Privacy Notice for job or volunteer applicants

In order to process your job or volunteer application, Horsham District Council collects and processes personal data relating to you. The council is committed to being transparent about how it collects and uses that data and to meeting its data protection obligations.

This Notice explains how personal information is going to be used, what it is used for, who it might be shared with and why and for how long it is to be kept.

Horsham District Council (HDC) is fully committed to complying with The Data Protection Act 2018 and the UK General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).  We ensure that your personal data is processed fairly, lawfully kept safe and secure and retained for no longer than is necessary.

The Data Protection Officer for HDC is the Head of Legal and Democratic Services.

If you have any concerns or questions about how we look after your personal information please contact the Data Protection Officer at dpa@horsham.gov.uk

What information does Horsham District Council collect?

The council collects a range of information about you. This includes:

• Information you supply by completing an application form or submit in support of your application.
• Information from third parties such as references supplied by former employers, our occupational health provider and information from criminal records checks if this is a requirement of the role. The council 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.

Horsham District Council collects this information in several different ways and this may be collected in application forms or information you submit to us, obtained from your passport or other identity documents, or collected through interviews or other forms of assessment.

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 Horsham District Council process personal data?

The council needs to process your data to assess your suitability for the role for which you have applied prior to entering into a contract or volunteer agreement with you.

In some cases, the council 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 and that they are fit to carry out the role for which they have applied and whether any reasonable adjustments need to be made.

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

Where the council relies on legitimate interests as a reason for processing data, it has considered whether those interests are overridden by the rights and freedoms of applicants or employees or workers and has concluded that they are not.

Where the council processes other special categories of data, such as information about ethnic origin, sexual orientation, disability, religion or belief, age or gender, this is to create statistical information about applicants to ensure fairness and equity in recruitment decisions and to ensure that we are attracting applicants from a diverse a field as possible.

For some roles, the council is obliged to seek information about spent and unspent criminal convictions and offences. Where the council seeks this information, it does so with the permission of the applicant, because it believes the level of criminal record check is required to carry out the role applied for and for it to carry out its obligations and exercise specific rights in relation to employment.

The council will only use your personal data during the recruitment exercise for the role for which you have applied. Candidates that are subsequently employed by the council will have the data supplied during the recruitment process go on to form part of the employment record.

Who has access to data?

Your information will be shared internally for the purposes of the recruitment exercise. This includes members of HR and employees involved in the recruitment process.

The council will not share your data with third parties, unless your application for employment is successful and it makes you an offer of employment, then with your permission, the council share your data with former employers to obtain references for you and with our occupational health provider to obtain health clearance. If a criminal records check is required for the role, then your data will be shared with the Disclosure and Barring Service by your completion of the necessary application for the check.

How does the council protect data?

The council 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.

How long will the council keep data?

If your application for employment is unsuccessful, the council will hold your data on file for six months 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.

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 council to change incorrect or incomplete data;
• require the council 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 council is relying on its legitimate interests as the legal ground for processing.

If you would like to exercise any of these rights, you will find further information on our Privacy Policy. You can make a subject access request by completing the council’s Subject Access Request Form

If you believe that the council 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 council during the recruitment process. However, if you do not provide the information, the council may not be able to process your application.

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.