Human Resources Privacy Notice - Candidate

New Forest District Council is committed to protecting and respecting your privacy. For the purpose of the 2018 General Data Protection Regulation, the data controller is New Forest District Council, Appletree Court, Beaulieu Road, Lyndhurst, SO43 7PA data.protection@nfdc.gov.uk

As part of any recruitment process, Human Resources collect and processes personal data relating to job applicants. We are committed to being transparent about how it collects and uses that data and to meeting its data protection obligations.

This Privacy Notice aims to explain:

The different kinds of personal data we process
How we use your data
How we store your data
Why we process your data
When and why we share your information
What are the legal grounds for processing your information

What kind of personal data do we process?

We collect a range of information about you. This includes:

Your name, address and contact details, including email address and telephone number
Details of your qualifications, skills, experience and employment history
Information about your current level of remuneration, including other benefit entitlements (if provided)
Whether or not you have a disability for which the organisation needs to make reasonable adjustments during the recruitment process
Information about your entitlement to work in the UK
Equal opportunities monitoring information, including information about your ethnic origin, sexual orientation, health and religion or belief

We will collect this information in a variety of ways, predominately through your completed application form, CV (if submitted), obtained from your passport or other identity documents, or collected through interviews or other forms of assess of assessment (including online testing - if this is part of the recruitment campaign).

You are required to provide an original identity document at your interview so that your entitlement to work in the UK can be verified.

We will seek information from third parties only once a job offer to you has been made and will inform you that it is doing so.

Data will be stored in a range of different places, including on your application record, in HR management systems and on other IT systems (including email).

How we use your personal data?

NFDC needs to process data to take steps at your request prior to entering into a contract with you. It may also need to process your data to enter into a contract with you.

In some cases, the organisation needs to process data to ensure that it is complying with its legal obligations. For example, it is required to check a successful applicant's eligibility to work in the UK before employment starts.

NFDC has a legitimate interest in processing personal data during the recruitment process and for keeping records of the process. Processing data from job applicants allows the organisation to manage the recruitment process, access and confirm a candidates suitability for employment and decide to whom to offer a job. The organisation may also need to process data from job applicants to respond to and defend against legal claims.

NFDC may process information about whether or not applicants are disabled to make reasonable adjustments for candidates who have a disability. This is to carry out its obligations and exercise specific rights in relation to employment.

Where NFDC processes other special categories of data, such as information about ethnic origin, sexual orientation, health or religion or belief, this is for equal opportunities monitoring purposes.

For some roles, NFDC is obliged to seek information about criminal convictions and offences. Where the organisation seeks this information, it does so because it is necessary for its obligations and exercise specific rights in relation to employment

NFDC will not use your data for any purpose other than the recruitment exercise for which you have applied.

Who has access to data?

Your information will be shared internally for the purposes of the recruitment exercise. This includes members of the HR Admin Team, interviewers involved in the recruitment process and IT staff if access to the data is necessary for the performance of their roles.

The Council uses a recruitment platform to process data in relation to recruitment campaigns. The Recruitment Portal are the data processor.

NFDC will not transfer your data outside of the European Economic Area.

How long will we keep your information?

If your application for employment is unsuccessful, the organisation will hold your data from your application form on file for 1 year after the end of the relevant recruitment process.

If your application for employment is unsuccessful following an interview, any information collected at the interview, for example interview notes, will be kept for 6 months from the end of the recruitment process.

If your application for employment is successful, personal data gathered during the recruitment process will be transferred to your personal file and retained during your employment. The periods for which your data will be held will be provided in a new privacy notice.

How do we protect your data?

NFDC takes security of your data seriously. All information provided is stored on our secure servers as managed by the IT Department. We have internal policies and controls in place to try to ensure that your data is not lost, accidentally destroyed, misused or disclosed, and is not accessed except by its employees in the performance of their duties.

Where the organisation engages third parties in regards to personal data, the WCN platform, they do so on the basis of written instructions, are under a duty of confidentiality and they are obliged to implement appropriate technical and organisation measures to ensure the security of data.

What are the legal grounds for processing your information

Where it is necessary for the performance of a contract
Where it is in the public interest to do so;
With your consent
In order to comply with a legal obligation;
Where it is in the legitimate interest of NFDC to do so;
With your explicit consent or where there is a substantial public interest in relation to special categories data

Your rights:

As a data subject, you have a number of rights. You can:

access and obtain a copy of your data on request;
require the organisation to change incorrect or incomplete data;
require the organisation to delete or stop processing your data, for example where the data is no longer necessary for the purposes of processing; and
object to the processing of your data where the organisation is relying on its legitimate interests as the legal ground for processing.

Further information

For further information, plus information on access, portability, withdrawal of consent, correction etc. please see:

Information Rights Policy (PDF) [237KB]

We work hard to ensure that we only gather information that we need to process your enquiry and deliver the services that you are entitled to in the best way possible. However, if you have any concerns relating to this or your Privacy in general, please speak to a member of the HR team or email our Data Protection Officer on data.protection@nfdc.gov.uk

If you believe that the organisation has not complied with your data protection rights, you can complain to the Information Commissioner.

Information Commissioner - https://ico.org.uk/
Telephone helpline - 0303 123 1113
Email - casework@ico.org.uk