Introduction 

All organisations that process personal data are required to comply with data protection legislation.  This includes in particular the Data Protection Act 2018 (or its successor) and the UK General Data Protection Regulation (together the ‘Data Protection Laws’). The Data Protection Laws give individuals (known as ‘data subjects’) certain rights over their personal data while imposing certain obligations on the organisations that process their data.  

As a recruitment business the Company collects and processes both personal data and special categories of personal data.  In some cases, it is required to do so to comply with other legislation.  It is also required to keep this data for different periods depending on the nature of the data.    

This policy sets out how the Company implements the Data Protection Laws. It should be read in conjunction with the Data Protection Procedure. 

In this policy the following terms have the following meanings: 

‘consent’: means any freely given, specific, informed and unambiguous indication of the data subject’s wishes by which he or she, by a statement or by a clear affirmative action, signifies agreement to the processing of personal data relating to him or her; 

‘data controller’: means the natural or legal person, public authority, agency or other body which, alone or jointly with others, determines the purposes and means of processing of personal data; 

‘data processor’: means a natural or legal person, public authority, agency or other body which processes personal data on behalf of the controller; 

‘data subject’†: means the identified or identifiable living individual to whom personal data; 

‘personal data’*: means any information relating to an identified or identifiable natural persona (‘data subject’); an identifiable natural persona is one who can be identified, directly or indirectly, in particular by reference to an identifier such as a name, an identification number, location data, an online identifier or to one or more factors specific to the physical, physiological, genetic, mental, economic, cultural or social identity of that natural person; 

‘personal data breach’: means a breach of security leading to the accidental or unlawful destruction, loss, alteration, unauthorised disclosure of, or access to, personal data transmitted, stored or otherwise processed; 

‘processing’: means any operation or set of operations which is performed on personal data or on sets of personal data, whether or not by automated means, such as collection, recording, organisation, structuring, storage, adaption or alteration, retrieval, consultation, use, disclosure by transmission, dissemination or otherwise making available, alignment or combination, restriction, erasure or destruction; 

‘profiling’: means any form of automated processing of personal data consisting of the use of personal data to evaluate certain personal aspects relating to a natural person, in particular to analyse or predict aspects concerning that natural person’s performance at work, economic situation, health, personal preferences, interests, reliability, behaviour, location or movements; 

‘pseudonymisation’: means the processing of personal data in such a manner that the personal data can no longer be attributed to a specific data subject without the use of additional information, provided that such additional information is kept separately and is subject to technical and organisational measures to ensure that the personal data are not attributed to an identified or identifiable natural person; 

‘special categories of personal data’*: means the processing of 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 [See Note 1]; 

† For the purposes of this policy have used the term ‘individual’ to mean ‘data subject’. 

* For the purposes of this policy we use the term ‘personal data’ to include ‘special categories of personal data’ except where we specifically need to refer to special categories of personal data.  

The Company processes personal data in relation to its own staff, work-seekers and individual client contacts and is a data controller for the purposes of the Data Protection Laws. The Company has registered with the ICO and its registration number is ZB884096.  

The Company may hold personal data on individuals for the following purposes: 

• Staff administration; 

• Advertising, marketing and public relations Marketing…etc 

• Accounts and records; 

• Administration and processing of work-seekers’ personal data for the purposes of providing work-finding services, including processing using software solution providers and back office support  

• Administration and processing of clients’ personal data for the purposes of supplying/introducing work-seekers:  

4. The data protection principles   

The Data Protection Laws require the Company acting as either data controller or data processor to process data in accordance with the principles of data protection. These require that personal data is:  

8. Processed lawfully, fairly and in a transparent manner; 

9. Collected for specified, explicit and legitimate purposes and not further processed in a manner that is incompatible with those purposes; 

10. Adequate, relevant and limited to what is necessary in relation to the purposes for which they are processed; 

11. Accurate and, where necessary, kept up to date; every reasonable step must be taken to ensure that personal data that is  inaccurate, having regard to the purposes for which  it is processed, is erased or rectified without delay; 

12. Kept for no longer than is necessary for the purposes for which the personal data is processed; 

13. Processed in a manner that ensures appropriate security of the personal data, including protection against unauthorised or unlawful processing and against accidental loss, destruction or damage, using appropriate technical or organisational measures; and  

14. The data controller shall be responsible for, and be able to demonstrate, compliance with the data protection principles. 

5. Legal bases for processing 

The Company will only process personal data where it has a legal basis for doing so. Where the Company does not have a legal reason for processing personal data any processing will be a breach of the Data Protection Laws.  

The Company will review the personal data it holds on a regular basis to ensure it is being lawfully processed and it is accurate, relevant and up to date. Those people listed in page 12 shall be responsible for doing this. 

Before transferring personal data to any third party (such as past, current or prospective employers, suppliers, customers and clients, intermediaries such as umbrella companies, persons making an enquiry or complaint and any other third party (such as software solutions providers and back-office support)), the Company will establish that it has a lawful reason for making the transfer. 

6. Privacy by design and by default 

The Company has implemented measures and procedures that adequately protect the privacy of individuals and ensures that data protection is integral to all processing activities. This includes implementing measures such as: 

• data minimisation (i.e. not keeping data for longer than is necessary);  

• pseudonymisation;  

• anonymisation;  

• cyber security ; 

For further information please refer to the Company’s Information Security Policy.