Privacy and GDPR Policy

1. Who we are

AR Recruitment is a specialist recruitment business working across mortgage, protection, financial advice, paraplanning and financial-services support roles throughout the UK.

For the purposes of UK data-protection law, AR Recruitment is the controller of the personal information described in this policy. This means we decide why and how that information is used.

2. Information we may collect

Candidates and prospective candidates

Depending on your circumstances and the service requested, this may include:

• Your name and contact details.
• Your CV, employment history, qualifications and professional status.
• Your location, work preferences, availability and remuneration expectations.
• Information about roles, firms or working models you are considering.
• Interview notes, correspondence and feedback.
• References, eligibility-to-work information or other checks where these are relevant and lawful.
• Information needed to support reasonable adjustments during a recruitment process.

Clients, prospective clients and business contacts

This may include:

• Your name, job title and business contact details.
• Information about your organisation, vacancies and recruitment requirements.
• Terms of business, correspondence, meeting notes and recruitment activity.
• Billing, payment and transaction records where applicable.

Website visitors and enquirers

This may include:

• Information you submit through a contact, application or enquiry form.
• Technical information such as your IP address, device, browser and website activity.
• Your cookie and communication preferences.

We may receive information directly from you, from a client or referrer, through recruitment platforms or job boards, or from professional and publicly available sources where it is reasonable and lawful to do so.

3. How we use personal information

We may use personal information to:

• Respond to an enquiry and understand the support you need.
• Discuss potentially relevant vacancies or recruitment requirements.
• Assess experience, qualifications, preferences and suitability for a role.
• Introduce a candidate to a client after the opportunity has been discussed and the candidate has agreed to proceed.
• Arrange interviews, communicate feedback and support the recruitment process.
• Manage client relationships, terms of business, invoices and payments.
• Maintain accurate records and improve our recruitment and website services.
• Protect our systems, prevent misuse and establish or defend legal claims.
• Meet legal, regulatory, tax and accounting obligations.

4. Our lawful bases

Data-protection law requires us to have a lawful basis for each use of personal information. Depending on the circumstances, we may rely on:

• Legitimate interests: operating a specialist recruitment business, responding to relevant enquiries, identifying suitable opportunities, maintaining professional relationships and protecting our business, provided those interests are not overridden by your rights.
• Contract: taking steps at your request before entering a contract or performing an agreement with you.
• Legal obligation: meeting obligations imposed by law, regulation, tax or accounting requirements.
• Consent: where consent is the appropriate basis, including certain optional communications, cookies or uses of sensitive information. You may withdraw consent at any time.

Where special-category information is needed, such as health information connected with a reasonable adjustment, we will only use it where an additional legal condition applies. Criminal-offence information will only be handled where it is relevant, lawful and appropriately protected.

5. Who we may share information with

Where necessary and lawful, information may be shared with:

• Clients considering a candidate for a role, following the candidate's agreement to proceed.
• Candidates receiving information about a client opportunity, subject to any confidentiality requirements.
• Professional advisers, insurers, accountants, legal advisers or public authorities where required.
• Service providers supporting our website, communications, document storage, recruitment administration, security or business operations.

Service providers may only use personal information for the agreed purpose and must protect it appropriately. We do not sell personal information.

6. How long we keep information

We keep personal information only for as long as it is reasonably needed for the purpose for which it was collected and to meet any legal, accounting or reporting requirements.

The period will depend on factors including whether you remain in contact with us, whether recruitment activity is ongoing, the nature of our relationship, the sensitivity of the information, applicable limitation periods and any legal or regulatory duties. Information that is no longer required will be deleted, anonymised or securely disposed of.

You may contact us if you would like more information about the retention approach applying to your records.

7. International transfers

Some technology or service providers may process information outside the UK. Where this happens, we will use an appropriate lawful safeguard, such as an adequacy regulation, approved contractual protections or another transfer mechanism permitted by UK data-protection law.

8. Your data-protection rights

Depending on the circumstances, you may have the right to:

• Ask for access to the personal information we hold about you.
• Ask us to correct inaccurate or incomplete information.
• Ask us to delete information in certain circumstances.
• Ask us to restrict how information is used.
• Object to processing based on legitimate interests or to direct marketing.
• Receive certain information in a portable format.
• Withdraw consent where processing is based on consent.

These rights are not absolute and an exemption may apply. We may need to confirm your identity before responding to a request.

9. Website, cookies and matching tools

Our website may use essential cookies needed for it to function and optional cookies used for analytics or other features. Where required, optional cookies should only be used according to the choice made through the website's cookie controls.

Website questionnaires or working-model tools may provide indicative information based on the answers selected. They do not make recruitment decisions and are not used for solely automated decisions that produce legal or similarly significant effects.

Please avoid entering confidential client information or special-category personal information into a general website enquiry form unless it is necessary and the form specifically requests it.

10. Security and changes to this policy

We use proportionate organisational and technical measures to protect personal information against unauthorised access, loss, misuse, alteration or disclosure. No online system can be guaranteed to be completely secure.

We may update this policy when our services, systems or legal obligations change. The latest version will be published on this page with a revised update date.

11. Contact and complaints

To ask a privacy question or exercise a data-protection right, contact AR Recruitment through the website contact page. Please make it clear that your enquiry concerns personal information.

If you are unhappy with how your information has been handled, please contact us first so that we can investigate. You also have the right to complain to the Information Commissioner's Office, the UK's data-protection regulator.

Information Commissioner's Office:
Make a data-protection complaint