A recruitment manager has been prosecuted in a magistrates’ court for forwarding CVs to a third-party employment agency in breach of the Data Protection Act.
The manager who worked for Homeserve Membership Ltd (“Homeserve”), passed on 26 CVs to a recruitment agency without a business need to do so. Homeserve became suspicious when job applicants who had already applied directly to them were also being put forward by a recruitment agency.
The manager, not Homeserve, was found to be personally liable and prosecuted. The manager received a fine of £573, ordered to pay costs of £364 and a victim surcharge of £57 (a total of £994).
Those carrying out recruitment activities should remember that job applicants are sharing personal information in their CVs and so these must be processed lawfully. This requires the information to be kept securely, not for longer than is necessary and (if relying on consent to process such data) not shared with others without consent.