What information we collect
We collect the following categories of personal information about you as part of our recruitment process:
- Name
- Contact details
- Date of birth
- Gender
- Employment history and experience
- Qualifications
- Any other information you provide to us during an interview
We may also collect, store and process the following special category data:
- Equalities data including your race or ethnicity, religious beliefs and sexual orientation
- Your health, including whether you consider yourself to have a disability
- Criminal convictions and offences
Where we collect personal information from
We collect your personal information from you via a variety of sources including:
- When you complete one of our forms
- When you call, write, email or meet with us
- When you use our social media sites and our website
- From third parties such as recruitment agencies, apprenticeship organisations, occupational health providers, and statutory organisations
Why we need personal information
We need to collect your personal information so that we can undertake our recruitment process. This includes:
- Assessing your skills, qualifications, and suitability for the work/role
- Carrying out background and reference checks, where applicable
- Communicating with you about the recruitment process
- Keeping records related to our hiring processes
- Complying with legal or regulatory requirements
- Determining whether to offer you a position
- Requesting feedback about our recruitment process
We may use special category data that you provide to us in the following ways:
- Equalities data – for equal opportunities monitoring purposes
- Health and disability status - to consider whether any reasonable adjustments are required during the recruitment process, for example whether adjustments need to be made during a test or interview or to the role applied for
- Criminal convictions and offences – to assess your suitability for the role you have applied for
If you fail to provide information which is necessary for us to consider your application (such as evidence of qualifications or work history), we will not be able to process your application successfully.
The legal basis for processing personal information
In accordance with UK Data Protection legislation, we need a legal basis for collecting and using information about you.
The legal basis for us processing your personal information as detailed in this notice are:
- Processing is necessary for the performance of a contract to which you are party or in order to take steps at your request, before entering a contract
- Processing is necessary for compliance with a legal obligation to which we are subject
The legal basis for us processing special categories of personal data detailed within this notice is that processing is necessary for carrying out our obligations and rights relating to your prospective employment with us.
Who we share personal information with
We may share your information with:
- Medical professionals, to assess your fitness to work and any reasonable adjustments that you need
- Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS)
- Named referees to obtain a reference
- Organisations who may act on our behalf in the recruitment selection process
- Any other organisation which has a legal right to it
How we protect personal information
When you give us information, we take steps to make sure that your personal information is kept safe and secure. Your personal information is stored on our paper and IT filing systems which may be copied for testing, back up, archiving and disaster recovery purposes. Access to your information is limited to those who require it to provide services to you. All data is held within the UK and EEA.
If any of your personal information is transferred outwith the European Union or the European Economic Area by any of our contractors, we will ensure that there are adequate safeguards in place to protect personal information in accordance with the General Data Protection regulations and applicable UK Data Protection Legislation.
How long we keep personal information
Your personal data will be retained for a maximum period of 6 months from the last contact with you as an applicant.
We retain your personal information for that period:
- So that we can show, in the event of a legal claim, that we have not discriminated against candidates on prohibited grounds and that we have conducted the recruitment exercise in a fair and transparent way; and
- On the basis that a further opportunity may arise in future and we may wish to bring this to your attention (in which case we may seek your expressed consent to retain your information for a little longer).
After this period, we will securely destroy your personal information in accordance with our Data Retention Policy.
