Privacy Policy

This policy explains how we use the personal information you give us through this website. It is written in plain English, because the people reading it have usually just lost someone.

Who we are

H. W. Mason & Sons Ltd is a family-owned funeral director established around 1750, with premises in Newport Pagnell, Bletchley & Fenny Stratford and Stony Stratford. We are the data controller for the information described here.

  • H. W. Mason & Sons Ltd, registered in England & Wales, company number 06893500
  • Registered office: 40 Kimbolton Road, Bedford, Bedfordshire, MK40 2NR
  • Head office: 9 High Street, Newport Pagnell, Buckinghamshire, MK16 8AR
  • Registered with the Information Commissioner’s Office, number ZA355009

Questions about your information should go to Jane Button at our Newport Pagnell office, by post to the address above, by email to [email protected], or by telephone on 01908 611112, which is answered 24 hours a day.

What this policy covers

This policy covers the information we collect through this website.

If you go on to instruct us to arrange a funeral we hold a good deal more information, about you and about the person who has died. That is explained separately in our client privacy policy.

What we collect, and why

When you use our contact form

We ask for your name, email address and telephone number, and for your message. We use them only to read your enquiry and reply to it.

When you ask for a call back about a funeral plan

We ask for your name, email address, telephone number and postal address. We use them to contact you about pre-planned funerals. We ask for the address because funeral plans are arranged in writing and, where you would rather, in person at your home.

When you email or telephone us

We keep what you choose to tell us, so that we can help you and so that a colleague picking up an enquiry out of hours knows what has already been discussed.

Information collected automatically

This website does not use Google Analytics, advertising pixels or any other visitor tracking, and it does not set any cookies of its own. Two things happen automatically, and both are there to protect the site rather than to study you.

  • Your IP address is recorded briefly when you submit a form. This stops one source flooding us with automated submissions. It is held for about ten minutes and then deleted automatically. It is not linked to your enquiry and we never look at it.
  • A security check runs on the forms. We use Cloudflare Turnstile, which confirms a real person is submitting the form. It does not ask you to identify traffic lights or solve arithmetic, which seemed the wrong thing to ask of someone who has just been bereaved. Cloudflare receives your IP address to perform the check.

Our lawful basis for using it

  • Replying to an enquiry you sent us — our legitimate interests. You asked us to get in touch, and answering is plainly what you expect of us.
  • Arranging a funeral or a funeral plan you have instructed us on — performance of a contract with you.
  • Keeping records of funerals we have arranged — our legal obligations for accounting and tax, and the standards of the funeral trade associations we belong to.
  • Protecting this website from automated abuse — our legitimate interests in keeping the site working and our enquiry inbox usable.

Who we share it with

We do not sell your information and we do not share it for marketing. We never pass your details to anyone who would use them to approach you. Nothing you send through this website is passed to a funeral plan provider automatically.

A small number of suppliers handle information on our behalf, under contract and only on our instructions:

  • Cloudflare — delivers and protects this website, runs the form security check, and holds the short-lived record of your IP address described above.
  • Twilio SendGrid — delivers the email your form submission becomes, and the confirmation we send you.
  • Microsoft — our email. Enquiries we receive are stored in our mailboxes.
  • Google Workspace — where we store our documents and records.
  • Your Cloud Works — hosts and maintains this website, and the private server on which our record-keeping system runs.
  • Google Maps — supplies the maps on our contact page. See below.

These suppliers may process information outside the UK, including in the United States. Where they do, that transfer is covered by the safeguards UK data protection law requires, such as the UK extension to the EU–US Data Privacy Framework or standard contractual clauses.

We will also disclose information where the law requires it, for example to a coroner, a registrar or a public authority entitled to it.

Maps on our contact page

Our contact page shows a Google map for each of our three offices. When that page loads, Google receives your IP address and may set its own cookies, exactly as it would if you visited Google Maps directly. We have no control over that, and it is governed by Google’s own privacy policy. If you would rather avoid it, our full addresses and telephone numbers are written out as plain text on the same page and on each of our branch pages.

How long we keep it

  • Enquiries that do not lead to a funeral — 12 months from your last contact with us, then deleted.
  • Records of funerals we have arranged — held electronically for as long as we remain in business, because we are regularly asked about funerals we arranged many years ago. Paper copies are destroyed after 7 years.
  • The anti-abuse record of your IP address — about ten minutes, then deleted automatically.

Keeping it safe

This website is served only over an encrypted connection, so anything you type into a form is encrypted in transit. Access to our email and our records is limited to members of our team who need it for their work, and our suppliers are bound by contract to protect anything they handle for us.

Our record-keeping system runs on a dedicated private server rather than on the public internet. It cannot be reached from the web at all: each member of staff connects to it over their own encrypted private network link, and there is no public address to find or attack.

If a breach of personal data happens that is likely to present a risk to the people affected, we will report it to the Information Commissioner’s Office within 72 hours and, where the risk to you is high, tell you directly.

Your rights

Under UK data protection law you have the right to:

  • ask for a copy of the personal information we hold about you;
  • ask us to correct anything that is wrong;
  • ask us to delete information, where we have no continuing reason to keep it;
  • ask us to restrict how we use it, or object to our using it;
  • ask us to transfer it to someone else, where that applies;
  • withdraw your consent at any time, where we relied on your consent.

Please write to Jane Button at 9 High Street, Newport Pagnell, Buckinghamshire, MK16 8AR, or email [email protected]. We will respond within one month, and there is no charge.

Data protection law applies to living individuals, so it does not give rights over information about someone who has died. We treat that information with the same care regardless, and we will always do our best to help a family who asks about it.

Complaints

If you are unhappy with how we have handled your information, please tell us first so that we have the chance to put it right. You also have the right to complain to the Information Commissioner’s Office: Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow, Cheshire, SK9 5AF, telephone 0303 123 1113, or at ico.org.uk/make-a-complaint.

Changes to this policy

If we change this policy we will update the date below. Where a change materially affects how we use information you have already given us, we will tell you.

Last updated: 30 October 2026.