QMU Recruitment Privacy Notice

Introduction - What is this notice

This is the ‘Recruitment Privacy Notice’ of Queen Margaret University. Our contact details are: HR Department Email Address

This notice applies to individuals applying to work with us, including prospective employees, workers and contractors.

We are a data ‘controller’, which means we are responsible for deciding how we hold and use your personal information.

This notice explains how and why we will collect and use your personal information in the context of the recruitment process and your rights in relation to your personal information. We may amend this notice at any time.

Data protection queries

If you have any questions about this privacy notice or how we handle your personal information please contact the HR department. They can be contacted via HR Department Email Address The University also has a Data Protection Officer, Irene Hynd, University Secretary (May/June 2018) and Lorraine Kerr, Legal Adviser and DPO (from July 2018).

Your personal information

In this privacy notice, ‘your personal information’ means your personal data i.e. information about you from which you can be identified. The table at section 6 below lists your personal information that we may process.

Your ‘personal information’ does not include data where the identity has been removed (anonymous data).

It is important that your personal information is accurate and up to date. Please inform us if your personal information changes during the recruitment process.

Special categories of personal information

‘Special categories of personal information’ means information about your racial or ethnic origin; political opinions; religious or philosophical beliefs; trade union membership; health; sex life or sexual orientation; criminal convictions, offences or alleged offences; genetic data; or biometric data for the purpose of uniquely identifying you.

Data marked * in the table at section 6 below falls within these ‘special categories’ or might disclose special categories of personal information. We must have additional legal grounds for processing special categories of personal information, and these grounds are set out in the table at section 6 below.

Where does your personal information come from?

Your personal information will come from you or us, and may also come from the following sources:

Recruitment agencies may provide us with the following personal information, CV and contact information
Background check providers may provide us with the following personal information, records of any unspent criminal convictions and/or whether you are registered on a list of individuals barred from working with children and/or protected adults
Former employers or other referees, whom you have given us permission to contact, may provide us with the following personal information, dates of previous employment, final salary, reason for leaving, and information relating to sickness and/or disciplinary issues
Medical professionals may provide us with the following personal information, details of any medical conditions which may require workplace adjustments
Relevant professional bodies may provide us with information relating to your membership of the professional body, such as, dates of membership (including expiry date) and level of membership.

If you would like more information on the source of your personal information please contact the HR department via HR Department Email Address

Processing your personal information

We may process your personal information during and after the recruitment process. This may include collecting your personal information, recording it, storing it, using it, amending it, destroying it and, in some circumstances, disclosing it.

In general, we process your personal information for the reasons, and on the legal grounds set out in the following table, and also to:

Retain records relating to the recruitment process;
Establish, exercise or defend legal claims;
Comply with the law or requirements of a regulator; and / or
Protect your vital interests or those of another person (in exceptional circumstances, such as a medical emergency).

Reason for Processing your Personal Infomation	Legal ground(s) for processing, and legitimate interest (where applicable)	Your personal information
Contact you regarding the recruitment process and any offer of work	To enter a contract	Personal contact details (including name, address, email, telephone number)
Make a decision about your recruitment or appointment, including assessing your skills, qualifications and suitability for the work	To enter a contract To comply with a legal obligation For our legitimate interests: to select suitable employees, workers and contractors	Your application form, CV, any covering letter or email, and interview notes Results of the following recruitment tests: Ability Tests/Psychometric Tests
If you have accepted an offer of work from us that is subject to such checks: Take up references (from referees whom you have given us permission to contact); Carry out background checks; [Carry out credit checks;] and / or Confirm your professional memberships, registrations and / or qualifications.	To enter a contract To comply with a legal obligation For our legitimate interests: to select suitable employees, workers and contractors	References and details of previous employers Professional memberships, registrations and qualifications Copy of your driving licence (only for roles that include driving) Correspondence and results regarding the following background checks: PVG
Determine the terms of any potential contract between you and us	To enter a contract To comply with a legal obligation	Offer letter, and proposed contract between you and us
If you have accepted an offer of work, check you are legally entitled to work in the UK	To enter a contract To comply with a legal obligation	Documentation confirming your right to work in the UK
Establish whether you can undergo an assessment which forms part of the application process Consider reasonable adjustments to the recruitment process for disabled applicants	To enter a contract To comply with a legal obligation For our legitimate interests: To select suitable employees, workers and contractors *For special categories of information: To exercise or perform employment law rights or obligations	Information about a disability, the effects of that disability, and special arrangements that may need to be made to the recruitment process as a result of that disability*
Establish whether you are eligible for our guaranteed interview scheme for disabled applicants	To enter a contract For our legitimate interests: To select suitable employees, workers and contractors *For special categories of information: To exercise or perform employment law rights or obligations To review equality of opportunity or treatment	Information about your disability status*
Establish whether you will be able to carry out a function that is intrinsic to the particular work If you have accepted an offer of work from us that is subject to such a check: assess your	To enter a contract To comply with a legal obligation For our legitimate interests: To select suitable employees, workers and contractors *For special categories of information:	Health data and sickness records, including disability information*
fitness to work via a health questionnaire or medical report	To exercise or perform employment law rights or obligations For the purposes of preventive or occupational medicine, or for the assessment of your working capacity
Carry out equal opportunities monitoring	For our legitimate interests: To review equality of opportunity or treatment *For special categories of information: To review equality of opportunity or treatment To exercise or perform employment law rights or obligations	The following information you have provided via our equal opportunities monitoring form: Health data, including disability information* Information regarding pregnancy and maternity* Age and date of birth Marriage or civil partnership status* Gender Information on gender reassignment* Data revealing race, religious beliefs or sexual orientation*

Information about criminal convictions

To enable us to make recruitment decisions and assess suitability for particular work, we will process information about criminal convictions and offences (including alleged offences) as described in this section 7.

We will process this information to enter a contract with you, to comply with a legal obligation, for our legitimate interests (in selecting suitable employees, workers and contractors), and to exercise or perform employment law rights or obligations.

Any offer of work from us in respect of the following roles will be subject to a satisfactory criminal record check:

Roles involving ‘regulated work’ we are legally required by the Protection of Vulnerable Groups Act (Scotland) 2007 to carry out or asking you for a PVG check;
All Roles: All roles require a basic disclosure check as it is in the legitimate interests of the public.

Data necessary for the contract

The table at section 6 above identifies personal information that we may need to enter a contract with you. If you don’t provide this data, we may not be able to proceed with the recruitment process or enter into the contract.

Statutory requirement to provide your personal information

In some circumstances, the provision of your personal information is a statutory requirement. This includes:

Documentation confirming your right to work in the UK – if you don’t provide this, we may not be able to enter into a contract with you.
Documentation relating to professional registration where applicable – if you don’t provide this, we may not be able to enter a contract with you.
The information regarding criminal convictions described at section 7 above, where we have stated in section 7 that this is a statutory requirement.

Sharing your personal information with third parties

We may share your personal information with the following third parties if this is required by law; necessary to enter a contract with you; where there is another legitimate interest in doing so; or where it is necessary to protect your vital interests or those of another person:

Health professionals and occupational health providers involved in your care, for the purposes of considering reasonable adjustments to the recruitment process for disabled applicants; establishing whether you will be able to carry out a function that is intrinsic to the particular work; establishing whether you are eligible for our guaranteed interview scheme for disabled applicants; and / or assessing your fitness to work if you have accepted an offer of work from us that is subject to health checks.
Relevant regulators
Our professional advisors.
Other third parties as necessary to comply with the law.

Automated decision-making

We do not envisage taking any decisions about you based solely on automated processing (i.e. without human involvement), which have a legal or similarly significant effect on you.

Transferring your personal information outside the EU

We do not intend to transfer your personal information to any country outside of the EU, or to any international organisation.

Data retention

If you don’t start work with us following the recruitment process, we will retain your personal information for six months in hard copy and twelve months electronically to allow us to establish, exercise or defend legal claims.

If you start work with us following the recruitment process, we will direct you to a copy of our Employee Privacy Notice, and will retain your personal information as detailed in the Employee Privacy Notice.

Your rights

You have the following rights:

Access: you can request a copy of your personal information that we hold, and check we are processing it lawfully.

Correction: you can ask us to correct your personal information if you don’t think it is accurate, complete or up-to-date.
Deletion: you can ask us to delete your personal information, if:
- it is no longer necessary for the purposes for which we obtained it;
- you withdraw your consent, and we have no other legal basis for the processing; o you validly object to
- the processing as described below;
- we have unlawfully processed the data; or
- we must delete the data to comply with a legal obligation.

Objection: if we process your personal information to perform tasks carried out in the public interest or on the basis of legitimate interests, you can object to this processing on the basis of your particular situation. We will only then continue the processing if we have overriding legitimate grounds for this, or the processing is to establish, exercise or defend legal claims. You may also object if we process your personal information for direct marketing purposes
Restriction: you can ask us to restrict our processing of your personal information if:

- you contest the accuracy of the data (for a period that enables us to check it);
- our processing is unlawful, but you don’t want the data deleted;
- we no longer need the data, but you require it to establish, exercise or defend legal claims; or
- you have objected (as above) and are awaiting confirmation as to whether we have overriding legitimate grounds for processing.

Transfer: if our processing is based on your consent or necessary to carry out our contract with you, and is carried out by automated means, you can request a copy of the personal information you have provided to us and the transfer of this to someone else. Where technically feasible, you can ask us to transfer it directly.

Complain to the Information Commissioner: the Information Commissioner is the UK supervisory authority for data protection issues. We aim to resolve all complaints internally via our data protection officer who can be contacted as described at HR Department Email Address, but you do have the right to complain to the Information Commissioner at any time.