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Human Resources - Privacy Notice

Who we are and what we do

We need certain information to progress your application to work and to fulfil the Council’s legal obligations as an employer.  

Our Human Resources (HR) service collects and processes personal data relating to its employees to manage the employment relationship. The organisation is committed to being transparent about how it collects and uses that data and to meeting its data protection obligations.

This notice explains why we ask for your personal information, how that information will be used and how you can access your records.

Cotswold District Council is a Data Controller and Data Processor for the purposes of the Data Protection Legislation (UK General Data Protection Regulation and the Data Protection Act 2018).

Any questions regarding our privacy practices should be sent to:

Data Protection Officer (DPO)

Cotswold District Council,
Trinity Road, Cirencester, GL7 1PX

Email: data.protection@cotswold.gov.uk

Tel: 01993 861194

Why we need your information and how we use it

The Council needs to process data to enter into an employment contract with you and to meet its obligations under your employment contract. 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, pension and benefit entitlements.

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 an employee's entitlement to work in the UK, to deduct tax, to comply with health and safety laws, to enable employees to take periods of leave to which they are entitled, and to consult with employee representatives if redundancies are proposed or a business transfer is to take place.

For certain positions, it is necessary to carry out criminal records checks to ensure that individuals are permitted to undertake the role in question. We will carry out checks every 3 years after commencement of employment.

Processing employee data allows the organisation 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;
  • operate and keep a record of disciplinary and grievance processes, to ensure acceptable conduct within the workplace;
  • 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 organisation 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;
  • conduct employee engagement
  • provide references on request for current or former employees;
  • respond to and defend against legal claims; and
  • 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.

Some special categories of personal data, such as information about health or medical conditions, is processed to carry out employment law obligations (such as those in relation to employees with disabilities and for health and safety purposes). Information about trade union membership is processed to allow the organisation to deduct union subscriptions.

Where the organisation 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.

Data that the organisation uses for these purposes is anonymised or is collected with the express consent of employees, which can be withdrawn at any time.

Employees are entirely free to decide whether or not to provide such data and there are no consequences of failing to do so.

What is the legal process for collecting and processing this data

We rely on a number of lawful bases for processing personal data. Primarily, our lawful basis is for the performance of the contract between us but in some cases we will process personal data where we are under a legal obligation to do so.

We also rely on legitimate interests in processing personal data (for example where we need to keep a record of employee performance, keep a record of grievance or disciplinary process, records of training, issuing ID cards and monitoring of systems or respond to or defend legal claims).

What type of information is collected from you

The Council collects and processes a range of information about you. This include:

  • your name, address and contact details, including email address and telephone number, date of birth and gender;
  • the terms and conditions of your employment;
  • details of your qualifications, education, skills, experience and employment history, including start and end dates, with previous employers and with the organisation;
  • information about your pay, including entitlement to benefits such as pensions;
  • details of your bank account and national insurance number;
  • information about your marital status, next of kin, dependants and emergency contacts;
  • information about your nationality and entitlement to work in the UK;
  • information about your criminal record;
  • details of your schedule (days of work and working hours) and attendance at work;
  • details of periods of leave taken by you, including holiday, sickness absence, family leave, 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 related correspondence;
  • assessments of your performance, including my performance conversations (where appropriate), training you have participated in, performance improvement plans (where appropriate) and related correspondence;
  • information about medical or health conditions, including whether or not you have a disability for which the organisation needs to make reasonable adjustments
  • details of trade union membership for payment deductions; and
  • equal opportunities monitoring information, including information about your age, sex, ethnic origin, sexual orientation, marriage status, gender reassignment, and religion or belief.

The Council collects this information in a variety of ways. For example, data is collected through application forms, CVs or resumes; obtained from your passport or other identity documents such as your driving licence; from forms completed by you at the start of or during employment (such as benefit nomination forms); from correspondence with you; or through interviews, meetings or other assessments.

In some cases, the organisation collects personal data about you from third parties, such as references supplied by former employers, information from employment background check providers, information from credit reference agencies and information from criminal records checks permitted by law.

Data is stored in a range of different places, including in your personnel file, in the organisation's HR management systems and in other IT systems including the organisation's email system.

Who your information may be shared with (internally and externally)

Your information will be shared internally with:

  • members of the HR team (including payroll)
  • your line manager
  • managers in the business area in which you work
  • IT staff if access to the data is necessary for performance of their roles.

Your data may also be shared with:

  • employee representatives in the context of collective consultation on a redundancy

This would be limited to the information needed for the purposes of consultation, such as your name, contact details, role and length of service.

The Council shares your data with third parties in order to:

  • obtain pre-employment references from other employers
  • obtain employment background checks from third-party providers
  • obtain necessary criminal records checks from the Disclosure and Barring Service

The Council also shares your data with third parties that process data on its behalf, in connection with:

  • payroll
  • the provision of benefits
  • the provision of occupational health services
  • the provision of pension services

Under the Local Government Act 1972 Section 117, a legal duty is imposed on all officers to make a disclosure of interests that are disclosable.

Automated decision-making

Employment decisions are not based on automated decision-making.

How long we keep your information (retention period)

If you are applying for a role and are unsuccessful, we will keep your data for 12 months, after which time it will be destroyed. If you decide that your data is to be removed from the system please e-mail HR@publicagroup.uk.

As an employee of the Council or one of our clients, we will keep your data for a minimum of 7 years after the end of your employment after which time it will be destroyed. More information on our corporate retention schedule can be found online.

How we protect your Information

We will not transfer your personal data outside the EU without your consent.

We have implemented generally accepted standards of technology and operational security in order to protect personal data from loss, misuse, or unauthorised alteration or destruction.  

Please note however that where you are transmitting information to us over the internet this can never be guaranteed to be 100% secure.  

We will notify you promptly in the event of any breach of your personal data which might expose you to serious risk.

Your rights 

You have rights under the Data Protection Legislations:

  • to access your personal data
  • to be provided with information about how your personal data is processed
  • to have your personal data corrected
  • to have your personal data erased in certain circumstances
  • to object to or restrict how your personal data is processed
  • to have your personal data transferred to yourself or to another business in certain circumstances
  • to be told if we have made a mistake whilst processing your data and we will self report breaches to the Commissioner.

How you can access, update or correct your information

The Data Protection law gives you the right to apply for a copy of information about yourself. This is called a ‘Subject Access Request'.

If you wish to see a copy of your records you should contact the Data Protection Officer. You are entitled to receive a copy of your records free of charge, within a month.

In certain circumstances access to your records may be limited, for example, if the records you have asked for contain information relating to another person.

The accuracy of your information is important to us to be able to provide relevant services more quickly. We are working to make our record keeping more efficient. In the meantime, if you change your address or email address, or if any of your circumstances change or any of the other information we hold is inaccurate or out of date please email us or write to us at:

Human Resources,

Cotswold District Council,
Trinity Road, Cirencester, GL7 1PX

Email: HR@publicagroup.uk

Further information

If you would like to know more about how the Council uses your information, or if for any reason you do not wish to have your information used in any of the ways described in this privacy notice, please contact the Data Protection Officer at data.protection@cotswold.gov.uk

For more information about data protection please visit: www.cotswold.gov.uk/about-the-council/council-data-and-access-to-information/data-protection  

If you are concerned about the way the Council is handling your personal information you can contact the Information Commissioner (ICO): https://ico.org.uk/make-a-complaint/

The Council reserve the right to update this privacy notice from time to time by publishing a new version on our the website.

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