Category: Science

Who We Are

At FPS, we deliver industry-leading recruitment and executive search strategies across multiple disciplines globally.

FPS has been delivering specialist recruitment and executive search strategies to leading businesses since 2010.  From our offices in Glasgow and Edinburgh, our reputation for excellence has grown through working in partnership with clients and candidates in our specialist sectors in permanent, interim and temporary engagements in the UK and internationally.

FPS is a trading name of First People Solutions Ltd ( A company registered in Scotland with registered number SC373254 and having its registered office address at 29 St. Vincent Place, 3rd Floor, Queens House, Glasgow, Scotland, G1 2DT).

We are a data controller for the purposes of the General Data Protection Regulation (Regulation (EU) 2016/679) (GDPR) and related data protection legislation.

Our registration number at the Information Commissioner’s Office is Z2185399.

How to contact us

If you have any questions about our Privacy Notice or our data protection policies generally, please contact us:

• Initial enquiries should be directed to our Glasgow office as follows:
  • By post: 29 St. Vincent Place, 3rd Floor, Queens House, Glasgow, Scotland, G1 2DT
  • By phone: 0141 270 5000
  • By email: info@firstpeoplesolutions.com 
• You can also reach us at our office in Edinburgh (Unit 9, Straiton Business Parc, Straiton View, Loanhead, Edinburgh EH20 9QZ ) or our registered office address.

Our Data Protection Officer is: Robert Little

Our Commitment

We are fully committed to handling personal information in accordance with the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) which comes into force on 25 May 2018.

This means your personal information will be:

• Processed lawfully, fairly and in a transparent manner.
• Collected for specified, explicit and legitimate purposes.
• Only collected as required for our lawful purposes.
• Reviewed regularly.
• Retained only for as long as necessary and in accordance with our retention policy.
• Processed securely and with integrity.

It is important that you are aware of our procedures and practices and understand your rights in relation to your personal data and this Privacy Notice is designed to be part of that information.

This Privacy Notice applies to the following categories of data subjects:

• temporary workers or contractors who have entered into or have applied to enter into a “contract for services” (“temporary workers”);
• job seekers or other applicants for permanent employment in the public and private sector who contact us or who are referred to us (“candidates”); and

• former and potential temporary workers or candidates.

Why Do We Need to Process Personal Data?

We need to process your personal data throughout our relationship with you for recruitment purposes, payroll purposes, assignments with clients, health and safety, human resource requirements, regulatory requirements, statutory reasons such as HMRC requirements.

What Personal Data Do We Collect?

“Personal data” or “personal information“ is any information relating to or about an individual from which that person can be directly or indirectly identified. It does not include data where the identity has been removed (anonymous data).

There are “special categories” of more sensitive personal data which require a higher level of protection. This includes health data, racial or ethnic origin, political or religious affiliations or criminal records.

During the course of your engagement with us, whether as a temporary worker or a candidate (staff), we may collect the following information about you:

• Name.
• Contact details (including address, home and mobile telephone numbers, email) and emergency contacts (ie name, relationship and home and mobile telephone numbers).
• National insurance (NI) number, tax code and other tax information and date of birth.
• Professional qualifications, continuous professional development (CPD) undertaken, re-validation information to ensure you meet the requirements, medical information in relation to the requirements of working with vulnerable people.
• Disclosure Scotland requirements for regulated work, for initial criminal record checks and updates as required.
• Timesheets and pay details including bank details for payment purposes.
• Information in your sickness and absence records (including sensitive personal information regarding your physical and/or mental health).
• Copies of correspondence both electronic or physical.
• Appraisal and other assessments such as your experience surveys, client opinion surveys and supervision and support discussions.
• Complaints or grievances either from you or about you.
• Application forms, references from previous employers and other information collected during the recruitment process.
• Nationality and immigration status and right to work in the UK clearance and other immigration information where relevant.
• Proof of identity and proof of residence information and information from related documents, such as your passport.
• A copy of your driving licence for business insurance.

How do we collect the information?

We may collect this information directly from you (e.g. when you submit an application to us or enter into a contract for services with us or via a face to face interview), the Home Office, HM Revenue and Customer (HMRC), Disclosure Scotland, our clients where you have been placed with them either as a temporary worker or an employment candidate.

We also collect data from job boards where we advertise or from where you submit applications. If this occurs and we have obtained this information indirectly we will get in touch within 30 days to obtain your approval to process the data or store it.  You always have the right to refuse and we will delete your information and not contact you again.

What is Our Lawful Basis for Processing Your Personal Data?

We will only use your personal data when the law allows us to. Most commonly, we will use your personal information in the following circumstances:

• where we have obtained your prior consent;
• where we need to perform a contract we have entered into with you;
• where we need to comply with a legal obligation; or
• where it is necessary for our legitimate interests (or those of a third party) and your interests and fundamental rights do not override those interests.

We may also use your personal information where we need to protect your interests (or someone else’s interest) or where it is needed in the public interest.

As a recruitment agency and staffing solutions company, we gather information and process personal data in order to pursue our legitimate interests of recruiting and supplying staff to clients in the public and private sectors. Furthermore, we process personal data in order to comply with any required legal obligations of ensuring all staff meet the requirements of the relevant sector.

We will obtain your prior consent before either placing you (as a temporary worker or other staff) with one of our clients or referring you for a position with one of our clients.

We also process information to comply with the legal requirements associated with the employment regulations and best practices, including without limitation the requirements of HMRC, the Modern Slavery Act 2015, the Equality Act 2010 and other employment legislation.  

If you fail to provide personal information

If you fail to provide certain information when requested, we may not be able to perform the recruitment services to find you new employment or the contract we have entered into with you (such as paying you), or we may be prevented from complying with our legal obligations (such as to ensure the health and safety of our workers).

Change of purpose

We will only use your personal information for the purposes for which we collected it unless we reasonably consider that we need to use it for another reason and that reason is compatible with the original purpose. If we need to use your personal information for an unrelated purpose, we will notify you and we will explain the legal basis which allows us to do so.

Please note that we may process your personal information without your knowledge or consent, in compliance with the above rules, where this is required or permitted by law.

How we use particularly sensitive information  

”Special categories” of particularly sensitive personal information require higher levels of protection. We need to have further justification for collecting, storing and using this type of personal information. We may process special categories of personal information in the following circumstances:

• In limited circumstances, with your explicit written consent.
• Where we need to carry out our legal obligations and in line with this Privacy Policy.
• Where it is needed in the public interest, such as for equal opportunities monitoring, and in line with our Privacy Policy.
• Where it is needed to assess your working capacity on health grounds, subject to appropriate confidentiality safeguards.

Less commonly, we may process this type of information where it is needed in relation to legal claims or where it is needed to protect your interests (or someone else’s interests) and you are not capable of giving your consent, or where you have already made the information public.

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

• We will use information relating to leaves of absence, which may include sickness absence or family related leaves, to comply with employment and other laws.
• We will use information about your physical or mental health, or disability status, to ensure your health and safety in the workplace and to assess your fitness to work, to provide appropriate workplace adjustments, monitor and manage sickness absence and administer benefits.

Do we need your consent?

We do not need your consent if we use special categories of your personal information in accordance with our written policy to carry out our legal obligations. In limited circumstances, we may approach you for your written consent to allow us to process certain particularly sensitive data. If we do so, we will provide you with full details of the information that we would like and the reason we need it, so that you can carefully consider whether you wish to consent. You should be aware that it is not a condition of your contract with us (or your other engagement with us) that you agree to any request for consent from us.

Information about criminal convictions  

We may only use information relating to criminal convictions where the law allows us to do so. This will usually be where such processing is necessary to carry out our obligations and provided we do so in line with our Privacy Policy.

Less commonly, we may use information relating to criminal convictions where it is necessary for relation to legal claims, where it is necessary to protect your interests (or someone else’s interests) and you are not capable of giving your consent, or where you have already made the information public.

We will collect information about criminal convictions as part of the recruitment process and throughout the duration of your engagement with us (whether as a temporary worker or candidate or other staff) where you are engaged in or applying for regulated work. We will use this information about criminal convictions and offences in order to determine your suitability and continued suitability for our clients and the regulated services that they perform.

We are allowed to use your personal information in this way in order to comply with our obligations to our clients to provide suitable staff and in order to protect the interests of the end-user.

Do We Share with Third-Parties?

We may share your personal information with third parties where required by law, where it is necessary to administer the working relationship with you or where we have another legitimate interest in doing so.

We share personal information with:

• Our clients are in both the public and private sectors. [*]
• Our payroll services.
• Umbrella companies for payment purposes.
• Other entities in our group of companies.
• HMRC.
• Other statutory bodies if required.

The above is an indicative list and may change from time to time, if it does for your circumstances we will notify you.

[*] We initially only share your personal data with our clients where you have consented to such sharing, e.g. where you have agreed to take on a temporary role or where you have agreed to apply for a permanent position with such client. Once you have taken on such a role or position, we may need to continue sharing your personal data to perform a contract with you, to comply with our legal obligations or to protect your or someone else’s interests, as set out in this Privacy Policy.

We will take all reasonable steps to ensure all information sharing is carried out in a secure way and will ask our third-party associates to assure us they will handle your personal data securely by using contracts to make our requirements clear and within the legal requirements as set out in the GDPR.

Some third parties share with us or make the information available to your employers or potential employers.  They are:

• Disclosure Scotland.
• Previous employers as part of the regulatory reference checks.

We have operations in the UAE as we have applicants in the UK and Overseas who may wish to work for our clients in those countries so we may transfer data to those operations in those countries, although we do occasionally have overseas applicants who share their data with us. All our operations work to the same processes and are governed the same way we treat our data in the UK.

Retention of Personal Data

The retention periods for personal data depend on the purpose for which the information was obtained and will differ for different organisations.

Should you leave the agency there are elements of your records that can be deleted immediately, however, others will remain on file for lawful statutory purposes such as filing and reporting for HMRC and any supporting evidential information.

We will retain application forms if you are successful for the duration of your employment and for a period of one year to provide references if you request them.  If you do not join us we will retain your application for 6 months and destroy it securely after that time.

Where do we store Personal Data?

Your data is stored on secured premises in a locked cabinet and on a secure client relationship management (CRM) database enforced by password protocols.

IP Addresses

Although we do not accept applications online, we do collect statistics on visits to our website and social media sites and whilst these are anonymous statistics, your IP address may be considered personal data under the legislation. Therefore, we may collect information about the computer or device which is used to access our website.  We use this information to collect anonymous statistics to view traffic to the site and how the site is used. This collection does not identify individual users.

Cookies

Cookies are text files placed on your computer to collect standard internet log information and visitor behaviour information. This information is used to track visitor use of the website and to compile statistical reports on website activity.

For further information visit www.aboutcookies.org  or www.allaboutcookies.org  

You can set your browser not to accept cookies and the above websites tell you how to remove cookies from your browser. However, in a few cases, some of our website features may not function as a result.

Data Breaches

In the event of a “high risk” personal data breach, the individual(s) will be notified immediately within 72 hours as well as the Information Commissioners Office (ICO). Our company and staff shall follow our security protocols in line with our “Data Breach” company policy as well as the ICO guidelines and take all necessary precautions in order to minimise the severity of the breach for the individual. All personal data breaches shall be recorded in our data breach register.

Your Rights

Right to be informed.

You have the right to be informed about the processing of your personal data, and this Privacy Notice provides you with the information you need to reassure you that we handle your personal data securely and lawfully.

Right of access.

You have the right to request access to your personal data and to request further information relating to your personal data such as the purposes of the processing, the categories of organisations with whom we share your personal data, the retention period for such personal data and the existence of any automated decision-making relating to your personal data.

Right to rectification.

You have the right to have any inaccuracies or factual errors corrected or incomplete data amended.

If this information has been disclosed to a third party we will inform that party and request that they amend their records.

We want your information to be accurate, complete and up to date so you can ask us to make any rectifications necessary as your details or circumstances change.

Right to erasure (the right to be forgotten).

You can request to have your personal data deleted or removed if there is no compelling reason to keep it, as follows:

• if your personal data is no longer required for the purposes for which we obtained them;
• where the processing of your personal data is based on your consent and you withdraw such consent;
• where the processing of your personal data is based on our legitimate interests and you successfully object to such processing;
• where the personal data is processed unlawfully; or
• where the personal data has to be erased for compliance with a legal obligation.  

If the personal data is held for statutory or regulatory requirements it cannot be erased.  

Any request made will be discussed with you, unless deletion is an obvious step.

Erasure means we could not contact you should an employment opportunity arise that you may be interested in after reviewing the job specification.

Following erasure, we will not retain your information and therefore it is possible that your personal information may be re-obtained from the public domain or social media which may result in contact from our organisation.  

Right to restrict processing.

This relates to personal data where the accuracy is contested or where you have objected to our processing based on our legitimate interests or where we no longer require the personal data but you request us to keep.  It is a complex area and whilst a decision is being made in consultation with you, we will store the data but not process it.

Right to data portability.

You have the right to take and use your data for other services or purposes.  Where the personal data provided by you is processed on the basis of your consent or a contract between us and you, we are required to make this information available to you in a readable easily transferred format.

Right to object.

Where the processing of your personal data is based on our legitimate interests, you have the right to object (based on your particular circumstances) to the way we handle, use or store your personal data. If you object to our processing of your personal data, we will restrict any further processing until we determine whether or not there are any compelling reasons why we should continue the processing.

We do not sell your personal data and we do not use it for marketing purposes.

Right not to be subject to automated decision-making including profiling.

We meet in person as we believe that is the best way to start our relationship and to match candidates, their skills, competencies, abilities and preferences to our clients and their needs.

We do not use automatic profiling or decision-making tools.

Exercise your rights.

If you wish to exercise any of your rights in respect of your personal data, please contact us using the details above. Our Data Protection Officer will provide you with further information if required.

We will respond to any exercise of your rights within one month of such request unless the request is complex in which case we will seek an extension and respond within a further two months thereafter.

We will respond to your requests to exercise your rights at no charge, although repeated or manifestly unfounded or excessive requests may be refused or may incur an administrative charge covering the time and other costs associated with this.

Consent

During the registration process we will ask how you wish to be contacted:

• By telephone
• By email
• By post
• By text/SMS

You are free to consent to all or one or more of these, however, the law requires that if you permit us to use only one method, that is the only method we can use.  Given job opportunities or assignments can come up at short notice you may wish to consider more than one contact method.

Complaints

In the first instance, we would request that you discuss any complaints with us.

The ICO website has a template letter to assist you but we are happy to discuss in person if you contact your personal consultant or telephone 0141 270 5000 should you be unable to reach them.

If you are not satisfied after we address your complaint you can complain to the:

Information Commissioners Office

Wycliffe House
Water Lane
Wilmslow
Cheshire
SK9 5AF

https://ico.org.uk/for-the-public/raising-concerns/

The website has a live chat facility, or you can call 0303 123 1113 (local rate)

Changes to our Privacy Policy

We keep our privacy policy under review and we will place any updates on this website.  This privacy policy was updated on 22 January 2018.

If you have any questions on this privacy policy call us on 0141 270 5000.