Privacy Policy

Last updated: 18 June 2026

This policy explains what Wharf Driving School does with your personal information when you enquire, book lessons or browse wharfdrivingschool.co.uk: what we hold, why we hold it, how long we keep it, and what you can ask us to do about it. We handle it under UK data protection law: the UK GDPR and the Data Protection Act 2018.

Who We Are

Wharf Driving School teaches automatic driving lessons in 51 areas of East London and the City. We are a service-area business: there is no office and no premises to visit, so your instructor travels to you. For data protection purposes we are the data controller for the information described here, and you can reach us on the phone number and email address at the bottom of this page.

Information We Collect

We collect what we need to answer your enquiry and teach you, and not much else:

• What you tell us when you get in touch (through our contact or callback form, by phone or by email): your name, phone number, email address, the service you are asking about, and anything else you choose to put in the message.
• Booking and lesson details, if you go on to book: your pick-up and drop-off points, the times you are free, your lesson history and progress notes, and your test centre and test date once you have one.
• Payment records. We take cash or bank transfer only, so we never hold a card number. Where you pay by transfer, our bank record shows your name and the reference you used. We keep a note of hours paid for and hours taken.
• Health, disability or additional-needs information, but only where you choose to tell us so that we can teach you properly: for example a condition that affects how long you can drive comfortably, or a way of explaining things that works better for you. This is special category data under data protection law, so we handle it on the basis of your explicit consent, share it only with the instructor teaching you, and delete it when you stop taking lessons.
• Technical information when you browse the site, such as your browser type and the pages you visit. Our Cookie Policy sets out exactly what is and is not set on this website.

How We Use It

• To answer your enquiry or callback request.
• To arrange, schedule and deliver your lessons or course, including agreeing where to pick you up.
• To match you with a suitable instructor and to plan lessons around anything you have told us you need.
• To take payment and keep a record of hours bought and hours used.
• To contact you about your lessons, your progress, your test or a change to an appointment.
• To look into a complaint or a safeguarding concern, and to meet our legal and regulatory obligations.

We do not sell your information, pass it to other companies for marketing, or send you marketing you have not asked for. If you do want to hear from us and later change your mind, say so and we will stop.

Legal Basis for Processing

We rely on your consent when you send us an enquiry, on the performance of a contract to deliver lessons you have booked, on our legitimate interests in running the school and keeping pupils safe, and on legal obligations such as tax and accounting. Where you tell us about a health condition or disability, we rely on your explicit consent, and you can withdraw it at any time.

Pupils Under 18

Lessons can begin on a pupil’s 17th birthday, so a fair number of the people we teach are not yet 18. Because a booking at that age has to be agreed with a parent or guardian, we usually hold that adult’s name and contact details alongside the pupil’s, and we will discuss times, pick-up points, payment and progress with them. We do not ask for anything about a pupil’s family, school or college beyond what is needed to arrange lessons. Our Safeguarding Policy explains how lessons with under-18s are handled more generally.

Who Else Sees It

Your instructor sees what they need to teach you. Beyond that, the list is short:

• Web3Forms processes our website contact forms and forwards your message to our email inbox.
• Our email provider holds the messages you send us and the replies we send you.
• Google Maps is embedded on our home and contact pages to show the area we cover. Google sets its own cookies when that map loads, under its own policies.

We will also share information with the authorities where the law requires it, or where a child or an adult at risk may be in danger. Anyone who processes data on our behalf has to keep it secure and use it only for the purpose we have agreed.

How Long We Keep It

Enquiries that do not turn into bookings: up to 24 months. Booking and payment records: up to 6 years, because tax and accounting rules require it. Notes about a health condition or additional need: deleted when you stop taking lessons.

Where we have had to record a complaint or a safeguarding concern, we keep that record for as long as we may reasonably need it, and no longer. Everything else is securely deleted once the purpose it was collected for has ended.

Your Rights

Under UK data protection law you can ask us to show you what we hold about you, correct anything wrong, delete it, restrict what we do with it, or send it to you in a portable form. You can object to processing and you can withdraw consent at any time. You will not be charged for asking, and it will not affect your lessons.

Phone or email us using the details below and we will respond within one month. If you are not happy with how we have handled it, you can complain to the Information Commissioner’s Office, the UK regulator, at ico.org.uk. Complaints about the service itself, rather than about your data, go through our Complaints & Refund Policy.

Security

We take reasonable technical and organisational steps to keep your information secure and to prevent unauthorised access, loss or misuse. Lesson notes and contact details are kept to the people who need them, and we do not leave pupil information lying in a car.

Changes to This Policy

We may update this policy from time to time. Any change appears on this page with a revised “last updated” date.