Guidance

Job applicant personal information

Published 21 May 2018

Applies to England and Wales

1. What personal data we collect

As a job applicant, we collect information about you, which 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, including benefit entitlements
• whether or not you have a disability for which HM Land Registry needs to make reasonable adjustments during the recruitment process
• information about your entitlement to work in the UK
• equal opportunities monitoring information, including information about your ethnic origin, sexual orientation, health and religion or belief

2. How data is collected and stored

We may collect information from:

• your application form
• your CV
• your passport or other identity documents
• interviews or other forms of assessment, including online tests

We may also collect personal data about you from third parties, such as references supplied by former employers and information from criminal records checks. We will only seek information from third parties once a job offer to you has been made.

The places where your data will be stored include:

• your application record
• HR management systems
• other IT systems (including email)

3. Why we need to process personal data

We need to process data to take steps at your request prior to entering into a contract with you. We may also need to process your data to enter into a contract with you.

In some cases, we need to process data to ensure that we are complying with our legal obligations. For example, we are required to check a successful applicant’s eligibility to work in the UK before employment starts.

We have a legitimate interest in processing personal data during the recruitment process and for keeping records of the process. Processing data from job applicants allows us to manage the recruitment process, assess and confirm a candidate’s suitability for employment and decide to whom to offer a job. We may also need to process data from job applicants to respond to and defend against legal claims.

We may process information about whether or not applicants are disabled to make reasonable adjustments for candidates who have a disability. This is to carry out our obligations and exercise specific rights in relation to employment.

Where we process other special categories of data, such as information about ethnic origin, sexual orientation, health or religion or belief, this is for equal opportunities monitoring purposes.

For some roles, we must seek information about criminal convictions and offences. This is because it is necessary for us to carry out our obligations and exercise specific rights in relation to employment.

If your application is unsuccessful, we may keep your personal data on file in case there are future employment opportunities for which you may be suited. We will ask for your consent before we keep your data for this purpose and you are free to withdraw your consent at any time.

4. Access to your data

Your information may be shared internally for the purposes of the recruitment exercise. This includes members of the HR and recruitment 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.

We will not share your data with third parties, unless your application for employment is successful and it makes you an offer of employment. We will then share your data with former employers to get references for you, and the Disclosure and Barring Service for criminal records checks.

We will not transfer your data outside the European Economic Area.

5. How we protect your data

We take the security of your data seriously. We have 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.

6. How long we keep your data

If your application for employment is unsuccessful, we will hold your data on file for 2 years after the end of the relevant recruitment process. At the end of that period, your data is deleted or destroyed.

If your application for employment is successful, personal data gathered during the recruitment process will be transferred to your personnel file and retained during your employment. The periods for which your data will be held will be available to you in a new personal information notice.

7. Your rights

As a data subject, you can:

• access and obtain a copy of your data on request
• require us to change incorrect or incomplete data
• require us to delete or stop processing your data, for example where the data is no longer necessary for the purposes of processing
• object to the processing of your data where we are relying on its legitimate interests as the legal ground for processing

To exercise your rights under the Data Protection Act 2018 please contact our Data Protection Officer

Data protection

Data Protection Officer
Trafalgar House
1 Bedford Park
Croydon
CR0 2AQ

Email dataprotection@landregistry.gov.uk

If you believe that HM Land Registry has not complied with your data protection rights, you can complain to the Information Commissioner.

You are under no statutory or contractual obligation to provide data to us during the recruitment process. However, if you do not provide the information, we may not be able to process your application properly, or at all.

8. Automated decision-making

Some of our recruitment processes are based solely on automated decision-making. Part of the online application process is automated, and your application can be rejected for several reasons without any human involvement in the decision. This part of the process requires you to demonstrate you have the right to work in the UK and that you meet the qualification requirement of the role. Your application may also be auto-rejected if you don’t meet the required pass mark in an online ability or situational judgement test.