Legal

Directors’ Advice Terms and Conditions

How the Directors’ Advisory Service operates

The Directors’ Advisory Service is confidential and exclusive to you as a full IoD member. It offers brief advice rather than lengthy consultations. Issues are usually dealt with in one session. Occasionally, your query may need more than one session and you may need to book another appointment, which will be with the next available adviser.

Scope and boundaries

The Directors’ Advisory Service is available to current UK and direct-paying overseas full Members of the Institute of Directors whose subscriptions are fully paid at the date they use the service. The service is not available to holders of Associate membership.

Advice will only be given to you and not to a member of your staff or family.
Advice is only available on the running of your business or your employment and not on personal issues, for family, friends or clients.

If you are a consultant or professional adviser, we do not give advice for you to pass on to your clients.
The service offers advice according to English Law. Advice on Scottish law and the law of Northern Ireland is offered by Law Express, the provider of the IoD legal helpline.

Advice is given verbally only and not in writing.

The service does not give advice on litigation, investment, pensions, import / export, Consumer Credit Act, very specialised areas, nor on any personal matters.

The service cannot act for you or represent you. NB: the IoD does not recommend any firms.

These terms and conditions shall govern your use of the IoD’s Information and Advisory Service (IAS), including the Directors’ Advisory Service. Additional terms and conditions may also apply to other services provided by the IoD and these will be explained or made available to you if you use these services. By using or accessing the IoD’s IAS you will be deemed to have accepted these terms in full.

If you do not agree with these terms and conditions, please refrain from using the IAS service.

Without prejudice to the IoD’s rights under these terms and conditions, if a member is in breach of the terms and conditions in any way, or if the IoD reasonably suspects that the member has breached these terms and conditions in any way, the IoD may:

  • Send the member one or more formal warnings;
  • Temporarily suspend the member’s access to the IAS service;
  • Permanently prohibit the member from access to and use of the IAS service;
  • Commence legal action against the member for breach of contract.

Appointments

Advice is given by appointment only, subject to availability of a relevant adviser. Please see the list of current advisers.
Up to four appointments per membership year may be taken and they must be booked in advance.
Currently all appointments are delivered by phone call. Telephone calls last 30 minutes.

Paperwork

If paperwork is involved, we can review up to 10 pages, although members’ own Directors’ Service Agreements can be reviewed in full.

Advisers will require reading time, assuming the space is available, in which case it may be necessary to count the appointment as two advisory sessions.

Any paperwork must be in your possession at the time of booking and forwarded to us by email to reach us by 3pm the day before the session at the latest.

Appointments cancelled due to paperwork not being received will be counted as one of your sessions.

The service cannot draft or redraft documents.

Data Protection

GDPR is a regulation that applies to all EU countries, and has been incorporated in UK law as the Data Protection Act. In order to comply with the DPA, it is essential that data anonymization or password protection is applied to all emails and documentation containing personal data. Where a third party’s personal data is referred to in documentation, this must be redacted or anonymized. Email should also be encrypted to protect the content from being read by other entities than the intended recipients.

Cancellations and late arrivals

Unless more than one full working days’ notice has been given, late cancellations or unkept appointments will be counted as one session.

If you call or arrive late for an appointed session, this will reduce your allocated time limit, rather than allow your session to overrun and delay the adviser’s next appointment.

If the IoD has to cancel or change an appointment, due to an adviser being unwell, you will always be notified as soon as possible and an alternative session will be arranged for you.

Longer-term assistance

When longer-term assistance is necessary some of the advisers are prepared to take on fee-paying assignments for members.

The IoD does not recommend particular firms or the use of the private services of its own advisers in preference to outside consultants, but it has no objection to the use of its advisers by members who prefer continuity.

Conflict of interest

In cases when more than one member seeks advice on the same matter, the IoD may not be able to offer advice, due to potential conflict of interest.

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