Privacy Policy

Clear Choice Recruitment Ltd

1. Introduction

Clear Choice Recruitment Ltd (“Clear Choice Recruitment”, “we”, “us” or “our”) is committed to protecting your privacy and handling your personal information responsibly.

This Privacy Policy explains how we collect, use, store and share personal information when you visit our website, contact us, register as a candidate, apply for a vacancy, use our recruitment services or engage with us as a client, business contact or prospective employee.

We process personal information in accordance with applicable UK data protection legislation, including the UK General Data Protection Regulation (UK GDPR), the Data Protection Act 2018 and applicable electronic marketing and privacy laws.

By using our website, you acknowledge that you have had the opportunity to read this Privacy Policy. Where consent is legally required, we will obtain it separately.

2. Who We Are

The data controller responsible for your personal information is: Richard Shorten

Company name: Clear Choice Recruitment Ltd
Registered office: 4 Gold Tops, Newport, NP20 4PG, United Kingdom
Company registration number: 14745107
Website: https://www.clearchoicerecruitment.com
Privacy contact: Richard Shorten – richard@clearchoicerecruitment.com

If you have any questions about this policy or how we handle your personal information, please contact us using the details above.

3. What Personal Information We Collect

The information we collect depends on how you interact with Clear Choice Recruitment.

A. Candidates and job seekers

If you register with us, submit your CV, apply for a vacancy or are approached about a potential opportunity, we may collect:

Your name, address, email address and telephone number.
Your CV, employment history, qualifications, skills and professional experience.
Your current or desired salary, notice period and availability.
Information about the roles, locations and working arrangements you are interested in.
Interview notes, application progress, feedback and communications with you.
References and relevant employment history checks, where appropriate.
Right-to-work information where necessary for a relevant recruitment or placement process.
Information about your eligibility for specific roles, where relevant and lawful.

We will only collect information that is relevant and necessary for our recruitment activities.

B. Special category and criminal offence information

In certain circumstances, we may need to process sensitive personal information, such as health information, disability information or diversity information, where relevant to a recruitment process and permitted by law.

Criminal offence information will only be processed where legally permitted and where the necessary conditions and safeguards are in place.

Where applicable, we will identify and document the relevant lawful basis and additional legal condition before processing this information. We will not routinely collect sensitive information unless there is a legitimate and lawful reason to do so.

C. Clients and business contacts

If you represent a business that uses, or may use, our recruitment services, we may collect:

Your name, job title and business contact details.
Your employer's name and business address.
Information about vacancies, recruitment requirements and staffing plans.
Records of meetings, telephone calls, emails and other business communications.
Contract, invoicing and payment-related information where necessary.

D. Website visitors

When you visit our website, we may collect:

Technical information, such as your IP address, browser type and device information.
Information about how you navigate and use our website.
Information submitted through contact forms or other website features.
Cookie and similar tracking technology information, subject to applicable consent requirements.

E. Information received from other sources

We may obtain relevant professional information from sources such as job boards, LinkedIn, publicly available professional profiles, referrals, clients, referees and other recruitment-related sources.

Where we obtain personal information indirectly, we will provide the privacy information required by law, subject to any applicable exceptions.

4. How We Use Your Personal Information

We may use personal information for the following purposes:

To identify suitable candidates for permanent, temporary and contract opportunities.
To assess CVs, skills, qualifications and experience against vacancies.
To contact candidates about relevant job opportunities.
To introduce candidates to prospective employers or clients.
To arrange interviews and coordinate recruitment processes.
To communicate with clients about vacancies and recruitment services.
To manage business relationships, contracts and payments.
To respond to website enquiries and requests for information.
To maintain accurate recruitment records and improve our services.
To operate, secure and maintain our website and recruitment systems.
To meet legal and regulatory obligations.
To establish, exercise or defend legal claims where necessary.
To send relevant business marketing communications where permitted by law.

We will not use your personal information for unrelated purposes without identifying an appropriate lawful basis and providing any further information required by law.

5. Our Lawful Bases for Processing

Under the UK GDPR, we must have a lawful basis for processing personal information. Depending on the circumstances, we may rely on the following:

Legitimate interests: We may process information where necessary for our legitimate business interests, including providing recruitment services, identifying suitable candidates, managing client relationships, maintaining business records and promoting our services. We consider the potential impact on individuals and their rights before relying on this basis.

Contractual necessity: We may process information where necessary to enter into or perform a contract with you, or to take steps at your request before entering into a contract.

Legal obligation: We may process information where necessary to comply with applicable legal requirements.

Consent: We may rely on your consent where required or appropriate, including for certain cookies, electronic marketing or specific uses of sensitive personal information.

Legal claims and other applicable grounds: Where appropriate, we may process information to establish, exercise or defend legal claims or rely on another lawful basis available under applicable law.

Where we process special category information or criminal offence data, we will also identify an applicable additional legal condition.

You may withdraw consent at any time where processing is based on consent. This will not affect the lawfulness of processing carried out before withdrawal.

6. How We Share Your Personal Information

We may share personal information with the following categories of recipients where necessary and lawful:

Clients and prospective employers: We may share relevant candidate information with employers for recruitment and selection purposes. We will take appropriate steps to ensure that sharing is justified and that candidates receive the required privacy information.

Service providers: We may use third-party providers for recruitment software, customer relationship management systems, job boards, website hosting, email, IT support, cloud storage and business administration.

Professional advisers: We may share information with solicitors, accountants, insurers and other professional advisers where necessary.

Regulatory bodies and authorities: We may disclose information where required by law or where necessary to protect our legal rights or the rights and safety of others.

Business transfers: If our business is sold, restructured or transferred, relevant information may be disclosed where legally permitted and subject to appropriate safeguards.

We do not sell personal information to third parties.

Where third parties process personal information on our behalf, we will take appropriate steps to ensure that suitable contractual and security arrangements are in place.

7. Candidate CVs and Recruitment Introductions

When you provide us with your CV or other professional information, we use it to assess your suitability for relevant vacancies and recruitment opportunities.

Where appropriate, we may contact you about suitable roles and share relevant information with a client for consideration.

We aim to ensure that candidate information is relevant, accurate and shared appropriately. We will not disclose your information indiscriminately or for purposes unrelated to our recruitment services.

If you do not wish to be considered for future opportunities, you can contact us to discuss the use and retention of your information, subject to any applicable legal obligations.

8. How Long We Keep Your Information

We retain personal information only for as long as reasonably necessary for the purposes for which it was collected, taking account of applicable legal requirements, business needs and the rights of individuals.

Our retention periods will depend on the type of information and our relationship with you.

For example:

Candidate records: We may retain CVs, applications and recruitment records for a defined period after our last meaningful contact, to support recruitment activities and future suitable opportunities.
Client and business records: We may retain business communications and relationship records for as long as necessary to manage the relationship and any subsequent obligations.
Financial and contractual records: We may retain records for the periods required by applicable tax, accounting and contractual requirements.
Website enquiries: We may retain enquiry records for as long as necessary to respond, manage the relationship and address any resulting matters.
Technical and cookie information: Retention will depend on the type of data, the purpose of collection and the settings of the relevant technology.

Before publication, Clear Choice Recruitment should document and insert its actual retention periods into its internal retention schedule. Information will be securely deleted or anonymised when it is no longer required, unless we have a lawful reason to retain it.

9. How We Protect Your Information

We take appropriate technical and organisational measures designed to protect personal information against accidental loss, unauthorised access, disclosure, alteration or destruction.

These measures may include access controls, password protection, staff confidentiality requirements, secure systems and appropriate supplier arrangements.

No method of electronic storage or transmission is completely secure. Although we take reasonable steps to protect personal information, we cannot guarantee absolute security.

If a personal data breach occurs, we will assess it and take the steps required by applicable data protection law, including notifying the Information Commissioner's Office and affected individuals where legally required.

10. International Transfers

Some of our service providers may store or process personal information outside the United Kingdom.

Where personal information is transferred internationally, we will ensure that the transfer complies with applicable UK data protection law. Depending on the circumstances, this may involve transferring information to a country covered by applicable UK adequacy regulations or using an appropriate safeguard, such as the UK International Data Transfer Agreement or the UK Addendum to the EU Standard Contractual Clauses.

We will take additional steps where required to ensure that personal information receives an appropriate level of protection.

11. Your Data Protection Rights

Under applicable data protection law, you may have the right to:

Access: Request a copy of the personal information we hold about you.
Rectification: Ask us to correct inaccurate or incomplete information.
Erasure: Request deletion of your personal information in certain circumstances.
Restriction: Ask us to restrict how we use your information in certain circumstances.
Portability: Request a copy of certain information in a structured, commonly used and machine-readable format, where the legal conditions apply.
Object: Object to processing based on legitimate interests in certain circumstances.
Withdraw consent: Withdraw consent where we rely on it as our lawful basis.
Object to direct marketing: You have an absolute right to object to the processing of your personal information for direct marketing purposes.

These rights are subject to applicable legal conditions and exemptions. For example, we may need to retain certain information to comply with legal obligations or establish, exercise or defend legal claims.

To exercise your rights, please contact us using the contact details in Section 2. We may need to verify your identity before responding.

We will respond within the timescales required by law. Requests are normally handled free of charge, although the law permits charges or refusal in limited circumstances, such as manifestly unfounded or excessive requests.

12. Direct Marketing and Communications

We may contact clients and business contacts about our recruitment services, relevant vacancies or business updates where permitted by applicable law.

We will comply with applicable privacy and electronic marketing rules, including the Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulations (PECR), where relevant.

Where consent is required, we will obtain it before sending the relevant marketing communications. Where another permitted basis applies, we will provide appropriate information and an opportunity to opt out.

You can ask us to stop sending marketing communications at any time by using the unsubscribe option where available or contacting us directly.

Even if you opt out of marketing, we may still contact you about an existing recruitment process, contractual matter or other non-marketing communication where appropriate.

13. Cookies and Website Technologies

Our website may use cookies and similar technologies to operate correctly, remember preferences, understand website usage and support marketing activities.

Strictly necessary cookies may be used where permitted by law. We will obtain consent before placing or accessing non-essential cookies or similar technologies where required.

You can manage your cookie preferences through our website's cookie settings, where available. You may also be able to manage cookies through your browser settings, although disabling certain cookies may affect website functionality.

Before this policy is published, we will ensure that the website's actual cookies and tracking technologies are identified and that the relevant cookie notice and consent mechanism are in place.

14. Automated Decision-Making

We do not intend to make decisions about individuals based solely on automated processing, including profiling, where those decisions produce legal or similarly significant effects, unless the processing is permitted by law and the required safeguards are provided.

If we introduce automated decision-making or profiling that requires additional privacy information, we will update this policy and provide any further information required by law.

15. Links to Other Websites

Our website may contain links to third-party websites, including job boards, professional networking platforms and client websites.

We are not responsible for the privacy practices or content of third-party websites. When you visit another website, we recommend that you read its privacy policy before providing personal information.

16. Children's Information

Our recruitment services are primarily intended for adults seeking work and businesses seeking recruitment support.

We do not knowingly collect children's personal information through our website unless there is a lawful and necessary reason to do so. Where we process children's personal information, we will take appropriate steps to comply with applicable data protection requirements.

17. Complaints

If you have concerns about how we handle your personal information, please contact us first so that we can try to resolve the issue.

You also have the right to complain to the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO), the UK's independent data protection regulator.

Website: https://ico.org.uk/make-a-complaint/

Information Commissioner's Office
Wycliffe House
Water Lane
Wilmslow
Cheshire
SK9 5AF

18. Changes to This Privacy Policy

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time to reflect changes in our business, website, recruitment practices, technology or legal requirements.

Any changes will be published on this page, with the updated date shown at the beginning of the policy. We recommend that you review this page periodically to stay informed about how we protect your personal information.

Clear Choice Recruitment Ltd
Website: https://www.clearchoicerecruitment.com
Registered office: 6 Gold Tops, Newport, NP20 4PG, United Kingdom
Company registration number: 14745107