English
This notice explains what personal data (information) we hold about you, how we collect it, and how we use and may share information about you during the application process. We are required to notify you of this information under data protection legislation. Please ensure that you read this notice (sometimes referred to as a ‘privacy notice’) and any other similar notice we may provide to you from time to time when we collect or process personal information about you.
Simpson Millar LLP (‘the Firm’) is a ‘data controller’ and gathers and uses certain information about you. References to ‘we’ or ‘us’ mean the Firm. This data is also used at the shortlisting stage by our recruitment partner, namely Harkaye Core Talent Ltd.
We will comply with the data protection principles when gathering and using personal information, as set out in our Colleague Privacy and Data Protection Policies.
We may collect the following information up to and including the shortlisting stage of the recruitment process:
We may collect the following information after the shortlisting stage, and before making a final decision to recruit:
You are required (by law or in order to enter into your contract of employment) to provide the categories of information marked ‘☐’ above to us to enable us to verify your right to work and suitability for the position.
We may collect this information from our recruitment partner, namely Harkaye Core Talent Ltd or directly from you, your referees (details of whom you will have provided), your education provider, the relevant professional body] the Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) and the Home Office.
We will typically collect and use this information for the following purposes:
We seek to ensure that our information collection and processing is always proportionate. We will notify you of any changes to information we collect or to the purposes for which we collect and process it.
We may also need to share some of the above categories of personal data with other parties, such as HR consultants and professional advisers such as our recruitment partner, namely Harkaye Core Talent Ltd. The recipients of the data will be bound by confidentiality obligations. We may also be required to share some information with our regulators or as required to comply with the law.
Further details on how we handle special category data is set out in our Colleague Privacy Policy and Colleague Data Protection Privacy Notice available on our Cascade HR system, our employee intranet, (called The Open Network) or it can be obtained directly from our HR team.
Information may be held on systems controlled by our recruitment partner, namely Harkaye Core Talent Ltd, at our offices and other third-party agencies e.g. Cascade, HMRC, Scottish Widows, service providers, representatives and agents as described above. We have security measures in place to seek to ensure that there is appropriate security for information we hold including those measures detailed in our Information Security and Data Protection policies stored on the firm’s intranet (The Open Network).
We keep your information during and after your employment for no longer than is necessary for the purposes for which the personal information is processed. How long we keep your data will depend on whether your application is successful and you become employed by us, the nature of the data concerned and the purposes for which it is processed.
We will keep recruitment data (including interview notes) for no longer than is reasonable, taking into account the limitation periods for potential claims such as race or sex discrimination (as extended to take account of early conciliation), after which they will be destroyed. If there is a clear business reason for keeping recruitment records for longer than the recruitment period, we may do so but will first consider whether the records can be pseudonymised, and the longer period for which they will be kept.
If your application is successful, we will keep only the recruitment data that is necessary in relation to your employment. For further information, see our Colleague Data Protection Privacy Notice.
Further details on our approach to data retention and destruction are available in our Data Retention and Destruction Policy that gives these details.
Where our processing of your data is based solely on our legitimate interests (or those of a third party), you have the right to object to that processing if you give us specific reasons why you are objecting, which are based on your particular situation. If you object, we can no longer process your data unless we can demonstrate 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.
Please contact our Data Protection Officer (DPO) Paul Bradley or a member of the HR Department, who can be contacted [email protected] or [email protected] respectively if (in accordance with applicable law) you would like to object to, correct or request access to information that we hold relating to you or if you have any questions about this notice. You also have the right to ask our Data Protection Officer or the HR Department for some but not all of the information we hold and process to be erased (the ‘right to be forgotten’) in certain circumstances. Our Data Protection Officer will provide you with further information about the right to be forgotten, if you ask for it.
We have appropriate security measures in place to prevent personal information from being accidentally lost, or used or accessed in an unauthorised way. We limit access to your personal information to those who have a genuine business need to know it. Those processing your information will do so only in an authorised manner and are subject to a duty of confidentiality.
We also have procedures in place to deal with any suspected data security breach. We will notify you and any applicable regulator of a suspected data security breach where we are legally required to do so.
We hope that our Data Protection Officer or the HR Department can resolve any query or concern you raise about our use of your information. If not, contact the Information Commissioner at ico.org.uk/concerns/ or telephone: 0303 123 1113 for further information about your rights and how to make a formal complaint.
Applicant Data Protection Privacy Notice was last published on 23rd February 2026
