Candidate Privacy Notice

Argent (Property Development) Services LLP (”we”, “us”, “our” or ”Partnership” or “Argent”) is committed to protecting the privacy and security of your personal information. This notice describes how we collect and use personal information about candidates (“you”) during the recruitment process, in accordance with the UK General Data Protection Regulation (“UK GDPR”).

Argent is a data controller responsible for deciding how we hold and use personal information about you. Under the UK GDPR we are required to let you know the information contained in this privacy notice.

This Candidate Privacy Notice applies to all candidates and applicants, including those who apply to work with the Partnership as employees, workers and contractors. However, the Candidate Privacy Notice does not form part of a contract of employment or contract for services.

Data protection principles

We will comply with the UK GDPR such that the personal information we collect and hold about you will be:

  • Used lawfully, fairly and in a transparent way;
  • Collected only for valid purposes that we have clearly explained to you and not used in any way that is incompatible with those purposes;
  • Relevant to he purposes we have told you about and limited only to those purposes;
  • Accurate and kept up to date;
  • Kept only as long as necessary for the purpose we have told you about; and
  • Kept securely.

The kind of information we hold about you

During the recruitment process we will collect, store and use the following categories of information about you:

  • Personal contact details, such as name, title, addresses, telephone numbers and personal email addresses;
  • Date of birth;
  • Proposed salary, annual leave, pension and benefits information;
  • Proposed start date;
  • Proposed location of employment or workplace;
  • Recruitment information, including copies of right to work documentation, reference and other information contained in a CV, professional or other qualification, regulatory approvals, criminal records checks, application form, cover letter or other parts of the application process;
  • Any information provided at interview.

We may also collect, store and use the following “special categories” of personal data relevant to the recruitment process:

  • Information about your health or medical condition;
  • Information about criminal convictions and offences.

How do we collect personal information?

We collect personal information about you either directly from you or from an employment agency / search consultancy. We may also collect additional information from third parties including former employers, professional bodies, regulatory authorities or other background check agencies.

How we will use information about you

We will only use your personal information when the law allows us to. Most commonly, we will use your personal information in the following circumstances:

  • Keeping records related to our hiring processes;
  • Where we need to comply with a legal obligation; and
  • Where it is necessary for our legitimate interests (or those of a third party) and your interests and fundamental rights do not override those interests.

We may also your personal information in the rare situations where we need to protect your vital interests (or someone else’s vital interests) or where it is needed in the public interest.

We need the kind of information listed above to allow us to prepare for, enter into or perform an employment or work-related contract with you and to enable us to comply with our legal obligations. The situations in which we will process your personal information as a candidate are:

  • Making a decision about your recruitment or appointment;
  • Determining the terms on which you work for us;
  • Checking you are legally entitled to work in the UK;
  • Arranging to administer any contract we enter into with you;
  • Business management and planning, including accounting and auditing;
  • Assessing your qualifications and / or regulatory approvals for the job or contract you have applied for;
  • Education, training and development requirements;
  • Dealing with legal disputes involving you or other employees, workers or contractors; and
  • Complying with health and safety obligations.

Some of the above grounds for processing may overlap and there may be several grounds which justify our use of your personal data.

If you fail to provide personal information

If you fail to provide certain information when requested, we may not be able to process your application successfully and enter into a contract with you or we may be prevented from complying with our legal obligations (such as ensuring the health and safety of our workers).

Change of purpose

We will only use your personal information for the purposes for which we collected it, unless we reasonably consider that we need to use it for another reason and that reasons in compatible with the original purpose. If we need to use your personal information for an unrelated purpose, we will notify you and we will explain the legal basis which allows us to do so.

Please note that we may process your personal information without your knowledge or consent, in compliance with the above rules, where this is required or permitted by law.

Sensitive personal information

We way process some “special categories” of personal data. Special category data is data revealing racial or ethnic origin, political opinions, religious or philosophical beliefs, trade-union membership, genetic data, biometric data, health data or data concerning a person’s sex life or sexual orientation. Processing of personal data relating to criminal convictions and offences is also protected. We will only process this data where we have justification to do so in the recruitment process and in line with our normal data protection procedures, including:

  • Where we have your explicit written consent;
  • Where we need to carry out our legal obligations;
  • Where it is needed in the public interest, such as for equal opportunities monitoring;
  • Where it is needed to assess your working capacity on health grounds.

Less commonly, we may process this type of information where it is needed in relation to legal claims or where it is needed to protect your (or someone else’s) interests and you are not capable of giving your consent.

We will use your particularly sensitive personal information in the following ways:

  • Information about your physical or mental health, or disability status, to ensure your health and safety in the workplace and to assess your fitness to work in the role you have applied for and to provide appropriate workplace adjustments;
  • Information about your criminal records to ensure that it is appropriate to engage you in particular types of work.
  • Information about your race or national or ethnic origin, religious, philosophical or moral beliefs, or your sexual orientation may also be processed to ensure meaningful equal opportunity monitoring and reporting.

Circumstances in which we do not envisage using your information

We do not envisage that we will make any decisions about candidates using automated means.

Why might we share your personal information with third parties

We will only share your personal information with third parties for the purposes of processing your application, for example:

  • Employment agencies/search consultancies
  • Reference qualifications, background screening, criminal record checks providers
  • Regulatory approvals
  • Other entities within our group

All our third-party service providers and other entities in our group are required to take appropriate security measures to protect your personal information in line with our polices. We do not allow our third=party service providers to use your personal information for their own purposes. We only permit them to process your personal information for specified purposes and in accordance with our instructions.

Third party service providers and other entities in our group may be located outside of the UK.

Whenever we transfer your personal information out of the UK, we ensure a similar degree of protection is afforded to it by ensuring at least one of the following safeguards is implemented:

  • We will only transfer your personal information to countries that have been deemed to provide an adequate level of protection for personal data.
  • Where we use certain service providers, we may use specific contracts approved for use in the UK which give personal data the same protection it has in the UK.

Please contact us if you want further information on the specific mechanism used by us when transferring your personal data out of the UK.

Data security

We have put in place appropriate security measures to prevent candidate personal information being accidentally lost, used or accessed in an unauthorised way, altered or disclosed. We also limit access to candidate personal data to those employees and other individuals who have a business need to know and who are subject to a duty of confidentiality. We have put in place procedures to deal with any suspected data security breach and will notify you and the relevant regulator of a suspected breach when we are legally required to do so.

Data retention

We will only retain candidates’ personal information for as long as is necessary for the recruitment purposes it was collected for. We normally retain candidate details for the following periods, following which it will be securely destroyed:

  • Unsuccessful applications for an advertised role of contract: 12 months and / or 12 months following appointment of the successful applicant, whichever is the longer period;
  • Speculative applicants: 12 months from receipt of candidate details;
  • Successful applicants: retention in line with our usual retention policies.

In some circumstances (such as recruitment statistics and equal opportunities monitoring) we may anonymise your personal data so that it can no longer be associated with you, in which case we may use such information without further notice to you.

Your rights and duties

Please inform us if your personal information changes whilst you are a candidate for work with Argent.

Under certain circumstances, by law you have the right to:

  • Request access to your personal information.
  • Request correction of the personal information that we hold about you.
  • Request erasure of your personal information.
  • Object to processing of your personal information where we are relying on a legitimate interest (or those of a third party) and there is something about your particular situation which makes you want to object to processing on this ground.
  • Request the restriction of processing of your personal information
  • Request the transfer of your personal information to another party.

If you want to exercise these rights, please contact our Data Protection Officer ([email protected]). You may be required to provide specific information to ensure that you are entitled to access the information but you will not normally have to pay a fee to access your personal information.

Right to withdraw consent

By applying for a role with Argent, you automatically provide your consent for us to process your personal information for the purposes of the application process. You have the right to withdraw you consent for processing for that purpose at any time. To withdraw your consent, please contact our Data Protection Officer. Once we have received notification that you have withdrawn your consent, we will not longer process your application and, subject to our retention policy, we will dispose of your personal data securely.

Contact us

If you have any questions about this candidate privacy notice please email our Data Protection Officer ([email protected]).

Candidate Privacy Notice last updated: June 2021