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What a UK business website legally has to have

A UK business website that collects any personal data, including through a contact form, needs a privacy notice under the UK GDPR and the Data Protection Act 2018. It needs consent before setting any non-essential cookie, under PECR. A limited company must also show its registered name, company number, registered office and place of registration. A sole trader must give a geographic address and a way to be contacted. Accessibility is legally required of public sector sites and is a reasonable adjustment duty for everyone else under the Equality Act 2010.

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This is a plain summary, not legal advice, and it covers the ordinary case of a small business site with a contact form and analytics.

A privacy notice

You need one as soon as you collect anything identifying, which a contact form does. It has to say who you are, what you collect, why, how long you keep it, who you share it with, and how somebody exercises their rights. The Information Commissioner's Office publishes a template for small organisations and it is adequate for most trades.

Cookies

Under PECR you need consent before setting any cookie that is not strictly necessary to deliver the service. Analytics counts as non-essential. In practice: a banner that lets somebody refuse, with refuse as easy to click as accept, and nothing non-essential set until they have chosen. A banner with only an accept button is not compliant and has been enforced against.

The simplest lawful arrangement for a small site is to use analytics that sets no cookies at all, in which case there is nothing to ask about and no banner to render.

Who you are

A limited company must state its registered name, its company number, its place of registration and its registered office address on the website, under the Companies Act 2006. A VAT registered business must show its VAT number. A sole trader does not have a company number but must still give a geographic address and a means of contact under the Consumer Contracts Regulations.

Accessibility

Public sector bodies are bound by the 2018 accessibility regulations and must meet WCAG 2.2 AA and publish a statement. A private business is not, but the Equality Act 2010 requires reasonable adjustments, and a site that cannot be used by somebody with a screen reader or poor eyesight is a live risk as well as lost custom. Text that meets contrast, buttons large enough to hit, and images with alternative text cover most of it.

What is not required

  • Terms and conditions, unless you are selling online or taking bookings that create a contract.
  • A cookie banner, if you set no non-essential cookies at all.
  • An accessibility statement, unless you are a public sector body.

The sites we build ship with the privacy notice, the company details and the contrast and tap target sizes already handled, because they are not optional and they should not be an upsell.

Questions we get asked

Still deciding? Have the site built and see.

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If the site collects any personal data, including through a contact form or analytics, yes. Under the UK GDPR you must tell people what you collect and why before or at the point you collect it.

Only if you set cookies that are not strictly necessary, which includes most analytics. If you use cookieless analytics you need no banner at all, which is also the better experience.

Registered name, company number, place of registration and registered office address, under the Companies Act 2006. Add the VAT number if you are registered.

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Talk us through all six.

Press record once and answer the 6 below. Take as long as you like.

  • What do you do, and who for? Example: I am a plumber. Mostly emergency callouts for homeowners, some landlords.
  • Which towns do you cover? Name the places you would actually drive to, or the postcodes you work.
  • What jobs do you want the phone to ring for? The work you want more of, and not everything you are able to do.
  • Why do people pick you over the next name on the list? Say it the way you would say it standing in somebody's kitchen.
  • What should someone do when they land on your site? Ring you, fill in a form for a quote, or send a message?
  • Anything you want it to look like? A site you like, the colour on your van, or nothing at all. Nothing at all is a fine answer.

Any order is fine. Say something twice, come back to a thing you forgot, stop to think. It all stays in one recording and we sort it out at our end.