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Privacy Notice

Privacy notice

Last updated: November 2026

This notice explains what personal information Tom Walters Equine Vets collects about you, why we collect it, who we share it with, how long we keep it and what your rights are. We have tried to keep it short and in plain English. If anything is unclear, please contact us using the details below.

1. Who we are

Tom Walters Equine Vets is the trading name of Tom Walters Equine Ltd, a company registered in England and Wales (company number 09237269). Our registered office is 20 Moorland Road, Stoke-on-Trent ST6 1DW, and our practice (trading) address is Barn 1, Somerford Business Court, Holmes Chapel Road, Somerford, CW12 4SN.

We are an ambulatory (mobile) equine veterinary practice covering Cheshire, Staffordshire and Shropshire. For the purposes of UK data protection law (the UK GDPR and the Data Protection Act 2018) we are the controller of the personal information described in this notice.

Privacy contact: Sophie Coombes, Practice Manager
Email: info@tomwaltersequine.com
Phone: 01270 660014
Post: Tom Walters Equine Ltd, Barn 1, Somerford Business Court, Holmes Chapel Road, Somerford, CW12 4SN

Information about horses is not personal data on its own, but it becomes personal data when it is linked to you as the owner or keeper, so we protect it in the same way.

2. Information we collect

About you

  • Your name, address, phone number(s) and email address.
  • Details of other people you authorise to act for your horse (for example a yard manager, groom, agent or trainer), and the yard or livery address where your horse is kept.
  • Billing details: invoices, payments, account balance and payment history.
  • Payment authorisation you give us on our registration form (for example permission to take payment from a card for unpaid fees). We do not store full card numbers on our systems – card payments are handled by our payment provider (see section 5).
  • Your insurance company and policy details, if you want us to deal with an insurance claim.
  • Records of our conversations with you – emails, WhatsApp messages, notes of phone calls, consent forms you sign and any complaints.
  • Occasionally, factual notes that help our team manage your account safely – for example about outstanding debts or any abusive behaviour towards staff. We keep these factual and do not record opinions about you.

About your horse(s)

  • Name, age, sex, breed, colour, markings, microchip number, passport (UELN) details and food-chain status (whether your horse is signed out of the human food chain).
  • Clinical history: examinations, diagnoses, treatments, medicines prescribed or supplied, vaccinations, X-rays and other images, lab results and referral reports.
  • Insurance and pre-purchase examination details, where relevant.

When you use our website

  • Anything you type into our online Register or Contact forms.
  • Basic technical information that our web host and website software record automatically, such as your IP address, browser type and the pages you visit (in server logs), and the small number of cookies described in our cookie policy.

We collect most of this information directly from you. Sometimes we receive it from other people – for example a previous vet when your horse’s records are transferred to us, a referral hospital or laboratory, your insurer, or a yard manager or agent acting for you.

3. Why we use your information and our legal basis

Data protection law says we must have a lawful basis for each way we use your information. These are ours:

To provide veterinary care and run your account (contract)

  • Registering you as a client and setting up your account.
  • Arranging and carrying out visits, examinations, treatment and emergency care.
  • Prescribing and supplying medicines.
  • Contacting you about your horse’s care, appointments, test results and invoices.
  • Invoicing you and taking payment, including payments made through our online payment page.

To meet our legal and professional duties (legal obligation)

  • Keeping clinical and medicines records required by the Veterinary Medicines Regulations, the Veterinary Medicines Directorate (VMD) and the Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons (RCVS) Code of Professional Conduct.
  • Recording treatments in horse passports and food-chain status, as the law requires.
  • Keeping accounting and tax records for HMRC.
  • Reporting notifiable diseases to the Animal and Plant Health Agency (APHA), and meeting any other legal requirement or court order.
  • Recording radiography (X-ray) work as required under radiation safety regulations.

To run our practice properly (legitimate interests)

  • Recovering unpaid fees, including passing overdue debts to a debt collection agency or solicitor.
  • Dealing with complaints, insurance claims and legal claims, and taking legal or insurance advice when needed.
  • Sharing relevant records, case by case, with a referral hospital, laboratory or another vet when this is needed for your horse’s care, or when your horse moves to another practice.
  • Keeping our IT systems and website secure, and preventing spam on our online forms.
  • Clinical audit, training and improving the quality of our service.

Where we rely on legitimate interests we have balanced our interests against yours. You can object at any time (see section 8).

Consent

We rely on your consent only in limited cases – for example if we would like to use photos or case details that could identify you or your horse in teaching material or on social media. You can withdraw your consent at any time by contacting us.

We do not send marketing. We only contact you about your horse’s care, appointments, results and invoices. We do not sell your information, and we do not use it for profiling or automated decision-making.

4. If you don’t give us your information

We need your name, contact details and your horse’s details to register you and treat your horse, and the law requires us to keep certain records. If you do not provide this information we may not be able to provide our services.

5. Who we share your information with

Your information stays within our practice team. We never sell it, and we don’t share it routinely with anyone. It is only seen by the following, and only as described:

Service providers who process data for us

These companies act as our “processors”: they may only handle your information on our instructions, under contract and with a duty of confidentiality.

  • ezOfficeSystems (ezvetpro): our client and horse records are held in ezvetpro practice management software on our own computers at the practice, not in the cloud. ezOfficeSystems can access our systems remotely to provide technical support. When they do, they are bound by confidentiality and may only use the data to support us. Our backups are kept on site, in the UK.
  • Google (Gmail): our practice email.
  • WhatsApp (Meta): if you choose to message us on WhatsApp – for example to send photos or videos of your horse. WhatsApp messages are end-to-end encrypted, but Meta processes account information such as phone numbers. If you’d rather not use WhatsApp, just phone or email us.
  • Blink Payment (Blink Payment UK Ltd): Blink handles all our card payments. When you pay an invoice online through our “Pay invoice” page, you are taken to Blink’s secure payment page; when you pay by phone, our office enters your card details into Blink’s secure virtual terminal. We do not take card payments on visits. Blink processes your card details; we receive confirmation of the payment but not your full card number, and card details are not stored on our systems.
  • Krystal Hosting Ltd: our website host, based in the UK. Information you send through our website forms passes through their servers.
  • Google reCAPTCHA: protects our website forms from spam (see our cookie policy).

When needed for your horse’s care

We share relevant information case by case, only when it’s needed for your horse’s care, and normally after discussing it with you:

  • Referral hospitals and specialist vets, if we refer your horse or ask for a second opinion.
  • Laboratories, when we send samples for testing. Usually they only receive your horse’s details and our reference number.
  • Another veterinary practice, if you move your horse to a new vet or your horse is seen by another vet. We ask for your consent before sending clinical histories that include your personal details, as the RCVS requires.
  • Your insurer, only when you ask us to help with an insurance claim.

We provide our own out-of-hours and emergency cover. Your information is not passed to an outside out-of-hours service.

Where the law requires or allows it

  • Regulators and authorities such as the RCVS, the Veterinary Medicines Directorate (VMD), the Animal and Plant Health Agency (APHA), HMRC, the police or a court, where the law requires it.
  • The Veterinary Client Mediation Service (VCMS), if you ask them to help resolve a complaint (see section 10).
  • Debt recovery and legal advice: if fees remain unpaid, or for legal or insurance claims, we may need to share the relevant information with a debt collection agency, solicitor or our professional indemnity insurer.
  • A buyer of the practice: if the practice were ever sold or merged, client records would transfer to the new owner, who would have to protect them in the same way.

6. Transfers outside the UK

Our practice records are held on our own computers in the UK, and our website is hosted in the UK. Some of our providers – Google (email and reCAPTCHA) and Meta (WhatsApp) – may process data in the United States or other countries. Where this happens we rely on the safeguards UK law allows, such as the UK–US “data bridge” for certified companies, or the UK International Data Transfer Addendum to the EU Standard Contractual Clauses built into those providers’ terms. You can contact us for more information about these safeguards.

7. How long we keep your information

We keep information only as long as we need it. As a guide:

  • Clinical and client records for your horse: 7 years after your last contact with us. The RCVS asks vets to keep records for as long as necessary, taking legal and regulatory duties into account. We have chosen 7 years because legal claims can usually be brought for up to 6 years (Limitation Act 1980), plus a year to cover late claims and follow-up care.
  • Medicines records (prescriptions, supply and administration of veterinary medicines): at least 5 years, as the Veterinary Medicines Regulations 2013 require. Horses are treated as food-producing animals under these rules. These records form part of your horse’s clinical record, so in practice they are kept for 7 years.
  • Invoices, payments and accounting records: 6 years after the end of the financial year they relate to, as required for tax purposes.
  • Emails and WhatsApp messages: relevant clinical content is saved to your horse’s record; the original messages are kept for 7 years, because they often contain clinical advice.
  • Website form submissions that do not lead to registration: 12 months.
  • Complaint records: 6 years after the complaint is closed.

After these periods, we securely delete or anonymise the information.

8. Your rights

You have the right to:

  • Access – ask for a copy of the personal information we hold about you.
  • Rectification – ask us to correct information that is wrong or incomplete.
  • Erasure – ask us to delete your information. We may not be able to delete records the law requires us to keep, such as medicines and accounting records.
  • Restriction – ask us to limit how we use your information, for example while we check a correction.
  • Objection – object to us using your information on the basis of legitimate interests.
  • Portability – ask for information you gave us in a commonly used electronic format, or for it to be sent to someone else (for example a new vet).
  • Withdraw consent – where we rely on consent, you can withdraw it at any time.

To use any of these rights, email info@tomwaltersequine.com or write to us at the address above. There is normally no charge, and we will reply within one month. We may need to check your identity first.

Moving your horse to another vet? Just tell us and we will send your horse’s clinical history to the new practice.

9. How we keep your information safe

  • Our practice records are held on password-protected computers, and only our team can access them, as their role requires.
  • Our email account and other online systems are protected by passwords, and access is limited to our team.
  • Our records are backed up regularly, and the backups are kept on site, in the UK.
  • Card payments are handled by Blink on its own secure systems, so we never store full card numbers.
  • Our website uses an encrypted (HTTPS) connection.
  • Our team, and our software supplier, are bound by confidentiality. Our vets also follow the RCVS Code of Professional Conduct.

If something goes wrong with your information, we will act quickly and tell you and the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) where the law requires.

10. Questions and complaints

If you have a question or concern about how we use your information, please contact us first at info@tomwaltersequine.com – we’d like the chance to put things 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
  • Phone: 0303 123 1113
  • Post: Information Commissioner’s Office, Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow, Cheshire SK9 5AF

For complaints about our veterinary service (rather than about your data), please see our complaints procedure. If we can’t resolve a service complaint between us, you can contact the Veterinary Client Mediation Service (VCMS), a free and independent service: vetmediation.co.uk, 0345 040 5834. If you use the VCMS, we will share the information they need to help resolve your complaint.

11. Changes to this notice

We may update this notice from time to time. The latest version will always be on this page, with the date it was last updated at the top.