Privacy Notice

Recruitment services are provided by Human Resources (HR & OD). These services include the following:

  • Processing any applications for employment
  • Providing the BCP Council jobs website for advertising job opportunities and accepting online applications
  • Temporary staffing schemes

This document explains how your information will be held about you and processed by HR & OD.

We use computer databases to process and store your information. These databases are located in the UK and are held securely in a password-protected environment. Only authorised officers have access to the databases.

This document contains information about:

  • Who we are
  • Why we collect your personal information
  • The legal basis for using your information
  • Who we may share your information with
  • How you can access the information we hold about you
  • How long we keep information about you
  • Further information and Data Protection Officer


Who we are

BCP Council will be the Data Controller for the personal information you provide. Personal information can be anything that identifies and relates to a living person. This could be your name and contact details. As the Data Controller Borough of Poole will use your information to provide you with our services.

Why we collect your personal information

We will collect enough personal information in order to provide you with services for the following purposes.

1. Processing an application for employment and associated pre-employment checks

We will collect your information to process your application(s) to any job applied to via the this website or any job application made directly to the council in another format. This information will be used to consider your application for the advertised role and to contact you about your job application. If you are successful in your application this information will be used to create and maintain your employment record.

The data may include your name, age, address, e-mail address, your employment history, education history and other relevant information. This may also include sensitive personal information if you choose to provide it. Sensitive personal information will not be used for any other purpose than equality and diversity monitoring purposes.

2. Use of BCP Council jobs website

This website may be used to store your personal and employment information securely in an online account to more easily apply for future roles advertised on the website. You are in control of this information and may delete the information we store by logging into your online account.

You may also choose to receive job alerts by email to notify you of advertised jobs that meet your specified requirements.

We automatically collect statistical data about usage patterns on our website using Google Analytics. The information does not relate to you as an individual and cannot be used to identify you. It is collected to provide us with an understanding of the areas of interest on our website.

3. Temporary Staffing schemes

Your information will be maintained on a database for the purpose of matching you with available work placements with BCP Council or in some cases with another organisation. If we have an opportunity for you to work for a third party organisation then we will contact you to obtain your consent before we share your information with another organisation.

We are not permitted to collect information we do not need or will not use. This document covers information you have provided direct to the Council and information which has been shared with us by other organisations.

If we don’t need your personal information we will either keep your details anonymous, if we already have it for another service or we won’t ask you for it. If we use your personal information for research or analysis, we will always keep your details anonymous or use a fake name.

We don’t sell your personal information to anyone else.

The legal basis for using your information 

According to the General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR) and the Data Protection Act 1998, we must have a reason to collect and use your information.

This will be:-

  • To deliver services and support you
  • To enable us to manage the services we provide
  • To train and manage our workers who deliver those services
  • To investigate any worries or complaints you may have about our goods or services
  • To check the quality of our goods and services
  • To help with research and planning of new services.

There are a number of legal reasons why we need to collect and use your personal information. For this service one or more of the following may apply:

(i) Contract: you have entered into a contract with us.

(v) Consent: you, or your legal representative, have given explicit consent.

Our service also needs to use sensitive personal data also called “special category data” which requires more protection to keep it safe. This is often information you would not want to be widely known and is very personal to you. It includes:-

  • Sexuality or sexual heath
  • Religious or spiritual or philosophical beliefs
  • Ethnicity
  • Physical or mental health
  • Trade union membership
  • Policital opinions
  • Genetic or biometric data
  • Criminal history

We will take extra care of this data. The legal reason for us to collect and use this personal information is:

a) it is necessary to perform our statutory duties or it is required by law and it is necessary for employment purposes.

Who we may share your information with

We use a range of organisations to either store personal information or to help deliver our services to you. Sometimes we have a legal duty to provide your personal information to other organisations, for example the court service or HMRC.

We may share your information with other council departments – to a recruiting manager or their authorised representative(s) to assess your job application

If you apply to a job advertised on behalf of a third party organisation then the information provided as part of your application form will be shared with this organisation. These organisations may include but are not limited to schools, academies, or other local authorities. The job advertisement will clearly state which organisation will be the employer.

We may also share your personal information with these organisations if conducting pre-employment checks ahead of your employment:

  • People Asset Management
  • Atlantic Data Ltd
  • Disclosure and Barring Service

We may apply to third party organisations specified by you on your application form for the purpose of seeking previous employers’ references. This will only include sufficient personal information for the organisation to be able to identify you (name, national insurance number and/or date of birth).

If you become an employee then your information will be processed as detailed on the HR Privacy Notice supplied with your contract of employment and available on the staff intranet.

Your information will not be disclosed to any other organisations, except where we are required and allowed to by law.

Accessing the information we hold about you

You have the right to request, in writing, details of the information that is held about you and also the right to access a copy of the information. This may be by the Council providing copies of documents or by inviting you to view the records at one of its offices, if appropriate. Please see our webpage for further information about how to make a subject access request.

BCP Council will not charge you a fee to access your information. Sometimes there may be information that we are not allowed to show you, such as

  • legal information or advice
  • crime prevention and detection records
  • information that we believe may be harmful to you and your well-being
  • details about or provided by other people – this is called third party information (e.g. information from the Police or Department for Work & Pensions)

You may also ask us to

  • stop processing your information if this causes or might cause damage or distress
  • stop processing your information for direct marketing
  • make decisions about you using your information by automated means (e.g. using computers to decide on an entitlement)
  • amend any of your data which you feel is inaccurate. You can also ask for information to be blocked, erased or destroyed.
  • transfer your information electronically to another service provider.
  • consider a claim for compensation for any damages caused by a breach of the Data Protection regulations.

If you give consent for us to use your information, you may withdraw this at any time. However, this may affect our ability to continue to provide you with a service.

How long we keep information about you

For successful applicants, we keep records and documentation for six years after your employment has ended. We have to keep some of your information for longer periods to comply with the law. Details of retention periods for different aspects of your personal information are available in our retention policy which is available to employees on the staff intranet.

For unsuccessful candidates, application forms and other personal information will be retained for 6 months from the date of the employment decision.

Your account on this website will hold any information you choose to store on your account until such time as you delete it or ask us to delete it. Our recruitment system will send an email to you shortly before the anniversary of the creation of the account, advising that your account will be deleted if you do not confirm you wish us to continue holding your information.

Temporary Staffing schemes - after you have provided us with your information this will be held for one year. If at this point you do not renew your consent then we will stop holding your information. If you take up a work placement then your information will be processed as an employee as detailed on the employee intranet.

Further information

If you have a concern about how we are using your information, we would ask you to contact us in the first instance using the address below:

HR & OD
Bournemouth Borough Council
Town Hall
Bournemouth
BH2 6DY

Data Protection Officer

If you are not satisfied with a response to your concerns from the Service, our Data Protection Officer Vivian Bateman, can review any issues regarding Information Rights legislation if necessary. The Data Protection Officer can be contacted at the address below:

Data Protection Officer
Bournemouth & Poole Information Governance Team
Bournemouth Borough Council
Town Hall
Bournemouth
BH2 6DY

Information Commissioner

For further information about Information Rights legislation, please contact the Information Commissioner’s Office at www.ico.org.uk or by telephone 0303 123 1113.