Privacy Policy

What is the purpose of this document?

National Nuclear Laboratory Limited (“NNL”) is responsible for deciding how it holds and uses personal information about you.  This Privacy Notice applies to you because you are applying to work with NNL.  It makes you aware of how and why your personal data will be used for the purposes of the recruitment exercise and how long it will be retained for.

What personal information does NNL hold about you?

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

  • The information you have provided in your CV and covering letter.
  • The information you have provided to register with NNL’s online Applicant Tracking System, including name, title, address, telephone number, personal email address, date of birth, gender, nationality, right to work information, employment history, educational history, qualifications, current job and salary, current notice period, interests and hobbies, and other information supporting your application in whatever medium (including video).
  • Where applicable, the output of any aptitude tests conducted on NNL’s behalf by third parties.  
  • The information collected or produced by NNL in the course of the assessment process, including from any sifting exercise, assessment centre or interview process.  
  • Any information you provide to NNL for the purposes of pre-employment checks, including for the purposes of security and vetting procedures, such as copies of your ID documentation, NI number, previous names, nationality, place of birth and employment history and, as may be processed on our behalf, in connection with any applicable visa application.

NNL may also collect, store and use the following special categories of more sensitive personal information:

  • Information about your health, including any medical conditions, if you are asked to participate in pre-employment health checks.
  • Information about criminal convictions and offences.

How is your personal information collected?

NNL collects personal information about candidates from the following sources:

  • You, the candidate.
  • Where applicable, a recruitment agency.  
  • United Kingdom Security Vetting (“UKSV”) and the Office for Nuclear Regulation (“ONR”) for the purposes of security clearance.
  • Disclosure and Barring Service (or equivalent) in respect of criminal convictions.
  • Providers of occupational health services and screening (including drugs and alcohol screening).
  • Your named referees (including previous employers, education or training providers). 
  • NNL’s provider of aptitude testing, if that is applicable to the role you have applied for.
  • Educational establishments.

In what circumstances will NNL use information about you?

NNL will use the personal information collected about you for the purposes of:

  • Assessing your skills, qualifications, and suitability for opportunities you have applied for.
  • Carrying out background and reference checks, where applicable.
  • Communicating with you about the recruitment process.
  • Keeping records related to NNL’s recruitment processes.
  • Complying with legal or regulatory requirements, in particular NNL’s obligations to the ONR.

It is in NNL’s legitimate interests to process personal data about you in order to decide whether to appoint you to the vacancy or opportunity that NNL has identified, and that you have applied for.  NNL also needs to process your personal information for the purposes of entering into a contract of employment (or other contractual arrangement) if your application is successful. 

In what circumstances will NNL use particularly sensitive personal information about you?

NNL will use your particularly sensitive personal information in the following ways:

  • NNL will use information about your disability status to consider whether NNL needs to provide appropriate adjustments during the recruitment process, for example, whether adjustments need to be made during a test, assessment or interview.
  • NNL will use health data collected in order to ensure compliance with legal obligations, including those relating to nuclear security and health and safety.
  • NNL will use information about your race or national or ethnic origin, religious, philosophical or moral beliefs, or your sexual life or sexual orientation, to ensure meaningful equal opportunity monitoring and reporting.

Criminal convictions

NNL will collect information about your criminal convictions history in order to be satisfied that you are suitable for the role you have applied for.  In particular:

  • NNL has legal obligations to comply with the requirements of the ONR, and other regulatory bodies, to carry out criminal record checks.
  • All roles with NNL involve potential access to sensitive nuclear information, and so you will be asked to seek a basic disclosure of your criminal records history.
  • NNL has in place appropriate policies and safeguards required in relation to the processing of such data.

Automated decision-making

There are limited occasions where NNL will use pre-defined shortlisting criteria to conduct an automated search of candidates who have applied for a particular role. The search criteria will be limited to the right to work information, security vetting, experience and / or qualifications that you provide on NNL’s Applicant Tracking System.  The purposes of this automated search are to make a shortlist of potential candidates with the intention of entering into a contract of employment with a job applicant.

Your general rights in relation to your personal data are explained in more detail later in this privacy notice. Additionally, in circumstances where the automated shortlisting criteria outlined above have been used, you also have the right to request a review of any decision to exclude your application solely on the basis of the right to work information, security vetting, experience and / or qualifications you provided, in particular where you believe inaccurate information was used. Such requests should be addressed to NNL’s Data Protection Officer ("DPO") whose contact details are below.

Will NNL share my personal information with third parties?

NNL will share your personal information with the following third parties for the purposes of processing your application:

  • The provider of NNL’s online recruitment tool for the purposes of operating our Applicant Tracking System.
  • Relevant bodies who we engage for the purposes of verifying security checks. 
  • Occupational health providers for the purposes of arranging pre-employment health screening.
  • Approved suppliers in connection with aptitude testing solutions which may involve your personal data being processed outside the UK. Where this is the case (such as Gartner Inc, who provides an online aptitude testing solution under the brand name ‘SHL’. The SHL website is hosted in the USA (and therefore outside the UK) and your personal data will be processed outside the UK.  NNL ensures that the overseas transfer of your personal data outside of the UK is subject to appropriate safeguards.
  • Approved suppliers in connection with right to work checks and where applicable, visa applications.

NNL reserves the right to substitute providers of the above services with other third party providers.

All NNL third-party service providers are required to take appropriate security measures to protect your personal information in line with NNL’s policies.  NNL does do not allow third-party service providers to use your personal data for their own purposes. NNL only permits them to process your personal data for specified purposes and in accordance with NNL’s instructions.

How long will NNL use your information for?

NNL will retain your personal information in relation to any particular vacancy (including data processed using NNL’s online Applicant Tracking System) in accordance with NNL’s Data Retention Instruction, a copy of which is available on request.

NNL’s Applicant Tracking System allows you to configure your profile settings, via a specific opt-in process, for the personal data in your profile to be retained by NNL for the purposes of future job-matching activity.  If you choose to opt-in to have your data retained for matching with future job roles, it will be retained in accordance with NNL’s Data Retention Instruction, a copy of which can be provided on request.

If you have expressed a general interest in working with NNL, and agreed that your personal data should be retained for the purpose of future vacancies, you are entitled to withdraw your agreement to NNL retaining your personal data by writing to NNL’s DPO (see below for contact details).  Otherwise, it will be retained in accordance with NNL’s Data Retention Instruction, a copy of which can be provided on request.

Following the applicable retention period, NNL will anonymise or securely delete or destroy your personal information.

At all times, NNL reserves the right to anonymise or securely delete or destroy any candidate profiles from our Applicant Tracking System that have not been active for a period of 6 months or more.

If you are appointed to a role with NNL, the personal information you have provided during the recruitment process will also be incorporated into your personnel record. Your personal data would then be used by NNL in accordance with NNL’s DPP and other relevant procedures.  You will also be referred to IMS-GN-024 - NNL Privacy Notice for Employee, Workers and Contractors explaining how your data will be used during and after your working relationship with NNL.

Your rights in connection with personal information.

In certain circumstances and subject to limitations, 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 NNL holds about you and to check that NNL is lawfully processing it.
  • Request correction of the personal information held about you.  This enables you to request that any incomplete or inaccurate information NNL’s holds about you is corrected.
  • Request erasure of your personal information.  This enables you to ask NNL to delete or remove personal information where there is no good reason for continuing to process it. 
  • Object to processing of your personal information where NNL is relying on a legitimate interest (or that of a third party) and there is something about your particular situation which makes you want to object to processing on this ground.
  • Request the restriction of processing of your personal information.  This enables you to ask NNL to suspend the processing of personal information about you, for example, if you want NNL to establish its accuracy or the reason for processing it.
  • Request the transfer of certain 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 NNL transfer a copy of your personal information to another party, please contact NNL’s DPO in writing (see below for contact details).

Data Protection Officer

NNL has appointed a DPO to oversee compliance with this Privacy Notice. If you have any questions about this Privacy Notice, or how NNL handles your personal information, please contact the DPO.  Contact details for our DPO can be found below.

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.

If you have any questions about this Privacy Notice, please contact the Data Protection Officer: d.po@uknnl.com

This Privacy Notice is issued by:
National Nuclear Laboratory Limited
Chadwick House
Warrington Road
Birchwood Park
Warrington
WA3 6AE