NHSP GDPR Information

CORPORATE PRIVACY NOTICE

Introduction

NHS Professionals (NHSP) is committed to protecting the privacy and security of your personal information.

This Notice contains important information about how NHS Professionals Limited will collect, process and use personal information about you in connection with you during and after your working relationship with us.

You should read this Notice carefully and raise any questions with Corporate HR at the following email address - CorporateHR@NHSprofessionals.nhs.uk

Scope

This Notice applies to NHS Professionals Limited, which is registered as a data controller with the Information Commissioner's office (registration number Z2165993) ("NHSP"). NHSP's address is Suites 1A & B, Breakspear Park, Breakspear Way, Hemel Hempstead, HP2 4TZ.

Being a data controller means NHSP is responsible for deciding how we hold and use personal information about you. NHSP is required under data protection legislation to notify you of the information contained in this Privacy Notice.

This Notice applies to corporate applicants, employees, workers and contractors. This Notice does not form part of any contract of employment or other contract to provide services. NHSP may update this Notice at any time.

It is important you read this Notice, together with any other privacy notice NHSP may provide on specific occasions when we are collecting or processing personal information about you, so that you are aware of how and why we are using such information.

Data Protection Principles

NHSP complies with data protection law, which says that personal information we hold about you must be:

 

1. Used lawfully, fairly and in a transparent way;
2. Collected only for valid purposes that we have clearly explained to you and not used in any way that is incompatible with these purposes;
3. Relevant to the purposes NHSP has told you about and limited only to those purposes;
4. Accurate and kept up to date;
5. Kept only as long as necessary for the purposes we have told you about;
6. Kept securely.

What Personal Data Do We Collect And Why?

Personal data means any information about an individual from which that person can be identified. It does not include data where the identity of the individual has been removed (anonymous data). There are also “special categories” of more sensitive personal data which require a higher level of protection.

NHSP will collect, use and store the following categories of personal data about you:

• personal contact information (including your name, title, home address, personal telephone number(s) and personal e-mail addresses)
• business contact information (including e-mail address and telephone number)
• recruitment information (including your documents evidencing your right to work in the United Kingdom including information about your immigration status where relevant, CV, declaration A form, DBS enhanced disclosure (if applicable) application form, interview notes, cover letter and any other documents generated during the recruitment process;
• date of birth
• gender
• ·next of kin and emergency contact information
• marital status and dependants
• background vetting information
• NI number
• salary, annual leave, pension and benefits information
• bank account details (including name of bank / building society, bank account name, bank account number, bank sort code, and bank branch name), payroll records and tax status information
• professional registration membership body and professional registration number
• employment start date
• location of employment or workplace
• employment records (including job titles, work history, working hours, training records and professional memberships and qualifications)
• compensation history
• performance information
• disciplinary and grievance information
• CCTV and other information obtained through electronic means such as swipecard records
• information about your use of our information and communications systems
• photographs
• IP address inc. geolocation

We may also collect, store and use the following “special categories” of more sensitive personal information:

• information about your race or ethnicity, religious beliefs, sexual orientation and political opinions;
• trade union membership;
• information about your health, including any medical condition, health and sickness records;
• genetic information and biometric data;
• information about criminal convictions and offences.

 

NHSP will update this Notice from time to time to reflect any notable changes in the categories of personal data which it processes.

How Do We Use Your Personal Data?

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

1. Where we need to perform the contract we have entered into with you;
2. Where we need to comply with a legal obligation;
3. Where is it necessary for our legitimate interests (or those of a third party) and your interests and fundamental rights do not override these interests.

NHSP may also use your personal information in the following situations, which are likely to be rare:

1. Where we need to protect your interests (or someone else’s interests);
2. Where it is needed in the public interest.

The situations in which we will process your personal information and the lawful basis on which the processing will take place are listed below:

Processing Purpose	Needed to perform the contract	Needed to comply with legal obligation	Necessary in our legitimate interests	Needed to protect your interests	Needed in the public interest
Making a decision about your recruitment or appointment	x		x
Conducting background checks as part of the recruitment process	x	x	x
Determining the terms on which you work for us	x		x
Paying you, and, if you are an employee, deducting tax and National Insurance contributions	x	x	x
Providing the following benefits to you if applicable: Childcare vouchers Lease Car Scheme Bike to Work Scheme	x		x
Liaising with your pension provider	x	x	x
Administering the contract we have entered into with you	x		x
Conducting performance reviews, managing performance and determining performance requirements;			x
Making decisions about salary review and compensation, including any performance bonus or commission	x		x
Processing Purpose	Needed to perform the contract	Needed to comply with legal obligation	Necessary in our legitimate interests	Needed to protect your interests	Needed in the public interest
Assessing qualifications for a particular job or task, including decisions about promotions;	x		x
Gathering evidence for possible grievance or disciplinary hearings	x	x	x
Safeguarding the safety of patients and staff in any NHS organisation in which you work, have worked or may work		x	x	x
Making decisions about your continued employment or engagement	x	x	x
Making arrangements for the termination of our working relationship	x	x	x
Checking you are legally entitled to work in the UK	x	x	x
Complying with health and safety obligations		x	x
To prevent fraud, including providing information to NHS Counter Fraud and Security Management Service Division, the police, the Home Office and HMRC		x	x
To ensure network and information security, including preventing unauthorised access to our computer and electronic communications systems and preventing malicious software distributions	x	x	x
Business management and planning, including accounting and auditing			x
Education, training and development requirements;			x
Dealing with legal disputes involving you, or other employees, workers and contractors, including accidents at work		x	x
Ascertaining your fitness to work	x	x	x	x	x
Managing sickness absence	x	x	x
To monitor your use of our information and communication systems to ensure compliance with our IT policies	x		x
To conduct data analytics studies to review and better understand employee retention and attrition rates			x
Equal opportunities monitoring		x	x
To make contract decisions regarding the Transfer or Undertaking (Protection of Employment) Regulations 2016	x	x	x
Providing you with access to relevant IT equipment	x		x
Contact in an emergency and/or Business Continuity Incident		x	x

Some of the above grounds for processing will overlap and, as the above table demonstrates, there may be several grounds which justify our use of your personal information.  NHSP will update this Notice from time to time to reflect any notable changes in the purposes for which it processes your personal data.

If you fail to provide certain information when requested, we may not be able to perform the contract we have entered into with you (such as paying you or providing a benefit), or we may be prevented from complying with our legal obligations (such as to ensure the health and safety of our workers).

NHSP 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 reason is compatible with the original purpose. If we need to use your personal information for an unrelated purpose, we will notify you and 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.

What Sensitive Personal Data Do We Process?

Certain “special categories” of particularly sensitive personal data are subject to additional safeguards. This means NHSP needs to have further justification for collecting, storing and using this type of personal information.

NHSP may process special categories of personal information in the following circumstances:

1. In limited circumstances, with your explicit written consent;
2. Where we need to carry out our legal obligations and in line with NHSP’s Data Protection Policy;
3. Where it is needed in the public interest such as for equal opportunities monitoring or in relation to our occupational pension scheme, and in line with NHSP’s Data Protection Policy;
4. Where is it needed to assess your working capacity on health grounds, subject to appropriate confidentiality safeguards.
5. Where processing is necessary for the purposes of employment, social security and social protection

NHSP may also process this type of information where it is needed in relation to legal claims or where it is needed to protect your interests (or someone else’s interests) and you are not capable of giving your consent, or where you have already made the information public.

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

• We will use information relating to leave of absence, which may include sickness absence or family related leave, to comply with employment and other laws;
• We will use 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, to provide appropriate workplace adjustments, to monitor and manage sickness absence and to administer benefits;

• We will use information about your race or national or ethnic origin, disability, religious, philosophical or moral beliefs or your sexual life or sexual orientation, to ensure meaningful opportunity monitoring and reporting. Wherever possible, the monitoring will be conducted on the basis of using anonymised data, so individuals cannot be identified and the information processed for monitoring purposes will be maintained separately from general management and HR records

• We will use trade union membership information to pay trade union premiums (where applicable), register the status of a protected employee and to comply with employment law obligations.

NHSP does not need your consent if we use special categories of your personal information in accordance with NHSP’s written policy, to carry out our legal obligations or exercise specific rights in the field of employment law. In limited circumstances, we may approach you for your written consent to allow us to process certain particularly sensitive data. If we do so, we will provide you with full details of the information that we would like and the reason we need it, so that you can carefully consider whether you wish to consent. You should be aware that it is not a condition of your contract with us that you agree to any request to consent from us.

Information About Criminal Convictions

NHSP may only use information relating to criminal convictions where the law allows us to do so. This will usually be where such processing is necessary to carry out NHSP’s obligations and provided we do so in line with our Data Protection Policy.

Less commonly, we may use information relating to criminal convictions where it is necessary in relation to legal claims, where it is necessary to protect your interests (or someone else’s interests) and you are not capable of giving your consent, or where you have already made the information public.

NHSP will use information about criminal convictions and offences in the following ways:

• To make a decision regarding employment for roles that carry out patient facing activities
• To make a decision regarding continued employment for roles that carry out patient facing activities

We are allowed to use your personal information in this way to carry out our obligations as an employer of persons carrying out regulated activities which require enhanced DBS checks. In addition, all those with access to patients are exempt from the provisions under section 4(3) of the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974, which means that you must disclose information about any criminal convictions which would otherwise be considered “spent”.

Automated Decision-Making

Automated decision-making takes place when an electronic system uses personal information to make a decision without human intervention. NHSP are allowed to use automated decision-making in the following circumstances:

1. Where we have notified you of the decision and given you 21 days to request reconsideration;
2. Where it is necessary to perform the contract with you and appropriate measures are in place to safeguard your rights;
3. In limited circumstances, with your explicit written consent and where appropriate measures are in place to safeguard your rights.

 

If NHSP make an automated decision on the basis of any particularly sensitive personal information, we must have either your explicit written consent or it must be justified in the public interest, and NHSP must also put in place appropriate measures to safeguard your rights.

You will not be subject to decisions that will have a significant impact on you based solely on automated decision-making, unless NHSP have a lawful basis for doing so and we have notified you.

Data Sharing

NHSP may have to share your data with third parties, such as NHS Trusts. NHSP require third parties to respect the security of your data and to treat it in accordance with the law. If we do, you can expect a similar degree of protection in respect of your personal information.

NHSP will share your personal information with third parties where required by law, where it is necessary to administer the working relationship with you or where we have another legitimate interest in doing so. "Third parties" includes third-party service providers, in particular those who provide the following services: payroll, childcare voucher schemes, occupational health and training.

All NHSP’s third-party service providers are required to take appropriate security measures to protect your personal information in line with our policies. NHSP does not allow our third-party service providers to use your personal data for their own purposes. NHSP only permit them to process your personal data for specified purposes and in accordance with our instructions.

NHSP may share your personal information with other third parties, for example in the context of the restructuring of the business. We may also need to share your personal information with a regulator or to otherwise comply with the law.

Data Security

NHSP have put in place measures to protect the security of your information. Details of these measures are available upon request. In all cases, NHSP takes appropriate steps to ensure that the documents are stored securely (whether in hardcopy or softcopy) and that access is restricted only to those employees with a legitimate purpose.

Third parties will only process your personal information on NHSP’s instructions and where they have agreed to treat the information confidentially and to keep it secure.

NHSP have put in place appropriate security measures to prevent your personal information from being accidentally lost, used or accessed in an unauthorised way, altered or disclosed. In addition, NHSP limits access to your personal information to those employees, agents, contractors and other third parties who have a business need to know. They will only process your personal information on our instructions and they are subject to a duty of confidentiality. Details of these measures may be obtained upon request.

NHSP have put in place procedures to deal with any suspected data security breach and will notify you and any applicable regulator of a suspected breach where we are legally required to do so.

Data Retention

NHSP will only retain your personal information for as long as necessary to fulfil the purposes we collected it for, including for the purposes of satisfying any legal, accounting, or reporting requirements. Details of retention periods for different aspects of your personal information are available in our HR Document Retention Policy which is available from the Corporate Human Resources department.

To determine the appropriate retention period for personal data, NHSP consider the amount, nature, and sensitivity of the personal data, the potential risk of harm from unauthorised use or disclosure of your personal data, the purposes for which NHSP will process your personal data and whether NHSP can achieve those purposes through other means, and the applicable legal requirements.

In some circumstances NHSP may anonymise your personal information so that it can no longer be associated with you, in which case we may use such information without further notice to you. Once you are no longer an employee, worker or contractor of the company we will retain and securely destroy your personal information in accordance with NHSP’s HR Document Retention Policy.

Rights of Access, Correction, Erasure and Restriction

It is important that the personal information we hold about you is accurate and current. Please keep us informed if your personal information changes during your working relationship with us.

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

• Request access to your personal information (commonly known as a "data subject access request"). This enables you to receive a copy of the personal information NHSP hold about you and to check that we are lawfully processing it;
• Request correction of the personal information that NHSP hold about you. This enables you to have any incomplete or inaccurate information NHSP hold about you corrected;
• Request erasure of your personal information. This enables you to ask us to delete or remove personal information where there is no good reason for us continuing to process it. You also have the right to ask us to delete or remove your personal information where you have exercised your right to object to processing (see below);
• Object to processing of your personal information where NHSP 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. You also have the right to object where NHSP are processing your personal information for direct marketing purposes;
• Request the restriction of processing of your personal information. This enables you to ask NHSP to suspend the processing of personal information about you, for example if you want us to establish its accuracy or the reason for processing it.
• Request the transfer of your personal information to another party.

If you want to review, verify, correct or request erasure of your personal information, object to the processing of your personal data, or request that NHSP transfer a copy of your personal information to another party, please contact NHS Professionals Corporate Human Resources department at CorporateHR@NHSProfessionals.nhs.uk.

You will not have to pay a fee to access your personal information (or to exercise any of the other rights). However, we may charge a reasonable fee if your request for access is clearly unfounded or excessive. Alternatively, NHSP may refuse to comply with the request in such circumstances.

We may need to request specific information from you to help us confirm your identity and ensure your right to access the information (or to exercise any of your other rights). This is another appropriate security measure to ensure that personal information is not disclosed to any person who has no right to receive it.

Right to Withdraw Consent

In the limited circumstances where you may have provided your consent to the collection, processing and transfer of your personal information for a specific purpose, you have the right to withdraw your consent for that specific processing at any time.

To withdraw your consent, please contact the Corporate Human Resources department.

Once NHSP have received notification that you have withdrawn your consent, we will no longer process your information for the purpose or purposes you originally agreed to, unless we have another legitimate basis for doing so in law.

Data Protection Officer

NHSP have appointed a Data Protection Officer to oversee compliance with this privacy notice. If you have any questions or concerns about this privacy notice or how we handle your personal information, please contact the Data Protection Officer.

The contact details for your Data Protection Officer are set out below:

Rhian Burke – Data Protection Officer

You have the right to make a complaint at any time to the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO), the UK supervisory authority for data protection issues.

CHANGES TO THIS PRIVACY NOTICE

NHSP reserve the right to update this privacy notice at any time, and we will provide you with a new privacy notice when we make any substantial updates. NHSP may also notify you in other ways from time to time about the processing of your personal information.

 

Version 1.5 dated 3rd December, 2024.