Recruitment Privacy Policy

This privacy notice sets out how FDM Solicitors handles your personal date when you apply for a job with the Company.

What Data do we Collect from you?

The personal data we may collect from you includes:

contact details including titles, names, telephone numbers, addresses and email addresses;
copies of passports, birth certificates, driving licenses and proofs of current address, including council tax bills and bank statements;
evidence of your right to work in the UK;
details of how you meet the job description, including references and CVs;
information related to the monitoring of diversity and equal opportunities, which may include details of your ethnicity or race, sexual orientation, religious beliefs, any disabilities and other ‘special category data’;
health-related information, such as any conditions or medical needs you may have;
a record of any correspondence we have with you concerning your application;
the status of your application and updates on how it progresses;
any other information required for your application;

The Legal Basis for Processing and Retaining your Data

Throughout your application, we process and retain your data on several legal grounds

Legal Obligation – We are required by law to check that prospective employees are entitled to work in the United Kingdom;
Contract – Prior to signing a contract with us, it is necessary for us to process your data as a means of progressing your application. This covers both employment and preemployment checks;
Sensitive Information and Criminal Convictions – These data are collected, held and used on the lawful bases of legal obligation and contract.

Handling Special Category Data

When information relates to a person’s political opinions, religious beliefs, racial or ethnic origin, or their membership of a trade union, it is considered ‘special category data’. This includes the following:

Data relating to a person’s sexual orientation or sex life;
Data concerning a person’s health;
Genetic data;
Biometric data uniquely identifying an individual.

Why we Require your Data and how we Collect your Personal Information

We need your data so that we can progress with your application and establish whether or not you are the right candidate for the job advertised. We may also use it to make contact with you.

We collect your personal information when you send us your CV and covering letter. We may also collect information from third parties including references and former employers, credit reference agencies and other agencies which perform background checks.

Data Security

There are measures in place to ensure that your information is always securely protected. We will only allow third parties to handle your personal information on our explicit instructions, and only where they have ensured us that they will keep this information secure and treat it confidentially.

Appropriate security measures are in place in order to prevent any personal information being lost, used by unauthorised parties, altered or disclosed. Furthermore, access to your personal data is only given to any employees, agents, contractors or other third parties who work on the process of your recruitment.

Procedures are in place which deal with suspected breaches of data security and both yourself and the relevant regulatory bodies will be informed of suspected breaches where the company is legally obliged to make such a disclosure.

Data Retention

Personal Data will be kept only for as long as it is necessary to complete the purposes for which it was collected, including for reporting, accounting or legal requirements. The length of time it is kept is dependent upon the amount and type of data, the purposes for which it is processed, whether these purposes can be achieved by different means, and the potential risk of harm from the unauthorised use or disclosure of this information.

The retention period for documents relating to recruitment, there is a three-year retention period. In the event that your application is unsuccessful, we will remove personal data within twelve months of the date on which you applied.

Your Rights

You have the right to make a Data Subject Access Request (DSAR) in order to access your personal information. In instances where such a request is made, the Company will provide you with copies of the personal information held about you so that you can ascertain that it is being processed lawfully. You are also entitled to receive an electronic copy of your data in a structured, commonly used and machine-readable format.

You also have the right to request that incorrect or incomplete information relating to you is updated correctly, as well as to withdraw your consent for any data processed under the lawful basis of consent. Similarly, you may request that we restrict or stop the processing of your personal data.

In cases where we have no appropriate reason for retaining your data, you may request that we delete it. No fee will be charged when you request your personal information, except in cases where the request for access is evidently unfounded or excessive. In these instances, we may refuse the request or charge a reasonable fee.

We may require some information in order to ascertain the identity of the person making the request. This is to make sure that nobody gains access to information to which they are not entitled.

These make any of the requests above, contact us at hello@fdmsolicitors.co.uk, or write to the below address:

Data Protection Officer

FDM Solicitors

5th Floor, National House

36 St Ann Street

Manchester

M2 7LE

Questions and Complaints

If you would like to make any of the requests above, or you have concerns about how your personal data has been dealt with, please contact us at hello@fdmsolicitors.co.uk, or write to the below address: