Privacy and human resources

This privacy notice explains how the Human Resources service at Buckinghamshire Council (the data controller) will use the personal information we collect about you.

We can hold the following information on you:

• your name and address
• contact details, including email address and telephone number
• date of birth
• gender
• visual images
• the terms and conditions of your employment
• your qualifications, skills and experience
• your employment history with previous employers and with the organisation
• your pay, including entitlement to benefits
• your bank account and national insurance number
• your marital status, next of kin, dependants and emergency contacts
• your financial and beneficiary details
• your nationality and entitlement to work in the UK
• your working pattern
• leave taken by you, including holiday, sickness absence, sabbaticals, and the reasons for any other leave
• assessments of your performance, including reviews and ratings, performance improvement plans and related correspondence
• training you have participated in
• contact we have had with you, such as advice provided

We may hold the following additional information:

• your criminal record
• disciplinary or grievance procedures in which you have been involved
• warnings issued to you and related correspondence
• information about medical or health conditions, including whether you have a disability for which we need to make reasonable adjustments
• details of trade union membership
• driving licence and vehicle details, for instance if you are an essential car user
• equal opportunities monitoring information (ethnic origin, sexual orientation, health and religion or belief)
• DBS checks
• Occupational Health referrals
• disqualification from caring for children

We need your information to:

• ensure effective general HR and business administration
• ensure our databases are accurate, for example details of who to contact in the event of an emergency
• process data to enter into an employment contract with you
• meet our obligations under your employment contract, for example to pay you and administer benefit and pension entitlements, including beneficiary administration
• allow us to recruit and allow you to make job applications
• maintain up-to-date employment records
• operate and keep a record of disciplinary and grievance processes
• 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 any TUPE transfers
• allow effective workforce management in relation to absence/leave and absence management procedures, to ensure that the organisation complies with its duties and to ensure that employees are receiving the pay or other benefits to which they are entitled
• maintain records of employee contractual and statutory rights
• allow the organisation to operate check-off/voluntary deductions for trade union subscriptions
• get occupational health advice to ensure that the organisation complies with duties in relation to individuals with disabilities, meets its obligations under health and safety law, and ensures that employees are receiving the pay or other benefits to which they are entitled
• carry out employee engagement surveys or similar and to provide you with corporate messaging
• provide references on request for current or former employees
• respond to and defend against legal claims
• maintain and promote equality in the workplace
• provide statistical information for workforce management and planning, including statutory returns

We also perform duties required under services the Council are contracted to deliver (as a data processor).

If you do not provide some information, it may hinder/prevent the Council’s ability to administer the rights and obligations arising as a result of the employment relationship.

The legal basis for processing the data under the UK GDPR and Data Protection Act 2018 is:

• Article 6(1)(a) Your consent. Where relevant, you are able to remove your consent at any time. You can do this by contacting [email protected]
• Article 6(1)(b) We have a contractual obligation
• Article 6(1)(c) We have a legal obligation, for example to check an employee's entitlement to work in the UK, to deduct tax and provide pay statements, to consult with employee representatives if redundancies are proposed or a business transfer is to take place
• Article 6(1)(e) Public task, including when concerns are raised under Whistle-Blowing
• Article 6(1)(f) We have a legitimate interest, including for using your image on Proximity Cards

If we need to use your special category information or information about criminal convictions, we can use it for:

• explicit consent
• employment, social security and social protection (for certain positions it is necessary to carry out criminal records checks to ensure that individuals are permitted to undertake the role in question and some special category data is processed to carry out employment law obligations)
• reasons of substantial public interest (including equality of opportunity or treatment, support for individuals with a particular disability or medical condition, occupational pensions)
• health or social care
• legal claims
• archiving, research and statistics

The legislation we operate under includes:

• Employment Rights Act 1996
• Sex Discrimination Act 1970
• Equal Pay Act 1970
• Race Relations Act 1976
• Disability Discrimination Act 1995
• National Minimum Wage Act 1998
• Working Time Directive 1999
• Employment Relations Act 1999
• Health and Safety at Work, etc. Act 1974
• Equality Act 2010

We will share your information, if appropriate, with:

• third parties (data processors) contracted by Buckinghamshire Council to work on behalf of the council to support the Human Resources service, which can include payroll processing providers, life assurance schemes
• other bodies (including the Police) in connection with the prevention of crime, criminal or legal investigations or proceedings including fraud (and the National Fraud Initiative) or regulatory functions (such as the Local Government Ombudsman) or for safeguarding purposes
• Disclosure and Barring Service
• relevant professional bodies
• health agencies, including Occupational Health
• trade unions
• partners, such as other local authorities and NHS bodies, to facilitate service delivery
• other employers for pre-employment references
• HM Revenues and Customs, Department for Work and Pensions and Home Office
• managers and investigators in cases of staff conduct. This might include accessing emails, chat logs, phone calls etc
• other relevant services within the council

We may also share your information:

• where you have requested us to share information, such as childcare vouchers
• when contacting retired staff in situations of emergency where the council is being asked to play a proactive role in response to local or nationally recognised crises, where skills and experiences of retired staff may be of significant public benefit

We will securely hold your information and only keep it for as long as is necessary. Where information is no longer needed it will be confidentially disposed of.

The council does not intend to transfer personal data that is processed for the purposes of this privacy notice to countries outside of the territorial scope of UK data protection laws or the EEA.

We do not carry out any automated decision making in relation to this information.

You have legal rights over your information. For details of those rights, see our corporate privacy policy. Your rights will differ depending on our lawful basis for processing your data.

Our Data Protection Officer can be contacted at Buckinghamshire Council, The Gateway, Gatehouse Road, Aylesbury, HP19 8FF, by email at [email protected].

If you have any concerns about our use of your personal information, you can make a complaint to the Data Protection Officer. You can also then complain to the ICO if you remain unhappy with how we have used your data.

Date of publication/last update: October 2021