Job Applicant Privacy Statement

What information does Herts Health GP Federation collect?

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 benefit entitlements;
whether or not you have a disability for which Herts Health GP Federation needs to make reasonable adjustments during the recruitment process; and
information about your entitlement to work in the UK.

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

We will also collect personal data about you from third parties, such as references supplied by former employers. We will only seek information from third parties once a job offer to you has been made and will inform you that we are 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 Herts Health GP Federation process personal data?

We need to process data to take steps at your request prior to entering into a contract with you. We also need to process your data to enter into a contract with you.

In some cases, Herts Health GP Federation 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.

We have a legitimate interest in processing personal data during the recruitment process and for keeping records of the process. Processing data from job applicants allows us to manage the recruitment process, assess and confirm a candidate's suitability for employment and decide to whom to offer a job. We may also need to process data from job applicants to respond to and defend against legal claims.

We will process the health information of potential candidates if it is needed to make reasonable adjustments to the recruitment process for candidates who have a disability and/or to ensure that candidates meet occupational health criteria. This is to carry out its obligations and exercise specific rights in relation to employment.

For some roles, we are obliged to seek information about criminal convictions and offences. Where we seek this information, we do so because it is necessary for us to carry out our obligations and exercise specific rights in relation to employment.

If your application is unsuccessful, Herts Health GP Federation will keep your personal data on file in case there are future employment opportunities for which you may be suited. We will ask for your consent before we keep 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, managers in the business area with a vacancy and IT staff if access to the data is necessary for the performance of their roles.

We will not share your data with third parties, unless your application for employment is successful and we make you an offer of employment. We will then share your data with former employers to obtain references for you, employment background check providers to obtain necessary background checks and the Disclosure and Barring Service to obtain necessary criminal records checks.

We will not transfer your data outside the European Economic Area.

How does Herts Health GP Federation protect data?

We take the security of your data seriously. We have internal policies and controls in place to ensure that your data is not lost, accidentally destroyed, misused or disclosed, and that it is not accessed except by our employees in the proper performance of their duties.

How long does Herts Health GP Federation keep data for?

If your application for employment is unsuccessful, we will hold your data on file for 6 months after the end of the relevant recruitment process. If you agree to allow us to keep your personal data on file, we will hold your data on file for a further 12 months for consideration for future employment opportunities. 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 (subject access request);
require Herts Health GP Federation to change incorrect or incomplete data;
require Herts Health GP Federation 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 Herts Health GP Federation is relying on its legitimate interests as the legal ground for processing; and
ask Herts Health GP Federation to stop processing data for a period if data is inaccurate or there is a dispute about whether or not your interests override our legitimate grounds for processing data.

If you would like to exercise any of these rights, please contact herts.health@nhs.net.

If you believe that Herts Health GP Federation has not complied with your data protection rights, you can complain to the Information Commissioner's Office.

What if you do not provide personal data?

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