1. Introduction
The Data Protection Act 1998 regulates the way in which certain information about you is held and used. Although the Act does not currently apply to most of the records about employees held by [Insert Company Name], we consider that many of the principles in the new Act represent best practice and we have therefore decided to issue this policy to all employees.
This policy will give you some useful information about the type of information that it does keep about you and the purposes for which it keeps them.
Throughout your employment and for as long a period as is necessary following the termination of your employment, the Company will need to keep information about you for purposes connected with your employment, including your recruitment and the termination of your employment.
2. Types of Information Held
The records may include:
· information gathered from you and any references obtained during your recruitment;
· details of your terms of employment;
· payroll details;
· tax and national insurance information;
· information about your performance;
· details of your grade and job duties;
· health records;
· absence records including holiday records and self-certification forms;
· details of any disciplinary investigations and proceedings;
· training records;
· contact names and addresses;
· correspondence with the Company and other information that you have given to the Company.
3. Use of Information
We believe these uses are consistent with our employment relationship and with the principles of the Data Protection Act 1998. The information we hold will be for our management and administrative use only but we may, from time to time, need to disclose some information we hold about you to relevant third parties (for example where legally obliged to do so by the Inland Revenue or where requested to do so by you for the purpose of giving a reference). We may also transfer information about you to another group company/group head office solely for purposes connected with your career or the management of the Company’s business.
4. Personal Information
You should also be aware that [Insert Company Name] may hold the following information about you, for which disclosure to any person will only be made when strictly necessary for the purposes set out below:
· Your health for the purposes of compliance with our health and safety obligations; for the purposes of management and administration, for example, to consider how your health affects your ability to do your job and, if you are disabled, whether you require any reasonable adjustments to be made to assist you at work; and the administration of insurance, sick pay and any other related benefits in force from time to time.
· In connection with unspent convictions to enable us to assess your suitability for employment.
5. Access Requests
You have the right, on written request to the following:
· to be informed whether personal data about you is being processed, whether by the company or someone else on its behalf;
· to be given, in addition to the Fair Processing Information:
- a description of the personal data that are being processed;
- a description of the purposes for which the data are being processed; and
- details of all recipients or classes of recipients to whom they are or may be disclosed;
· to have communicated, in an intelligible form, any information held about you by the company, as well as any information available to the company as to the source of this information. If the information is not in an intelligible form, for instance if it contains codes, you will be given an explanation of the information. The information will be provided in a permanent form unless this is impossible, would involve a disproportionate effort or you agree to some other form. The copy will usually be a printed paper copy, but can also be provided in other ways, for example, on disk or via e-mail;
· to be informed of the logic involved in the taking of a decision which is based solely on the processing by automatic means of personal data, for instance CV scanning or psychometric testing.
The company may charge you up to £10.00 to cover administration costs.
The company will comply with the request within 40 days.
6. Repeated Requests
If the company has already complied with an identical or similar request the company does not have to respond to repeated demands from you until a reasonable period has elapsed or new information has been added to the file, for example, if the individual has been subject to an investigation or disciplinary hearing.