Privacy Notice
On behalf of Senedd Members, as part of any recruitment process, the Welsh Parliament (‘the Senedd’) collects and processes personal data relating to job applicants. The Senedd is committed to being transparent about how it collects and uses that data and to meeting its data protection obligations.
Any queries regarding our use of your information should be sent to the Information Governance Manager at Information-request@senedd.wales or 0300 200 6565.
What information does the Senedd collect?
The Senedd collects a range of information about you. This includes:
- your name, address, date of birth, national insurance number and contact details, including email address and telephone number;
- details of your qualifications, skills, experience and employment history;
- whether or not you have a disability for which the Senedd needs to make reasonable adjustments during the recruitment process;
- information about your entitlement to work in the UK.
The Senedd collects this information in a variety of ways. For example, data might be contained in application forms, CVs or resumes, obtained from your passport or other identity documents, or collected through interviews or other forms of assessment.
The Senedd will also collect personal data about you from third parties, such as references supplied by former employers, information from employment background check providers and information from criminal records checks. The Senedd will seek information from third parties only once a job offer has been made to you and will inform you that it is doing so.
Data will be stored in a range of different places, including on your application record, in HR management systems and on other IT systems (including email).
Why does the Senedd process personal data?
The Senedd needs to process data to take steps at your request prior to entering into an employment contract with you. It also needs to process your data to enter into a contract with you.
In some cases, the Senedd needs to process data to ensure that it is complying with its legal obligations. For example, it is required to check a successful applicant's eligibility to work in the UK before employment starts.
The Senedd has a legitimate interest in processing personal data during the recruitment process and for keeping records of the process. Processing data from job applicants allows the Senedd to manage the recruitment process, assess and confirm a candidate's suitability for employment and decide to whom to offer a job. The Senedd may also need to process data from job applicants to respond to and defend against legal claims.
The Senedd processes health information if it needs to make reasonable adjustments to the recruitment process for candidates who have a disability. This is to carry out its obligations and exercise specific rights in relation to employment.
The Senedd will not use your data for any purpose other than the recruitment exercise for which you have applied.
Who has access to data?
Your information will be shared internally for the purposes of the recruitment exercise. This includes members of Members’ Business Support, the recruiting Senedd Member and interviewers involved in the recruitment process.
The Senedd will not share your data with third parties, unless your application for employment is successful and it makes you an offer of employment. The Senedd will then share your data with former employers to obtain references for you, employment background check providers to obtain necessary background checks and the Disclosure and Barring Service to obtain necessary criminal records checks.
Our ICT system includes third party cloud services provided by Microsoft. Any transfer of data by Microsoft outside of the EEA is covered by contractual clauses under which Microsoft ensure that personal data is treated in line with European legislation.
How does the Senedd protect data?
The Senedd takes the security of your data seriously. It has internal policies and controls in place to ensure that your data is not lost, accidentally destroyed, misused or disclosed, and is not accessed except by our employees in the proper performance of their duties.
For how long does the Senedd keep data?
If your application for employment is unsuccessful, the Senedd will hold your data on file for 12 months after the end of the relevant recruitment process. At the end of that period or once you withdraw your consent, your data is deleted or destroyed.
If your application for employment is successful, personal data gathered during the recruitment process will be transferred to your personnel file and retained during your employment. The periods for which your data will be held will be provided to you in a new privacy notice.
Your rights
Your information will be processed to enable us to perform a recruitment scheme on behalf of Members of the Senedd. We consider this task to be vital to our role as stated in the Government of Wales Act by recruiting support staff for Senedd Members.
You have certain rights over the information we hold. These include:
- the right to request access to your information;
- to ask that we update, complete or correct your information, if it is inaccurate or incomplete;
- the right to object to our using your information in certain circumstances; and
- the right to limit our use of it in certain circumstances.
If you would like to: engage any of the rights that you have under data protection legislation; ask a question; or make a complaint about how your information is used; please contact the Senedd’s Information Governance Manager
If you believe that the Senedd has not complied with your data protection rights, you can complain to the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO). The ICO’s contact details can be found on their website.
What if you do not provide personal data?
You are under no statutory or contractual obligation to provide data to the Senedd during the recruitment process. However, if you do not provide the information, the Senedd may not be able to process your application properly or at all.
Requests for information made to the Commission
In the event of a request for information being made under access to information legislation, it may be necessary to disclose all or part of the information that you provide. This may include information which has previously been removed by the Senedd for publication purposes. We will only do this if we are required to do so by law