Welsh Government jobs and public appointments service: privacy notice

This notice sets out how we will use your personal data and your rights. It is made under Articles 13 and 14 of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).

The terms “recruitment”, “selection” and “application” used throughout this notice apply to applicants for a job or a public appointment unless stated otherwise.

The Welsh Government is the data controller for the information that you provide unless stated otherwise.

You do not have to provide the information we ask for (which is set out below) but it may affect your application if you do not do so. The exception to this is the provision of equal opportunities information. If you choose not to provide equal opportunities information, it will not affect your application. Equal Opportunities information will only be made available to approved staff involved in the administration of the recruitment process (including any external data controller, processor or provider of services) in a way which will not identify you. Hiring managers, assessment and interview panel members or hiring public bodies staff and sponsor teams will not see this information.  Any information you give will only be used to produce and monitor anonymised equal opportunities statistics.

The information we ask you to provide is listed below and is used to assess your suitability for appointment either;

• as a current employee seeking a job move or promotion within the Welsh Government
• a prospective employee
• a Public Appointment by a Minister  

The list of information we ask for only applies to applications made through the Welsh Government Jobs and Public Appointments Service.

The type and combination of information we ask for will vary depending on whether you are a current or prospective employee applying for a job role or someone applying for a public appointment. Clarification on what applies to your particular circumstances will be given by our online service and by approved staff at every stage of the recruitment process.

Some advertisers of our roles may use their own application systems and their privacy notice will apply.

We will not ask for more information than we need to fulfil the purpose  of assessing your suitability for a role and we will not retain it for longer than is necessary. Full details are contained in the Your Data and Retention sections below.

We ask for this data so that we are able to process it to:

• manage recruitment and public appointment services. This includes a job board, online application service, sift tests, other forms of assessment, interview scheduling and pre-employment checking service
• assess your suitability for a role
• enable the creation of user accounts
• provide updates on the recruitment process
• offer a job alert email service
• provide technical support to candidates and recruiters
• send your contract of employment or engagement to your email address, if this is the preferred option
• monitor the effectiveness of the recruitment processes (this could include statistical analysis of system usage, research into the user-experience of applicants and other system users, analysing referral sources to see which provides the most diverse applicants)
• undertake pre-employment and onboarding activity before you start your role (including health, pensions and other questionnaires / declarations)
• comply with the Baseline Personnel Security Standard (BPSS) 

This consists of:

• verification of identity
• verification of nationality and immigration status (including your right to work in the UK and including entitlement to undertake the work in question)
• verification of employment history (through cross-referencing information against the HMRC PAYE system or through references)
• verification of criminal record (unspent convictions)
• additional verification (only applies where additional verification or assurance is required)

We will process the following personal data:

• name
• email address

When you view an advert, we may automatically collect:

• where you saw the advert
• details of the pages you have viewed (including how long you spend on a page and which links you select)
• information about your computer (such as the web browser used and device type)
• your approximate geographic location based on your IP device

When you make an application we may ask for:

• full contact details including address and mobile phone number
• eligibility including nationality and immigration status
• employment history
• qualifications, licences and professional memberships
• diversity and inclusion information
• CV and personal statement
• Disability Confident Scheme and reasonable adjustment requirements
• whether or not you are a veteran of His Majesty’s Armed Forces
• job sharing partner’s full name (if applicable)
• conflict of interest declaration
• political activity (for public appointment roles only)
• equal opportunities (this is not mandatory information and will not affect your application if you do not provide it)

When you are invited to an interview, we may ask you to provide:

• evidence of your nationality, identity and right to work in the UK, for example,  your passport, utility bills or other documentation
• a completed non-taxable travel and expenses form for an HR supported costs interview scheme if offered by a participating organisation. This will require bank details, travel details and a copy of any receipts related to interview travel, to allow verification and reimbursement of appropriate travel costs.

When you undergo the selection process, we may ask you:

• for answers to questions relevant to the job or appointment or to provide alternative evidence to support your application
• to participate in any single or combination of the following activities:  assessment events, tests, occupational personality profile questionnaires, interviews and any others we deem necessary for the purpose of assessing your suitability for employment or engagement with the Welsh Government. During these activities, information will be generated by you and us for example, you may complete a written test or we may take notes.

Where an external provider provides or administers any selection method on our behalf, they will have access only to the required information needed to facilitate the selection procedure such as your name and contact details (usually your email address) and candidate number.

When you undergo pre-employment / appointment checks, as a result of a conditional offer, we may ask for:

• evidence of your identity, nationality and right to work in the UK, for example, your passport, utility bills or other documentation
• contact details for your referees
• national insurance number
• date of birth
• public sector pension history
• health declaration (not required for public appointment roles)
• evidence of time spent outside the UK
• details of any self-employment
• evidence of current Disclosure and Barring certificate
• bankruptcy details
• addresses for the last 10 years
• passport details
• driving licence details
• previous names you have been known by
• workplace discipline information
• criminal records declaration
• evidence of qualifications

If you apply for a secondment, we may ask you:

• to provide medical information (to assess whether reasonable adjustments are necessary)
• to complete any of our pre-employment checks
• to undergo security clearance checks using the UK Security Vetting team

Where you are made a final offer of a role and have accepted it, we may ask for:

• bank details (to process payments including salary or fees and travel and subsistence costs)
• emergency contact details
• civil service pension details for current and former scheme members only
• another public body who is responsible for your fee and other costs as a public appointee to contact you directly, after we have provided your contact details to them

When you contact us with feedback or an enquiry we will process:

• your email address
• details of your request

We process your data using one or more of the following legal bases:

• Contractual: it is necessary for the performance of a contract to which you are a party (an employment or engagement contract). This relates to information that we need to recruit and employ or engage you.
• Contractual: it is necessary in order to take steps at your request prior to entering into a contract for employment/ engagement. This relates to information that we collect as part of the application and selection process.
• Legal obligation: it is necessary to comply with a legal obligation placed on us as the data controller. We are required to report on equality of opportunity and onboarding processes have specific requirements.
• Public task: processing is necessary for the performance of a task carried out in the public interest or in the exercise of official authority vested in the data controller. In this case, the Welsh Government Jobs and Public Appointments service facilitates recruitment of high-quality candidates to roles across Welsh Government and other public bodies. It provides recruitment tools and processes that support our recruitment strategy and we also monitor the effectiveness of recruitment processes.
• Consent: for any digital right to work checks and personnel checks, we rely on your consent.

Sensitive personal data is personal data revealing racial or ethnic origin, political opinions, religious or philosophical beliefs, or trade union membership, and the processing of genetic data, biometric data for the purpose of uniquely identifying a natural person, data concerning health or data concerning a natural person's sex life or sexual orientation.

The legal basis for processing your sensitive personal data is:

• it is necessary for reasons of substantial public interest for the exercise of a function of the Crown, a Minister of the Crown, or a government department; the exercise of a function conferred on a person by an enactment; the exercise of a function of Welsh Ministers; or the administration of justice; and an appropriate policy document is in place. Welsh Government Jobs and Public Appointments Service facilitates recruitment of high-quality candidates to roles across government and other public bodies. It provides recruitment tools and processes that support our recruitment strategy.
• it is necessary for the purposes of performing or exercising our obligations or rights as the controller, or your obligations or rights as the data subject, under employment law, social security law or the law relating to social protection. External recruitment is required to follow the Civil Service Commission Recruitment Principles. Personal data is processed to ensure that these requirements are met. We are required under the Equality Act 2010 to make appropriate reasonable adjustments for candidates with a disability.
• processing is of a specific category of personal data and it is necessary for the purposes of identifying or keeping under review the existence or absence of equality of opportunity or treatment between groups of people specified (in paragraph 8(2) of Part 2 of Schedule 1 to the Data Protection Act 2018) in relation to that category with a view to enabling such equality to be promoted or maintained; and it is not carried out for the purposes of measures or decisions with respect to a particular data subject; and you have not declined consent; and you have not given notice that you do not wish your data to be processed for these purposes; and the processing is not likely to cause substantial damage or substantial distress to an individual. Diversity and inclusion data is used anonymously: ethnicity, religion, community background (Northern Ireland vacancies only), and sexual orientation.
• it is necessary for archiving purposes, scientific or historical research purposes or statistical purposes, and it is in the public interest. Analysis of applications and recruitment outcomes (including online tests), impact on protected groups, timescales for recruitment, and other research may be carried out
• for the provision of a digital route for carrying out Right to Work checks, the legal basis for providing a digital version of your face and identity documents, is because you explicitly consent

The processing by us of personal data relating to criminal convictions and offences or related security measures is not carried out under official authority, but is authorised because it meets the following condition:

• it is necessary for reasons of substantial public interest. This is ensuring that individuals with access to official information and assets will meet the required standards of propriety.

Data Processors are third parties who provide some aspects of our recruitment service via commercial contracts. These contracts contain clauses which mean that they cannot do anything with your personal information unless we have instructed them to do so. They will hold your information securely and retain it for the period we have authorised.

Your personal data will be shared by us with:

Account data:

• our technical suppliers and their approved staff
• our technical supplier's hosting provider

Once you have made an application, your information may be shared with:

• approved staff managing job and public appointments vacancies including recruiters and interview panel members
• approved staff involved in anonymised reporting of the effectiveness of recruitment campaigns or activity levels and statistical analysis of trends, equal opportunities anonymised data and other management information
• the recruiting department or profession
• our technical supplier and their hosting provider
• the customer relationship management system
• providers of individual leadership assessments, numerical and verbal reasoning tests, psychometric tests, other forms of assessment and engagement exercises. These providers will also receive details of any reasonable adjustments you may require to assist you.
• the Civil Service Jobs and their technical system which administers online tests on behalf of the Welsh Government
• the GOV.UK Notify Service for sending email and text messages
• the Civil Service Commission- to allow it to discharge its statutory responsibility in relation to compliance, complaints and investigations
• the Advisory Committee on Business Appointments (to enable it to provide advice under the UK Business Appointment Rules)
• the Office of the Commissioner for Public Appointments (to allow it to process work in compliance with the Governance Code for Public Appointments)
• our external translation service providers if you have applied in Welsh

If you meet the required standard but we are unable to offer you the job, you may be given the option of being added to a reserve list held by our HR division.

For senior civil service roles, your data may be held by the Civil Service HR team within the Cabinet Office to provide a list of potential candidates to be considered for similar future roles.

If you undergo pre-employment checks prior to appointment, your data may be shared with:

• the customer relationship management system
• Powys County Council (your email address only in order for contact to be made for you to complete a Basic Criminal Record Check)
• UK Security Vetting team (if the role requires a higher level of security clearance)
• our occupational health provider
• our external translation services providers
• Civil Service Pensions
• the recruiting department

If you apply for a public appointment that is subject to a pre-appointment hearing, your CV, biographical information, conflict of interest and political activity declarations will be shared with the Senedd Commission and published as part of their report into your suitability as a candidate.

If you request support with your application or for a technical issue:

• approved staff from our HR division or the UK Cabinet Office
• approved staff from our technical suppliers
• the customer relationship management system
• project management tools
• technical suppliers of online tests

As your personal data will be stored on our IT infrastructure it will also be shared with our data processors who provide email and document management and storage services to us.

Where your information is held in a physical format for example, interview notes, it will be held securely and retained for the same period as information held in electronic format.

We will not share any information you provide with any third parties for marketing purposes or outside of the European Economic area.

Your personal data will be kept by us and our data processors for the following durations:

• for job vacancies or recruitment schemes, up to three years after the vacancy or scheme has closed
• for public appointments, an initial period of five years after the vacancy has closed but this may be extended to 11 years to allow for subsequent re-appointments
• for secondments, up to 10 years and this data will also be held by the team in which secondees are engaged
• for anonymised reports on the effectiveness of recruitment campaigns or activity levels, statistical analysis of trends and equal opportunities monitoring anonymised data and other management information for no longer than is necessary to achieve the specified business purpose

You can, at any time, choose to close your account. This will:

• remove your ability to login to the account
• withdraw any active applications
• delete partially-completed applications which haven’t been submitted
• disable the automatic sending of job alerts

Closed accounts are deleted and cannot be restored, however previously submitted applications will be retained until deletion for the period described above.

Candidate accounts that are active will remain in the system unless the candidate deletes them (or makes a request for deletion). An account will become inactive if the user has not logged in for two years.

Your personal data will be subject to automated decision making when online psychometric tests are used. Some vacancies use online psychometric tests in the early stages of recruitment. Three tests are commonly used: Verbal Reasoning, Numerical Reasoning and the Civil Service Judgement Test.

Decisions are made on who to invite to later stages based on automated scoring and sifting processes. In addition, test scores and other applicant data are regularly captured for statistical and research analysis purposes.

Your score is calculated from the responses you give during the test, and no other information about you is used. We compare your score to those gained by a peer group who previously took the test, to give you a percentile. The vacancy will have a minimum percentile requirement, and if your score is lower than this, you will be rejected and your application will not be considered further.

You have the right to request information about how your personal data is processed, and to request a copy of that personal data.

You have the right to request a copy of any personal data you have provided, and for this to be provided in a structured, commonly used and machine-readable format.

• your personal data is available to view in your Application Centre at any time
• you can request a copy of your personal data, in machine-readable format, by emailing the Shared Service Centre. This request may take up to four weeks to process.

You have the right to request that any inaccuracies in your personal data are rectified without delay.

• you can edit your contact details in your Application Centre at any time
• you can also edit contact details on submitted applications
• to request corrections to an application you have submitted, email the contact listed on the advert for that vacancy. Only minor updates are usually considered.

You have the right to request that any incomplete personal data are completed, including by means of a supplementary statement.

• you can add additional contact details via your Application Centre at any time
• in most cases, you will be unable to submit an application if mandatory information is missing
• please check your application carefully before submitting it, as your application will be assessed on the information you provide at that point

You have the right to request that your personal data is erased if there is no longer a justification for it to be processed. You can close your account at any time, from your Application Centre. This will:

• withdraw any submitted applications
• delete any unsubmitted applications
• stop job alerts being sent to you
• delete your account data and remove your ability to log into your account again

Any applications you have made in the past will be kept for audit purposes under our data retention policy.

You have the right in certain circumstances (for example, where accuracy is contested) to request that the processing of your personal data is restricted.

• if your data is restricted from processing, you cannot be considered for a job or public appointment;
• if your request relates to an application, email the contact listed on the job or public appointment advert
• if your request relates to your account, contact sharedservicehelpdesk@gov.wales

You have the right to object to the processing of your personal data where it is processed for direct marketing purposes.

• your data is not processed for direct marketing purposes

You have the right to object to the processing of your personal data.

• you can object to processing, although you will then be unable to be considered for a job or public appointment

You have the right to withdraw your consent at any time, where that has been asked of you.

You have the right, in relation to automatic profiling, to obtain human intervention in the outcome, to express your point of view, and to contest the decision reached by automatic profiling.

• you can email the contact listed on the advert for the job or public appointment you have applied for

If you consider that your personal data has been misused or mishandled, you may make a complaint to the Information Commissioner, who is an independent regulator. The Information Commissioner can be contacted at:

Information Commissioner's Office
Wycliffe House
Water Lane
Wilmslow
Cheshire
SK9 5AF
0303 123 1113
casework@ico.org.uk

Any complaint to the Information Commissioner is without prejudice to your right to seek redress through the courts.

The Welsh Government HR division is the data controller for your account details, for any applications you have not yet submitted and for your personal data within your submitted applications.

You can contact the Welsh Government Jobs and Public Appointments Service by email: sharedservicehelpdesk@gov.wales

Contact details for the Welsh Government’s Data Protection Officer (DPO) are:

Data Protection Officer
DPO
Welsh Government
Cathays Park
Cardiff
CF10 3NQ
dataprotectionofficer@gov.wales

If this privacy notice changes in any way, we will place an updated version on this page. Regularly reviewing this page ensures you are always aware of what information we collect, how we use it, and under what circumstances we will share it with other parties.

Last updated: 5 July 2023