Quba Solutions Limited

Introduction

We are Quba Solutions Limited (Registered in England & Wales No. 07907578) of 1 Widcombe Street, Poundbury, Dorchester, Dorset, DT1 3BS.

This Privacy Notice sets out the basis on which we use personal data in the course of our business activities.

As a recruitment finance business, we have two main business models:

• Quba Principal. This is where we facilitate our recruitment agency partner by acting as the principal or contracting party with the relevant Client and Candidate. When we operate as Quba Principal, we are a Data Controller, as is our recruitment agency client. This Privacy Notice applies when we are operating on this basis.
• Agency Principal. This is where we provide finance and back-office services to our Agency Partner. When we operate on an Agency Principal basis, we are a Data Processor and our Agency Partner is the Data Controller. In that situation, you should refer to the Agency Partner’s privacy notice to understand how your data will be stored and processed by them.

If you are unsure about the basis on which we are operating, you should speak to the relevant Agency Partner.

As well as circumstances in which we are acting on a Quba Principal basis, this Privacy Notice also applies to personal data which we may store about Agency Partner Representatives and Supplier Representatives in the course of our dealings with Agency Partners and Suppliers respectively.

As a business which operates as both a recruitment services provider and a recruitment finance business, data is critical to our business. Our systems and processes are designed to ensure that we can provide the best possible service to our clients while operating within the law at all times and protecting individuals’ data privacy rights.

We reserve the right to update this Privacy Notice from time to time. Where appropriate, we shall contact you to notify you of any material changes to the Privacy Notice. You should also refer to our website periodically so that you may access and view our updated Privacy Notice. This will ensure that you understand (i) how we are using your personal data and (ii) your legal rights around our usage of such personal data.

Who Should Read This Privacy Notice?

This Privacy Notice applies to any living, identifiable individuals about whom we may process personal data in the course of our business activities. You should read this Privacy Notice if you are:

• A Candidate
• A Client Contact
• An Agency Partner Representative
• Supplier Representative

Please note that, in some cases, you will fall into more than one of the above categories.

If you are an employee, applicant for employment or in-house temporary worker, you should refer to our internal Privacy Notice instead. This is available to view on request.

Definitions

This Privacy Notice uses the following defined terms:

Agency Partner means a recruitment agency to which we are providing recruitment finance services, either as the principal in the contracting arrangement or on a standard factoring basis.

Agency Partner Representative means a person who is employed or engaged by the Agency Partner and with whom we may deal in the course of providing services to the Agency Partner.

Candidate means a person who is recorded in our records as seeking or potentially suitable for an engagement with a Client. This includes individuals who are not actively seeking a new role but who are in contact with our Agency Partner about potential opportunities which may be of interest from time to time.

Client means a hirer which has engaged Quba to provide recruitment services.

Client Contact means a person who is employed or engaged by a Client and with whom Quba may liaise in respect of any services which Quba is providing or wishes to provide to the Client. In some cases, the Client Contact and the Client may be the same person e.g. where a Client is a sole trader.

Data Protection Legislation means (i) the General Data Protection Regulation ((EU) 2016/679) and any national implementing laws, regulations and secondary legislation, as amended or updated from time to time, in the UK and then (ii) any successor legislation to the GDPR or the Data Protection Act 1998.

Supplier means a business which provides services to Quba and which may process personal data relating to any Candidate, Client Contact or Supplier Representative in the course of performing such services.

Supplier Representative meansa person who is employed or engaged by a Supplier and with whom Quba may liaise from time to time in respect of the services which are provided by that Supplier.

Third-Party Services Provider means any relevant third-party business which provides services to Quba, including our:

• Professional advisers including accountants, tax advisors and lawyers;
• Insurers;
• IT services providers and software providers;
• Independent consultants and subcontractors

How We Obtain Personal Data

We obtain personal data from a number of different sources, depending on the capacity in which you are dealing with us.

If you are a Candidate, we may obtain personal data relating to you:

• Directly where we have had any direct interactions in relation to a temporary assignment which you are carrying out for an Agency Partner
• Through our Agency Partner if you have:
  • applied for a Client vacancy through our Agency Partner
  • uploaded your CV through our Agency Partner’s website
  • asked our Agency Partner to provide work-finding services to you
  • engaged with our Agency Partner through any networking activities or events
  • had any discussions with our Agency Partner about finding alternative employment

If you are a Client Contact, Agency Partner Representative or Supplier Representative, we may obtain personal data relating to you:

• Directly in the course of (i) us providing services to the Client (ii) us providing services to the Agency Partner or (iii) the Supplier providing services to us, as applicable; or
• Indirectly from:
  • online professional networking sites such as LinkedIn
  • your employer’s website and other industry-related websites
  • business information directories
  • other individuals within your organisation in the course of (i) us providing services to the Client or (ii) the Supplier providing services to us, as applicable.

Types of Information We Hold

If you are a Candidate, we may collect, store and process the following types of personal information about you:

• Personal contact details such as name, title, addresses, telephone numbers, and email addresses;
• Your gender, date of birth, nationality and place of residence;
• Your professional skills and experience;
• Your qualifications, training and certifications;
• Proof of your right to work in the United Kingdom such as copies of your passport and, where applicable, visa, residence permit or similar government documents;
• Proof of your identity and address, such as copies of your driving licence, utility bills or similar documents;
• Information about your current or most recent role, including your job title, department, reporting line, responsibilities, salary, benefits and notice period;
• Any background information which you provide to us during the course of your dealings with us;
• Details of any Clients to whom you have been introduced;
• Details of any position which you take up with a Client, including your role, duties, remuneration, department and location;
• If you provide any services on a freelance basis:
  • Details of any limited company through which you contract and the nature of your relationship with that company;
  • Information about the days and times which you have worked;
  • Your bank details, tax code and National Insurance Number; and
  • Information about any services which you have carried out, including any comments, feedback and issues relating to such services.

We may also collect, store and use the following “special categories” of more sensitive personal information:

• Information about your race or ethnicity;
• Information about your health, including any medical condition, health and sickness records; and
• Information about criminal convictions and offences.

If you are a Client Contact, we will collect, store, and use the following categories of personal information about you:

• Personal contact details such as name, title, addresses, telephone numbers, and email addresses;
• Your job title and position within the Client organisation; and
• Any background information relating to your personal circumstances, your work history and the role which you perform within the Client which you may provide to us in the course of your dealings with us.

We do not collect, store or use any “special categories” of sensitive personal information if you are a Client Contact.

If you are an Agency Partner Representative, we will collect, store, and use the following categories of personal information about you:

• Personal contact details such as name, title, addresses, telephone numbers, and email addresses;
• Your job title and position within the Agency Partner organisation; and
• Any background information relating to your personal circumstances, your work history and the role which you perform within the Agency Partner which you may provide to us in the course of your dealings with us.

We do not collect, store or use any “special categories” of sensitive personal information if you are an Agency Partner Representative.

If you are a Supplier Representative, we will collect, store, and use the following categories of personal information about you:

• Personal contact details such as name, title, addresses, telephone numbers, and email addresses;
• Your job title and position within the Supplier organisation; and
• Any background information relating to the role which you perform within the Supplier which you may provide to us in the course of your dealings with us.

We do not collect, store or use any “special categories” of sensitive personal information if you are a Supplier Representative.

How We Use Personal Data

If you are a Candidate, we may use your personal data to:

• Liaise with you in respect of any temporary assignment which you have agreed to carry out for an Agency Partner through ourselves;
• Make payments to you in respect of a temporary assignment or arrange for any third-party company through which you may contract to make payments to you;
• Produce anonymised statistical data;
• Comply with our legal obligations, defend or bring any legal proceedings and prevent fraud or any other crime;
• Conduct equal opportunities monitoring.

If you are a Client Contact, we may use your personal data to:

• Contact you to obtain information about our Client’s requirements;
• Liaise with you so that we may effectively perform the services to our Client;
• Obtain a reference for a Candidate;
• Contact you for invoicing and credit control purposes;
• Provide you with statistical information about your industry sector;
• Comply with our legal obligations, defend or bring any legal proceedings and prevent fraud or any other crime.

If you are an Agency Partner Representative, we may use your personal data to:

• Contact you to obtain information about the Agency Partner’s requirements;
• Liaise with you so that we may effectively perform the services to our Agency Partner;
• Contact you for invoicing and credit control purposes;
• Comply with our legal obligations, defend or bring any legal proceedings and prevent fraud or any other crime.

If you are a Supplier Representative, we may use your personal data to:

• Liaise with you in respect of the services which are being provided by the Supplier;
• Contact you in relation to billing matters;
• Comply with our legal obligations, defend or bring any legal proceedings and prevent fraud or any other crime.

Our Lawful Basis for Processing Data

If you are a Candidate:

• We will use your personal data where you have agreed to perform a temporary assignment through our Agency Partner. As we are the principal in the arrangement i.e. as your contract is with Quba rather than with the Agency Partner, it is necessary for us to process your personal data in relation to your contract to perform the temporary assignment i.e. in accordance with GDPR Article 6(1)(b)
• We may also need to process sensitive (special) personal data relating to you. The type of sensitive personal data which we might process includes (i) information about any medical conditions or disability insofar as they are relevant to the type of work which you are proposing to carry out (ii) information about any unspent criminal convictions and, where relevant to the type of role which you are carrying out, spent convictions, police warnings etc and (iii) information about any trade union of which you are a member (but only insofar as it relates to an employment claim or pay and working conditions on a client site).
• We are acting as an employment agency and/or an employment business in our dealings with you. In accordance with Article 9 (2)(b) of the GDPR, this sensitive personal data is necessary in the field of employment. i.e. it is required for performing our obligations as an employment agency or employment business and is used solely for this purpose. Any sensitive personal data shall be held strictly in accordance with our policies on data retention and sensitive personal data.

We have determined that we have a legitimate interest to process your personal data where you are:

• A Client Contact, on the basis that we need to be able to contact and interact with the individuals who are employed or engaged by our Clients. This will allow us to effectively provide services to them, better understand their requirements and generate revenue for our business.
• An Agency Partner Representative, on the basis that we need to be able to contact and interact with the individuals who are employed or engaged by our Agency Partners. This will allow us to effectively provide services to them, better understand their requirements and generate revenue for our business.
• A Supplier Representative, on the basis that we need to be able to contact and interact with the individuals who are employed or engaged by our Suppliers. This will allow us to ensure that our Suppliers provide us with the best possible service which, in turn, is of direct benefit to both our Candidates and our Clients.

Where We Process Personal Data

Your personal data is held and processed by us in the United Kingdom.

We have put in place appropriate safeguards to ensure that your data is only transferred to jurisdictions with enforceable data subject rights and effective legal remedies in respect of data privacy breaches. We will therefore only transfer your personal data to jurisdictions outside of the EEA where:

• There are binding corporate rules in place regarding the transfer of such data within the Group, in accordance with Article 47 of the GDPR. This means that the data transfer is between group companies and those group companies have agreed to share that data in accordance with the rules specified by the European Commission.
• The European Commission has made an adequacy decision in respect of such jurisdiction. This means that the European Commission has pre-approved the data privacy regime in the relevant non-EEA country. At present, the European Commission-approved jurisdictions are Andorra, Argentina, Canada (commercial organisations), Faroe Islands, Guernsey, Israel, Isle of Man, Jersey, New Zealand, Switzerland, Uruguay and the US (limited to the Privacy Shield framework).
• The transfer of data is subject to the model contractual clauses adopted by the European Commission. This means that we have a data-sharing agreement in place which complies with the requirements set out by the European Commission; or
• You have expressly given informed consent to the transfer of such data. This means that you have not only agreed to the transfer but have done so in the knowledge that your data may be transferred to a jurisdiction which does not give you the same degree of protection as you have within the EEA.

Parties with Whom We May Share Data

If you are a Candidate, we may share your personal data for legitimate purposes with:

• A Client where you have expressed an interest in being introduced to such Client or are being supplied to such Client on an assignment;
• Any third-party which is engaged by the Client to assist them in the recruitment process including a managed service company, Recruitment Process Outsourcing provider or IT platform provider;
• A third-party company through which you are contracting;
• A third-party company to which you have specifically asked to be introduced or referred, such as an insurance company or intermediary (umbrella) company;
• Background checking services such as the Disclosure & Barring Service;
• Industry bodies such as the Construction Industry Training Board and any similar organisations which are relevant to the market sector in which you work;
• Third-Party Services Providers who in some cases may use their own subcontractors and sub-processors;
• Our connected or associated companies;
• Our bankers and financiers;
• Governmental departments and agencies where we are permitted or required by law to do so.

If you are a Client Contact or Agency Partner Representative, we may share very limited data relating to you with a Candidate where such sharing is strictly required for the recruitment process e.g. so that the Candidate may contact you directly. We will also share your personal data with Third-Party Services Providers for legitimate business purposes.

If you are a Supplier Representative, we will share your personal data with other Third-Party Services Providers for legitimate business purposes.

Our Website 

If you interact with our website at www.quba.solutions, we may process statistical information relating to your usage of the website and may capture certain information, including your IP address. For further information about how we use cookies for this purpose, please refer to our Cookie Policy at https://www.quba.solutions/cookie-policy

Automated Decision Making

Automated decision-making takes place when an electronic system uses personal information to make a decision without human intervention.

All decisions which are made in the course of our business processes involve human intervention. We do not therefore expect to make any decisions about you using automated means, whether you are a Candidate, Client Contact, Agency Partner Representative or Supplier Representative.

Data Security

We have put in place appropriate security measures to prevent your personal information from being accidentally lost, used or accessed in an unauthorised way, altered or disclosed. In addition, we limit access to your personal information to those employees, agents, contractors and other third parties who have a business need to know. They will only process your personal information on our instructions and they are subject to a duty of confidentiality. Details of these measures may be obtained from the Data Protection Officer at rob@quba.solutions

We have put in place procedures to deal with any suspected data security breach and will notify you and any applicable regulator of a suspected breach where we are legally required to do so.

Data Retention

We will only retain your personal information for as long as necessary to fulfil the purposes we collected it for, including for the purposes of satisfying any legal, accounting, or reporting requirements. To determine the appropriate retention period for personal data, we consider the amount, nature, and sensitivity of the personal data, the potential risk of harm from unauthorised use or disclosure of your personal data, the purposes for which we process your personal data and whether we can achieve those purposes through other means, and the applicable legal requirements.

Our standard data retention period is two years from the last date on which we are in actual contact with you i.e. where we actually speak with you or exchange correspondence. After this time, we will usually delete your personal data from our records.

Where we are required to keep any information (i) for auditing or compliance purposes (ii) to comply with our contractual obligations to third parties or (iii) in respect of any potential or actual legal proceedings, we shall keep your data for as long as is strictly necessary for these purposes, which is typically for (i) seven years in respect of audit data which we may be required to produce for HRMC and (ii) six years in respect of any data which we may need to demonstrate compliance with our contractual obligations.

In some circumstances we may completely anonymise your personal information so that it can no longer be associated with you, in which case we may use such information without further notice to you.

Rights of access, correction, erasure, and restriction

Your duty to inform us of changes. It is important that the personal information we hold about you is accurate and current. Please keep us informed if your personal information changes during your working relationship with us.

Your rights in connection with personal information. Under certain circumstances, you have the right to:

• Request access to your personal information (a Subject Access Request). This enables you to receive a copy of the personal information we hold about you and to check that we are lawfully processing it. You will not usually have to pay a fee to access your personal information but we may charge a reasonable fee if your request is clearly unfounded, repetitive or excessive. Alternatively, we may refuse to comply with the request in such circumstances.
• Request correction of the personal information that we hold about you. This enables you to have any incomplete or inaccurate information we hold about you corrected.
• Request erasure of your personal information. This enables you to ask us to delete or remove personal information where the personal data is no longer necessary in relation to the purpose for which it was originally collected/processed or you have objected to the processing and there is no overriding legitimate interest for continuing the processing.
• Object to processing of your personal information where we are relying on a legitimate interest and you object on “grounds relating to your particular situation.”
• Request the restriction of processing of your personal information. This enables you to ask us to block or suppress the processing of personal information about you, for example if you want us to establish its accuracy or the reason for processing it or if you have also objected to the processing as above.
• Request the transfer of your personal information to another party when the processing is based on consent and carried out by automated means. This right is not usually applicable to any data processing carried out by Quba.

If you want to exercise any of the above rights, please contact the Data Protection Manager in writing. We will consider your request and confirm the actions which we have taken in response to such request.

We may need to request specific information from you to help us confirm your identity and ensure your right to access the information (or to exercise any of your other rights). This is an appropriate security measure to ensure that personal information is not disclosed to any person who has no right to receive it.

In the limited circumstances where you may have provided your consent to the collection, processing and transfer of your personal information for a specific purpose, you have the right to withdraw your consent for that specific processing at any time. To withdraw your consent, please contact the Data Protection Manager. Once we have received notification that you have withdrawn your consent, we will no longer process your information for the purpose or purposes you originally agreed to, unless we have another legitimate basis for doing so in law. We will confirm the actions which we have taken in respect of any such request.

If you are unhappy with any aspect of the manner in which we have processed your personal data or dealt with your decision to exercise any of the rights set out in this section, you have the right to complain to the Information Commissioners Office in the United Kingdom. Their details are:

Information Commissioner’s Office, Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow, Cheshire SK9 5AF

Tel: 0303 123 1113 (local rate) or 01625 545 745

Email: casework@ico.org.uk

Contacting Us

If you have any questions about this Privacy Notice, you can write to the Data Protection Manager at Quba Solutions Limited, 1 Widcombe Street, Poundbury, Dorchester, Dorset, DT1 3BS. Alternatively, you may telephone us on 01305 233178 or email us at rob@quba.solutions