you pay and any refunds. Please do not send us card details by email, text or WhatsApp. | To take payment, send receipts, process refunds and keep our accounts. | Performing our contract (Article 6(1)(b)); legal obligation to keep accounting records (Article 6(1)(c)). |
| Health and eyesight information you choose to tell us, such as a medical condition, medication, a disability or an eyesight issue that could affect your driving or what help you need. | To keep you and others safe and to adapt your lessons. | Your explicit consent (Article 9(2)(a), together with Article 6(1)(b)). You can withdraw consent at any time, but we may not be able to teach you safely without relevant information. |
| Complaints, disputes and legal claims: what you tell us and what we reply. | To investigate and respond, and to protect our legal position. | Our legitimate interests (Article 6(1)(f)); legal claims. |
| Website usage: pages visited, device and browser type, approximate location and similar technical data (see “Cookies” below). | To keep the website working and secure, and to understand which pages are useful so we can improve it. | Our legitimate interests (Article 6(1)(f)); where the law requires consent for a cookie, your consent (Article 6(1)(a)). |
| Applications from people who want to become instructors (sent by email): the details and documents you choose to send us. | To assess your application and contact you. | Taking steps at your request before a contract (Article 6(1)(b)); our legitimate interests (Article 6(1)(f)). |
| Marketing: your name and contact details. | We only send you marketing if you have agreed to it or the law otherwise allows it. You can opt out at any time. | Your consent (Article 6(1)(a)) or, where the law allows, our legitimate interests (Article 6(1)(f)). |
Where we rely on legitimate interests, we have considered whether they are outweighed by your rights and we do not use them where they would be. You can ask us about this at any time.
If you give us someone else’s details (for example, a family member booking for a learner), please make sure they know you are doing so and have seen this policy.
3. Where your information comes from
- From you, through our website forms, phone calls, WhatsApp, email, text messages and in person.
- From your instructor, who records lessons and progress.
- From our website and its plugins (technical data, see “Cookies”).
- Public Google reviews, if you have left one (see “Reviews” below).
4. Who we share your information with
We do not sell your personal data. We share it only where we need to:
- Your instructor gets the details they need to teach you, such as your name, phone number, pick-up address, transmission type, lesson times and any safety-related notes. We ask instructors to keep your details confidential and use them only for your lessons.
- Service providers that help us run the business, acting on our instructions: our website hosting provider; the WordPress plugins that run our forms, reviews widget, WhatsApp chat button and site statistics (see “Cookies”); our email provider (Gmail, Google) which receives your enquiries and booking emails; and any accountant or bookkeeper and card-payment provider we use.
- WhatsApp. If you click our WhatsApp button or message 07555 666 989, your message is handled by WhatsApp (Meta) under its own privacy policy.
- DVSA, the police, courts and regulators if the law requires it, or if there is a complaint or concern about conduct that we must report.
- Professional advisers (such as solicitors and insurers) where needed.
- A buyer or successor if our business is ever sold, subject to the same protections.
Some of these providers are based outside the UK (for example in the United States). Where that happens we rely on UK adequacy regulations or approved safeguards such as the ICO’s International Data Transfer Agreement or Addendum.
5. Cookies and similar technologies
Cookies are small files placed on your device. Similar technologies, such as local storage, work in the same way. This is what our website uses:
| Type | What it is for |
|---|---|
| Essential | Making the site and forms work, remembering your choices on a page, and security and spam protection on forms. These do not need your consent. |
| Statistics | We use Jetpack Stats (Automattic) to count visits and see which pages are read. We use this to improve the website. Google Analytics is not currently switched on on our website. If we switch it on, we will update this policy. We may also use Google Search Console, which gives us anonymous information about searches that lead to our site and does not place anything on your device. |
| Reviews | Our Google reviews are shown on the website using the Trustindex plugin. Loading the widget sends your IP address and browser details to Trustindex and to Google, which may set its own cookies. |
| Fonts and design | The website loads fonts from Google Fonts, which means your IP address is sent to Google when a page loads. |
| Chat and social links | The WhatsApp chat button (Chaty) opens a chat with us on WhatsApp. Links and any embedded feeds for Instagram, TikTok and Facebook are provided by those companies, which have their own privacy policies and may set cookies when you use them. |
| Pop-ups | If a pop-up appears, our pop-up plugin may remember that you have closed it, so you are not shown it repeatedly. |
Where the law requires your consent before we set a cookie that is not strictly necessary, we will ask for it first. You can also block or delete cookies in your browser settings, but parts of the website may then not work as expected.
6. Reviews
We show public Google reviews on our website using Trustindex. Reviewers’ names, photos and comments are published by Google. If you want a review removed from our site, contact us or change it on Google.
7. How long we keep your information
| Information | How long |
|---|---|
| Enquiries that do not lead to a booking | Up to 12 months after our last contact with you |
| Booking, lesson and payment records | For the length of your package and then up to 6 years after the end of the financial year in which your last lesson or payment took place (to meet accounting and tax requirements and to deal with any claims) |
| Health and eyesight information you gave us | For as long as you are learning with us, and deleted or anonymised once your lessons end unless we need it for a safety, legal or insurance reason |
| Complaints and disputes | Up to 6 years after the matter is closed |
| Instructor applications | Up to 6 months if unsuccessful; if you join us, your records are kept under your instructor agreement |
| Marketing details | Until you opt out or withdraw consent |
| Website statistics | In aggregated form, for as long as the provider’s settings keep them |
When the time is up, we delete or anonymise your information securely.
8. Keeping your information safe
We use appropriate technical and organisational measures to protect your information, for example password-protected accounts and limiting who can see your details. No system is completely secure, so please do not send card numbers or passwords by email or message. If there is a breach that is likely to risk your rights and freedoms we will tell you and the ICO as the law requires.
9. Your rights
Under UK data protection law you have the right to:
- be informed about how we use your data (this policy);
- access the personal data we hold about you;
- correct information that is wrong or incomplete;
- ask us to erase your data in some circumstances;
- ask us to restrict how we use your data in some circumstances;
- data portability: receive the data you gave us in a common format, where we use it under a contract or with your consent;
- object to us using your data based on our legitimate interests, and to direct marketing at any time;
- withdraw consent at any time where we rely on it (this does not affect what we did before); and
- not be subject to decisions made solely by automated means that have legal or similarly significant effects. We do not make decisions like that.
To use any of these rights, email drivinglessonsmcr@gmail.com. We will reply within one month (we may extend this by up to two further months for complex requests, and will tell you if so). There is no fee unless a request is clearly unfounded or excessive. We may need to check your identity first.
10. Complaints
If you are unhappy with how we have used your data, please tell us first at drivinglessonsmcr@gmail.com or on 07555 666 989, or write to Bartle House, 2 Oxford Ct, Manchester M2 3WQ. We aim to acknowledge your complaint within 2 working days and in any case within 30 days, look into it without undue delay, keep you informed and tell you the outcome.
You also have the right to complain to the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO), the UK data protection regulator: ico.org.uk/make-a-complaint. We would appreciate the chance to put things right first, but you do not have to contact us before the ICO.
11. Changes to this policy
We may update this policy from time to time. The latest version is always on this page with the date it was last updated. If we make an important change we will tell you in a suitable way, such as by email.
12. Contact us
Driving Lessons MCR
Bartle House, 2 Oxford Ct, Manchester M2 3WQ
Email: drivinglessonsmcr@gmail.com
Telephone / WhatsApp: 07555 666 989
Open 8am to 7pm, Monday to Sunday.
