Applicants information as part of recruitment exercises privacy notice
Who do you keep information about?
Applicants who are applying for work with the Council (whether as an employee, worker (agency), volunteer, work experience or contractor).
Why do you keep information about me?
We will use the personal information we collect about applicants to:
- Assess skills, qualifications, and suitability for the role.
- Carry out background and reference checks, where applicable.
- Communicate with applicant / candidate about the recruitment process.
- Keep records related to the Councils recruitment processes.
- Comply with legal or regulatory requirements.
- Access funding from third parties for example Apprentices
Having received an application form / expression of interest or similar document, the Council will then process that information to decide whether the candidate meets the basic requirements to be shortlisted for the role.
If shortlisted, the Council will invite applicant for an interview / meeting using the information that is provided by the applicant. References will be sought based on the information provided to clarify and confirm qualifications, undertake Employer’s Right to Work checks, medical clearance and carry out a criminal record check, professional body registration and other disclosure checks if applicable, before confirming appointment and offer of employment.
We also use special categories of personal data for meaningful equal opportunities monitoring and reporting, to asses an individual’s capacity to undertake the role applied for and for any appropriate adjustments during the recruitment process, for example, whether adjustments need to be made during an interview or whether there are any medical conditions and / or health and sickness records that are relevant to the contract of employment.
The legal conditions we are relying upon to process your personal data are set out in Article 6 and Article 9 of the General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR). They are ‘Processing is necessary for the performance of a contract with the data subject or to take steps to enter into a contract’, ‘processing is necessary for the purposes of preventive or occupational medicine, for the assessment of the working capacity of the employee…’ and ‘processing is necessary for carrying out obligations under employment, social security or social protection law, or a collective agreement’. As such, we will not ask for your ‘consent’ to process your personal data. Failure to provide any of the information requested may result in us being unable to consider your application.
Who can see my information?
Access is restricted to the relevant authorised managers, officers and third party organisations who have been authorised to process personal and special categories of personal data relating to stages leading to the offer of employment.
Third parties include: Disclosure and Barring Service via North East Regional Employers Organisation (NEREO), North East Jobs via NEREO Disclosure Scotland and reference providers / former employers. All the Councils third-party service providers and other entities in the group are required to take appropriate security measures to protect your personal information in line with our policies. We do not allow our third-party service providers to use your personal data for their own purposes. We only permit them to process your personal data for specified purposes and in accordance with the Councils instructions.
How do you store the information you keep about me?
Pre-employment screening including baseline health surveillance and any associated Occupational Health information will be held on paper medical files and electronic medical case files. Applicant information will be stored on recruitment module of HR database then transferred to HR module once employment contract in place, spreadsheets and word documents and encrypted and passworded letters and emails.
How long do you keep information about me?
Personal information will be retained for a period of 12 months after we have communicated to you our decision about whether to appoint you to role. 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. After this period, we will securely destroy your personal information in accordance with the Council’s records management and retention policy.
On successful appointment the applicant’s personal information is transferred to be employee status and information is then retained and processed in accordance with HR privacy notice conditions.
How did the Council get my personal data?
Personal information about applicant can be obtained from the following sources:
- Disclosure Scotland checks
- Disclosure and Barring Service in respect of criminal convictions.
- Named referees, from whom we collect the following categories of data: - previous employment information, sickness absence history for the previous 2 years and information regarding disciplinary proceedings.
- Former Employers
- Health professionals in relation to your fitness to conduct the proposed contract of employment
In cases where your personal data was obtained from a source other than yourself or your representative, we will inform you of the origin of the information within 1 month, unless that information is being used to contact you, in which case, that information should be provided to you at the latest, upon first communication with you. However, it is not necessary to provide that information in cases where you already possess the information, where recording or disclosure is expressly laid down in law or where provision of the information proves impossible or would involve disproportionate effort.
What sort of information do you keep?
We may use the following information about you to make sure that we provide the right service, advice or support.
In particular we will use;
Personal data:
- Name
- Identification number
- Location data
- One or more factors specific to the physical identity of a natural person
- One or more factors specific to the physiological identity of a natural person
- One or more factors specific to the genetic identity of a person
- One or more factors specific to the mental identity of a person
- One or more factors specific to the economic identity of a person
- One or more factors specific to the cultural identity of a person
- One or more factors specific to the social identity of a person
Special Categories of Personal Data:
- Racial or ethnic origin
- Religious or philosophical beliefs
- Data concerning health
- Data concerning a natural person’s sex life or sexual orientation
Personal data relating to criminal convictions and offences
- Personal data relating to criminal convictions and offences