Data Protection and Confidentiality

Privacy Statement

You are now in a third party website that is provided solely for your convenience, you have left our website. The operator of the third party website may collect and use information provided by you in accordance with its privacy policy.

In relation to any personal data (including sensitive personal data) which you submit to us via the on-line application forms and email addresses as part of an application ("application data") the following will apply.

"Sensitive personal data" is information concerning your racial or ethnic origin, political opinions, religious, philosophical or similar beliefs, trade union membership, physical or mental health, sexual life, commission of criminal offences and/or involvement in criminal proceedings.

In acknowledging an application we are not verifying the content, accepting the application or making any offer of employment or engagement. We are not obliged to accept any applications.

By submitting such application data you are agreeing to that application data being processed for the purposes of:

  • communication regarding your recruitment/prospective employment between us and both prospective employers and yourself
  • consideration of your application(s) and your recruitment by prospective employers
  • the provision of the services of WebSAF (WebSAF functionality allows candidates to upload commonly asked personal details into an online application form. This information is only uploaded to an employer's online form at the candidate's request. The candidate then has the opportunity to edit any of this information and must then decide to submit it to that employer).

We may monitor your use of this website and record your email address for our internal purposes. 

To process your application we may pass any information you submit to us to any of our offices or any of our affiliates, agents or appointed representatives.

We are an equal opportunities organisation and do not discriminate on grounds of gender, ethnic origin, age, religion, sexual orientation, physical or mental disability or any other basis governed by law.

We acknowledge that your application data and any other information which we may obtain about you ("Information"), is confidential. We will maintain the confidentiality of and protect your Information in accordance with our normal procedures and all applicable laws.

We will use your information solely for the purposes of recruitment and provision of WebSAF services, respectively, as more fully described above.

We will not disclose your information to any other third party unless for recruitment purposes or required to do so by law or regulators.

Occasionally third parties may provide IT storage services to us. In those circumstances those third parties shall be required to enter into a confidentiality agreement on no less stringent terms than contained in this privacy statement and to process your data solely in accordance with our instructions.

All of your information will be removed approximately 12 months after you submit an application. In cases where a candidate has applied to multiple roles, the information will be removed approximately 12 months after the last application is made. In exceptional circumstances, your information will be copied across to another role that is considered more suitable for you and this will be considered a new application - you will be informed should this occur and have the option to opt out of applying to this new role.


Chatbot

The site uses an AI chatbot agent to handle common questions about the recruitment process. To support the user's experience when using the chatbot, some additional cookies are used. These are set out as below:

a)    vf-chat-session:

  • Purpose: This cookie is used to maintain the chat session state.
  • Essential: Yes - this cookie is necessary for the proper functioning of the chatbot.

b)    vf-chat-user-id:

  • Purpose: This cookie stores a unique identifier for the user to maintain conversation context.
  • Essential: Yes - this cookie is necessary for a consistent experience of the chatbot.

c)    vf-chat-transcript:

  • Purpose: This cookie stores the chat transcript temporarily.
  • Essential: Yes - this cookie is necessary for maintaining conversation history during the session.

d)    vf-chat-settings:

  • Purpose: This cookie stores user preferences for the chat interface.
  • Essential: While not strictly essential, it significantly improves user experience by remembering user preferences.

e)    vf-chat-last-active:

  • Purpose: This cookie tracks when the user was last active in the chat.
  • Essential: Yes - this cookie is used for session management and timeout functions.