Data controller: Neil Williams, Managing Director

Data protection officer: Tim Jenkins, Practice Director

As part of any recruitment process, the Practice collects and processes personal data relating to job applicants. The Practice is committed to being transparent about how it collects and uses that data and to meeting its data protection obligations.

What information does the Practice collect?

The Practice collects a range of information about you. This may include:

• 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 benefit entitlements;
• whether or not you have a disability for which the Practice needs to make reasonable adjustments during the recruitment process;
• information about your entitlement to work in the UK;

The Practice collects this information in a variety of ways. For example, data might be contained in CVs or resumes, obtained from your passport or other identity documents, or collected through interviews or other forms of assessment.

The Practice will also collect personal data about you from third parties, such as references supplied by former employers. The Practice 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).

Why does the Practice process personal data?

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

In some cases, the Practice 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.

The Practice 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 Practice to manage the recruitment process, assess and confirm a candidate’s suitability for employment and decide to whom to offer a job. The Practice may also need to process data from job applicants to respond to and defend against legal claims.

The Practice processes health information if it needs to make reasonable adjustments to the recruitment process for candidates who have a disability. This is to carry out its obligations and exercise specific rights in relation to employment.

If your application is unsuccessful, the Practice will keep your personal data on file in case there are future employment opportunities for which you may be suited. The Practice will ask for your consent before it keeps your data for this purpose and you are free to withdraw your consent at any time.

Who has access to data?

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

The Practice will not share your data with third parties, unless your application for employment is successful and it makes you an offer of employment. The Practice will then share your data with former employers to obtain references for you.

The Practice will not transfer your data outside the European Economic Area.

How does the Practice protect data?

The Practice takes the security of your data seriously. It has internal policies and controls in place to ensure that your data is not lost, accidentally destroyed, misused or disclosed, and is not accessed except by our employees in the proper performance of their duties. [

For how long does the Practice keep data?

If your application for employment is unsuccessful and you agree to allow the Practice to keep your personal data on file, the Practice will hold your data on file for 1 year after the end of the relevant recruitment process. At the end of that period or once you withdraw your consent; your data is deleted or destroyed.

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

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 Practice to change incorrect or incomplete data;
• require the Practice to delete or stop processing your data, for example where the data is no longer necessary for the purposes of processing;
• object to the processing of your data where the Practice is relying on its legitimate interests as the legal ground for processing; and
• ask the Practice to stop processing data for a period if data is inaccurate or there is a dispute about whether or not your interests override the Practice’s legitimate grounds for processing data.

If you would like to exercise any of these rights, please contact Gemma Beattie, HR Manager via email gemma.beattie@harrisfowler.co.uk

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

What if you do not provide personal data?

You are under no statutory or contractual obligation to provide data to the Practice during the recruitment process. However, if you do not provide the information, the Practice may not be able to process your application properly or at all.

You are under no obligation to provide information for equal opportunities monitoring purposes and there are no consequences for your application if you choose not to provide such information.