The information below describes how Huntingdonshire District Council collects and processes personal data relating to its employees to manage the employment relationship.
Huntingdonshire District Council is committed to being transparent about how it collects and uses that data and to meeting its data protection obligations.
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Data controller: Huntingdonshire District Council, Pathfinder House, St Mary’s Street, Huntingdon, PE29 3TN
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Data protection officer: Kirsty Squires, Information Governance Manager and Data Protection Officer
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Email: infogov@3csharedservices.org
What information does Huntingdonshire District Council collect?
Huntingdonshire District Council collects and processes a range of information about you.
This includes:
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your name, address and contact details, including email address and telephone number, date of birth and sex
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the terms and conditions of your employment
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details of your qualifications, skills, experience and employment history, including start and end dates, with previous employers and with the council and continuous service dates
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information about your remuneration, including entitlement to benefits such as pensions or insurance cover where applicable
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details of your bank account and national insurance number
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information about your marital status, next of kin, dependants and emergency contacts
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information about your nationality and entitlement to work in the UK
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information about your criminal record
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details of your schedule (days of work and working hours) and attendance at work
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details of periods of leave taken by you, including holiday, sickness absence, dependency leave, career breaks, maternity, paternity and shared parental leave and the reasons for the leave
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details of any disciplinary or grievance procedures in which you have been involved, including any warnings issued to you and related correspondence
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other Employee Relations work
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assessments of your performance including submissions for incremental progression, apprenticeships, training you have participated in, performance development plans and related correspondence
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interview notes and assessments
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information about medical or health conditions, including whether or not you have a disability for which the council needs to make reasonable adjustments
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equal opportunities monitoring information, including information about your ethnic origin, sexual orientation, health and religion or belief. This information would be used for reporting purposes
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information linking you to a post(s) within the council
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personal data about you from third parties, such as references supplied by former employers.
The council collects this information in a variety of ways. For example, data is collected through application forms, or CVs; obtained from your passport or other identity documents such as your driving licence; from forms completed by you at the start of or during employment (such as benefit nomination forms); from correspondence with you; or through interviews, meetings or other assessments.
In some cases, the council collects information from employment background check providers and information from criminal records checks permitted by law.
Data is stored in a range of different places, including in your personnel file, in the council's HR management systems and in other IT systems (including the council's email system).
Why does Huntingdonshire District Council process personal data?
The council needs to process data to enter into an employment contract with you and to meet its obligations under your employment contract. For example, it needs to process your data to provide you with an employment contract, to pay you in accordance with your employment contract and to administer benefits, pension and insurance entitlements where applicable and for reporting to HMRC.
In some cases, the council needs to process data to ensure that it is complying with its legal obligations. For example, it is required to check an employee's entitlement to work in the UK, to deduct tax, to comply with health and safety laws and to enable employees to take periods of leave to which they are entitled.
For certain positions, it is necessary to carry out criminal records checks to ensure that individuals are permitted to undertake the role in question.
In other cases, the council has a legitimate interest in processing personal data before, during and after the end of the employment relationship. Processing employee data allows the council to:
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run recruitment and promotion processes
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maintain accurate and up-to-date employment records and contact details (including details of who to contact in the event of an emergency), and records of employee contractual and statutory rights
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operate and keep a record of disciplinary and grievance processes, to ensure acceptable conduct within the workplace
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operate and keep a record of employee performance and related processes, to plan for career development, and for succession planning and workforce management purposes
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operate and keep a record of absence and absence management procedures, to allow effective workforce management and ensure that employees are receiving the pay or other benefits to which they are entitled
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obtain occupational health advice, to ensure that it complies with duties in relation to individuals with disabilities, meet its obligations under health and safety law, and ensure that employees are receiving the pay or other benefits to which they are entitled
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operate and keep a record of other types of leave (including maternity, paternity, adoption, parental and shared parental leave), to allow effective workforce management, to ensure that the council complies with duties in relation to leave entitlement, and to ensure that employees are receiving the pay or other benefits to which they are entitled
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ensure employees are complying with relevant policies and procedures
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ensure effective general HR and business administration
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undertake organisational change and transfer of undertakings (TUPE)
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maintain training and apprenticeship records
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maintain records of employment
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provide references on request for current or former employees
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respond to and defend against legal claims and
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maintain and promote equality in the workplace.
Some special categories of personal data, such as information about health or medical conditions, is processed to carry out employment law obligations (such as those in relation to employees with disabilities and for health and safety purposes).
Information about trade union membership is received from the union to allow the processing of deductions for union subscriptions via payroll.
Where the council processes other special categories of personal data, such as information about ethnic origin, sexual orientation, health or religion or belief, this is done for the purposes of equal opportunities monitoring. You can ask us to stop processing your sensitive data at any time with the exception of gender data which is required for Inland Revenue purposes.
Who has access to data?
Your information will be shared internally, including with members of the HR, and Recruitment teams, Payroll, your line manager, managers in the business area in which you work and IT / Information Governance staff, if access to the data is necessary for performance of their roles.
The council shares your data with third parties to obtain pre-employment references or checks from other employers or organisations, and obtains necessary criminal records checks from the Disclosure and Barring Service. The council may also share your data with third parties in the context of a transfer of some or all of it's services. In those circumstances the data will be subject to confidentiality arrangements.
The council also shares your data with third parties that process data on its behalf, in connection with the provision of pension, benefits, training providers and the provision of occupational health services.
The council will not normally transfer your data to countries outside the European Economic Area. However, your data may be transferred to countries outside the European Economic Area (EEA) for pre-employment checks where this is relevant in processing an application or offer of employment.
How does Huntingdonshire District Council protect data?
The council takes the security of your data seriously. The council has internal policies and controls in place to try to ensure that your data is not lost, accidentally destroyed, misused or disclosed, and is not accessed except by its employees in the performance of their duties.
Where the council engages third parties to process personal data on its behalf, they do so on the basis of written instructions, are under a duty of confidentiality and are obliged to implement appropriate technical and organisational measures to ensure the security of data.
For how long does the Huntingdonshire District Council keep data?
The council will hold your personal data during your employment and after the end of employment. The periods of retention of data are set out in the Corporate Policy - Record Retention and Management [PDF, 0.5MB].
Your rights
As a data subject, you have a number of rights. You can:
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access and obtain a copy of your data on request
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require the council to change incorrect or incomplete data
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require the council to delete or stop processing your data, for example where the data is no longer necessary for the purposes of processing
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object to the processing of your data where the council is relying on its legitimate interests or public task as the legal basis for processing
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ask the council to stop processing data for a period if data is inaccurate or there is a dispute about whether or not your interests override the council's legitimate grounds for processing data
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if you would like to exercise any of these rights, please contact HR by email at humanresources@huntigdonshire.gov.uk or contact Information Governance Manager and Data Protection Officer, by email at infogov@3csharedservices.org.
You can make a subject access request by writing to the data protection officer or by completing the council's form for making a subject access request. If you believe that the council has not complied with your data protection rights, you can complain to council’s Data Protection Officer or the Information Commissioner.
What if you do not provide personal data?
You have some obligations under your employment contract to provide the council with data. In particular, you are required to report absences from work and may be required to provide information about disciplinary or other matters under the implied duty of good faith.
You may also have to provide the council with data in order to exercise your statutory rights, such as in relation to statutory leave entitlements. Failing to provide the data may mean that you are unable to exercise your statutory rights.
Certain information, such as contact details, your right to work in the UK and payment details, have to be provided to enable the council to enter a contract of employment with you. If you do not provide other information, this will hinder the council's ability to administer the rights and obligations arising as a result of the employment relationship efficiently.
Automated decision-making
Employment decisions are not based solely on automated decision-making.
Further information
For further information about this Employment Privacy Notice please contact Kiran Hans, Human Resources Manager on 01223 626055 or by email to kiran.hans@huntingdonshire.gov.uk.