About us
Norwich City Council is the data controller for HR and Learning and we have a statutory and legal requirement to collect and process employee’s personal data to manage and enable the employment relationship.
As part of any recruitment process, Norwich City Council collects and processes personal data relating to job applicants. The organisation is committed to being transparent about how it collects and uses that data and to meeting its data protection obligations.
You may contact our data protection and information security officer by emailing dataprotection@norwich.gov.uk or by calling 0344 980 3333.
What information does the council collect?
The council collects and processes a range of information about you, which includes:
- your name, address and contact details, including email address and telephone number, date of birth and sexual identification or gender reassignment
- details of your qualifications, skills, experience and employment history, including start and end dates, with previous employers and with the council
- information about your remuneration, including entitlement to benefits such as pensions
- details of your bank account and national insurance number
- information about your marital status, next of kin and emergency contacts
- information about your nationality and entitlement to work in the UK
- information about your criminal record in relation to unspent convictions or Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) checks
- details of your working pattern (days of work and working hours) and attendance at work
- details of periods of leave taken by you, including holiday, flex or TOIL, sickness absence, special leave and career breaks and the reasons for the leave
- details of any disciplinary or grievance procedures in which you have been involved, including any warnings issued to you and expectations set and related correspondence
- assessments of your performance, including appraisals, performance reviews and ratings, training you have participated in, performance improvement plans and related correspondence
- information about medical or health conditions, including whether or not you have a disability for which the council needs to make reasonable adjustments during the recruitment process or during your employment
- equal opportunities monitoring information, including information about your ethnic origin, sexual orientation, health and religion or belief
- personal data from third parties, such as references supplied by former employers and information from criminal records checks permitted by law
- the terms and conditions relating to your employment.
The council collects this information in a variety of ways. For example, data might be contained in application forms, obtained from your passport or other identity documents, or collected through interviews or other forms of assessment, and retained on personal files.
The council will hold your personal data for the duration of your employment. The periods for which your data is held after the end of employment are six years plus current the current year of leaving, with the exception of any disciplinary or grievance procedures which will held for the duration of any sanction issued. As stated in our retention schedule available on our website.
Recruitment data is held for a period of two years to enable recruitment monitoring.
Automated decision-making
Out recruitment processes are not normally based solely on automated decision-making. This only applies where there is an essential requirement for a job ie Do you have the right to work in the UK? The council may use prescreening questions to determine if applicants meet statutory requirements or hold essential qualifications before completing the full application form.
Why does the council process personal data?
The council 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.
In some cases, the council 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. For certain positions, it is necessary to carry out criminal records checks to ensure that individuals are permitted to undertake the role in question.
The council 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 the organisation to manage the recruitment process, assess and confirm a candidate's suitability for employment and decide who to appoint. The organisation may also need to process data from job applicants to respond to and defend against legal claims.
Where the organisation 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 job applicants, employees or workers and has concluded that they are not.
The council needs to process data to enter into an employment contract with you and to meet its obligations in accordance with this. For example, it needs to process your data to provide you with an employment contract, to pay you in accordance with your employment contract and to administer salary sacrifice arrangements, pension and national insurance payments.
The council needs to process data to ensure that it is complying with its legal obligations. We are required to comply with health and safety laws and to enable employees to take periods of leave to which they are entitled.
In other cases, the council has a legitimate interest in processing personal data before, during and after the end of the employment relationship. Processing employee data allows the council to:
- run recruitment and promotion processes
- maintain accurate and up-to-date employment records and contact details (including details of who to contact in the event of an emergency), and records of employee contractual and statutory rights or entitlements
- operate and keep a record of disciplinary and grievance processes, to ensure acceptable conduct within the workplace and consistent application of policies
- operate and keep a record of employee performance and related processes, to plan for career development, and for succession planning and workforce management purposes
- operate and keep a record of absence and absence management procedures, to allow effective workforce management and ensure that employees are receiving the pay or other benefits to which they are entitled
- obtain occupational health advice, to ensure that it complies with duties in relation to individuals with disabilities, meet its obligations under health and safety law, and ensure that employees are receiving the pay or other benefits to which they are entitled
- operate and keep a record of other types of leave (including maternity, paternity, adoption, parental and shared parental leave), to allow effective workforce management, to ensure that the council complies with duties in relation to leave entitlement, and to ensure that employees are receiving the pay or other benefits to which they are entitled
- ensure effective general HR and business administration
- provide references on request for current or former employees
- respond to and defend against legal claims
- maintain and promote equality in the workplace.
Where the council 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.
Some special categories of personal data, such as information about health or medical conditions, are processed to carry out employment law obligations (such as those in relation to employees with disabilities and for health and safety purposes).
Where the council processes other special categories of personal data, such as information about ethnic origin, sexual orientation, health or religion or belief, this is done for the purposes of equal opportunities monitoring.
What are your rights?
As a data subject, you have the right to request access to your information to your personal information to:
- ask for errors to be corrected
- restrict how information is used
- object to how it is processed
- request that your data is deleted.
You also have the right to lodge a complaint with the Information Commissioner's Office if you are not happy with how your data is processed.
What are the consequences of not providing personal data?
You have some obligations under your employment contract to provide the council with data. In particular, you are required to report absences from work and may be required to provide information about disciplinary or other matters under the implied duty of good faith. You may also have to provide the council with data in order to exercise your statutory and contractual rights, for example annual leave entitlements. Failing to provide the data may mean that you are unable to exercise your statutory rights.
Certain information, such as contact details, your right to work in the UK and payment details, have to be provided to enable the council to enter a contract of employment with you. If you do not provide other information, this will hinder the council's ability to administer the rights and obligations arising as a result of the employment relationship efficiently.
How will we share your data?
Your information will be shared internally, including with members of the HR and learning team, your line manager, managers in the business area in which you work and IT staff only if access to the data is necessary for performance of their roles.
The organisation will not share your data with third parties, unless your application for employment is successful and it makes you an offer of employment, this is explained below.
The council shares your data with third parties in order to obtain necessary criminal records checks from the Disclosure and Barring Service and Disclosure Scotland.
The council also shares your data with third parties that process data on its behalf to run payroll, process pensions and obtain occupational health advice.
Apart from where previously stated, we do not pass your details to third parties unless we are lawfully able to do so for the prevention and detection of crime and fraud, or for the collection of taxes. The council will not transfer your data to countries outside the European Economic Area.
How does the organisation protect data?
Data will be stored in a range of different places, including on your application record, in HR management and filing systems and on other IT systems (including email).
The organisation 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. System access restrictions are in place to ensure personal data can only be accessed by the appropriate parties.
