Candidate Privacy Policy

Shell Energy Retail Limited in the UK is wholly owned and fully operated by Octopus Energy Limited. As of 01 December 2023, Shell Energy Retail Limited is no longer a part of the Shell Group of Companies.

Shell Energy is committed to ensuring the privacy and security of your personal data.

This Privacy Policy explains what personal data are processed about you, why we are processing your personal data and for which purposes, how long we hold your personal data for, how to access and update your personal data, as well as the options you have regarding your personal data and where to go for further information.

In this Privacy Policy, when we refer to "personal data", we mean information which could directly identify you (for example, your name or national insurance number) and information which could indirectly identify you, meaning that it could identify you when combined with other information which we hold about you (for example, your gender or date of birth). "Process" or "processing" means just about any conceivable use of personal data, including recording, storing, viewing or disclosing personal data.

We understand that our candidates may also be customers of Shell Energy. For further information regarding how your data is processed as a customer, please see our Customer Privacy Policy at www.shellenergy.co.uk/info/policies/privacy

Should your application with Shell Energy be successful, further information regarding how your personal data will be processed as an employee, contractor, temporary worker, agency worker, intern or advisor can be found in our People Privacy Policy, which will be provided to you upon joining.

Octopus Energy Operations 2 Limited (company number 05070887) is the data controller of your personal data (referred to in this Policy as “Shell Energy” or “we”)

If you have any questions about your personal data which are not answered by this Policy, please contact the Shell Energy Data Privacy Team:

By post: Shell Energy Data Privacy Team, Shell Energy House, Westwood Business Park, Westwood Way Coventry, CV4 8HS.

By email: dpo@shellenergy.co.uk

How we collect your personal data

Information provided by you

Recruitment process:

As part of the recruitment process, we will collect information from you in order to determine your eligibility and suitability for the role. This will include personal data contained in your CV or application form such as:

Your name
Contact address
Telephone number
Email address
Employment history
National insurance number
Gender
Marital status
Health or medical conditions that could affect your work
Unspent criminal convictions
Diversity related information, such as your nationality, ethnic origin, religion and sexual orientation

This is in addition to any information you disclose to us during your interview or assessment centre, and any proof of identification information that you provide to us.

Aptitude tests and personality profiles:
We may also ask you to complete an aptitude test or a personality profile, so that we can assess your compatibility with our organisational culture, values and the role that you are applying for. You can object to giving us your personal data in this stage of the recruitment process by contacting us at careers@shellenergy.co.uk .If you choose to participate, we will discuss the outcome of these tests with you during your interview, and you may access the details of the information we used to produce the results of the personality profile, during the interview, and discuss with us if you believe there are any inaccuracies.

We will only collect the minimum amount of data needed to create your personality profile. If you would like to understand more about what information we will use to create these personality profiles, please ask us during the interview process and this will be explained to you.

After you have accepted a position with us:
Where we have offered you a position and you have accepted it, prior to starting work with us we may also use your personal data to carry out pre-employment screening, in addition to validating and taking up any employment references.

As part of our new starter questionnaire, we will also request information about any health or medical conditions that you may have that could affect your work. In doing so, we may process personal data which is sensitive in nature, which can include details of criminal convictions or proceedings or information as to your health.

Information collected from other sources

Personal data about you may also be sent to us by third parties such as recruitment agencies and job boards, should you apply to a vacancy that we have advertised with them.

We may also contact you directly using social media services such as LinkedIn, based on publicly available information that you have uploaded to your profile.

For what purposes do we process your personal data?

We’ll use your personal data for the purposes outlined below:

To fulfil our legitimate business interests, of the proper running and growth of our business, and the safety and physical security of our buildings, assets and people. The uses of your personal data under this legal basis will include:

To process your application and conduct interviews
To verify your eligibility for a role, including criminal record, right to work and employment reference checks, prior to making an offer of employment to you

To comply with our legal obligations, and for the establishment, exercise or defence of legal claims:

To meet our legal obligations to verify your right to work in the UK
To comply with our supplier licence conditions to undertake background checks
To help us to comply with anti-discrimination provisions of employment and equality laws, we will collect any diversity information you choose to disclose to us during the onboarding process such as your nationality, religion, ethnic origin, disability and sexual orientation.

Where we have your consent:

To contact you about future vacancies that may be of interest to you

Special categories of personal data:

Where we collect and process special or sensitive categories of personal data (for example, health assessment and criminal convictions information), we will only process such information:

where we reasonably need to do so in order to comply with our legal obligations as an employer or prospective employer or to exercise specific rights that we have as an employer (where relevant); or
where you have given us your consent. If we have asked for your consent to collect and use certain types of personal information, you can withdraw your consent at any time, by contacting careers@shellenergy.co.uk

Communication and marketing - your choices:

As a candidate, we will not use your personal data for direct marketing purposes.

If you are also a customer of Shell Energy, we may send you relevant offers and news about our products and services. For more information on this, including how you can update your marketing preferences or opt out of any marketing communications, please see our Customer Privacy Policy at www.shellenergy.co.uk/info/policies/privacy

If we wish to process your personal data for any other purpose, we will update this Privacy Policy in accordance with the section entitled "Changes to this Privacy Policy"

Who will we share your personal data with?

Other Third Parties

Your personal information may be shared with any company that is a member of our group of companies where necessary for internal administrative purposes, corporate strategy, auditing and monitoring and research and development. We may also share your personal information with our group companies where they provide products and services to us, such as information technology systems or recruitment services.

We will also share your personal data with the following categories of third parties:

Background screening providers, to enable them to carry out criminal background and right to work checks (where background checks are required)
Recruitment agencies and job boards, should you choose to apply for one of our vacancies with them
Third party aptitude test and personality profile providers, should we request that you complete an aptitude test or personality profile prior to your interview (and you agree)

We will also disclose your personal data to third parties:

1. Where it is in our legitimate interests to do so to run, grow and develop our business

(a) if we sell or buy any business or assets, we may disclose your personal data to the prospective seller or buyer of such business or assets.

(b) if Shell Energy or substantially all of its assets are acquired by a third party, in which case personal data held by Shell Energy will be one of the transferred assets.

2. If we are under a duty to disclose or share your personal data in order to comply with any legal obligation, any lawful request from government or law enforcement officials and as may be required to meet national security or law enforcement requirements or prevent illegal activity;

3. To enforce our contract with you, to respond to any claims, to protect our rights or the rights of a third party, to protect the safety of any person or to prevent any illegal activity.

4. To protect the rights, property or safety of Shell Energy, our employees, customers, suppliers or other persons.

Any third parties with whom we share your personal data are limited (by law and by contract) in their ability to use your personal data for the specific purposes identified by us. We will always ensure that any third parties with whom we share your personal data are subject to privacy and security obligations consistent with this Privacy Policy and applicable laws.

Save as expressly detailed above, we will never share, sell or rent any of your personal data to any third party without notifying you and/or obtaining your consent. Where you have given your consent for us to use your personal data in a particular way, but later change your mind, you should contact us and we will stop doing so.

You can do so by contacting us at careers@shellenergy.co.uk

Transfers of your personal data to other countries

Where your personal data have been transferred to Shell Energy companies and/or to authorised third parties located outside of your country (including outside of the European Economic Area) we take organisational, contractual and legal measures to ensure that your personal data are exclusively processed for the purposes mentioned above and that adequate levels of protection have been implemented to safeguard your personal data. These measures include European Commission approved transfer mechanisms for transfers to third parties in countries which have not been deemed to provide an adequate level of data protection as well as any additional local legal requirements.

For more information, please contact us at careers@shellenergy.co.uk

Security

Shell Energy have implemented appropriate technical and organisational measures to protect the confidentiality of the personal data that you entrust us with against unauthorised, accidental or unlawful access, loss, alteration and disclosure. We update and test our physical, logical and procedural security controls on an ongoing basis. These include limiting access to your personal data to those who need it and training our employees about the importance of maintaining the privacy and security of your personal data.

How long do we keep this information

We will only store your personal data for as long as is necessary to fulfil the purposes outlined in this Privacy Policy or for as long as we reasonably consider necessary to establish, exercise or defend our legal rights. Your data will be retained according to our retention policy, in line with statutory and regulatory requirements.

Candidate data will be held for 9 months following the date of the last activity on your account. Should we wish to retain your data for a longer period, such as to keep in contact about suitable vacancies, we will only do so where you grant your permission in advance.

Your rights in relation to your personal data

The following section sets out your rights in relation to your personal data. If you would like to exercise any of your data subject rights, please contact us at careers@shellenergy.co.uk

We aim to keep our information as accurate as possible. You can request:

access to your personal data;
correction or deletion of the personal data (but only where it is no longer required for a legitimate business purpose such as continuing to supply your household with energy);
that you no longer receive marketing communications;
that the processing of your personal data is restricted; and/or that you receive personal data that you have provided to Shell Energy in a structured, digital form to be transmitted to another party, if this is technically feasible.

You have the right not to be subject to any decisions made based solely on automated processing including profiling, which produces legal effects or significantly affects you. Where such decisions are made, you have the right to:

Obtain Human intervention
Express your point of view
Obtain an explanation of the decision and challenge

As a candidate, you will not be subject to any decisions based solely on automated processing which produces legal effects or significantly affects you.

Who can you contact if you have a query, concern or complaint about your personal data?

If you have any issues, queries or complaints regarding the processing of your personal data please contact us:

By post: The Shell Energy Data Privacy Team, Shell Energy House, Westwood Business Park, Westwood Way Coventry, CV4 8HS.

By email: dpo@shellenergy.co.uk

If you are unsatisfied with the handling of your personal data by Shell Energy, then you have the right to lodge a complaint to your local data protection authority The Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) whose address is Wycliffe House, Water Ln, Wilmslow SK9 5AF, Great Britain https://ico.org.uk/

Changes to the Privacy Policy