Job Applicant Privacy Notice

Data controller: Penny Petroleum, Old Station House, Powburn, Alnwick, Northumberland, NE66 4HU

As part of any recruitment process, we collect and process personal data relating to job applicants. We are committed to being transparent about how we collect and use that data and to meeting our data protection obligations.

What information do we collect?

We collect a range of information about you. This includes:

  • your name, address and contact details, including email address and telephone number;
  • details of your qualifications, skills, experience and employment history;
  • information about your current level of remuneration, including benefit entitlements;
  • whether or not you have a disability for which we need to make reasonable adjustments during the recruitment process;
  • information about your entitlement to work in the UK; and
  • information about criminal convictions.

We collect this information from application forms and CVs, and during the interview process. If you are offered employment we will obtain information regarding your eligibility to work in the UK from your passport or other identity documents.

If we offer you employment, we will also collect personal data about you from third parties, such as references supplied by former employers and information from criminal records checks which are required if you will be a Personal License holder or if you will work on a Post Office counter. We will seek information from third parties only once a job offer to you has been made and will inform you that we are 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 do we process personal data?

We need it to take steps at your request in order to enter into a contract with you, because by applying for a job with us you are effectively asking us to enter into a contract with you.

We need it to comply with a legal obligation e.g. the obligation not to discriminate during our recruitment process, or the obligation not to employ someone who does not have the legal right to work in the UK.

We have a legitimate interest in processing personal data during the recruitment process and for keeping records of the process. Processing data from job applicants allows us to manage the recruitment process, assess and confirm a candidate’s suitability for employment and decide to whom to offer a job. We may also need to process data from job applicants to respond to and defend against legal claims.

Where we process other special categories of data, such as information about ethnic origin, sexual orientation, health or religion or belief, this is for equal opportunities monitoring purposes.

For roles in stores which have a Post Office counter or where you are expected to hold a Personal License for the sale of alcohol, we are obliged to seek information about criminal convictions and offences. Where we seek this information, we do so because it is necessary for us to carry out our legal obligations and exercise specific rights in relation to employment.

Who has access to your data?

Your information will be shared internally for the purposes of the recruitment exercise. This includes interviewers involved in the recruitment process, our external HR Consultant, managers in the business area with a vacancy and IT staff if access to the data is necessary for the performance of their roles.

We will not share your data with anyone else, unless your application for employment is successful and we make you an offer of employment. We will then share your data with former employers to obtain references for you, and Post Office Ltd / Licensing Matters to obtain necessary criminal records checks.

We will not transfer your data outside the European Economic Area.

How do we protect data?

We take the security of your data seriously. We have 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.

How long will we keep your data?

We will keep your personal data throughout the recruitment process.

If your application is successful, when you start work for us you will be issued with an Employee Privacy Notice which will include information about what personal data we keep from the recruitment process and how long we keep your personal data whilst you are working for us and after you have left.

If your application is unsuccessful, we will keep your personal data for up to 12 months from the date we notify you of our decision.

Your rights

As a data subject, you have a number of rights. You can:

  • access and obtain a copy of your data on request;
  • require us to change incorrect or incomplete data;
  • require us to delete or stop processing your data, for example where the data is no longer necessary for the purposes of processing;
  • object to the processing of your data where we are relying on our legitimate interests as the legal ground for processing; and
  • ask us to stop processing data for a period if data is inaccurate or there is a dispute about whether or not your interests override our legitimate grounds for processing data.

You can make a subject access request by writing to us at the address on this privacy notice.

If you believe that we have not complied with your data protection rights, you can complain to the Information Commissioner.

What if you do not provide personal data?

You are under no statutory or contractual obligation to provide data to us during the recruitment process. However, if you do not provide the information, we may not be able to process your application properly or at all.

You are under no obligation to provide information for equal opportunities monitoring purposes and there are no consequences for your application if you choose not to provide such information.

Automated decision-making

Recruitment processes are not based solely on automated decision-making.