Job Applicant Privacy Notice

Data controller: John Clark Motor Group

As part of any recruitment process, the organisation collects and processes personal data relating to job applicants. The organisation is committed to being transparent about how it collects and uses that data and to meeting its data protection obligations.

What information does the organisation collect?

The organisation collects a range of information about you. This may include:

  • your name, address and contact details, including email address and telephone number
  • details of your qualifications, skills, experience and employment history
  • information about your current level of remuneration, including benefit entitlements
  • whether or not you have a disability for which the organisation needs to make reasonable adjustments during the recruitment process
  • information about your entitlement to work in the UK

The organisation 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 and other forms of assessment, including online tests.

The organisation may also collect personal data about you from third parties, such as references supplied by former employers, The organisation 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 the organisation process personal data?

The organisation 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, the organisation 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.

The organisation 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 the organisation to manage the recruitment process, assess and confirm a candidate's suitability for employment and decide to whom to offer a job. The organisation may also need to process data from job applicants to respond to and defend against legal claims.

The organisation 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.

For some roles, the organisation is obliged to seek information about criminal convictions and offences. Where the organisation 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. Explicit consent will be requested when required.

If your application is unsuccessful, the organisation may keep your personal data on file in case there are future employment opportunities for which you may be suited. The organisation 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.

The organisation will not share your data with third parties, unless your application for employment is successful and it makes you an offer of employment. How the organisation deals with personal data for employees is detailed in the Privacy Notice for Employees.

The organisation will not transfer your data outside the European Economic Area.

How does the organisation protect data?

The organisation 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 the organisation keep data?

If your application for employment is unsuccessful, the organisation will hold your data on file initially for a period of 12 months starting from the date of application. At the end of this period, you will automatically be contacted by John Clark Motor Group and asked if you would like to remain on our system and be contacted for future employment opportunities within our group. You will have the option to accept or decline, and if you accept, we will continue to keep your data for a further 12 months, if you decline your data is securely deleted and 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 new privacy notice.

Personal information which is no longer to be retained will be securely and effectively destroyed or permanently erased from our IT systems and we will also require third parties to destroy or erase such personal information where applicable.

Your rights
As a data subject, you have a number of rights. You can:

  • access and obtain a copy of your data on request;
  • require the organisation to change incorrect or incomplete data
  • require the organisation to delete or stop processing your data, for example where the data is no longer necessary for the purposes of processing
  • object to the processing of your data where the organisation is relying on its legitimate interests as the legal ground for processing


If you would like to exercise any of these rights, please contact our HR Team at hr.servicedesk@john-clark.co.uk.

If you believe that the organisation has not complied with your data protection rights please let the HR Team know, you can also 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 the organisation during the recruitment process. However, if you do not provide the information, the organisation may not be able to process your application properly or at all.

Automated decision-making

Recruitment processes are not based solely on automated decision-making.