Data controller: Lakeland Ltd, Alexandra Buildings, Windermere, Cumbria, LA23 1BQ (ICO registration reference Z5347879 and Company Registration Number 809688).
Data protection officer: Chief Financial & Operating Officer
As part of any recruitment process, Lakeland collects and processes personal data relating to job applicants. Lakeland is committed to being transparent about how it collects and uses that data and to meeting its data protection obligations.
What information does Lakeland collect?
Lakeland collects a range of information about you. This includes:
Lakeland may collect this information in a variety of ways. For example, data might be contained in application forms, CVs or resumes, obtained from your passport or other identity documents, or collected through interviews or other forms of assessment, including online tests.
Lakeland may also collect personal data about you from third parties, such as references supplied by former employers, information from employment background check providers and information from criminal records checks. Lakeland will seek information from third parties only once a job offer to you has been made and will inform you that it is doing so.
Data will be stored in a range of different places, including on your application record, in HR management systems and on other IT systems (including email).
Why does Lakeland process personal data?
Lakeland needs to process data to take steps at your request prior to entering into a contract with you. It may also need to process your data to enter into a contract with you.
In some cases, Lakeland needs to process data to ensure that it is complying with its legal obligations. For example, it is required to check a successful applicant’s eligibility to work in the UK before employment starts.
Lakeland has a legitimate interest in processing personal data during the recruitment process and for keeping records of the process. Processing data from job applicants allows Lakeland to manage the recruitment process, assess and confirm a candidate’s suitability for employment and decide to whom to offer a job. Lakeland may also need to process data from job applicants to respond to and defend against legal claims.
Lakeland may process information about whether or not applicants are disabled to make reasonable adjustments for candidates who have a disability. This is to carry out its obligations and exercise specific rights in relation to employment.
Where Lakeland processes other special categories of data, such as information about ethnic origin, sexual orientation, health or religion or belief, this for example will be for equal opportunities monitoring purposes.
For some roles, Lakeland is obliged to seek information about criminal convictions and offences. Where Lakeland seeks this information, it does so because it is necessary for it to carry out its obligations and exercise specific rights in relation to employment.
If your application is unsuccessful, Lakeland may keep your personal data on file in case there are future employment opportunities for which you may be suited. Lakeland will ask for your consent before it keeps your data for this purpose and you are free to withdraw your consent at any time.
Who has access to data?
Your information may be shared internally for the purposes of the recruitment exercise. This includes members of the HR and recruitment team, interviewers involved in the recruitment process, managers in the business area with a vacancy and IT staff if access to the data is necessary for the performance of their roles.
Lakeland will not share your data with third parties, unless your application for employment is successful and it makes you an offer of employment. Lakeland will then share your data with former employers to obtain references for you, employment background check providers to obtain necessary background checks and the Disclosure and Barring Service to obtain necessary criminal records checks, and our Occupational Health Provider.
Lakeland will not transfer your data outside the European Economic Area.
How does Lakeland protect data?
Lakeland takes the security of your data seriously. It has internal policies and controls in place to ensure that your data is not lost, accidentally destroyed, misused or disclosed, and is not accessed except by our employees in the proper performance of their duties.
For how long does Lakeland keep data?
If your application for employment is unsuccessful, Lakeland will hold your data on file for 6 months after the end of the relevant recruitment process. If you agree to allow Lakeland to keep your personal data on file, Lakelands will hold your data on file for a further agreed period for consideration for future employment opportunities. At the end of that period [or once you withdraw your consent], your data is deleted or destroyed.
If your application for employment is successful, personal data gathered during the recruitment process will be transferred to your personnel file and retained during your employment. The periods for which your data will be held will be provided to you in a privacy notice.
Your rights
As a data subject, you have a number of rights. You can:
If you would like to exercise any of these rights, please contact dataprotectionofficer@lakeland.co.uk
If you believe that Lakeland has not complied with your data protection rights, you can complain to the Information Commissioner.
What if you do not provide personal data?
You are under no statutory or contractual obligation to provide data to Lakeland during the recruitment process. However, if you do not provide the information, Lakeland may not be able to process your application properly or at all.
Automated decision-making
Some of Lakeland’s recruitment processes are based solely on automated decision-making. Specifically, this includes assessment questions as part of the application process for example about your right to live and work in the UK.