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Recruitment Privacy Statement

This privacy notice tells you how we use the personal information you provide us when you apply for a job with the IET. It also contains useful information about who to contact in the event you have a question or query.

The IET

The IET is registered as a charity in England & Wales (no 211014) and Scotland (no SC038698). It is supported by a wholly owned trading subsidiary, IET Services Limited (IET Services Limited is registered in England & Wales (no 909719)), along with Wholly Foreign Owned Entities. IET brands include Inspec, E&T, Electrical Standards, Wiring Regulations, Faraday and Venues.  

Depending on the role you apply for, the IET may disclose your information to the above legal entities as necessary for hiring purposes.

The IET UK is registered with the UK Information Commissioners Office Z7792223

What personal will we process?

We will collect the following personal data from you based on the legitimate interest lawful basis in order to consider your applicability for the role you have applied for:

  • login credentials to access the online recruitment system,
  • name
  • address
  • contact details (email address and phone number)
  • date of birth
  • gender
  • work history and experience
  • previous employment details
  • education history
  • qualifications and skills
  • content of your CV, and cover letter
  • Details of those you have given as points of contact for references

We share only the applicable and necessary personal data with relevant hiring managers.

If you are selected as a successful candidate we will further process your personal data so that we can take steps to hire you to work at the IET and prepare a contract with you. This may include:

  • Information from third parties such as references supplied by your former employees
  • evidence of entitlement to work

Article 9(2)(b) UK GDPR permits the IET to process personal data when it is necessary for the purposes of carrying out the obligations and exercising specific rights of the controller or of the data subject in the field of employment and social security and social protection law, along with the condition at schedule 1 part 1 (1) (a) Data Protection Act 2018 - Employment, social security and social protection.

  • personal data relating to criminal convictions and offences

The IET rely on legitimate interest basis in UK GDPR and Schedule 1 part 1 (1)(a) Employment, social security and social protection condition for processing criminal offence data under Article 10 Data Protection Act 2018.

With your explicit consent we also collect ‘special category’ data to support the IET’s Ethnicity, Diversity, and Inclusion Strategy. This includes race, ethnic origin, and disability data and is anonymised once collected.

If you tell us about a disability or health condition, we will process this information in order to prepare access provisions or make reasonable adjustments for the interview. We rely upon legitimate interest basis UK GDPR and the substantial public interest condition ‘statutory purposes’ (in reference to the Equality Act 2010) at schedule 1 part 2 (6) (2) (a) Data Protection Act 2018.

We use anonymised personal data to understand the demographic of those applying for roles with the IET.

Disclosing your personal data 

Where required by law or when it is necessary to administer the working relationship with you, or necessary for the performance of our contract, we may share your data with third parties who are contractually engaged by the IET to undertake recruitment tasks. "third parties" include service providers such as contractors, designated agents, recruitment agencies, system suppliers. Purposes include for DBS, and reference verifying.

We may also share your information with third parties in the following situations:

  • Where we’re required to do so by law, court order or governmental authority. 
  • If we believe doing so is necessary for security or safety purposes.
  • Where required to defend ourselves legally.  
  • While negotiating or in relation to a business transaction, such as a merger, change of control. 

Data transfer

Depending on where you are in the world, the IET will comply with applicable data protection legislation. The IET as a UK organisation is subject to UK GDPR. We may in some circumstances transfer your personal information outside the UK and EEA. If we do, you can expect a similar degree of protection in respect of your personal information by approved using appropriate transfer mechanisms as stipulated in data protection legislation.

Retaining your personal data 

Unless there is a legal reason, we’ll only retain your personal data for as long as is necessary so we can process it, as set out in this Privacy Notice.

Following your job application we may, with your agreement consider you for other applicable roles.

We will retain your application data for 12 months from the date of application unless otherwise instructed by yourself, or if you have an active application against a live role.

If you’re successful, then we’ll continue to process your personal data in line with our Employee Privacy Notice.  

Keeping your personal data secure 

The IET has appropriate technical and organisational security measures in place including policies and procedures to protect personal data.

Your personal data rights

You have the following rights in relation to your personal data: 

  • The right to access your personal data held by us. 
  • The right to have inaccurate personal data rectified. 
  • The right to object to processing (the right is not absolute) we may continue to process your personal data where we can demonstrate compelling legitimate grounds for the processing, which override your interests, rights and freedoms or the processing is for the establishment, exercise or defence of legal claims.
  • The right to have personal data erased (the right is not absolute and only applies in certain circumstances).
  • The right to complain to a data protection supervisory authority in respect of our processing of your personal data.   
  • Where we have requested your consent to process your personal data and no other lawful basis apply, you have the right to withdraw consent.  

To exercise the personal data rights above or any personal data rights you believe are applicable to your country of residence please contact the IET Data Protection Office by emailing compliance@theIET.org When you submit a data subject rights request we may ask you to provide proof of identification for verification purposes.

Data protection complaints

If you have any questions, or wish to raise a complaint regarding the IET handling of your personal data please contact the IET Data Protection Officer, in the first instance, by emailing privacyoffice@theiet.org

If you consider that processing of personal data relating to you infringes data protection law, you have the right to lodge a complaint with a supervisory authority. The UK supervisory authority is the Information Commissioners Office ICO Information Commissioner’s Office, Wycliffe House Water Lane Wilmslow Cheshire SK9 5AF Tel: 0303 123 1113

If you are a resident of the EU/EEA you can contact the IETs GDPR Representative in the EU, European Data Protection Office (EDPO) You can contact EDPO regarding matters pertaining to the GDPR by using this online request form: https://edpo.com/gdpr-data-request/ or by writing to EDPO at Avenue Huart Hamoir 71, 1030 Brussels, Belgium.

If you are resident in India you may contact the IET India Designated Grievance Officer at this email address india@theiet.org.

Updates to this policy

Updated Jan 2024