Privacy Notice for Candidates

Lodders Solicitors LLP Privacy Notice for candidates and prospective employees

1. What this privacy notice covers

Lodders Solicitors LLP (“Lodders”) is committed to protecting your personal information.

In this notice any reference to ‘we’ or ‘us’ means Lodders Solicitors LLP. This privacy notice will inform you as to how we look after your personal data when you instruct us and tell you about your privacy rights and how the law protects you.

Lodders is a Limited Liability Partnership registered in England with Partnership Number OC306995. The Registered Office is Number Ten, Elm Court, Arden Street, Stratford upon Avon, Warwickshire, CV37 6PA.

2. Who we are

Lodders is a data controller for the purposes of the UK GDPR and is registered with the Information Commissioner’s Office as such, under Registration Number Z5987574.

If you have any questions about this notice, please do not hesitate to contact us and address your queries to our dedicated inbox data@lodders.co.uk.

3. Data Protection Principles

Personal data must be processed in accordance with six ‘Data Protection Principles.’ It must:

  • be processed fairly, lawfully and transparently;
  • be collected and processed only for specified, explicit and legitimate purposes;
  • be adequate, relevant and limited to what is necessary for the purposes for which it is processed;
  • be accurate and kept up to date. Any inaccurate data must be deleted or rectified without delay;
  • not be kept for longer than is necessary for the purposes for which it is processed; and
  • be processed securely.

We are accountable for these principles and must be able to show that we are compliant.

4. Information we gather

Lodders carefully gathers certain information about you and will protect personal and sensitive data. ‘Personal data’ means information which relates to a living person who can be identified from that data (a ‘data subject’) on its own, or when taken together with other information which is likely to come into our possession. It does not include anonymised data.

This notice applies to all personal data whether it is stored electronically, on paper or on other materials. Your information is held securely in either our HR software or our applicant tracking system, to which only the HR Director has access. Any individuals who are involved in your recruitment process may also be subsequently granted access, for example your prospective line manager.

4.1 Information we will collect

When you apply to work at Lodders, you will give us information. Information you supply may include the following.

  • Your name, date of birth, postal address, email address and phone numbers.
  • Details given on your Curriculum Vitae.
  • Details given in a covering letter.
  • Any information you may give during the interview.
  • Special category data to satisfy equal opportunities criteria.

We may also collect special category data, which could be information about your race or ethnicity, religious beliefs, sexual orientation, political opinions, your health, including any medical condition, health and sickness records.

4.2 Information about you from third parties

If you have been put in touch with us through a recruitment agency, it is assumed that in the terms & conditions of your agreement with the agency that you consented to the passing on of your information to potential employers. If any of the information you provided the agency is inaccurate, please let us know as soon as possible.

We do not envisage that we will hold information about criminal convictions.

We will only collect information about criminal convictions if it is appropriate given the nature of the role and where we are legally able to do so.

5. How we may use your information

We rely on a contractual basis to process data during your employment or in anticipation of a contract of employment forming as a result of your application. Lodders will process your personal data (including special categories of personal data) in accordance with our obligations under the UK GDPR.

We will use your personal data:

  • to communicate with you about the recruitment process;
  • to assess your skills, qualifications and suitability for the work or role;
  • to keep records related to our hiring process;
  • to comply with any legal obligation; or
  • if it is necessary for our legitimate interests (or for the legitimate interests of someone else). However, we can only do this if your interests and rights do not override ours (or theirs). You have the right to challenge our legitimate interests and request that we stop this processing. See details of your rights in section 9 below.

We can process your personal data for these purposes without your knowledge or consent. We will not use your personal data for an unrelated purpose without telling you about it and the legal basis that we intend to rely on for processing it.

If you choose not to provide us with certain personal data you should be aware that we may not be able to process your application successfully.

6. Information Sharing and Disclosure

If Lodders is taken-over or merges with another business, personal data held by it may be disclosed to the new business owners.

We may disclose your personal information to third parties if we are under a duty to disclose your personal data to comply with any legal obligation (for example to government bodies and law enforcement agencies).

Our applicant tracking system is hosted by EasyWeb and is therefore kept within EU/EEA privacy requirements, as well as data being stored locally at Lodders Offices. We require third parties to comply strictly with our instructions and data protection laws and we will make sure that appropriate controls are in place where third parties have access to personal data. We enter into contracts with all of our data processors and regularly monitor their activities to ensure they are complying with Lodders’ policies and procedures.

7. Keeping your records

We keep records only for as long as required. In most cases this will be for the term of your employment, plus the statute of limitations of 6 years from the date of your departure from Lodders. If your application is unsuccessful, we will keep a record of your application and details for a maximum of 12 months.

8. Where we may store your information

We will initially story your information on our applicant tracking system. If your application is successful, the data that we collect from you will be transferred to, and stored at, Lodders in our HR management software.

By submitting your personal data, you agree to this transfer, storing or processing.

Lodders will take all steps reasonably necessary to ensure that your data is treated securely and in accordance with this privacy notice and our data security policy.

9. Your rights

You have the following rights in relation to the processing of your personal data.

i. To request a copy of the personal information we hold about you. For security purposes, we require you to prove your identity with two pieces of approved identification. Please address requests to the data protection contact and we will respond within one month, of receipt of your written request and confirmed ID. Please provide as much information as possible about the nature of your contact with us to help us locate your records. This request is free of charge unless the request is manifestly unfounded or excessive.

ii. To have any inaccuracies in your data corrected. If you would like to update the details we hold about you, please get in touch with our data protection contact via telephone, email or by letter.

iii. To request that we delete your personal data so that it is erased from our records.

iv. To have the data we hold about you transferred to another organisation.

v. To object to certain types of processing such as direct marketing.

10. Enquires and Complaints

The data protection contact is the first point of contact regarding any enquires arising from this privacy notice. Where possible, please raise all enquires in writing.

If you are unhappy with our work or something that we have done or failed to do, please inform us in writing. Lodders will acknowledge receipt of all complaints and will endeavour to investigate the complaint within 28 working days, in line with our complaints handling policy.

All complaints should be sent to:

Lodders Solicitors LLP FAO Tom Ellis, Elm Court, Arden Street, Stratford upon Avon, Warwickshire, CV37 6PA.

You may also complain directly to the Information Commissioner’s Office if you are concerned with how we are handling your personal information using their online form which can be found here: www.ico.org.uk/concerns/handling/.

11. Changes to this notice and the way we treat personal information

We may update the terms of this Privacy Notice at any time, so please do check it from time to time.

We will notify you about significant changes in the way we treat personal information by sending a notice to the primary email address you have provided to us or by placing a prominent notice on our website at lodders1.wpengine.com.

This Privacy Notice was last updated in November, 2022.