Job candidates - privacy notice

This privacy notice sits beneath our top level privacy notice and provides information about how personal data is used in relation to people applying for work with us (whether as an employee, worker or contractor).

What is the purpose of this notice?

National Highways Limited is a 'controller' in relation to personal data. This means that we are responsible for deciding how we hold and use personal information about you. This notice explains how and why your personal data will be used, namely for the purposes of the recruitment exercise, and how long it will usually be retained for. It provides you with certain information that must be provided under the UK General Data Protection Regulation (UK GDPR).

Data protection principles

We will comply with data protection law and principles, which means that your data will be:

  • used lawfully, fairly and in a transparent way
  • collected only for valid purposes that we have clearly explained to you and not used in any way that is incompatible with those purposes
  • relevant to the purposes we have told you about and limited only to those purposes
  • accurate and kept up to date
  • kept for only as long as necessary for the purposes we have told you about
  • kept securely

The kind of information we hold about you

In connection with your application for work with us, we will collect, store, and use the following categories of personal information about you:

  • The information you have provided to us in your CV and covering letter
  • The information you have provided on our application form, including name, title, address, telephone number, personal email address, date of birth, gender, employment history, qualifications

We may also collect, store and use the following types of more sensitive personal information:

  • Information about your race or ethnicity, religious or philosophical beliefs, sexual orientation, age etc
  • Information about your health, including any medical condition, health and sickness records
  • Information about criminal convictions and offences

If you are invited to interview, you will need also to provide original copies of your entitlement to work in the UK.

How is your personal information collected?

We collect personal information about candidates from the following sources:

  • You, the candidate
  • Any recruitment agency we may use, from which we collect the following categories of data: name, title, address, telephone number, personal email address, date of birth, gender, employment history, qualifications, training and references
  • Disclosure and Barring Service in respect of criminal convictions
  • Your named referees, from whom we may collect the following categories of data: name, job title, reason for leaving, suitability for the role applied for and general attributes
  • Home Office in respect of your right to work (if applicable)
  • From any relevant organisation holding information required to comply with the security checks we undertake relevant to the role, which will include the National Security Vetting Baseline Personnel Security Standard and if applicable a Security Check
  • Security Watchdog Limited, who will conduct social media checks on our behalf
  • DVLA in respect of your driving licence (if applicable to your role)

How we will use information about you

We will use the personal information we collect about you to:

  • assess your skills, qualifications, and suitability for the role you have applied for, or any other role that may be suitable
  • carry out background and reference checks to comply with the National Security Vetting Baseline Personnel Security Standard and if applicable a Security Check
  • communicate with you about the recruitment process
  • keep records related to our hiring processes
  • comply with legal or regulatory requirements

We also need to process your personal information to decide whether to enter into a contract, or a contract of employment with you.

Having received your CV, covering letter and your application form (and any test results if applicable), we will then process that information to decide whether you meet the basic requirements to be shortlisted for the role. If you do, we will decide whether your application is strong enough to invite you for an interview.

If we decide to call you for an interview, we will use the information you provide to us at the interview to decide whether to offer you the role you have applied for, or any other role that may be suitable.

If we decide to offer you a role, before confirming your appointment, we will: take up references, and carry out the following checks (as applicable to your role); a criminal record check (basic or standard), a social media check, a DVLA check, a Home Office check and the checks necessary to comply with the National Security Vetting Baseline Personnel Security Standard and if applicable a Security Check.

Legal basis for processing

Our purpose for processing this information is to assess your suitability for a role you have applied for and to help us develop and improve our recruitment process.

The legal basis for processing your personal data is:

Public task - Article 6(1)(e) of the UK GDPR: Processing is necessary for the performance of a task carried out in the public interest or in the exercise of official authority vested in the data controller. In this case, the processing of your personal data is necessary in order to consider applications for a Public Appointment role.

Legal obligation – Article 6(1)(c) UK GDPR: If you provide us with any information about reasonable adjustments you require under the Equality Act 2010, the lawful basis we rely on for processing this information is article 6(1)(c) to comply with our legal obligations under the Act.

Contract - article 6(1)(b) of the UK GDPR, which relates to processing necessary to perform a contract or to take steps at your request, before entering a contract.

If you fail to provide personal information

If you fail to provide information when requested, which is necessary for us to consider your application, we will not be able to process your application. For example, if we require references for this role and you fail to provide us with relevant details, we will not be able to take your application further.

How we use particularly sensitive personal information

We will use your sensitive personal information (special category data) in the following ways:

  • We will use information about your disability status to consider whether we need to provide appropriate adjustments during the recruitment process, for example whether adjustments need to be made during a test or interview.
  • We will use information about your race or national or ethnic origin, religious, philosophical or moral beliefs, or your sexual life or sexual orientation, to ensure meaningful equal opportunity monitoring and reporting.

The lawful basis we rely on to process any information you provide as part of your application which is special category data is:

Article 9(2)(g) UK GDPR: It is necessary for reasons of substantial public interest (with a basis in law) in order to meet statutory and government purposes and regulatory requirements. The relevant corresponding condition in Schedule 1 of the Data Protection Act 2018 is: the processing is necessary for the purposes of identifying or keeping under review the existence or absence of equality of opportunity or treatment between groups of people specified in relation to that category with a view to enabling such equality to be promoted or maintained.

Article 9(2)(b) UK GDPR: This relates to our obligations in employment and the safeguarding of your fundamental rights. The relevant corresponding condition is Schedule 1 Part 1(1) of the Data Protection Act 2018, which relates to processing for employment purposes.

Information about criminal convictions

We will process information about criminal convictions. The lawful basis we rely on to process this data is Article 6(1)(e) for the performance of our public task. In addition, we rely on the processing condition at Schedule 1 part 2 paragraph 6(2)(a).

We will collect information about your criminal convictions history if we would like to offer you a role (conditional on checks and any other conditions, such as references, being satisfactory). Depending on the role you have applied for, we carry out a criminal record check (either a basic or standard check) in order to satisfy ourselves that there is nothing in your criminal convictions history which makes you unsuitable for the role. This reasons for the check are:

  • To comply with the requirements of the National Security Vetting, Baseline Security Standard; and
  • The role may be listed on the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 (Exceptions) Order 1975 (SI 1975/1023) and require a standard DBS check (this mostly relates to our traffic officer service).

We have in place appropriate policy documents and safeguards which we are required by law to maintain when processing such data.

Data sharing

We will only share your personal information with the following third parties (if applicable) for the purposes of processing your application:

  • Disclosure and Barring Service for the purposes of a carrying out the relevant criminal record check
  • Home Office for the purposes of confirming your right to work status in the United Kingdom
  • Security Watchdog Limited for the purposes of a social media check
  • As required for the completion of the National Security Vetting Baseline Personnel Security Standard and if applicable a Security Check, and
  • DVLA for the purposes of a driving licence check

All our third-party service providers are required to take appropriate security measures to protect your personal information in line with our policies and their own data protection policy. We do not allow our third-party service providers to use your personal data for their own purposes. We only permit them to process your personal data for specified purposes and in accordance with our instructions. Our third-party service providers are the data controller for the purposes of the GDPR.

Data security

We have put in place appropriate security measures to prevent your personal information from being accidentally lost, used or accessed in an unauthorised way, altered or disclosed. In addition, we limit access to your personal information to those employees, agents, contractors and other third parties who have a business need-to-know.

We have put in place procedures to deal with any suspected data security breach and will notify you and any applicable regulator of a suspected breach where we are legally required to do so.

Data retention

The information you supply will be used to manage your application through our recruitment process. If your application is unsuccessful, it will be retained for a period of 24 months from the date of the last update made to your candidate profile.

If we wish to retain your personal information on file, on the basis that a further opportunity may arise in future and we may wish to consider you for that, we will write to you separately, seeking your explicit consent to retain your personal information for a fixed period on that basis.

If your application is successful and you commence employment with National Highways Limited, a copy of the information obtained during your recruitment will be transferred to and retained on your personnel file in accordance with our data retention policy and applicable laws and regulations. This includes the results of any pre-employment checks.

Rights of access, correction, erasure, and restriction

You can access your information at any time using your Candidate Login. Under certain circumstances, by law you also have the right to:

  • request access to your personal information (commonly known as a "data subject access request"). This enables you to receive a copy of the personal information we hold about you and to check that we are lawfully processing it.
  • request correction of the personal information that we hold about you. This enables you to have any incomplete or inaccurate information we hold about you corrected.
  • request erasure of your personal information. This enables you to ask us to delete or remove personal information where there is no good reason for us continuing to process it. You also have the right to ask us to delete or remove your personal information where you have exercised your right to object to processing (see below).
  • object to processing of your personal information where we are relying on a legitimate interest (or those of a third party) and there is something about your particular situation which makes you want to object to processing on this ground. You also have the right to object where we are processing your personal information for direct marketing purposes.
  • request the restriction of processing of your personal information. This enables you to ask us to suspend the processing of personal information about you, for example if you want us to establish its accuracy or the reason for processing it.
  • request the transfer of your personal information to another party.

If you want to review, verify, correct or request erasure of your personal information, object to the processing of your personal data, or request that we transfer a copy of your personal information to another party, please contact DataProtectionAdvice@nationalhighways.co.uk 

Data protection officer

We have appointed a data protection officer (DPO) to oversee compliance with this privacy notice. If you have any questions about this privacy notice or how we handle your personal information, please contact the DPO, Sian Jones at DataProtectionAdvice@nationalhighways.co.uk 

Complaints

If you consider that your personal data has been misused or mishandled, you may make a complaint to the Information Commissioner, who is an independent regulator. The Information Commissioner can be contacted at:

Information Commissioner's Office
Wycliffe House
Water Lane
Wilmslow
Cheshire
SK9 5AF
0303 123 1113
icocasework@ico.org.uk

Any complaint to the Information Commissioner is without prejudice to your right to seek redress through the courts.

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