Applicant Privacy Policy

Lindsay Barnett HR (‘the Company’) is aware of its obligations under the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and current data protection legislation and is committed to processing your data securely and transparently on behalf of their recruiting clients and employers.

This privacy notice sets out, in line data protection obligations, the types of data that we collect and hold on you as a job applicant. It also sets out how we use that information, how long we keep it for and other relevant information about your data.

Data controller details
The Company is a data controller, meaning that it determines the processes to be used when using your personal data. Our contact details are as follows: lindsay@lindsaybarnetthr.com.

Data Protection Principles
In relation to your personal data, we will:

process it fairly, lawfully and in a clear, transparent way
collect your data only for reasons that we find proper for the course of your employment in ways that have been explained to you
only use it in the way that we have told you about
ensure it is correct and up to date
keep your data for only as long as we need it
process it in a way that ensures it will not be used for anything that you are not aware of or have consented to (as appropriate), lost or destroyed

Types of data we process
We hold many types of data about you, including:

your personal details including your name, address, date of birth, email address, phone numbers
your photograph
gender
marital status
whether or not you have a disability
information included on your CV including references, education history and employment history
documentation relating to your right to work in the UK
driving licence

How we collect your data
We collect data about you in a variety of ways including the information you would normally include in a CV or a job application cover letter, or notes made by our recruiting partners during a recruitment interview.

Further information will be collected directly from you when you complete forms at the start of your employment, for example, your bank and next of kin details. Other details may be collected directly from you in the form of official documentation such as your driving licence, passport or other right to work evidence.

In some cases, we will collect data about you from third parties, such as employment agencies, former employers when gathering references or credit reference agencies.

Personal data is held in the employer’s personnel files or within their Company’s HR and IT systems.

Why we process your data
The law on data protection allows us to process your data for certain reasons only:

in order to perform the employment contract that we are party to
in order to carry out legally required duties
in order for us to carry out our legitimate interests
to protect your interests and
where something is done in the public interest.
All of the processing carried out by us falls into one of the permitted reasons. Generally, we will rely on the first three reasons set out above to process your data

We need to collect your data to ensure we are complying with legal requirements such as:

carrying out checks in relation to your right to work in the UK and
making reasonable adjustments for disabled employees

We also collect data so that we can carry out activities which are in the legitimate interests of the Company. We have set these out below:

supporting clients in making decisions about who to offer interviews and employment to
supporting clients in making decisions about salary and other benefits
supporting client in assessing training needs
dealing with legal claims made against us

If you are unsuccessful in obtaining employment, your data will not be used by Lindsay Barnett HR for any reason other than in the ways explaining in relation to the specific application you have made.

Special categories of data
Special categories of data are data relating to your:

health
sex life
sexual orientation
race
ethnic origin
political opinion
religion
trade union membership and
genetic and biometric data

We must process special categories of data in accordance with more stringent guidelines. Most commonly, we will process special categories of data when the following applies:

you have given explicit consent to the processing
we must process the data in order to carry out our legal obligations
we must process data for reasons of substantial public interest
you have already made the data public

We will use your special category data for the purposes of equal opportunities monitoring.

We do not need your consent if we use special categories of personal data in order to carry out our legal obligations or exercise specific rights under employment law. However, we may ask for your consent to allow us to process certain particularly sensitive data. If this occurs, you will be made fully aware of the reasons for the processing. As with all cases of seeking consent from you, you will have full control over your decision to give or withhold consent and there will be no consequences where consent is withheld. Consent, once given, may be withdrawn at any time. There will be no consequences where consent is withdrawn.

Criminal conviction data
We will only collect criminal conviction data where it is appropriate given the nature of your job application and where the law permits us. This data will usually be collected at the recruitment stage, however, may also be collected by the employer during your employment should you be successful in obtaining employment. We may use criminal conviction data in the following ways depending on the recruiting employer:

Legitimate Business Interest: Recruiting employers may request collection of criminal conviction data if they have a legitimate business interest in doing so. This could include ensuring the safety and security of their employees, customers, and property, as well as protecting the reputation and integrity of the organization.
Regulatory Compliance: Certain industries or positions may have specific legal or regulatory requirements that necessitate the collection of criminal conviction data. For example, jobs involving working with vulnerable populations (such as children or the elderly) may require background checks to protect the well-being of those individuals.
Legal Obligations: Recruiting employers may be legally obligated to collect criminal conviction data based on local laws. This could include requirements related to specific occupations (e.g., law enforcement, healthcare) or industries (e.g., financial services).
Risk Mitigation: Recruiting employers may collect criminal conviction data as part of their risk management strategy to assess the suitability and trustworthiness of potential employees, particularly for positions that involve handling sensitive information, finances, or access to confidential data.
Insurance and Liability Purposes: Insurance providers may require recruiting employers to collect criminal conviction data as a condition for obtaining certain types of coverage or to determine premium rates. Additionally, recruiting employers may collect such data to manage their liability and reduce the risk of claims related to negligent hiring or retention.

If you do not provide your data to us
One of the reasons for processing your data is to allow us to carry out an effective recruitment process on behalf of our clients and recruiting employers. Whilst you are under no obligation to provide us with your data, we may not able to process, or continue with (as appropriate), your application.

Sharing your data
Your data will be shared with clients within the recruiting Company where it is necessary for them to undertake their duties with regard to recruitment. This includes, for example, the HR department, those in the department where the vacancy is who responsible for screening your application and interviewing you, the IT department where you require access to a client’s systems to undertake any assessments requiring IT equipment.

In some cases, we will collect data about you from third parties, such as employment agencies.

We do not share your data with bodies outside of the European Economic Area without your consent.

Protecting your data
We are aware of the requirement to ensure your data is protected against accidental loss or disclosure, destruction and abuse.

To safeguard against unauthorised access and protect the confidentiality of personal information, we have implemented robust processes, including a secure site dedicated to job applications. This secure site ensures that sensitive information, such as criminal conviction data, is collected and stored in a secure manner, minimising the risk of unauthorised disclosure or misuse.

Where we share your data with third parties, we provide written instructions to them to ensure that your data are held securely and in line with data protection requirements. Third parties must implement appropriate technical and organisational measures to ensure the security of your data.

How long we keep your data for
In line with data protection principles, we only keep your data for as long as we need it for and this will depend on whether or not you are successful in obtaining employment with us.

If your application is not successful and we have not sought consent or you have not provided consent upon our request to keep your data for the purpose of future suitable job vacancies, we will keep your data for three months once the recruitment exercise ends.

If we have sought your consent to keep your data on file for future job vacancies, and you have provided consent, we will keep your data for twelve months once the recruitment exercise ends. At the end of this period, we will delete or destroy your data, unless you have already withdrawn your consent to our processing of your data in which case it will be deleted or destroyed upon your withdrawal of consent.

If your application is successful, your data may be transferred to the recruiting employer’s HR information system. The recruiting employer has a separate privacy notice for employees, which should be provided to you.

Automated decision making
No decision will be made about you solely on the basis of automated decision making (where a decision is taken about you using an electronic system without human involvement) which has a significant impact on you.

Your rights in relation to your data
The law on data protection gives you certain rights in relation to the data we hold on you. These are:

the right to be informed. This means that we must tell you how we use your data, and this is the purpose of this privacy notice
the right of access. You have the right to access the data that we hold on you. To do so, you should make a subject access request
the right for any inaccuracies to be corrected. If any data that we hold about you is incomplete or inaccurate, you are able to require us to correct it
the right to have information deleted. If you would like us to stop processing your data, you have the right to ask us to delete it from our systems where you believe there is no reason for us to continue processing it
the right to restrict the processing of the data. For example, if you believe the data we hold is incorrect, we will stop processing the data (whilst still holding it) until we have ensured that the data is correct
the right to portability. You may transfer the data that we hold on you for your own purposes
the right to object to the inclusion of any information. You have the right to object to the way we use your data where we are using it for our legitimate interests
the right to regulate any automated decision-making and profiling of personal data. You have a right not to be subject to automated decision making in way that adversely affects your legal rights.

Where you have provided consent to our use of your data, you also have the unrestricted right to withdraw that consent at any time. Withdrawing your consent means that we will stop processing the data that you had previously given us consent to use. There will be no consequences for withdrawing your consent. However, in some cases, we may continue to use the data where so permitted by having a legitimate reason for doing so.

If you wish to exercise any of the rights explained above, please contact lindsay@lindsaybarnetthr.com.

Making a complaint
The supervisory authority in the UK for data protection matters is the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO). If you think your data protection rights have been breached in any way by us, you are able to make a complaint to the ICO.