Shepherd and Wedderburn LLP, its subsidiaries (including Shepherd and Wedderburn (Services) Limited and Saltire Data Protection Services Limited) and associated entities (including Shepherd and Wedderburn Europe LLP) (together referred to as “we” or “us” or “our”) are committed to protecting the privacy and security of your personal information that we collect as a "controller". As a controller we are responsible for deciding how we hold and use personal information about you.
This privacy notice describes how we collect and use personal information about you when you provide information to us in connection with our recruitment opportunities, when processing your application to work for us, or during your work experience placement with us. We will process your personal data in accordance with the Data Protection Act 2018 and the UK General Data Protection Regulation (UK GDPR). It also provides information about how long your personal information will be held for.
This notice applies to all job applicants and work placement students and those expressing interest in these opportunities. It applies whether the information is provided in connection with a part-time or full-time opportunity, or whether for a temporary, fixed-term or permanent, paid or unpaid role.
If you are successful in obtaining paid employment with us we will hold your information in accordance with our Privacy Notice and Data Retention Policy for Personnel, which will be provided to you on commencement of employment.
1. Data protection principles
1.1 We will comply with data protection law and principles, which means that your data will be:
1.1.1 Used lawfully, fairly and in a transparent way.
1.1.2 Collected only for valid purposes that we have clearly explained to you and not used in any way that is incompatible with those purposes.
1.1.3 Relevant to the purposes we have told you about and limited only to those purposes.
1.1.4 Accurate and kept up to date.
1.1.5 Kept securely and only as long as necessary for the purposes we have told you about.
2. The kind of information we hold about you
2.1 Personal data, or personal information, means any information about an individual from which that person can be identified. It does not include anonymous data.
2.2 In connection with your application for work with us, we may collect, store, and use the following categories of personal information about you:
2.2.1 The information you have provided to us in your CV and covering letter;
2.2.2 The information you have provided on our application form, including name, title, address, telephone number, personal email address, date of birth, gender, employment history, qualifications, reference details and visa information;
2.2.3 Any information you provide to us during an interview including ,where appropriate, information about whether you have a clear disciplinary record and/or any formal complaint outstanding against you;
2.2.4 The results of any tests we may ask you to undertake.
2.3 We may collect, store, and use more sensitive personal information about you (some of which will be a "special category" of information under UK GDPR, requiring increased protection), including:
2.3.1 Information about your race, colour, nationality, ethnic or national origin, age, gender identity, gender expression, social mobility background, religious beliefs, sexual orientation, any disability information, and marital/civil partnership status for diversity and inclusion monitoring;
2.3.2 Information about criminal convictions and credit checks, where necessary for your role;
2.3.3 Information about your health, including any medical condition and sickness records.
3. How is your personal information collected?
3.1 We collect personal information about you from the following sources:
3.1.1 You;
3.1.2 Your named referees;
3.1.3 Where applicable, the recruitment agency that has put forward your details;
3.1.4 Your education provider;
3.1.5 Professional bodies; and
3.1.6 Publicly available sources, including professional social media such as LinkedIn.
3.2 For certain roles we may also request checks from credit reference agencies and/or through the Disclosure Scotland or Disclosure and Barring Service in respect of criminal convictions. Where this is a requirement of the work or role the advertisement will advise that this is part of the process.
4. How we will use information about you
4.1 We will use the personal information we collect about you to:
4.1.1 Assess your skills, qualifications, and suitability for the work or role;
4.1.2 Carry out background and reference checks, where applicable;
4.1.3 Communicate with you about the recruitment process;
4.1.4 Keep records related to our hiring processes and managing our relationship with you;
4.1.5 Meet any legal, regulatory and/or governance obligations .including for health and safety reasons;
4.1.6 Ensure compliance with our policies including that our information systems and offices are secure; and
4.1.7 Deal with any legal claim.
5. How we will use information about you, and our basis for doing that
5.1 We will only use your personal information when the law allows us to. Most commonly:
5.1.1 Where it is in our legitimate interests to allow us to decide whether to appoint you to a particular role or work since it would be beneficial to our business to appoint someone to that role or work.
5.1.2 To process your personal information to decide whether to enter into a contract of employment with you.
5.2 We also need to process your personal information to meet our legal and regulatory obligations.
5.3 We may also process your personal information where you have specifically provided us with consent to do so.
5.4 Having received your CV and covering letter or your application form and the results from any tests which we may ask you to undertake, we will then process that information to decide whether you meet the basic requirements to be shortlisted for the role. If you do, we will decide whether your application is strong enough to invite you for an interview. If we decide to call you for an interview, we will use the information you provide to us at the interview to decide whether to offer you the role or work. If we decide to offer you the role or work, we will then take up references and, where appropriate for the role or work in question, carry out a criminal record and/or credit reference and/or any other check which we have advised will be part of the process before confirming your appointment. We may also collect information from professional bodies (if appropriate) and publicly available resources, including professional social media such as LinkedIn.
5.5 You will not be subject to decisions that will have a significant impact on you based solely on automated decision-making.
6. How we use particularly sensitive personal information and information about criminal convictions
6.1 We may collect, store, and use more sensitive personal information about you (some of which will be a "special category" of information under UK GDPR, requiring increased protection), including:
6.1.1 We will use any information about your disability status to provide appropriate adjustments to the interview process (or work environment, for placement students).
6.1.2 We will use any information provided in our diversity monitoring form about your race, colour, nationality, ethnic or national origin, gender identity, gender expression, social mobility background, religious beliefs, sexual orientation, any disability information, age, and marital/civil partnership status to ensure meaningful equal opportunity monitoring and reporting. Any analysis of this data will be done on an anonymous basis.
6.1.3 For graduate recruitment applicants and other specific positions, we ask if you have any relevant criminal convictions. For graduate recruitment applicants this is a necessary requirement for your role as mandated by our regulator. For certain other positions where the role requires a high degree of trust and integrity we will ask you to seek a disclosure of your criminal records history. We are entitled to carry out a criminal records check in order to satisfy ourselves that there is nothing in your criminal convictions history which makes you unsuitable for the work or role. Where the work or role requires this the advertisement will advise that it is part of the process. We have in place an appropriate policy document and safeguards which we are required by law to maintain when processing such data.
7. If you fail to provide personal information
If you fail to provide information when requested which is necessary for us to consider your application then we will be unable to progress your application. For example, if we require a credit check or references for the role or work in question and you fail to provide us with relevant details, we will not be able to take your application further.
8. Sharing of personal information
8.1 We may share your personal information:
8.1.1 amongst any of our affiliates and subsidiaries for the purposes of day to day operation of our business and/or staff management;
8.1.2 with service providers who support our business operations;
8.1.3 to professional bodies, governmental agencies, law enforcement bodies or similar where we are required to do so by law, regulation or professional obligations; and
8.1.4 to other third parties in limited circumstances.
8.2 Your personal information will be stored in our information systems and, where appropriate, third party software/applications where they support our Human Resources function.
8.3 Where we use third parties to provide services in connection with our Human Resources function we will ensure that appropriate provisions are put in place to protect the security of the personal information being held on our behalf and to ensure that the third parties do not use the personal information for their own purposes. The third parties will only process your personal information on our instructions and will be subject to a duty of confidentiality. We may, in certain circumstances, share your personal information with third parties outside of the UK subject to appropriate safeguards being put in place.
9. Data retention
9.1 Personal information of unsuccessful applicants
9.1.1 If your application or request to undertake work experience with us is unsuccessful, the information provided as part of your application will be deleted within 1 year of a decision not to progress your application (or 3 years for legal or management services summer placement students).
9.1.2 If you make a direct application through our graduate recruitment process which is unsuccessful, the information provided as part of your application will be deleted within 3 years of a decision not to progress your application.
9.1.3 If you are being considered as a partner hire and this does not lead to an engagement, the business case and any CVs or interview records will be deleted within 3 years of a decision not to progress the hire.
9.1.4 If your application for any other position is unsuccessful, including if your CV is provided by an agency and this does not lead to a successful application, your application, CV, and any interview records will be held for 1 year after a decision not to recruit before being deleted.
9.2 Personal information of successful applicants
If you are successful in obtaining paid employment with us, we will hold your information in accordance with our Privacy Notice and Data Retention Policy for Personnel which will be provided to you at the relevant time.
9.3 Personal information of successful unpaid work experience and placement students
9.3.1 If your application or request to undertake work experience with us is successful, we will record, keep, and securely hold the information provided as part of your application and during your engagement in our Human Resources files for the following periods (unless you are successful in securing future employment with us, in which case the retention periods in our Privacy Notice and Data Retention Policy for Personnel will supersede these):
(i) For general school or university work experience students (excluding PRIME), 1 year from the end date of the work experience placement.
(ii) For PRIME work experience students, for 5 years from the end date of the work experience placement, as we offer the opportunity for ongoing mentorship.
10. Data security
We have put in place measures to protect the security of your information. Details are available upon request from dataprivacy@shepwedd.com.
11. Rights of access, correction, erasure, and restriction
11.1 Under certain circumstances, you can exercise the following rights:
11.1.1 Request access to your personal information
11.1.2 Request correction of the personal information that we hold about you.
11.1.3 Request the erasure of your personal information, or ask us to stop processing it if we are relying on a legitimate interest and you object to processing on this ground.
11.1.4 Request the suspension or restriction of processing of your personal information.
11.1.5 Request the transfer of your personal information to another party.
11.2 If, when you applied for the role or work, you provided consent to allow us to process your personal information for the purposes of the recruitment exercise you have the right to withdraw your consent for processing for that purpose at any time. Once we have received notification that you have withdrawn your consent, we will no longer process your application and, subject to our retention policy, we will dispose of your personal information securely.
11.3 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.
12. Contact
If you have any questions about this privacy notice, or to exercise any rights under it, please contact the Head of Privacy, at dataprivacy@shepwedd.com