This notice explains how The University of Liverpool uses and protects the personal information that it holds about employees and people paid via the HR and Payroll system and should make it easier to understand what information we collect and why we collect it.
The University is a "controller" for the purposes of the data protection laws. The current data protection laws are set out in the Data Protection Act 1998. These will be replaced by new data protection laws with effect from 25 May 2018. We refer to both the current and the new data protection laws as the “Data Protection Laws” in this privacy notice.
You should share this notice with your family and dependants where you have provided us with personal information about them.
What is personal information?
‘Personal information’ means any information which relates to or identifies you as an individual.
This includes any information provided to us by or on behalf of you via current (or potential) pension fund providers, HM Revenue & Customs, referees, UK Visas and Immigration, medical professionals, Solicitors or UK Law Enforcement Departments.
Who will process my personal information?
- The initial recruiting Manager and Administrative staff involved in selecting you for appointment.
- The HR Department.
- The Finance Department.
- The Computer Services Department.
- The Research Support Department.
- The External Relations, Marketing and Communications Departments.
- The Strategic Planning Department.
- Various UoL Services departments e.g. maintenance, car parking, catering.
- Pension Fund providers and actuaries.
- Contracted HR Systems providers (and any duly authorised Subcontractors) required to supply, maintain and support the software including issue management to provide HR & payroll processes to The University of Liverpool. This includes services provided to the Guild of Students and ULPF pension scheme in a bureau type capacity to enable HR and Payroll services.
- HM Revenue & Customs.
- Third party umbrella body to administer Disclosure and Barring checking Service (DBS checks) when required.
What types of personal data do we hold about you?
We collect data provided by you either via forms, data transferred from your application via e-recruitment; referees; data updated by you via your Employee Portal; Staff intranet Tulip, your Manager via their Manager Portal; correspondence provided by you, your Manager, Departmental Administrators, Annual Review Panels, Pension Providers, HM Revenue & Customs; solicitors; UK Visas and Immigration; medical professionals, Solicitors or UK Law Enforcement Departments; by telephone, email, electronic downloads, spreadsheets, documents received via Fax, post or otherwise.
We may hold and process any or all of the following personal information about you:-
- Personal details e.g. name, initials, date of birth, gender, marital status, Photograph, IP address, work and private email addresses, home and contact postal address, emergency contact details, work and private telephone numbers, teaching and PHD qualifications.
- Recruitment information including references, email addresses, CV’s, Qualifications, data associated with additional recruitment checks or procedures obtained as part of the job application and offer process (e.g. criminal convictions checks via the Disclosure and Barring Service; UK Visas and Immigration data to allow The University to apply for a Certificate of Sponsorship and the relevant Right to Work if required; any pre-employment medical checks if applicable)
- Contractual data e.g. employment and career history including University start and end dates, appointment start and end dates, job titles, appointment grade, pay point, status (part-time, full time and full time equivalent) funding, workgroups, annual leave entitlements and balances, organisational structure i.e. Faculty, School, Department, Line Manager and any related approvers information (leave, training, staff requisitions, overtime, expenses and manager request approvers etc.)
- Employment data e.g. redeployment, post information e.g. post grade and title, Professional Development Reviews.
- Pay data including salary, overtime, expenses, earnings, deductions including Union deductions via payroll, Child Care Vouchers, Student Loans, Attachments of Earnings, pay history, absence (including sickness, Maternity, Paternity, Shared Maternity) termination reasons, payments, payments after leaving, National Insurance numbers and categories, Tax codes, employee bank details etc.
- Pension scheme information including child or spouse information if applicable.
- Medical referral information and assessment outcomes (only with explicit consent of the individual)
- Sensitive and special categories of personal data e.g. ethnicity, nationality, sexual orientation, disability, etc.
- Qualifications if relevant to pay, pay progression, your role if essential criteria.
- Log of DBS checks done and what level, no outcomes.
- Training data covering for example Obligatory, role based, Health & Safety, University Induction, Teaching, including information about people on waiting lists and completion results etc.
- Research Development covers the work we do around collating information to identify areas of strength across research and research related activities happening across the University. We can then use this to develop and support the Institutional research environment leading to improved research outcomes.
- Higher Education Statistics Agency (HESA) data. Every year, we send some of the information we hold about you on the University to HESA. This forms your HESA Staff Record which does not contain your name or contact details. www.hesa.ac.uk/fpn.
- Budget and forecasting data for named individuals or to support institutional budget planning, cost and workforce planning and monitoring.
- Data relating to HR policies and procedures e.g. disciplinary, grievance, bullying and harassment cases, work place adjustments, flexible working requests, employment tribunals, role evaluations etc.
- Emergency contact and next of kin data.
What do we do with your personal information?
We use your data for a number of processes all of which are to enable the University to discharge its responsibilities as an employer to both the individual and any statutory body as required including any Government Department or legislative body that the University comes under. This includes data to enable on-line processes and approvals and to provide services.
If you are required to undergo certain additional recruitment checks or procedures as part of the job application and offer process (e.g. criminal convictions checks via the Disclosure and Barring Service; UK Visas and Immigration data to allow The University to apply for a Certificate of Sponsorship and the relevant Right to Work if required; any pre-employment medical checks if applicable) the data will be held on your HR records to evidence compliance to legislation and to support any UK visa and Immigration audits or investigations.
What is the purpose and legal basis of the processing?
Data protection Laws require the University to meet certain conditions before we are allowed to use your personal data. This privacy notice identifies the data we use is for “Legitimate Interest”, Contract and Public Task
Following initial recruitment The University will process the personal information provided on your application and the other information referred to above to:
- Manage your contract.
- Pay salaries and expenses, make employee approved and statutory deductions including any attachment of earnings, third party payments, Tax, National Insurance and pension contributions etc.
- Update the employment records we already hold on you if you leave and are subsequently re-hired into the University or apply for any internal vacancy or promotion. This will include verifying the information provided and assessing your suitability for the role (including if appropriate any relevant criminal convictions, UK Visas and Immigration data, your Right to Work status and any pre-employment medical checks), deciding whether to offer you a job, communicating that outcome (together with any feedback) We will also use the Disclosure and Barring Service information (not the outcome) for monitoring purposes if required, to check appropriate payments have been made and to evidence, if required at any future point in time, the appropriate procedure was conducted as part of the selection and appointment process. Re-checks will be prompted at agreed intervals depending on policy.
- To help us to provide individual support and reasonable workplace adjustments for any disability. If you disclose a disability, the Diversity and Equality Team in Human Resources will be in touch to discuss any adjustments you may need. Your line manager will not be automatically informed that you have disclosed a disability and this information is not automatically shared with other departments.
- To enable workforce planning.
- To enable staff cost planning and monitoring.
- To provide Research income forecasts and staff costing information for Research bids and subsequent research cost audits.
- For monitoring the effectiveness of our policies and procedures.
- To evaluate staff satisfaction or experience.
- To develop and support the Institutional research environment leading to improved research outcomes.
We may also use or disclose the information provided for the following statutory or public interest purposes:
- To prevent or detect fraud.
- To provide statutory returns required by applicable legislation.
- To support Internal and external audits.
- To respond to Freedom of Information requests using anonymised data.
- To support research projects including statistical data - No information which could identify you will be published.
- For Equal Opportunities monitoring. The University of Liverpool is committed to the principles of equality of opportunity for all, of fairness and of inclusion. We work to meet our statutory obligations with specific reference to the Equality Act 2010. To ensure that we are able to meet this commitment we collect the personal equality characteristics of applicants and employees. We use this data for a number of reasons including monitoring the effectiveness of our policies and procedures, statutory reporting or in response to formal Freedom of Information requests as anonymised data, to provide individual support and workplace adjustments, and to contact target groups about equality characteristic specific consultations, services and positive action initiatives that may affect them.
- To apply for appropriate quality awards using anonymised data.
Who might we share it with?
As well as circulating your application and related materials to the appropriate staff at the University, we will share your personal information for the above purposes as relevant and necessary with:
- Your referees.
- Where relevant and necessary, any College(s) you may become connected to.
- Where relevant and as required to administer relevant recruitment checks and procedures, the Disclosure and Barring Service or UK Visas and Immigration to allow The University to apply for a Certificate of Sponsorship and the relevant Right to Work.
- Where relevant and as required for some posts, NHS organisations (e.g. NHS Trusts or Local Education Training Boards).
- Companies or organisations providing specific services to, or on behalf of, the University.
- Any Official Government body if required by law to provide e.g. linked to Fraud or any police/national security matter.
- Pension providers and /or actuaries.
- HR and payroll software support companies e.g. CoreHR.
- Mortgage Companies.
Where we store your personal data
The data that we collect from you will usually be stored inside the UK or the European Economic Area (EEA).
However, if you live or work outside of the UK or the EEA, we may need to transfer your personal data outside of the UK or the EEA to respond to any queries that you may have. Where this applies, we will take all steps reasonably necessary to ensure that your data is treated securely and in accordance with this privacy notice.
We also may transfer data outside the UK or the EEA linked to our expanding worldwide partnerships with other universities, research ventures and mobility strategy.
Where we do this, we will ensure that the transfer is to a country covered by a decision of the Commission of the European Union or is otherwise made in circumstances where appropriate safeguards have been put in place to protect your data in accordance with the Data Protection Laws.
Your rights in relation to your personal information
The accuracy of the information that we hold about you is important to us. If any of the information that we hold is inaccurate or out of date let us know using the contact details set out at the end of this notice.
You have a number of rights under the Data Protection Laws in relation to the way we process your personal data, namely:
- to access your data;
- to have your data rectified if it is inaccurate or incomplete;
- in certain circumstances, to have your data deleted or removed;
- in certain circumstances, to restrict the processing of your data;
- a right of data portability, namely to obtain and reuse your data for your own purposes across different services;
- to object to direct marketing (although we do not carry out direct marketing);
- not to be subject to automated decision making (including profiling), where it produces a legal effect or a similarly significant effect on you (although we do not use automated decision making;
- to claim compensation for damages caused by a breach of the Data Protection Laws.
How can I access my personal information?
Details are set out on the University’s data protection webpages at https://www.liverpool.ac.uk/legal/data_protection/
How long is my information kept?
Your information will be kept as part of your staff record for the duration of your employment. Once you leave the University we will retain your data in line with The University retention schedule.
Information about how long different types of information are retained by the University is published at https://www.liverpool.ac.uk/csd/records-management/
Who can I contact?
If you have any questions about how your personal information is used, or wish to exercise any of your rights, please consult the University’s data protection webpages at https://www.liverpool.ac.uk/legal/data_protection/.
If any of your personal data needs changing please update as much as you can via your CoreHR employee portal. If this is not possible please email:-
Payroll@liverpool.ac.uk for any Payroll data including expenses bank accounts.
hrsupp@liverpool.ac.uk for any Contractual data including bank account used for paying your monthly salaries
HR.Systems.Team@liverpool.ac.uk for HESA or any other data issues.
If you need further assistance, please contact the University’s Data Protection Officer at LegalServices@liverpool.ac.uk
How do I complain?
If you are not happy with the way your information is being handled, or with the response received from us, you have the right to lodge a complaint with the Information Commissioner’s Office at Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow SK9 5AF https://ico.org.uk/.
Last updated: 19th August 2020
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