Recruitment privacy notice
This privacy notice sits beneath the Council’s top level privacy notice and provides information about how personal data is used by Hackney’s recruitment services:
- finding out about vacancies
- applying for a job
- onboarding a successful candidate
Please see the main privacy notice for details on your rights and who to contact about use of personal data.
On this page:
Why do we collect data?
In line with our legal obligations around recruiting and appointing staff to discharge Council functions, we need information from you to:
- determine your suitability for employment with us
- ensure that appointments are made on merit
- monitor our compliance with the Equalities Act
You may also opt to hear from us about suitable roles as they arise within the organisation.
What legally allows us to collect and handle your data?
We have a statutory duty under the Local Government Act 1972 to appoint officers as necessary to discharge Council functions.
We are required by the Local Government and Housing Act 1989 to ensure that appointments are made on merit only, and that we are adhering to the Equalities Act 2010.
This means that we are processing recruitment data as part of our legal obligations. Any ‘special category’ data (such as health) and criminal offence data that we process is done as part of meeting employment law as outlined in data protection law.
What data do we collect?
We collect:
- identity data
- contact information
- education & employment history
- national insurance details
- union membership
- bank details
- any relevant criminal record details
- demographic data (collected anonymously)
We may also collect health information, and details of your family circumstances.
To ensure political neutrality, some positions have restrictions on how involved an individual is with any political group or party. We will ask about this during recruitment.
Should you be appointed, identity documents such as passports, birth certificates and original certificates for educational attainment will be required.
Where do we share your data?
- your application will be shared with appropriate managers within the council in order to determine your suitability for any role you apply for, and to decide whether to invite you to interview. We do not share national insurance details, union membership, bank details or demographic data with managers outside the Human Resources function
- in some instances, we may engage a recruitment consultancy firm to manage the process. We will liaise with them on issues such as salary agreements
- depending on the nature of the role, we may contact unsuccessful candidates following interview to give feedback on performance
- for successful candidates, we will use information provided to contact any references cited. We will also use data provided to populate our HR and payroll system when you become an employee
- for roles requiring it, we will also undertake appropriate background checks with the Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS)
Statistical analysis
Statistics on Local Government employment are available from the Local Government Association.
How long we keep your data for
You can find out about retention schedules on our main privacy notice.
Your rights
Please see our main privacy notice for more details on your right:
- to be informed
- to access your personal data
- to rectify your personal data if it is incorrect
- to restrict our processing of your personal data
If you do find that the information we hold on you is incorrect, you should inform us as soon as possible to update our records.