How we use your information
The purpose of this Privacy Notice is to tell you what personal information the council collects from you, how and when it may be collected and what happens to it.
What information might we collect from you?
- personal information and contact details (for example your name, address, ‘phone number, date of birth, next of kin, professional body registration number, bank details and national insurance number)
- special category of data (for example your ethnic group, health and criminal record)
- contract information (such as start dates, hours worked, post, roles and salary)
- work absence information (such as number of absences and reasons)
- qualifications (and, where relevant, subjects taught), information you provided in your application for employment (for example your education, employment history, referees and permission to work in the UK).
When it may be collected
We start collecting information when you apply for a job with us and once you have been offered a job, as part of the pre-employment checks we carry out. There will be other times and situations during your employment when we need to collect and process additional information so we can perform our contract of employment with you.
Why we collect and use your information
We collect and use your information for a number of reasons. Examples include:
When you apply for a job these include:
- to assess whether you meet the criteria required for the job/s
- to communicate with you throughout the process.
When you are offered a job these include:
- to check you have the necessary permission to work in the UK.
- to assess your suitability to work with children and/or vulnerable adults, if applicable.
When you start work with us:
- to pay your salary and other payments during any period/s of sick and maternity leave
- to pay contributions to the council’s pension scheme and make your pension payments when you retire
- to enable managers to make informed decisions when applying the council’s policies and procedures in relation to matters such as attendance, conduct and performance
- to make referrals to the council’s occupational health service
- to ensure we meet our legal obligations in relation to the employment of staff – for example in relation to permission to work in the UK and suitability to work with children and/or vulnerable adults, where applicable
- to contact you during working hours if we are unable to do so using the council’s ‘phone or e-mail system
- to review the effectiveness of our policies in relation to equality and diversity
- to monitor and promote equality and diversity throughout the organisation. We will also use data in relation to disability to enable us to make reasonable adjustments at work.
- to inform the development of recruitment and retention policies.
- to check your details against the Cifas databases for the purpose of allowing organisations to record and share data on fraud cases, other unlawful or dishonest conduct, malpractice and other seriously improper conduct carried out by their staff and potential staff. If any of these are detected, you could be refused certain services or employment.
The lawful basis for using your information
We collect and process this information for one or more of the reasons permitted by law, including:
- to perform our contract of employment with you
- to comply with the law
- where we need to assess your working capacity
- to prevent fraud in the public interest
Whilst the majority of information is essential to perform our contract of employment with you or to comply with the law, some of it is provided to us on the basis of consent. In order to comply with data protection legislation, we will inform you whether you are required to provide certain information to us or if you have a choice in this.
We may also rely on legitimate interest in processing personal data before, during and after the end of the employment relationship. For example, where we keep a record of grievance, employee performance or disciplinary action. Where the Council relies on legitimate interests as a reason for processing data, it will consider whether or not those interests are overridden by the rights and freedoms of employees or workers and has concluded that they are not.
Storing this information
When you apply for a job but are not successful, we will hold your personal information for a period of 6 months.
In most cases we hold personal information for as long as you are employed with us to enable us to perform our contract with you. Once you cease to be employed by us, we will hold your personal information for a period of 6 years. There are some exceptions to the amount of time we hold your personal information and the type of information we hold. Further information can be found in the Retention of HR Records schedule on our intranet, or upon request.
Who we share your information with
Where necessary or required we share information with:
- a small number of external organisations whose systems we use for the provision of online training and career management solutions
- prospective employers where you have given your consent for them to request a reference from us
- the Department for Education (DfE) in relation to information on teaching staff as part of the school workforce census
- other service areas within the council
- external organisations that provide services on the council's behalf:
- The Disclosure and Barring Service, for criminal records checks
- External Occupational Health providers and medical professionals
- NHS
- DWP
- Court Service
- National Fraud Initiative Police
- BACS / BAC Bureau
- Trade unions
- HM Revenue & Customs
- Pensions Administrator
- Pensions Regulator
- Skills for Care
- Office for National Statistics
- Organisations where voluntary deductions are taken from pay
- External consultants where their specialist skill is needed in order to meet our legal responsibilities
- External providers of items and services under the Employee Benefits Package
The Cabinet Office (who are a government department), for the purposes of a data matching exercise called the National Fraud Initiative. The purpose of the exercise is to detect fraud and error. The Council is legally required to participate in this exercise.
The UK’s fraud prevention service Cifas. Further details of how your information will be used by us and Cifas, and your data protection rights, can be found on the Cifas website
Why we share this information
We do not share information about you with anyone without consent unless the law and our policies allow us to do so.
Data collection requirements
We do not process your information with countries outside of the UK or European Economic Area (EEA) without the safeguards being in place that are equivalent to the UK Data Protection legislation or the General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR).
Most of the information we collect from you is stored on servers that are owned and maintained by Oracle (who support our HR system) within the EEA.
Requesting access to your personal data
Under data protection legislation, you have the right to request access to information about you that we hold. To make a request for your personal information, contact your line manager or Human Resources.
You also have the right to:
- object to processing of personal data that is likely to cause, or is causing, damage or distress
- prevent processing for the purpose of direct marketing
- object to decisions being taken by automated means
- in certain circumstances, have inaccurate personal data rectified, blocked, erased or destroyed; and
- claim compensation for damages caused by a breach of the Data Protection legislation.
If you have a concern about the way we are collecting or using your personal data, we ask that you raise your concern with us in the first instance. Alternatively, you can contact the Information Commissioner’s Office
Further information
If you would like to discuss anything in this privacy notice, please contact:
The Data Protection Team at: dpo@brent.gov.uk or call 020 8937 1402.
You can find further information and details in our main privacy policy at Data protection and privacy policies | Brent Council