How the Department for Exiting the European Union Handles HR and Finance Personal Information
HR and Finance Personal Information
Documents
Details
The Department for Exiting the European Union is a “data controller”. This means that we are responsible for deciding how we hold and use personal information about you. We are required under data protection legislation to notify you of the information contained in this privacy notice.
This notice applies to applicant, current and former employees, workers and contractors. This notice does not form part of any contract of employment or other contract to provide services. This notice can be updated at any time and we will inform you if this occurs.
It is important that you read this notice, together with any other privacy notice that is provided on specific occasions when we are collecting or processing personal information about you, so that you are aware of how and why we are using such information.
Data protection principles
We will comply with data protection law. This says that the personal information we hold about you must be:
- Used lawfully, fairly and in a transparent way.
- Collected only for valid purposes that we have clearly explained to you and not used in any way that is incompatible with those purposes.
- Relevant to the purposes we have told you about and limited only to those purposes.
- Accurate and kept up to date.
- Kept only as long as necessary for the purposes we have told you about.
- Kept securely.
The kind of information we hold about you
Personal data, or personal information, means any information about an individual from which that person can be identified. It does not include data where the identity has been removed (anonymous data).
There are “special categories” of more sensitive personal data which require a higher level of protection. We collect, store, and use the following categories of personal information about you:
When you apply for a job with us
- Personal contact details such as name, title, addresses, telephone numbers, and personal email addresses
- Copy of driving licence, passport, birth and marriage certificates, decree absolute
- Evidence of how you meet the Civil Service nationality rules and confirmation of your security clearance. This can include passport details, nationality details and information about convictions/allegations of criminal behaviour
- Evidence of your right to work in the UK/immigration status
- Diversity monitoring information: information about your race or ethnicity, religious beliefs, sexual orientation and political opinions
- Information about criminal convictions/allegations and offences as part of Baseline Personnel Security Standard checks
When you are employed by us
- Dates of birth, marriage and divorce
- Gender
- Marital status and dependants
- Next of kin, emergency contact and death benefit nominee(s) information
- National Insurance number
- Bank account details, payroll records and tax status information
- Salary, annual leave, pension and benefits information (including state and occupational pension retirement age, and current/previous pension scheme details)
- Wage related information including allowances, overtime payments, bonuses and miscellaneous payments
- Start date and leaving date
- Location of employment or workplace
- Recruitment information (including copies of right to work documentation, references and other information included in a CV or cover letter or as part of the application process)
- Full employment records for Civil Service employment (including contract, terms and conditions, grade, job titles, work history, working hours, promotion, absences, attendances, training records and professional memberships)
- Compensation history
- Performance and appraisal information
- Talent and appraisal information
- Talent scheme membership
- Disciplinary, investigation, whistleblowing and grievance information
- Secondary employment and volunteering information, including information on staff who volunteer with HR improvement initiatives
- Information on corporate role you hold within the organisation
- Information on learning and development, training, and professional development undertaken
- Information about your health, including any medical condition, health and sickness records
How is your personal information collected?
We typically collect personal information about prospective employees, employees, workers and contractors through the application and recruitment process, either directly from candidates or sometimes from a third party such as an employment agency or background check provider. These third parties include:
- former employers
- credit reference agencies
- Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS)
- other background check agencies
- other Government Departments
- pensions administrators
- medical and occupational health professionals
- professionals who advise the department generally and/or in relation to any grievance, conduct appraisal or performance review procedure
The legal basis for our collecting, using and holding your data
When you apply for a job with us the legal basis for processing your data is is necessary in order to take steps at your request prior to entering into a contract. This concerns receiving your application for employment or pre-employment checks.
It is a legal obligation placed on us to check you are legally entitled to work in the UK.
Processing is necessary for the performance of a task carried out in the public interest or in the exercise of official authority vested in the data controller. In this case that is carrying out National Security vetting for required roles.
When you are employed by us, the legal basis for processing your personal data is necessary for the performance of a contract to which you are a party.
This concerns paying you and, if you are an employee, deducting tax and National Insurance contributions. Providing employment-related benefits to you including:
- Occupational Sick, Adoption, Maternity, Paternity, Shared Parental and Annual leave and pay (including payslips)
- Pension
- Advances of salary
- Season ticket loans
- Childcare vouchers
- Reward vouchers and bonuses
It also concerns:
- liaising with your pension provider, providing information about changes to your employment such as promotions, changing in working hours
- general administration of the contract we have entered into with you
- conducting performance and talent reviews, managing performance and determining performance requirements
- managing sickness absence
- making decisions about salary reviews and compensation
- assessing qualifications for a particular job or task, including decisions about promotions
- gathering evidence and any other steps relating to possible grievance, investigations, whistleblowing or * disciplinary matters and associated hearings
- making decisions about your continued employment or engagement
- making arrangements for the termination of our working relationship
- providing you with education, training and development requirements
- processing bank cards and ePurchasing Card Solution (ePCS) applications
- corporate credit card management
- stationery order processing
- processing taxi bookings, business travels and hotel accommodation
Processing is necessary for the performance of a task carried out in the public interest or in the exercise of official authority vested in the data controller. This concerns providing information to enable overall management of the Civil Service, monitoring equality of opportunity in line with our Public Sector Equality Duty, transparency duties, and to prevent fraud.
It is necessary to comply with a legal obligation placed on us as the data controller. This concerns providing tax and salary information to HMRC, and dealing with legal disputes involving you, or other employees, workers and contractors, including accidents at work.
When you cease to be employed by us
The legal basis for processing your personal data is necessary for the performance of a contract to which you are a party. This concerns continuing obligations to pay pensions and death benefit, and processing exits from the organisation including redundancy and ill health retirement.
The legal basis for collecting, using and holding sensitive and criminal convictions personal information Sensitive personal data is personal data revealing racial or ethnic origin, political opinions, religious or philosophical beliefs, or trade union membership, and the processing of genetic data, biometric data for the purpose of uniquely identifying a natural person, data concerning health or data concerning a natural person’s sex life or sexual orientation.
When you apply for a job
The legal basis for processing your sensitive personal data and criminal convictions data where it is necessary for reasons of substantial public interest for the exercise of our functions. This concerns information about criminal convictions/allegations and offences to conduct baseline security clearance checks.
When you are employed by us
The legal basis for processing your sensitive personal data where it relates to our, or your, employment-related legal rights, including processing health data to make reasonable adjustments. This also concerns:
- information relating to leaves of absence; this can include sickness absence or family related leave, to comply with employment and other laws.
- where it is needed to assess your working capacity on health grounds, subject to appropriate confidentiality safeguards
Where it is necessary for the purposes of identifying or keeping under review the existence or absence of equality of opportunity or treatment between groups of people. This is why we collect information about your race or national or ethnic origin, religious beliefs, or your sexual orientation, to ensure meaningful equal opportunity monitoring and reporting.
Where it is necessary for reasons of substantial public interest for the exercise of our functions. This concerns information about criminal convictions/allegations that disclose to us.
It is necessary for the establishment, exercise or defence of legal claims, for example to deal with employment tribunal cases.
Do we need your consent?
We do not need your consent if we use your personal information for one of the other reasons outlined above. Where we do ask for your consent in future, you will be given information at the same time about what we intend to do with it (with your permission).
Data sharing
We will in some circumstances have to share your data with third parties, including third-party service providers, external auditors, internal auditors and other Civil Service bodies.
We require third parties to respect the security of your data and to treat it in accordance with the law.
We will in some circumstances transfer your personal information outside the EU.
If we do, you can expect a similar degree of protection in respect of your personal information.
Why might you share my personal information with third parties?
We will share your personal information with third parties where required by law, where it is necessary to administer the working relationship with you; where it is in the public interest to do so or where it is necessary for the performance of our functions as a Government Department or a function of the Crown. This will, in some circumstances, involve sharing special categories of personal data and, where relevant, data about criminal convictions or allegations.
Which third-party service providers process my personal information?
“Third parties” includes third-party service providers (including contractors and designated agents) and other entities within the Civil Service. The following activities are carried out by our third-party service providers:
- Payroll (Shared Service Connected Ltd)
- Pensions administration (My CSP)
- Benefits provisions (Edenred)
- Recruitment administration
- Occupational Health provisions (OH Assist)
- Workplace Adjustment provisions (Civil Service Workplace Adjustments Team)
- Casework provisions (MoJ Casework)
- Travel booking (Clarity)
- Oleeo (Recruitment)
- BeApplied (Recruitment)
- Statutory duties in respect of compliance, complaints and investigation (Civil Service Commission), advice under the Business Appointment Rules (Advisory Committee on Business Appointments), and casework in compliance with the Government Code for Public Appointments (Office of the Commissioner for Public Appointments)
How secure is my information with third-party service providers?
All our third-party service providers are required to take appropriate security measures to protect your personal information in line with our policies. We do not allow our third-party service providers to use your personal data for their own purposes. We only permit them to process your personal data for specified purposes and in accordance with our instructions.
When might you share my personal information with other organisations within the Civil Service?
We will share your personal information with other Civil Service organisations as part of our regular reporting activities on departmental performance, in the context of a business reorganisation or restructuring exercise, for system maintenance support and hosting of data; business planning or talent management initiatives, succession planning, publication of transparency data, statistical analysis; and general management and functioning of the Civil Service, including the development and continued work of the Civil Service Professions. Personal data is also shared with the Office for National Statistics, mainly for statistical purposes.
What about other third parties?
If required, we will need to share your personal information with a regulator or National Audit Office, or to otherwise comply with the law.
Transferring information outside the EU
As your personal data is stored on our IT infrastructure, and shared with our data processors, it may be transferred and stored securely outside the European Economic Area. Where that is the case it will be subject to equivalent legal protection through the use of Model Contract Clauses.
Some of your personal data may be processed offshore by our services provider, Shared Services Connected Limited (SSCL). SSCL use Centres of Excellence in the UK and in India to manage our back office services. Your personal data receives the same level of protection when processed offshore as it does onshore. This protection is delivered by the use of standard data protection clauses adopted by the European Commission, and used in their entirety in the contract with SSCL. A copy of the model contract clauses are published on the Commission website. More information on the offshoring process can be found on the Cabinet Office Intranet.
Data security
We have put in place measures to protect the security of your information. Details of these measures are available on the intranet.
Third parties will only process your personal information on our instructions and where they have agreed to treat the information confidentially and to keep it secure.
We have put in place appropriate security measures to prevent your personal information from being accidentally lost, used or accessed in an unauthorised way, altered or disclosed. In addition, we limit access to your personal information to those employees, agents, contractors and other third parties who have a business need to know.
We have put in place procedures to deal with any suspected data security breach and will notify you and any applicable regulator of a suspected breach where we are legally required to do so.
Data retention
How long will you use my information for?
We will only retain your personal information for as long as necessary to fulfil the purposes we collected it for, including for the purposes of satisfying any legal, accounting, or reporting requirements. Details of retention periods for different aspects of your personal information are available in our retention policy. To determine the appropriate retention period for personal data, we consider the amount, nature, and sensitivity of the personal data, the potential risk of harm from unauthorised use or disclosure of your personal data, the purposes for which we process your personal data and whether we can achieve those purposes through other means, and the applicable legal requirements.
In some circumstances we will anonymise your personal information so that it can no longer be associated with you, in which case we will use such information without further notice to you. Once you are no longer an employee, worker or contractor of the company we will retain and securely destroy your personal information in accordance with our data retention policy.
Rights of access, correction, erasure, and restriction
Your duty to inform us of changes
It is important that the personal information we hold about you is accurate and current. Please keep us informed if your personal information changes during your working relationship with us.
Your rights in connection with personal information
Under certain circumstances, by law you have the right to:
- request access to your personal information (commonly known as a “data subject access request”). This enables you to receive a copy of the personal information we hold about you and to check that we are lawfully processing it. It also allows you to request an electronic copy of any data you have provided in a structured, commonly used and machine-readable format
- request correction of the personal information that we hold about you. This enables you to have any incomplete or inaccurate information we hold about you corrected
- Request erasure of your personal information. This enables you to ask us to delete or remove personal information where there is no good reason for us continuing to process it. You also have the right to ask us to delete or remove your personal information where you have exercised your right to object to processing
- Object to processing of your personal information where we are relying on the legal basis that we are carrying out our public task (see ‘legal bases’)
- you also have the right to object where we are processing your personal information for direct marketing purposes (although we do not use it for that purpose)
- request the restriction of processing of your personal information. This enables you to ask us to suspend the processing of personal information about you, for example if you want us to establish its accuracy or the reason for processing it
If you want to review, verify, correct or request erasure of your personal information, object to the processing of your personal data, or request that we transfer a copy of your personal information to another party, please contact the HR Information Management mailbox at hr-im@cabinetoffice.gov.uk.
No fee usually required
You will not have to pay a fee to access your personal information (or to exercise any of the other rights). However, we are allowed under the law to charge a reasonable fee if your request for access is clearly unfounded or excessive. Alternatively, we can refuse to comply with the request in such circumstances.
What we need from you
We sometimes need to request specific information from you to help us confirm your identity and ensure your right to access the information (or to exercise any of your other rights). This is another appropriate security measure to ensure that personal information is not disclosed to any person who has no right to receive it.
Data Protection Officer
The Data Protection Officer provides independent advice and monitoring of The Department for Exiting the European Union’s use of personal information. If you have any concerns about how your personal data has been handled, please contact the DPO.
The contact details for the data controller’s Data Protection Officer are:
Stephen Jones Data Protection Officer Cabinet Office (DExEU) 70 Whitehall London SW1A 2AS dpo@cabinetoffice.gov.uk
Complaints
If you consider that your personal data has been misused or mishandled, you may make a complaint to the Information Commissioner, who is an independent regulator. The Information Commissioner can be contacted at:
Information Commissioner’s Office Wycliffe House Water Lane Wilmslow Cheshire SK9 5AF
0303 123 1113 casework@ico.org.uk
Any complaint to the Information Commissioner is without prejudice to your right to seek redress through the courts.
Data Controller
The data controller for your personal data is the Department for Exiting the European Union . If you have any questions about this privacy notice, please contact the Department for Exiting the European Union’s data protection team at dataprotection@dexeu.gov.uk.
Changes to this privacy notice
We reserve the right to update this privacy notice at any time, and we will provide you with a new privacy notice when we make any substantial updates. We will also notify you in other ways from time to time about the processing of your personal information.