Recruitment privacy notice

House of Commons and PDS resourcing privacy notice

The House of Commons and PDS respect your rights to privacy.

We process your personal data in line with our responsibilities under the United Kingdom General Data Protection Regulation (UK GDPR) and Data Protection Act 2018 (DPA 2018).

This Privacy Notice explains the personal data that we collect from you and how we use your information.

This privacy notice is specific to the processes carried out by the Recruitment Team(s), which include job application and pre-employment checking such as reference checking.

In this Privacy Notice, references to 'us', 'our' or 'we' are to the House of Commons and PDS. Everything that we do with your data – for example storing it, working with it or deleting it – is referred to as "processing".

Who does this apply to?

This privacy notices applies to anyone who creates a profile on our recruitment system, anyone who proceeds to make a job application and/or is offered a role with the House of Commons or Parliamentary Digital Service.

Who is processing my personal data?

The Corporate Officer (Clerk of the House) is the Controller of any personal data processed by the House of Commons and Parliamentary Digital Service.

The Data Protection Officer is the Head of Information Rights and Information Security.

If you have any questions about the use of your personal data, please contact the Data Protection Officer as follows:

Email: IRIS@parliament.uk
Telephone: 0207 219 4296
Post: IRIS Service, House of Commons, SW1A 0AA.

There are also some joint services, where Recruitment Team(s) provide a service to both Houses of Parliament (such as The Parliament Graduate Development Programme). The House of Lords is a separate organisation and for data protection purposes, the Corporate Officer (Clerk of the Parliaments) is the controller of any personal data processed by the House of Lords.

Access the House of Lords’ privacy notice for job applicants.

The personal data we collect

We will collect, store and use the personal data provided by you to manage and monitor any recruitment and pre-employment checking processes as part of your job application to the House of Commons and PDS.

The personal data you have provided to us as part of recruitment and pre-employment checking processes, includes, but is not limited to:

• personal details e.g. names, e-mail address, home address, phone numbers etc.
• screening/Selection Information e.g. your CV /Resume, education results, work experience
• information you have provided relevant to any reasonable adjustments you may need as part of the recruitment process
• information provided by you which is required for a final employment contract and creation of an employee record e.g. date or birth, national insurance number, bank account details
• information provided by third parties e.g. external testing providers or Head-hunters engaged by us as part of the recruitment and pre-employment processes
• information you have provided regarding Protected Characteristics (Equality Act and s.75 of the Northern Ireland Act) for the purpose of equality of opportunity or treatment. This includes racial or ethnic origin, religious beliefs, disability status, and gender identification and may be extended to include other protected characteristics

We consider the lawful bases for processing to be:

For Personal Data

• We have your consent (UK GDPR Article 6(1)(a)); or
• The processing is necessary for the performance of a contract to which the data subject is party to or in order to take steps at the request of the data subject prior to entering into a contract (UK GDPR Article 6(1)(b));
•  The processing is necessary in order to comply with a legal obligation (including employment law) (UK GDPR Article 6 (1)(c));
• We may ask you to provide feedback about your recruitment experience and our processes. The lawful basis for processing this data will be for the necessary purposes of our legitimate interests, except where such interests are overridden by the interests or fundamental rights and freedoms of the data subject (UK GDPR Article 6(1)(f)).

For Special Category Data

• The data subject has given explicit consent to the processing of personal data for one or more specified purposes (UK GDPR Article 9 (2)(a)), or;
•  The processing is necessary for the purposes of carrying out the obligations and exercising specific rights of the controller or of the data subject in the field of employment (UK GDPR Article 9 (2)(b));
•  The processing is necessary for the purpose of equality of opportunity or treatment (UK GDPR Article 9(2)(g) and Section 10 of the Data Protection Act 2018);
•  The processing is necessary for the provision of preventative or occupational treatment and care (supporting reasonable adjustments during the recruitment process) (UK GDPR Article 9(2)(h)). In compliance with DPA 2018, our Special category policy provides further information about the processing of special category data.

If you would like to know more about the processing or reasons we are using your personal data, please contact the House of Commons Recruitment Team on 020 7219 6011 in the first instance. Details about the lawful basis for processing personal data can be found on the Information Commissioner’s website.

Who we share your personal data with

We will only share your personal data where there is a lawful basis for doing so. We will never share or sell your personal data to other organisations for their direct marketing purposes.

Some anonymised/pseudonymised or statistical information (including protected characteristic data/special category data on occasion) may be used and shared with managers and boards to improve our services and/or support our employment and recruitment practices.

We share your data with suppliers of our recruitment software to manage recruitment campaigns and with third-party testing providers for the purpose of carrying out evaluation and testing of your suitability for a job.

We may also share your data with trusted partners or other organisations we are running recruitment campaigns on behalf of for the purposes of secondments, placements and joint working ventures. Where this is the case, the job description will specify who those parties are. We may also share your data e.g. shortlisting or interviewing feedback with any third parties who we have engaged to carry out a recruitment process on our behalf.

Occasionally, we may invite an external practitioner or subject expert to join an interview panel. Where this is the case, your personal data will be shared with that individual as part of the recruitment process and your invite to interview notification will specify who the interview panel members are.

We may also share your personal data when there is a legal requirement to do so, for example with the Police or similar organisations for the prevention and detection of crime or security purposes.

Security and retention of your personal data

We take the security of your data seriously. All personal data you provide to us will be stored securely, both physically and electronically, in accordance with our policies. We have an information security process in place to oversee the effective and secure processing of your personal data.

Some personal data controlled by us are held outside the UK. These data are predominantly held in data centres within the European Economic Area (EEA), for the purpose of hosting and maintenance. Regulations under section 17A of the DPA 2018 specify that all countries within the EEA are regarded as providing an adequate level of data protection. If personal data are transferred to a country outside the UK or EEA, the adequacy of that country and the organisations and systems processing the data is assessed to ensure that appropriate safeguards are in place.

The House of Commons and the Parliamentary Digital Service, and any third-party processors, organisations or partners working our behalf, will retain your personal data for as long as is necessary for the purpose it was collected:

• Following an offer of employment, all personal data will be retained for a period of three years after the completion of the recruitment process.
• If you are not made an offer, or you reject an offer, we will keep your personal data for a period of three years after the end of recruitment process to allow for any recruitment queries, employment tribunals or other legal challenges.
•  The data retained is used to report on the historical performance of our recruitment process.
•  For the purposes of voluntary surveys and feedback, only anonymised data will be used. Records will be kept in accordance with Parliament's Authorised Records Disposal Practice (ARDP) and used as appropriate.

Your rights

We will ensure you can exercise your rights in relation to the personal data you provide to us, for example:

• Where we are relying on your consent to use your personal data, you can withdraw that consent by contacting the House of Commons Recruitment Team on 020 7219 6011 in the first instance.
• You can request access to the personal data we hold about you by contacting the Data Protection Officer.
• You can ask us to update your personal data if it changes.
• In certain circumstances, you can request we erase the personal data we hold or ask us to stop or restrict processing if you have an objection.

What if you do not provide your data?

The recruitment and onboarding process is a specific circumstance in which we rely on your personal data to facilitate services to you. Surveys and feedback are optional and will not affect the recruitment and onboarding process if you choose not to take part.

Right to complain

If you are unhappy with the processing of your personal data, you should contact the Data Protection Officer in the first instance. You also have the right to complain to the supervisory authority if you consider that your data protection rights have been breached. The supervisory authority is the Information Commissioner’s Office, Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow, Cheshire, SK9 5AF.

Further details about your rights and the complaints process can be found on the Information Commissioner’s website.