Providing assurance on how we work and our commitment to a better future

Our approach to corporate responsibility (CR) starts with a simple premise: responsible, diverse and inclusive businesses are more successful. Being responsible helps us to attract, develop and retain the talented people we need to succeed, to better understand and help our customers and build public trust.

For more information please email hello@knightsmpr.com

We conduct our business in such a way as to prevent pollution, to minimise as far as is appropriate the adverse impact on the environment of our activities, to continually improve our performance against targets associated with significant environmental aspects, and to comply with all applicable environmental legislation.

In its role as a professional services company, Knights Media & Public Relations [Knights MPR] has identified the following as significant environmental aspects which have an impact on the environment: energy consumption, emissions to air, use of resources, waste to landfill, the environmental impacts of suppliers, design and development of marketing solutions for customers.

We undertake to minimise our environmental impact and to work in a more sustainable way.

WE COMMIT TO:
• Continually improve our environmental performance and to work to prevent pollution and improve resilience.
• Set and review environmental objectives and targets, assign environmental responsibilities and communicate these to everyone working for, or on our, behalf.
• We are constantly referencing best in practice Environmental Management Systems, based on an BS EN ISO guidance, to manage our environmental risk and to ensure legal and best practice compliance.
• Fulfil all compliance obligations appropriate to our activities.
• Promote a forward thinking, environmentally aware organisation.

WE AIM TO IMPROVE OUR ENVIRONMENTAL PERFORMANCE BY:
• Ensuring efficient use of energy and water by keeping abreast of industry developments, continuously improving working practices, benchmarking and maintaining existing equipment.
• Continuing to monitor our gas, electricity, water and waste usage.
• Minimising our waste and complying with waste regulations, directives and best practice (including the waste hierarchy process).
• Continuing to recycle paper where feasible and to ensure recycled paper sources are used for printing along with environmentally friendly printing inks.
• Developing a procurement strategy that ensures environmental impact, especially of materials and products, is considered as part of any procurement process.
• Updating and extending our commitment to sustainability in our everyday activity.
• Extending our approach to “Green Travel” and to include exploring an increase in use of electric vehicles and ensuring efficient business transport.
• Increasing staff awareness of our approach through training, internal communications and by developing a collective approach to sustainability.
• Sharing our experiences and knowledge with other organisations.

This policy is reviewed on an annual basis, ensuring compliance with statutory requirements and organisational priorities.

01 February 2023

PURPOSE

We are committed to creating and sustaining a positive and inclusive working environment for everyone our employees and contractors. Our aim is to ensure that employees and contractors are equally valued and respected and that our organisation is representative of all members of society. We define diversity as valuing everyone as an individual – and this is reflected within our values and behaviours and our leadership habits that:

• we treat everyone well and with empathy.
• we lead with integrity and authenticity.

COMMITMENT TO EQUALITY, DIVERSITY AND INCLUSION

We believe that everyone stands to benefit when we embrace and value the diversity of thoughts, ideas and ways of working that people from different backgrounds, experiences and identities bring. It helps our employees to grow and learn, enables them to realise their potential, improves decision-making, boosts engagement and innovation, and enables us to better meet the needs of our diverse customer base of journalists, government, authorities and clients across any industry, sector and geography.

To this end, we have made the following commitments:

• To create an environment in which individual differences and the contribution of all team members are recognised and valued.
• To not tolerate any form of unacceptable behaviour, harassment, discrimination, bullying (including cyber bullying) or victimisation in any area of employment or in the provision of our services to our customers.
• To provide guidance and training to employees, contractors, trustees and associates on diversity, inclusion and equality of opportunity.
• To encourage anyone who feels they have been subject to or witnessed discrimination to raise their concerns with their manager.
• To make every person aware of their personal responsibility for implementing and promoting equal opportunities in their day-to-day dealings with people and encourage employees to treat everyone with dignity and respect.
• To regularly review all our employment practices, policies and procedures to ensure compliance with the requirements of this statement.
• To monitor the effectiveness of our commitment to diversity and inclusion and the supporting policies and procedures and share with the consultative bodies at least annually.

We require all members of our community to recognise these commitments and act in accordance with them. In addition, we will comply with all relevant legislation and good practice.

No individual will be unjustly discriminated against. This includes, but is not limited to, discrimination because of age, disability, gender reassignment, marriage and civil partnership, pregnancy and maternity, race, religion or belief, sex and sexual orientation.

DEALING WITH DISCRIMINATION

Unacceptable behaviour, harassment, discrimination, bullying (including cyber bullying) or victimisation of any individual is perceived as contradictory to our aspirations for a supportive working environment and will not be tolerated. Any allegations of such behaviour will be investigated, and ultimately disciplined, in accordance with the Dignity and Respect at Work Policy and Procedure.

RESPONSIBILITY

Our Founder and Lead Directors have overall responsibility for ensuring that we operate within a framework of equality of opportunity, and have overall management responsibility throughout the organisation.

All employees have a duty to support and uphold the principles of our commitment to equality, diversity and inclusion and its supporting policies and procedures.

Responsibility for the review of this statement lies with the Founder. This statement will be reviewed regularly and if necessary, revised in the light of legislative or organisational changes. It will be made available to the public through the Knights MPR website and other means.

For further information please email hello@knightsmpr.com

The purpose of this policy is to describe Knights MPR’s commitments to comply with, and respect individuals’ rights under, Human Trafficking, Forced Labour and Child Labour laws, and your responsibilities to help Knights MPR comply with these laws.

POLICY STATEMENT

Knights MPR and its employees / contractors / advisers do not (i) tolerate, engage in or support Human Trafficking, Forced Labour or Child Labour of any kind through Knights MPR’s activities, including in its supply chain, or (ii) assist Knights MPR clients or any other party in doing so.

Knights MPR respects its employees’ / contractors’ / advisers’ rights to agree to terms and conditions of employment voluntarily without coercion, and freely terminate their employment on appropriate notice. Knights MPR may recover a portion of training or other employment / contracted costs incurred by Knights MPR from certain employees / contractors / advisers who leave within a defined period (subject to any local laws and international labour standards).

Knights MPR ensures that its employees / contractors / advisers are of legal working age for their position and complies with local laws for youth employment or student work, such as internships or apprenticeships.

ADDITIONAL OBLIGATIONS

In some countries, local laws impose additional obligations on Knights MPR regarding compliance with Human Trafficking, Forced Labour and Child Labour laws which may include, among other things, (i) implementing certain measures (e.g., compliance plans, specific clauses in agreements with third parties, annual certifications, etc.) when entering into contracts with or in support of governments; (ii) making disclosures to the government that Human Trafficking, Forced Labour and Child Labour are not occurring at Knights MPR or within Knights MPR’s supply chain; and (iii) reporting activity to the government that is inconsistent with these laws.

VIOLATIONS OF THIS POLICY AND RAISING CONCERNS

Knights MPR takes this policy very seriously and violations may lead to disciplinary action up to, and including, termination of employment. While Knights MPR retains discretion as to how to respond to any violation of this policy, any disciplinary process will be undertaken in accordance with all applicable local laws and other legal requirements. If you have a concern about any issue that you believe (or suspect) may violate any law or violate Knights MPR’s Code of Business Ethics or this or Knights MPR’s policies or any other Knights MPR policy, you have a right to speak up.

You can raise any concern, or ask for advice or support, through your line management (including, for example, your supervisor or a Knights MPR Leader) or other trusted advisors, or the CEO and Founder of Knights MPR.

01 February 2023

As professional people offering professional advice and services across the UK, throughout Europe and internationally, we exercise an adequate degree of skill and have enough information to make that advice reasonably safe to give.

To provide complete transparency for all our clients and to ensure alignment with best practice, we are covered globally by a Certificate of Employers’ Liability Insurance which includes professional indemnity cover: Zurich KCI-22-33706. Further information on the breadth of this cover can be provided by emailing hello@knightsmpr.com

INFORMATION ABOUT US

Knights Media & Public Relations, Knights MPR, and any variants are trading names of the Knights group. Knights MPR [GB] Limited (Reg. no. 12349947) is a limited company registered in England and Wales. Registered Head Office: The Workbox, 30 Ferris Town, Truro, Cornwall TR1 3JJ, UK, serving clients in Finland, Middle East, in the UK and beyond. A member of the Knights group. D&B D-U-N-S® Number: 22-555-4330.

NO RELIANCE ON INFORMATION

The content on our site is provided for general information only. It is not intended to amount to advice or serve as a substitute for any audit, advisory, tax or other professional advice, consultation or service.

Although we make reasonable efforts to update the information on our site, we make no representations, warranties or guarantees, whether express or implied, that the content on our site is accurate, complete or up-to-date.

INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY RIGHTS

We are the owner or the licensee of all intellectual property rights in our site and in the material published on our Site, including but not limited to any concepts, ideas, methods, procedures, processes, know-how, techniques, programs, publications, models, products, templates, technologies, software designs, art work, graphics and information on or described in the Site. Those works are protected by copyright laws and treaties around the world. All such rights are reserved.

Users are encouraged to print or distribute content (e.g. via link on a social network) provided that:

• The use of the content is personal and non-commercial.
• All copyright, trademark and similar notices are retained.
• The content is not used as or implies that Knights MPR is providing a testimonial or endorsement of an organisation, its products or services.

You must not modify, reproduce, publicly display, perform, distribute or use for any public or commercial purposes without explicit written permission from the appropriate content or material provider (including third-party links).

If you print off, copy or download any part of our site in breach of these terms of use, your right to use our site will cease immediately and you must, at our option, return or destroy any copies of the materials you have made.

TRADEMARKS

The Knights MPR and logo and “Shaping perceptions with integrity, intelligence and influence” are registered trademarks or trademarks of Knights MPR and other products and service names mentioned on the Site may be the registered trademarks or trademarks of Knights MPR.

Use of these marks requires express prior permission from, and a license agreement with, Knights MPR. Unauthorised use of these and any other of Knights MPR’s portfolio of trademarks is prohibited and may become subject to legal proceedings.

To request written approval, please email hello@knightsmpr.com.

OUR LIABILITY

To the extent permitted by law, we exclude all conditions, warranties, representations or other terms which may apply to our site or any content on it, whether express or implied, included but not limited to that the site will be uninterrupted, without delay, error-free, omission-free, or free of viruses.

Knights MPR, its related partners, managing directors, principals, agents or employees will not be liable to any user for any loss or damage arising under or in connection with but not limited to:

• use of, or inability to use, our site.
• or use of, or reliance on, any content displayed on our site.

Please note that we only provide our site for general, domestic and non-commercial use. You agree not to use our site for any commercial or business purposes, and we have no liability to you for any loss of profit, savings, data, sales or revenue, loss of business, business interruption or business opportunity or any indirect, incidental, special, exemplary, punitive, consequential or other loss or damage.

VIRUSES

We do not guarantee that our site will be secure or free from bugs or viruses and will not be liable for any loss or damage caused by a virus infected either through our site or third party link.

You are responsible for configuring your information technology, computer programmes and platform in order to access our site. You should use your own virus protection software.

You must not misuse our site by knowingly introducing viruses, trojans, worms, logic bombs or other material which is malicious or technologically harmful. You must not attempt to gain unauthorised access to our site, the server on which our site is stored or any server, computer or database connected to our site. You must not attack our site via a denial-of-service attack or a distributed denial-of service attack. By breaching this provision, you would commit a criminal offence under the Computer Misuse Act 1990.

LINKING TO OUR SITE

Where our site contains links to other sites and resources provided by third parties, these links are provided for your information and convenience only. We have no control over, and are not responsible for, the contents of those sites or resources.

We reserve the right to withdraw linking permission without notice.

You must not establish a link which:

• suggests any form of association, approval or endorsement on our part where none exists;
• links to our site from a website that is not owned by you;
• involves the unauthorised use of our logo; and/ or
• takes the form of a link that disguises the URL and / or bypasses the homepage or pages containing the entity copyright, legal disclaimer and online policy statement.

Last Updated 01 February 2023

Knights MPR is dedicated to protecting the confidentiality and privacy of information entrusted to us in accordance with the EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and the UK Data Protection Act 2018. Please read this Privacy Notice to learn about your rights, what information we collect, how we use and protect it.

This website is operated by Knights MPR (“Knights MPR”, “we” or “us”), a UK limited liability partnership, a member firm of the Knights network of independent member firms affiliated with Knights Group (“Knights Group”), a UK entity.

1. WHO ARE WE?

This Privacy Notice applies to Knights MPR and any future subsidiaries or partnerships.

2. WHO CAN YOU CONTACT FOR PRIVACY QUESTIONS OR CONCERNS?

If you have questions or comments about this Privacy Notice or how we handle personal data, please direct your correspondence to: Knights MPR, The Workbox, 30 Ferris Town, Truro, Cornwall TR1 3JJ, UK or email hello@knightsmpr.com We aim to respond within 30 days from the date we receive privacy-related communications.

You may contact the UK Information Commissioner’s Office at ico.org.uk/concerns/handling/ to report concerns you may have about our data handling practices.

3. HOW DO WE COLLECT PERSONAL DATA?

• Directly. We obtain personal data directly from individuals in a variety of ways, including obtaining personal data from individuals who provide us with their business card(s), complete our online forms, subscribe to our newsletters and preference centre, register for webinars, attend meetings or events we host, visit our offices or for recruitment purposes. We may also obtain personal data directly when, for example, we are establishing a business relationship, performing professional services through a contract, or through our hosted software applications.

• Indirectly. We obtain personal data indirectly about individuals from a variety of sources, including recruitment services and our clients. We may attach personal data to our customer relationship management records to better understand and serve our business clients, subscribers and individuals, satisfy a legal obligation, or pursue our legitimate interests.

o Public sources — Personal data may be obtained from public registers (such as Companies House), news articles, sanctions lists, and Internet searches.
o Social and professional networking sites — If you register or login to our websites using social media (e.g., LinkedIn, Google, or Twitter) to authenticate your identity and connect your social media login information with us, we will collect information or content needed for the registration or login that you permitted your social media provider to share with us. That information may include your name and email address and depending on your privacy settings, additional details about you, so please review the privacy controls on the applicable service to set how much information you want shared with us.
o Business clients — Our business clients may engage us to perform professional services which involves sharing personal data they control as part of that engagement. Our services may also include processing personal data under our clients’ control on our hosted software applications, which may be governed by different privacy terms, policies and notices.
o Recruitment services. We may obtain personal data about candidates from an employment agency, and other parties including former employers, and credit reference agencies.

4. WHAT CATEGORIES OF PERSONAL DATA DO WE COLLECT?

We may obtain the following categories of personal data about individuals through direct interactions with us, or from information provided through client engagements, from applicants, our suppliers and through other situations including those described in this Privacy Notice.

• Personal data. Here is a list of personal data we commonly collect to conduct our business activities:

o Contact details (e.g., name, company name, job title, work and mobile telephone numbers, work and personal email and postal address).
o Professional details (e.g., job and career history, educational background and professional memberships, published articles).
o Family and beneficiary details for insurance and pension planning services (e.g., names and dates of birth).
o Financial information (e.g., taxes, payroll, investment interests, pensions, assets, bank details, insolvency records).
o If CCTV is installed at any of our future office sites then we may collect images of visitors. Our policy is to automatically overwrite CCTV footage within 30 days.

• Sensitive personal data. We typically do not collect sensitive or special categories of personal data about individuals other than our own employees.

When we do need to process sensitive personal data from data subjects who are not our employees, it is either on the instructions of a third party, with the express consent of the individuals or as required by law. Examples of sensitive personal data we may obtain, or otherwise hold, include:

o Personal identification documents that may reveal race, religion or ethnic origin, possibly biometric data of private individuals, beneficial owners of corporate entities, or applicants.
o Expense receipts submitted for individual tax or accounting advice that reveal affiliations with trade unions or political opinions.
o Adverse information about potential or existing clients and applicants that may reveal criminal convictions or offences information.
o Information provided to us by our clients in the course of a professional engagement.
o Diversity and equal opportunity information volunteered by participants in certain Knights MPR professional empowerment programmes and recruitment processes.

• Child data. We do not intentionally collect information from individuals under 16 years of age, although we may occasionally receive details about children attending performances and other corporate or industry events we host with their parents or guardians (e.g., arena hospitality suites, industry event galas, or corporate exhibits).

• Location-based data. We may process geographical locations you enter when seeking information from us.

5. WHAT LAWFUL REASONS DO WE HAVE FOR PROCESSING PERSONAL DATA?

We may rely on the following lawful reasons when we collect and use personal data to operate our business and provide our services:

• Contract – We may process personal data in order to perform our contractual obligations owed to (or to enter into a contract with) the relevant individuals.
• Consent – We may rely on your freely given consent at the time you provided your personal data to us.
• Legitimate interests – We may rely on legitimate interests based on our evaluation that the processing is fair, reasonable and balanced. These may include:

o Delivering services to our clients – To deliver the professional services our clients have engaged us to provide.
o Direct marketing – To deliver timely market insights and speciality knowledge we believe is welcomed by our business clients, subscribers and individuals who have interacted with us.

• Legal obligations – We may process personal data in order to meet our legal and regulatory obligations or mandates.

6. WHY DO WE NEED PERSONAL DATA?

We aspire to be transparent when we collect and use personal data and tell you why we need it, which typically includes:
• Providing professional advice and delivering reports related to our expertise and other professional services. Our services may include reviewing client files for quality assurance purposes, which may involve processing personal data for the relevant client.
• Promoting our professional services, products and capabilities to existing and prospective business clients.
• Sending invitations and providing access to guests attending our events and webinars or our sponsored events.
• Personalising online landing pages and communications we think would be of interest based on interactions with us and Knights MPR member firms.
• Administering, maintaining and ensuring the security of our information systems, applications and websites.
• Authenticating registered users to certain areas of our sites.
• Seeking qualified candidates, and forwarding candidate career inquiries to our People team, which may be governed by different privacy terms and policies.
• Processing online requests, including responding to communications from individuals or requests for proposals and quotations.
• Contacting journalists regarding company press releases, invitations to annual press parties, highlighting messages that may be of interest on specific industry topics.
• Travel arrangement assistance.
• Helping support clients to run a series of development programs for education and learning purposes to inform leaders in the healthcare, civil service and other industries.
• Complying with legal and regulatory obligations relating to anti-money laundering, terrorist financing, fraud and other forms of financial crime.
• Compiling health and safety data (directly or indirectly) following an incident or accident. Indirect data can take many forms including an incident report, first aider report, witness statements and CCTV footage.

7. DO WE SHARE PERSONAL DATA WITH THIRD PARTIES?

We may occasionally share personal data with trusted third parties to help us deliver efficient and quality services. These recipients are contractually bound to safeguard the data we entrust to them. We may engage with several or all of the following categories of recipients:

• Knights MPR member or partner firms, where necessary for administrative purposes and to provide professional services to our clients (e.g., when providing services involving advice from Knights MPR member firms in different territories).
• Parties that support us as we provide our services (e.g., providers of telecommunication systems, mailroom support, IT system support, archiving services, document production services and cloud-based software services).
• Our professional advisers.
• A potential buyer, transferee, merger partner or seller and their advisers in connection with an actual or potential transfer or merger of part or all of our business or assets, or any associated rights or interests, or to acquire a business or enter into a merger with it.
• Payment services providers.
• Marketing services providers.
• Law enforcement or other government and regulatory agencies (e.g., HMRC) or to other third parties as required by, and in accordance with, applicable law or regulation.
• Recruitment services providers.

8. DO WE TRANSFER YOUR PERSONAL DATA OUTSIDE THE EUROPEAN ECONOMIC AREA?

We store personal data on devices located in the European Economic Area (EEA). We may transfer personal data to Knights MPR or member firms, and reputable third party organisations situated inside or outside the EEA when we have a business reason to engage these organisations. Each organisation is required to safeguard personal data in accordance with our contractual obligations and data protection legislation.

9. DO WE USE COOKIES?

Our websites may use cookies. Where cookies are used, a statement will be sent to your browser explaining the use of cookies.

10. WHAT ARE YOUR DATA PROTECTION RIGHTS?

• Access – You can ask us to verify whether we are processing personal data about you, and if so, to provide more specific information.
• Correction – You can ask us to correct our records if you believe they contain incorrect or incomplete information about you.
• Erasure – You can ask us to erase (delete) your personal data after you withdraw your consent to processing or when we no longer need it for the purpose it was originally collected.
• Processing restrictions – You can ask us to temporarily restrict our processing of your personal data if you contest the accuracy of your personal data, prefer to restrict its use rather than having us erase it, or need us to preserve it for you to establish, exercise, or defend a legal claim. A temporary restriction may apply while verifying whether we have overriding legitimate grounds to process it. You can ask us to inform you before we lift that temporary processing restriction.
• Data portability – In some circumstances, where you have provided personal data to us, you can ask us to transmit that personal data (in a structured, commonly used, and machine-readable format) directly to another company if is technically feasible.
• Automated Individual Decision-making – You can ask us to review any decisions made about you which we made solely based on automated processing, including profiling, that produced legal effects concerning you or similarly significantly affected you.
• Right to Object to Direct Marketing including Profiling – You can object to our use of your personal data for direct marketing purposes, including profiling. We may need to keep some minimal information to comply with your request to cease marketing to you.
• Right to Withdraw Consent – You can withdraw your consent that you have previously given to one or more specified purposes to process your personal data. This will not affect the lawfulness of any processing carried out before you withdraw your consent. It may mean we are not able to provide certain products or services to you and we will advise you if this is the case.

If you would like to exercise your Data Subject Rights, you can email hello@knightsmpr.com. We may need to request specific information from you to help us confirm your identity and ensure your right to access the information or to exercise any of your other rights. This helps us to ensure that personal data is not disclosed to any person who has no right to receive it. No fee is required to make a request unless your request is clearly unfounded or excessive. Depending on the circumstances, we may be unable to comply with your request based on other lawful grounds.

11. WHAT ABOUT PERSONAL DATA SECURITY?

We have put appropriate technical and organisational security policies and procedures in place to protect personal data (including sensitive personal data) from loss, misuse, alteration or destruction. We aim to ensure that access to your personal data is limited only to those who need to access it. Those individuals who have access to the data are required to maintain the confidentiality of such information. We may apply pseudonymisation, de-identification and anonymisation techniques in efforts to further protect personal data.

Please be aware that the transmission of data via the Internet is not completely secure. Whilst we do our best to try to protect the security of your personal data, we cannot ensure or guarantee the security of your data transmitted to our site; any transmission is at your own risk.

12. HOW LONG DO WE RETAIN PERSONAL DATA?

We retain personal data to provide our services, stay in contact with you and to comply with applicable laws, regulations and professional obligations that we are subject to. Unless a different time frame applies as a result of business need or specific legal, regulatory or contractual requirements, where we retain personal data in accordance with these purposes, we retain such personal data for seven years.

13. DO WE LINK TO OTHER WEBSITES?

Our websites may contain links to other sites, including sites maintained by other member firms that are not governed by this Privacy Notice. Please review the destination websites’ privacy notices before submitting personal data on those sites. Whilst we try to link only to sites that share our high standards and respect for privacy, we are not responsible for the content, security, or privacy practices employed by other sites.

14. DO WE CHANGE THIS PRIVACY NOTICE?

We regularly review this Privacy Notice and will post any updates to it on this webpage. This Privacy Notice was last updated 01 February 2023.

Knights MPR is one of the UK’s leading providers of professional services, including media and public relations specialisms – delivering integrated solutions to our clients’ issues.

With passion and purpose, we work shoulder-to-shoulder with you, integrating innovative approaches and deep expertise to deliver real results.

HOW DO WE STAND OUT FROM THE CROWD?

We are passionate about the strength of our brand and our vision – to be the clear choice for our clients and our people, through the benefit we bring and the results we achieve.

We want to attract the best talent, win the best mandates, do the best work for the best clients and become the professional services firm most trusted to deliver.

To do this, we work by a set of values that enable us to live out our purpose of inspiring confidence and empowering change for our colleagues and the organisations we work with.

OUR VALUES

What we believe and how we behave:

• We lead by example.
• We respect the individual.
• We work together.
• We are open and honest in our communication.
• We seek the facts and provide insight.
• We are committed to our communities.
• Above all, we act with integrity.

These values also sit at the heart of our organisation and which defines the standards of ethical conduct we require of people in Knights MPR’s member / partner firms worldwide. So, whenever you’re working with us, you’ll know we’re all on the same page.

We continue to play a positive role in shaping company and market perceptions with integrity and influence in today’s ever changing and complex environment.