Privacy Policy

Privacy Notice

Recruitment services are provided by Human Resources (People & Culture). These services include the following:

Advertising current vacancies and accepting online applications
Processing applications for employment
Temporary staffing schemes

This page explains how your information is stored and processed by People & Culture.

The computer databases used to process and store your information are in the UK and are held securely in a password-protected environment. Only authorised officers have access to the databases.

This page will cover:

Who we are
Why we collect your personal information
What rights do you have?
How long we keep information about you
The legal basis for using your information
Who we may share your information with
Further information and Data Protection Officer

1. Who we are

BCP Council will be the Data Controller for the personal information you provide. Personal information can be anything that identifies and relates to a living person. This could be your name and contact details. As the Data Controller BCP Council will use your information to provide you with our services.

2. Why we collect your personal information

We will collect enough personal information to provide the following services:

Application Processing:

When applying directly through the website or in any other format, data including name, age, address, e-mail address, your employment history, education history and other relevant information is collected by BCP. This information is collected for the following purposes:

consider your application for the advertised role

process associated pre-employment checks

contact you about your job application

If you are successful in the role this information will be used to create and maintain your employment record

Sensitive personal information can be provided if you choose to provide it, this information will not be used for any other purpose than equality and diversity monitoring purposes.

Use of BCP Council jobs website

You can use the BCP website can be used to store your personal and employment information securely in an online account to easily apply for future roles advertised on the website. You are in control of this information and may delete the information we store by logging into your online account.

You can choose to receive job alerts by email to notify you of new BCP vacancies personalised to your job search.

We automatically collect statistical data about usage patterns on our website using Google Analytics. The information does not relate to you as an individual and cannot be used to identify you. It is collected to provide us with an understanding of the areas of interest on our website.

Temporary Staffing schemes

Your information will be maintained on a database for the purpose of matching you with available work placements with BCP Council or in some cases with another organisation. If we have an opportunity for you to work for a third-party organisation then we will contact you to obtain your consent before we share your information with another organisation.

We are not permitted to collect information we do not need or will not use. This document covers information you have provided direct to the Council and information which has been shared with us by other organisations.

If we don’t need your personal information, we will either keep your details anonymous, if we already have it for another service or we won’t ask you for it. If we use your personal information for research or analysis, we will always keep your details anonymous or use a fake name.

We don’t sell your personal information to anyone else.

3. What rights do you have?

The right to be informed (Privacy Notices)
The right of access
The right to rectification
The right to erasure
The right to restrict processing
The right to data portability
The right to object
Rights in relation to automated decision making and profiling.

More information can be found here: Privacy notice (bcpcouncil.gov.uk)

4. How long will BCP keep information about you?

For successful applicants - we keep records and documentation for six years after your employment has ended. Some information is kept for longer to comply with the law. Further information on retention periods is available in our retention policy which is available to all employees on the staff intranet.
For unsuccessful candidates - application forms and other personal information will be retained for 6 months from the date of the employment decision.
For Temporary Staffing schemes – the information you provide will be held for one year if you don’t renew your consent after this point then we’ll stop holding your information. If you take up a work placement, then your information will be processed as an employee as detailed on the employee intranet.

5. The legal basis for using your information

According to the General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR) and the Data Protection Act 2018, we must have a reason to collect and use your information.

This will be:

To deliver services and support you
To enable us to manage the services we provide
To train and manage our workers who deliver those services
To investigate any worries or complaints you may have about our goods or services
To check the quality of our goods and services
To help with research and planning of new services.

There are numerous legal reasons why we need to collect and use your personal information. For this service one or more of the following may apply:

(i) Contract: you have entered a contract with us.

(v) Consent: you, or your legal representative, have given explicit consent.

Our service also needs to use sensitive personal data also called “special category data” which requires more protection to keep it safe. This is often information you would not want to be widely known and is very personal to you. It includes:

Sexuality or sexual heath
Religious or spiritual or philosophical beliefs
Ethnicity
Physical or mental health
Trade union membership
Political opinions
Genetic or biometric data
Criminal history

We will take extra care of this data. The legal reason for us to collect and use this personal information is because it’s necessary to perform our statutory duties, or it is required by law, and it is necessary for employment purposes.

6.Who we may share your information with

We use a range of organisations to either store personal information or to help deliver our services to you. Sometimes we have a legal duty to provide your personal information to other organisations, for example the court service or HMRC.

We may share your information with other council departments – to a recruiting manager or their authorised representative(s) to assess your job application

If you apply to a job advertised on behalf of a third-party organisation then the information provided as part of your application form will be shared with this organisation. These organisations may include but are not limited to schools, academies, or other local authorities. The job advertisement will clearly state which organisation will be the employer.

We may also share your personal information with these organisations if conducting pre-employment checks ahead of your employment:

People Asset Management
Atlantic Data Ltd
Disclosure and Barring Service

We may apply to third party organisations specified by you on your application form for the purpose of seeking previous employers’ references. This will only include sufficient personal information for the organisation to be able to identify you (name, national insurance number and/or date of birth).

If you become an employee, then your information will be processed as detailed on the HR Privacy Notice supplied with your contract of employment and available on the staff intranet.

Your information will not be disclosed to any other organisations, except where we are required and allowed to by law.

7.Further information

The Data Protection Officer details can be found here:

Privacy notice (bcpcouncil.gov.uk)