Privacy policy – for general users

We are committed to protecting your privacy. We will only use the information that we collect about you lawfully (in accordance with the Data Protection Act 1998, the General Data Protection Regulation (EU) 2016/679 (GDPR) and the Data Protection Act 2018). We collect the domain and IP address of all visitors to the QCIC site. This information does not identify you as an individual, but only the computer that is being used to view the site. The data is used for statistical analysis to help us improve our service to you. We do not link this data with any personal information collected through the site (see data collection and use).

On occasion, you may be asked to submit personal information about yourself (e.g. name and e-mail address) in order to receive or use services via our website. Such services include job enquiries and requests for information about QCIC’s work. We will only collect personal information which you knowingly and willingly provide (e.g. by sending emails or completing online forms). Whenever you provide such personal information we will treat this information in accordance with this policy. Any information you do provide will never be supplied to anyone outside QCIC. It will not be added to a mailing list or used for any other purpose without first obtaining your consent, unless we are obliged or permitted to disclose the information by law. Where you have consented to us using your personal data, you can withdraw that consent at any time. If the information we hold about you is inaccurate or incomplete, you can notify us and ask us to correct or supplement it.

You have the right to make a complaint at any time to the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO), the UK supervisory authority for data protection issues (www.ico.org.uk). We would, however, appreciate the chance to deal with your concerns before you approach the ICO so please contact us in the first instance. To enquire about accessing your personal data or if you have any questions relating to QCIC privacy policy, please contact in writing, Sasha Sherlock, The Data Privacy Officer, QCIC Group, 13 Christopher St, London, EC2A 2BS or email info.general@qcic-group.com.

Privacy Policy – for Job Applicants

As part of any recruitment process, QCIC collects and processes personal data relating to job applicants. QCIC is committed to being transparent about how it collects and uses that data and to meeting its data protection obligations.

What information does QCIC collect?

QCIC collects a range of information about you. This includes the following:

•  Your name, address and contact details, including email address and telephone number;
•  Details of your qualifications, skills, experience and employment history;
•  Information about your current level of remuneration, including benefit entitlements;
•  Whether or not you have a disability for which QCIC needs to make reasonable adjustments during the recruitment process;
•  Information about your entitlement to work in the UK; and
• Equal opportunities monitoring information, including information about your ethnic origin, sexual orientation, health and religion or belief.

QCIC may collect this information in a variety of ways. For example, data might be contained in application forms, CVs or resumes, obtained from your passport or other identity documents, or collected through interviews or other forms of assessment possibly including online tests. QCIC may also collect personal data about you from third parties, such as references supplied by former employers, information from employment background check providers and information from criminal records checks. QCIC will seek information from third parties only once a job offer to you has been made and will inform you that it is doing so. Data will be stored in a range of different places, including on your application record, in HR management systems and on other IT systems (including email).

Why does QCIC process personal data?

QCIC needs to process data to take steps at your request prior to entering into a contract with you. It may also need to process your data to enter into a contract with you. In some cases, QCIC needs to process data to ensure that it is complying with its legal obligations. For example, it is required to check a successful applicant’s eligibility to work in the UK before employment starts. QCIC has a legitimate interest in processing personal data during the recruitment process and for keeping records of the process. Processing data from job applicants allows QCIC to manage the recruitment process, assess and confirm a candidate’s suitability for employment and decide to whom to offer a job. QCIC may also need to process data from job applicants to respond to and defend against legal claims. QCIC may process information about whether or not applicants are disabled to make reasonable adjustments for candidates who have a disability. This is to carry out its obligations and exercise specific rights in relation to employment. Where QCIC processes other special categories of data, such as information about ethnic origin, sexual orientation, health or religion or belief, this is for equal opportunities monitoring purposes. For some roles, QCIC is obliged to seek information about criminal convictions and offences. Where QCIC seeks this information, it does so because it is necessary for it to carry out its obligations and exercise specific rights in relation to employment. If your application is unsuccessful, QCIC may keep your personal data on file in case there are future employment opportunities for which you may be suited. QCIC will ask for your consent before it keeps your data for this purpose and you are free to withdraw your consent at any time.

Who has access to data?

Your information may be shared internally for the purposes of the recruitment exercise. This includes [members of the HR and recruitment team, interviewers involved in the recruitment process, managers in the business area with a vacancy and IT staff if access to the data is necessary for the performance of their roles. QCIC will not share your data with third parties, unless your application for employment is successful and it makes you an offer of employment. QCIC will then share your data with former employers to obtain references for you, employment background check providers to obtain necessary background checks and the Disclosure and Barring Service to obtain necessary criminal records checks. Your data may be transferred outside the European Economic Area (EEA) where it is hosted electronically via a Microsoft Azure cloud-computing service.  Data is transferred outside the EEA on the basis of QCIC’s contract and service level agreements with Microsoft.

How does QCIC protect data? 

QCIC takes the security of your data seriously. It has internal policies and controls in place to ensure that your data is not lost, accidentally destroyed, misused or disclosed, and is not accessed except by our employees in the proper performance of their duties. QCIC’s Information Security policy may be viewed at https://qcic-group.com/policies

For how long does QCIC keep data?

If your application for employment is unsuccessful, QCIC will hold your data on file for one yearafter the end of the relevant recruitment process. At the end of that period or once you withdraw your consent, your data is deleted or destroyed. If your application for employment is successful, personal data gathered during the recruitment process will be transferred to your personnel file and retained during your employment. The periods for which your data will be held will be provided to you in a new privacy notice.

Your Rights

As a data subject, you have a number of rights. You can:

• Access and obtain a copy of your data on request;
• Require QCIC to change incorrect or incomplete data;
• Require QCIC to delete or stop processing your data, for example where the data is no longer necessary for the purposes of the processing; and
• Object to the processing of your data where QCIC is relying on its legitimate interests as the legal ground for processing.

If you would like to exercise any of these rights, please contact Sasha Sherlock, The Data Privacy Officer, on info.general@qcic-group.com. If you believe that QCIC has not complied with your data protection rights, you can complain to the Information Commissioner.

What if you do not provide personal data? 

You are under no statutory or contractual obligation to provide data to QCIC during the recruitment process. However, if you do not provide the information, QCIC may not be able to process your application properly or at all.

Cookies

Cookies are small data files which help to make websites simpler to use. They can help by remembering information you have already entered, or storing your preferences for a particular page.

About cookies

Cookies enhance your user experience by improving the interaction between you and the site. Without cookies, it would not be possible to use a shopping cart facility on a website or to remain logged in on different pages. They cannot harm your computer as they are pieces of text, not computer programmes.

Cookies used on qcic-group.com

The only cookies used by qcic-group.com are those for Google Analytics, which measure how people are using the site to make sure it meets their needs and performs well. The cookies cannot identify you personally and store no personal data. They cannot be used or altered by any other domain as they are First Party cookies. You can find out more about the cookies set by Google Analytics in Google’s resources.

Further information

You can manage and delete these files yourself: to find out how to do this and for more information about cookies, please visit the About Cookies website.

ISO certification indicates adherence and compliance to a set of requirements described in the various international standards governed by the International  Organisation for Standardisation (ISO). These standards seek to ensure consistency in delivering a product or service.

Within QCIC each year we are independently reviewed and certified against ISO 9001:2015 (Quality Management); ISO 14001:2015 (Environmental Management) and ISO 27001:2013 (Information Security Management).

This affirms our commitment to continual improvement within our management systems and our approach towards delivering a superior service to clients.

QCIC is committed to preserving the confidentiality, integrity and availability of all the physical and electronic information assets throughout our business in order to preserve our competitive edge, cash flow, profitability, legal, regulatory and contractual compliance and commercial image.

Information and information security requirements are aligned with QCIC goals and our Information Security Management System (ISMS) is intended to be an enabling mechanism for information sharing, for electronic operations and for reducing information related risks to acceptable levels.

Our strategic business plan and risk management framework provide the context for identifying, assessing, evaluating and controlling information-related risks through the establishment and maintenance of an ISMS. Our risk assessments and risk treatment plans identify how information-related risks are controlled. Our Infrastructure Manager is responsible for the management and maintenance of the risk treatment plans. Additional risk assessments may, where necessary, be carried out to determine appropriate controls for specific risks.

In particular, business continuity and recovery plans, data back-up procedures, avoidance of viruses and hackers, access control to systems and information security incident reporting are fundamental to this policy. Control objectives for each of these are areas contained in our Information Security Manual and are supported by specific, documented policies and procedures.

We have established an Information Security Committee to support the implementation of the Information Security Management System.

QCIC is committed to the practice of responsible corporate behaviour. Through our business practices, we seek to protect and promote the human rights and basic freedoms of all our stakeholders, including our personnel and those personnel of our suppliers.

We are also committed to eliminating bribery and corruption. It is essential that all personnel and persons associated with QCIC adhere to this policy and abstain from giving or receiving bribes of any form.

Human rights

We are vehemently opposed to the use of slavery in all forms; cruel, inhuman or degrading punishments; and any attempt to control or reduce freedom of thought, conscience and religion. We will ensure that all of our personnel are entitled to their human rights. We will not enter into any business arrangement with any person, company or organisation which fails to uphold the human rights of its workers or who breach the human rights of those affected by the organisation’s activities.

Conflicts of interest

We have developed a Corporate gifts and hospitality policy, which provides rules and guidelines concerning the conduct of our personnel aimed at minimising the possibility of conflicts of interest and at avoiding risks associated with bribery and corruption.

Information & confidentiality

Information received by personnel of QCIC will not be used for any personal gain, nor will it be used for any purpose beyond that for which it was given.

Suppliers & partners

We expect our suppliers and partners to work towards and uphold similar ethical and moral standards. We will investigate the ethical record of potential new suppliers before entering into any agreement. We reserve the right to request information from suppliers regarding the production and sources of goods supplied. We reserve the right to withdraw from any agreement or other arrangement with any supplier or partner who is found to have acted in contravention of the spirit or principles of our Ethics policy.

Anti-bribery & corruption

We are committed to the practice of responsible corporate behaviour and to complying with all laws, regulations and other requirements which govern the conduct of our operations, as set out in our Anti-bribery policy. We are fundamentally opposed to any acts of bribery and to the making of facilitation payments.

QCIC strives for continuous improvement in the way it delivers its products, services, assets and solutions. The objective of this is to ensure that QCIC delivers consistently high performance in an efficient way, whilst continuing to improve to ensure we meet our client and stakeholder needs. This commitment to quality is reiterated through our ISO 9001: 2015 certification.

Our Quality Policy applies to all QCIC offices and global operations.

We will ensure the delivery of its services through the following measures:

• Ensuring that all our personnel and stakeholders are aware of the QCIC approach to Quality and Continuous Improvement
• Developing integrated systems and processes that facilitate the achievement of our objectives
• Putting in place metrics that allow us to understand and track how we are progressing against objectives
• Implementing a suite of tools and techniques that empower our personnel to capture failures or errors, analyse them and learn from them
• Continually reviewing our approach to reducing potential wastage in QCIC processes, materials and resources
• Providing an assurance regime that ensures we meet client and stakeholder needs
• Undertake to maintain a workforce with the requisite skills and support to consistently deliver high quality performance underpinned by senior management fully committed to a culture of Quality Assurance

Cyber Essentials is a UK Government-backed and industry-supported scheme that helps businesses protect themselves against the growing threat of cyber attacks and provides a clear statement of the basic controls organisations should have in place to protect themselves.

Our IT Infrastructure and Information Security are the backbone of QCIC. We are Cyber Essentials certified and this certification acknowledges our commitment to digital security in order to keep our staff and clients’ data safe.

To provide our clients further assurance, QCIC is also Cyber Essentials Plus certified, meaning we have achieved the highest level of certification in the industry. Our cyber security systems are rigorously tested for vulnerabilities by experts in the field to ensure the consistent technical excellence that QCIC is known for.