This Candidate privacy policy was last published on 13th August 2024

What is the purpose of this document?

Key Group is a "controller" in relation to personal data. This means that we are responsible for deciding how we hold and use personal information about you. You are being sent a copy of this privacy notice because you are applying for work with us (whether as an employee, worker or contractor). It makes you aware of how and why your personal data will be used, namely for the purposes of the recruitment exercise, and how long it will usually be retained for. It provides you with certain information that must be provided under the UK General Data Protection Regulation (UK GDPR).

Data protection principles

We will comply with data protection law and principles, which means that your data will be:

  • Used lawfully, fairly and in a transparent way.

  • Collected only for valid purposes that we have clearly explained to you and not used in any way that is incompatible with those purposes.

  • Relevant to the purposes we have told you about and limited only to those purposes.

  • Accurate and kept up to date.

  • Kept only as long as necessary for the purposes we have told you about.

  • Kept securely.


The kind of information we hold about you

In connection with your application for work with us, we will collect, store, and use the following categories of personal information about you:

  • The information you have provided to us in your curriculum vitae and any covering letter or email.

  • Any information you provide to us during an interview.

  • We may also collect, store and use the following types of more sensitive personal information:

  • Information about your health, including any medical condition.

  • Information relating to unspent criminal convictions.


How is your personal information collected?

We collect personal information about candidates from the following sources:

  • You, the candidate,

  • Recruitment agencies,

  • Your named referees, from whom we collect the following categories of data:

  • previous employment history,

  • previous employment information.


How we will use information about you

We will use the personal information we collect about you to:

  • Assess your skills, qualifications, and suitability for the role.

  • Carry out background and reference checks, where applicable.

  • Communicate with you about the recruitment process.

  • Keep records related to our hiring processes.

  • Comply with legal or regulatory requirements.

  • Inform you of opportunities


We also need to process your personal information to decide whether to enter into a contract of employment with you.

Having received your CV and any covering letter or email, 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. If we decide to offer you the role, we will then take up references and check your right to work in the UK before confirming your appointment.

If you fail to provide personal information

If you fail to provide information when requested, which is necessary for us to consider your application (such as evidence of qualifications or work history), we will not be able to process your application successfully. For example, if we require references for this role and you fail to provide us with relevant details, we will not be able to take your application further.

How we use sensitive or ‘special category’ personal information

We may use your sensitive personal information in the following ways:

  • We may use information about your disability status to consider whether we need to provide appropriate adjustments during the recruitment process, for example whether adjustments need to be made during an interview.

Automated decision-making

You will not be subject to decisions that will have a significant impact on you based solely on automated decision-making.

Data retention

How long will you use my information for?

If unsuccessful, we will retain your personal information for a period of twelve months after we have communicated to you our decision about whether to appoint you to role. We retain your personal information for that period so that we can show, in the event of a legal claim, that we have not discriminated against candidates on prohibited grounds and that we have conducted the recruitment exercise in a fair and transparent way. After this period, we will securely destroy your personal information in accordance with our data retention policy.

If successful and you become an employee of Key Group we will add the personal information we have collected to your employee file.

Rights of access, correction, erasure, and restriction

Your rights in connection with personal information

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 we hold about you and to check that we are lawfully processing it.

  • Request correction of the personal information that we hold about you. This enables you to have any incomplete or inaccurate information we 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 we 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 we are processing your personal information for direct marketing purposes.

  • Request the restriction of processing of your personal information. This enables you to ask us 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 we transfer a copy of your personal information to another party, please use the contact details on our website.

Right to withdraw consent

Should we seek consent from you to process your personal data, you will have the right to withdraw your consent for processing for that purpose at any time.