As part of the recruitment process, Community Gateway Association (CGA) collects and processes personal data relating to job applicants. CGA is committed to being transparent about how it collects and uses that data and to meeting its data protection obligations.
This Privacy Notice provides up to date information about how we use the personal identifiable information of job applicants. If we make any significant changes affecting how we use your personal identifiable information, we will make changes to this Privacy Notice, and we will inform you of these changes.
This privacy notice is effective from the 25th May 2018.
Community Gateway Association
CGA is a Community Benefit Society and a register provider of social housing and our head office is Harbour House, Portway, Preston, PR2 2DW. We are a data controller of your personal data. This privacy notice relates to the CGA Group of Companies.
Where we refer to ‘we’ or ‘us’ in this Privacy Notice, we are referring to the CGA Group of Companies.
1. What information does CGA collect?
CGA collects a range of information about job applicants. 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;
information about your entitlement to work in the UK;
contact details for referees
Special Category Information
Special category data is personal data which the data protection legislation says is more sensitive, and so needs additional protection. This is information about your health status, racial or ethnic origin, political views, religious or similar beliefs, sex life or sexual orientation, genetic or biometric identifiers, trade union membership or criminal convictions or allegations.
We currently use the following types of special category data as part oif the recruitment and selection process:
whether or not you have a disability for which CGA needs to make reasonable adjustments during the recruitment process;
equal opportunities monitoring information, including information about your ethnic origin;
if applicable, additional information to support any criminal reference checking
2. What are the sources of employee information?
CGA collects this information in a variety of ways. For example, data might be contained in application forms, CVs or resumes, obtained from your passport or other identity documents, or collected through interviews or other forms of assessment.
CGA will also collect personal data about you from third parties, such as references supplied by former employers , information from employment background check providers and information from criminal records checks. CGA will seek information from third parties only once a job offer to you has been made and will inform you that it is 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 CGA’s email system).
3. What are the legal grounds for CGA to process employee’s personal data?
CGA relies on the following legal bases to process employee’s personal data:
Where it is necessary to perform a contract or to enable a contract to be entered into – CGA needs to process data to take steps at your request prior to entering into a contract with you. It also needs to process your data to enter into a contract with you.
To comply with legal obligations – In some cases, CGA 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.
Where it is in our legitimate interests to do - CGA has a legitimate interest in processing personal data during the recruitment process and for keeping records of the process. Processing data from job applicants allows CGA to manage the recruitment process, assess and confirm a candidate's suitability for employment and decide to whom to offer a job. CGA may also need to process data from job applicants to respond to and defend against legal claims.
Where CGA relies on legitimate interests as a reason for processing data, it has considered whether or not those interests are overridden by the rights and freedoms of employees or workers and has concluded that they are not.
Special Category Information
CGA processes health information if it needs to make reasonable adjustments to the recruitment process for candidates who have a disability. This is to carry out its obligations and exercise specific rights in relation to employment.
Where CGA processes other special categories of data, such as equality and diversity information, this is for equal opportunities monitoring purposes.
For some roles, CGA is obliged to seek information about criminal convictions and offences. Where CGA seeks this information, it does so because it is necessary for it to carry out its obligations and exercise specific rights in relation to employment.
We will only use special category personal data when:
we have a legal obligation to do so;
it is necessary for us to do so to protect your vital interests (for example if you have a severe and immediate medical need whilst on our premises);
it is in the substantial public interest;
it is necessary for the prevention or detection of crime;
you have specifically given us ‘affirmative’ consent to use the information.
4. Who has access to a job applicant’s data?
Your information will be shared internally for the purposes of the recruitment exercise. This includes members of the People Services 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.
5. When do we share your personal information with other organisations?
CGA will not share your data with third parties, unless your application for employment is successful and we make you an offer of employment. CGA 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.
CGA will not sell your personal data to third party organisations.
6. Transfers outside the UK
To ensure the safety and security of information you provide, it will not generally be transferred or processed outside of the UK as data protection laws may not provide the same level of protection as those in the European Economic Area (EEA).
There may be occasions where we need to process your information outside of the EEA Where we do this, any personally identifiable information will be limited, we will communicate where the information you provide will be stored, and we will take all necessary steps to ensure that your information remains as secure as possible.
7. How does CGA protect data?
CGA takes the security of your data seriously. It has internal policies and controls in place to ensure that your data is not lost, accidentally destroyed, misused or disclosed, and is not accessed except by our employees in the proper performance of their duties.
8. How long do we keep a candidate’s personal data?
Unsuccessful candidates’ data will be securely destroyed 6 months after the decision is made that your application has been unsuccessful adhering to the statutory requirement to retain information for a select period to allow candidates to challenge recruitment decisions.
Successful candidates’ information required for employment purposes will be retained throughout your employment, all other documentation not relevant will be securely destroyed 6 months after your start date has been confirmed, this includes any supporting documentation which you provide for criminal reference checking, proof of address etc. The periods for which your data will be held will be provided to you in a new privacy notice.
9. What rights do I have in relation to the data CGA holds about me?
From the 25th May 2018, you have the following eight rights under Data Protection legislation:
the right to be informed about the processing of your personal information (the purpose of this privacy notice is to fulfil this right);
the right to request access to your personal data and obtain information about how we process it;
the right to rectification allows you to have personal data corrected if it is inaccurate and to have incomplete data completed;
the right to have your personal data erased in certain circumstances, for example where the data is no longer necessary for the purposes of processing;
the right to object to the processing of your data in certain circumstances, for example where CGA is relying on legitimate interests as the legal ground for processing;
the right to restrict processing of your personal data for a period in certain circumstances, for example if data is inaccurate or there is a dispute about whether or not your interests override CGA's legitimate grounds for processing data;
The right to data portability which enables you to move, copy of transfer your personal information from one IT environment to another in a safe and secure way;
Rights in relation to automated decision making which has a legal effect or would otherwise significantly affect you (However, please see section 10 below).
10. Automated decision-making
CGA does not make employment related decisions based solely on automated decision-making.
11. Does CGA have a Data Protection Officer?
CGA has a Data Protection Officer and a Deputy Data Protection Officer and their details are provided below:
Data Protection Officer Head of Business Assurance
Tel: 01772 268017
E-mail: DataProtection@communitygateway.co.uk
Deputy Data Protection
Officer Governance and Compliance Manager
Tel: 01772 268054
E-mail: DataProtection@communitygateway.co.uk
If you would like to exercise any of the rights referred to at section 9 above, please contact CGA’s Deputy Data Protection Officer in the first instance.
If you believe that CGA has not complied with your data protection rights, you can submit a complaint. In the first instance, you should submit your complaint in writing to CGA’s Deputy Data Protection Officer (contact details above) or you can complain directly to the Information Commissioner’s Office.
The Information Commissioner’s Office can be contacted using the details below:
Wycliffe House
Water Lane
Wilmslow
Cheshire
SK9 5AF
Tel: 0303 123 1113 (local rate) or 01625 545 745
Please note you are able to make a complaint to the Information Commissioner’s office without first going through our internal procedures.
12. What should I do if my personal data changes?
If you personal data changes you should inform your line manager and the People Services Team so that CGA can update its records and ensure your personal data remains accurate.
13. What if I do not provide personal data to CGA?
You are under no statutory or contractual obligation to provide data to CGA during the recruitment process. However, if you do not provide the information, CGA may not be able to process your application properly or at all.
You are under no obligation to provide information for equal opportunities monitoring purposes and there are no consequences for your application if you choose not to provide such information.
14. Changes to this privacy notice
CGA may change this privacy notice from time to time to reflect changes in the law and /or our privacy practices. We will always include the date the document was last updated at the end of the notice.
15. Contact Us
If you have any questions about the content of this Privacy Notice, please contact the Data Protection Officer or Deputy Data Protection Officer.
Last published: 29th May 2018
Please click to confirm you have read and understand how our organisation will use and store your information.
