This recruitment privacy notice explains how we collect, use and store personal information about you in the context of applying for employment with us and our recruitment process. It explains the circumstances where we may also have to share personal information. The recruitment privacy notice will also tell you about your privacy rights and how the law protects you.
Personal information, or personal data, means any information about an individual from which that person can be identified. Anything we do with your personal information (from the point at which we collect it until we delete it from our systems) is called processing.
It's important that you read this recruitment privacy notice together with any other privacy notice or fair processing notice we may provide on specific occasions when we are collecting or processing personal information about you. This is so that you are fully aware of how and why we are using your personal information. This privacy notice supplements the other notices and is not intended to override them.
This recruitment privacy notice is provided in a layered format, so you can click through to the specific areas set out below.
We have appointed a data protection officer (for us, this is our Data Protection and Information Governance Officer [DPIGO]) who is responsible for overseeing questions in relation to this privacy notice. If you have any questions about the privacy notice, including any requests to exercise your legal rights in respect of your personal information, please contact the DPIGO using the details below.
Contact details
Anthony Daye (Director of Finance)
Change to our privacy notice
This is the current version of our privacy notice. It was last updated on 19 March 2020
Letting us know about changes to your personal information
It is important that the personal information that we hold about you is accurate and current. Please let us know if your personal information changes during your relationship with us, by contacting us using the details above.
We may collect, use, store and share different kinds of personal information about you. We collect this information at various points during the application, selection and on-boarding processes depending on how your application progresses. To help you identify these, they have been grouped together as follows:
| Group Data | Personal information includes |
| Identity Data | Name, signature, date of birth, gender, marital status, passport details, birth certificate, drivers licence, CV, nationality |
| Contact Data | Email address, phone number, address |
| Job Data | Employment history, references, training, skills and qualifications |
| Absence Data | Absence and leave information (dates, type of leave taken). Absence Data may also contain special category data. |
| Recruitment Data | Applicant responses to interview questions and interview assessments |
| Health Data | Special Category Data about medical or health conditions including reasonable adjustments and occupational health advice |
| Equality Data | Personal information relating to an individual’s ethnic origin, disability, religion or belief, gender reassignment or sexual orientation (which may comprise of Special Category Data) |
| Special Category Data | Race or ethnicity, religious or philosophical beliefs, sex life, sexual orientation, political opinions, trade union membership, information about your health and genetic and biometric data; information about criminal convictions and offences |
There is also other information that we collect, use, store and share that is not personal information, including:
Aggregated Data such as statistical or demographic data for any purpose. Aggregated Data may be derived from your personal information but is not considered personal information in law as this data does not directly or indirectly reveal your identity. For example, we may aggregate your Equality Data to calculate the percentage of employees who fall within a certain category for ensuring we meet our equality requirements. However, if we combine or connect Aggregated Data with your personal information so that it can directly or indirectly identify you, we treat the combined data as personal information, which will be used in accordance with this privacy notice.
Anonymised Data is the process of turning personal information into a form which does not identify individuals and where identification is not likely to take place.
We collect personal information using different types of methods and sources. We have grouped these together as follows:
| Direct Interactions | Directly from you. For example, when you apply for a job we will collect personal information during recruitment activities |
| Third party sources | We may receive personal information about you from various third party sources. These include Disclosure Scotland, referees and former employers. |
| Suppliers | Any supplier we have procured to deliver a service on our behalf. Such suppliers will be under contractual obligations to process your personal information in compliance with Data Protection Laws. For example, a recruitment agency. |
We collect and use personal information about you in accordance with our working relationship with you and, where applicable, to provide you with benefits. In general terms, we collect, use, store and share personal information about you to:
- Make decisions about hiring you
- Maintain our records relating to the recruitment process
- Assess and validate your qualifications and experience
- Ensure that we comply with the law e.g. validating your right to work
- Arrange necessary travel/work visas or immigration application
- Be able to perform the contract we will enter with you
- Perform any obligations and exercise any rights imposed or conferred on us, that we are legally obliged to (e.g equal opportunities monitoring and reporting)
- Understand your needs (e.g. health) and how they may be met during the recruitment process
- Prevent fraud
- Where we need to protect your interests
Further details can be found in the specific sections for how we process your personal information which follow and can be accessed through these links:
- Applying to work with us
- Safety and wellbeing
- Information about criminal convictions
Lawful grounds
Under data protection law, we must have legal grounds in order to process your personal information. These are known as lawful grounds. There are six lawful grounds, but we will generally only use four of these, as set out below:
| Lawful ground | What it means |
| Consent | You have given your consent to the processing of personal information for the specified purpose |
| Contractual | Where you are in a contractual relationship, and we need to process personal information to allow us to perform the contract, or where you intend to enter into a contractual relationship with us |
| Legal obligation | Where we need to process personal information to comply with a legal obligation placed on us |
| Vital interests | This is where your personal data is processed in order to protect you. For example, where you have let us know that you have a medical condition and we have to share that information with others in the event of an emergency affecting your health |
Applying to work for us
| Personal information processed |
|
| Source of personal information |
|
| The purpose for processing |
Applicants:
Some of the above grounds for processing will overlap and there may be several grounds which justify our use of your personal information. |
| Lawful ground(s) |
Contractual Legal obligation We do not need your consent if we use Special Category Data in accordance with our written policy to carry out our legal obligations or exercise specific rights in the field of employment law. In limited circumstances, we may approach you for your written consent to allow us to process certain particularly sensitive data (such as set out in the Safety and Well-being section of this privacy notice). If we do so, we will provide you with full details of the information that we would like and the reason we need it, so that you can carefully consider whether you wish to consent. You should be aware that it is not a condition of your contract with us that you agree to any request for consent from us. |
| How long we will keep your personal information | If you don’t start work with us following the recruitment process, we will retain your personal information for 1 year. |
Safety and wellbeing
We have a duty to ensure the safety and well being of all who work with us, in general terms and in compliance with law. To meet that duty, we will process the following personal information for the following purposes:
| Personal information processed |
|
| Source of personal information | Direct Interactions |
| The purpose for processing |
|
| Lawful ground(s) |
Legal obligation Vital interests *We do not need your consent if we use Special Category Data in accordance with our written policy to carry out our legal obligations or exercise specific rights in the field of employment law. In limited circumstances, we may approach you for your written consent to allow us to process certain particularly sensitive data (such as in the areas of occupational health). If we do so, we will provide you with full details of the information that we would like and the reason we need it, so that you can carefully consider whether you wish to consent. You should be aware that it is not a condition of your contract with us that you agree to any request for consent from us. |
| How long we will keep your personal information | If you don’t start work with us following the recruitment process, we will retain your personal information for 1 year. |
Information about criminal conviction
We will only collect information about criminal convictions if it is appropriate given the nature of the role and where we are legally able to do so.
Where appropriate, we will collect information about criminal convictions as part of the recruitment process or we may be notified of such information directly by you in the course of you working for us. We will use information about criminal convictions and offences in the following ways
- Facilitate the processing of security access cards to worksites where a Disclosure Scotland check is required
- Recruitment or determining an individual’s continuing suitability in a position identified as having a fiduciary duty
Consequences of not providing personal information
If you fail to provide certain information when requested, we may not be able to offer you a role within SE, perform the contract we have entered into with you (such as paying you), or we may be prevented from complying with our legal obligations (such as to ensure the health and safety of our visitors).
From time to time, we may share your personal information with other third parties, where we have a need to do so, in order to meet our obligations to you or where we are required to do so by law. These third parties, along with the purpose for which we will share your personal information with them, have been grouped together as follows:
| Category of organisation | Purpose for sharing personal information |
| Public sector partners | This will include Scottish Government, Scottish Enterprise, Highlands and Islands Enterprise, , for the purpose of our collaborative public sector remit. ******* Find out more about who our public sector partners ******* |
| Government Bodies |
To meet:
Such government bodies include Audit Scotland, Home Office, Police |
| Colleges, Universities or other Educational Institutions | Validating your educational qualifications |
| Other Data Controller | For a specific purpose (e.g. referee) |
| Suppliers | Any supplier we have procured to deliver a service on our behalf. Such suppliers will be under contractual obligations to process your personal information in compliance with Data Protection Laws. |
We have put in place appropriate security measures to prevent your personal information from being accidentally lost, used or accessed in an unauthorised way, altered or disclosed.
In addition, our employees, agents, secondees and suppliers will only process personal information on our instructions and in accordance with this privacy statement. They are also subject to a duty of confidentiality.
Access to your information
You have the right to request a copy of the personal information we hold about you.
Correcting your information
You may ask us to correct any personal information that you believe is incorrect, incomplete or not up to date.
Deletion of your information
You have the right to ask us to delete personal information about you where:
- You consider that we no longer require the information for the purposes for which it was obtained
- We are using that information with your consent and you have withdrawn your consent – see Withdrawing consent to using your information below
- You have validly objected to our use of your personal information – see Objecting to how we may use your information below
- Our use of your personal information is contrary to law or our other legal obligations
Objecting to how we may use your information
Where we use your personal information to perform tasks carried out in the public interest then, if you ask us to, we will stop using that personal information unless there are overriding legitimate grounds to continue.
Restricting how we may use your information
In some cases, you may ask us to restrict how we use your personal information. This might apply where we are checking the accuracy of personal information that we hold or assessing the validity of any objection you have made to our use of your information.
The right might also apply where there is no longer a basis for using your personal information, but you don't want us to delete the data. Where this right to validly exercised, we may only use the relevant personal information with your consent, for legal claims or where there are other public interest grounds to do so.
Automated processing
If we use your personal information on an automated basis to make decisions which significantly affect you, you have the right to ask that the decision be reviewed by an individual to whom you may make representations and contest the decision.
Withdrawing consent to using your information
Where we use your personal information with your consent, you may withdraw that consent at any time and we will stop using your personal information for the purpose(s) for which consent was given.
We wish to resolve directly all complaints about how we handle personal information, but you also have the right to lodge a complaint with the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) whose contact details are as follows:
Information Commissioner's Office
Wycliffe House
Water Lane
Wilmslow
Cheshire
SK9 5AF
Telephone - 0303 123 1113 (local rate) or 01625 545 745