What personal information do we hold?
If you apply for a job or to volunteer with us, we ask you to complete an application on Cleveland Police’s website. All applications have an equal opportunities monitoring form.
The OPCC may also carry out other, more informal application processes. For example, we may only require you to send us a short personal statement.
We may ask for the following:
- Identity data: Name;
- Contact details: Address, email, telephone number;
- Medical data: Sickness absence, disabilities, or reasonable adjustments required;
- Equal opportunities data: Racial or ethnic origin, mental and physical health, political beliefs, religious beliefs, trade union affiliation, genetic data and data about your sexual life/orientation. (This information is not required and will not affect your application. We will not make information available to anyone outside the recruitment team in a way that will identify you. The information will be used to produce and monitor equal opportunities statistics.)
- Criminal offence data: Details of criminal convictions, arrests and cautions.
If your application is successful, you will receive a conditional offer. However, you will need to be police vetted. Police vetting has a separate Privacy Notice. This explains how your personal data will be processed.
How do we collect personal information?
We collect information via online application forms or in personal statements provided via email to the OPCC.
Why do we use your personal data?
We process information to assess your suitability for a role
What is the legal basis for our use of your personal information?
If you are applying for a job with the OPCC (excluding the Chief Constable role), we need to process your personal data to perform a contract or to take steps, at your request, before entering a contract.
When applying for a volunteering opportunity with the OPCC, we process your personal data as part of our legitimate interests.
If you are applying for the role of Chief Constable, we process your personal information as part of our duties as an official authority and/or in doing a task in the public interest.
The Police Reform and Social Responsibility Act 2011 contains the PCC’s specific duty.
On what basis do we use special category data?
The OPCC may sometimes process data about you which is sensitive. This is known as special category data.
Special category data requires higher levels of protection. We need further justification for collecting, storing and using this type of information.
We rely on Article 9(2)(b) of the GDPR to process special category data. This may include information about health, religion or ethnic background.
The Article also outlines our obligations around employment as well as the safeguarding of your fundamental rights.
In addition, we rely on article 9(2)(h.) This relates to assessing your capacity to work.
Schedule 1 part 1(1) and (2)(a) and (b) of the DPA 2018 relates to processing your information for the purposes of employment, assessment of work capacity and preventative or occupational medicine.
On what basis do we use information about criminal convictions?
Information about criminal convictions needs higher levels of protection. We need to have further justification for collecting, storing and using it.
We only process this type of data when we consider your application. This is because you will need to pass police vetting if you are offered a job. That is so you can get access to police information, equipment, infrastructure and personnel.
We rely on Schedule 1 part 1 (1) of the DPA 2018 when we process information about criminal convictions as part of your application.
This schedule relates to processing data for employment purposes and the assessing your capacity for work.
How do we handle your personal information?
We handle your personal information according to Part 2 of the UK Data Protection Act 2018. The Act applies the EU’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) standards for the processing of data considered to be ‘general data’.
The OPCC holds your personal data securely on its computer systems or in physical files. It can only be accessed by our staff, partners, contractors and volunteers when they need to do so for a lawful purpose.
We are committed to making sure any personal and sensitive information is accurate, up to date, used only for the purpose intended and securely protected from inappropriate access.
The OPCC regularly reviews your personal information and assesses whether it is lawful for us to continue to keep it. We will safely destroy your information when it is no longer required for any purpose listed in this notice or there is no longer a lawful purpose for processing it.
The OPCC commits to ensuring that you can find out about your personal information, can access it and have the right to challenge its accuracy.
Who do we share your personal information with?
We may share your personal information with the following:
- Cleveland Police HR team (as the OPCC uses the services of the HR team for processing applications).
- Cleveland Police Vetting Unit (for processing the police vetting form).
In relation to the appointment of the Chief Constable and senior OPCC post holders, we may also share your personal information with the following parties:
- Home Secretary (Chief Constable only).
- Cleveland Police and Crime Panel (as they have a statutory role in relation to the review of senior appointments).
- College of Policing (if we use their services to aid the recruitment process).
- Independent interview panel members (as notified to you in advance).
How do we keep your personal information safe?
The OPCC takes the security of personal information very seriously.
We use a variety of security measures. They include encryption and access controls. This helps us to protect the security, integrity and availability of information.
The OPCC works hard to maintain physical, electronic and procedural safeguards. This is to protect your information in line with the Act.
We restrict access to areas, where personal information is stored. Access is restricted to our own and partner agency staff. Storage areas can only be accessed by people holding the appropriate identification.
How long will you keep my personal information?
We manage records with personal information according to the OPCC’s Retention Schedule.