Privacy Policy

How we use your information

This privacy notice tells you what to expect when Sovereign Fire & Security Holdings Limited, incorporating Sovereign Fire & Security Limited and Sovereign Fire & Security Plymouth Limited (Sovereign Fire & Security), collects personal information. It applies to information we collect about:

  • visitors to our websites;
  • complainants and other individuals in relation to a data protection or freedom of information complaint or enquiry;
  • people who use our services, e.g. who subscribe to our newsletter or request a publication or enquire about our services;
  • people who notify under the Data Protection Act; and
  • job applicants and our current and former employees.

This privacy policy addresses information provided to Sovereign Fire & Security. In the event that Sovereign Fire & Security engages with a third-party service provider, to whom we may pass your personal information or to whom you may be expected to provide your personal information, your information will be handled by that third-party service provider as if it were being handled by Sovereign Fire & Security. This may include but not be limited to external training organizations, external auditing organizations, external certification organizations, external personnel benefits advisers and statutory authorities i.e. HSE. Exceptions to this arrangement are specifically stated within this privacy policy.

Installation and Maintenance of Alarm Systems

Due to the nature of the alarm systems that Sovereign Fire & Security instal and maintain, they require input and response from a number of other organisations. To facilitate this, certain data must be shared with those organisations. This section details those organisations and how they will handle the data supplied to them. The data may be supplied by Sovereign Fire & Security or by you directly.

Should you choose to share data about your alarm system with other organisations yourself i.e. your insurers, a third-party response service, etc. that data will not be covered under this Privacy Policy.

Alarm Receiving Centre Data

To provide you with the correct response to an activation of your alarm system, it is necessary for Sovereign Fire & Security to share some of your data with an NSI approved Alarm Receiving Centre (ARC) or to request that customers share these details directly with the ARC. This is a necessary step in the process of obtaining the correct response for your alarm activation. In effect, our customers must also become customers of the ARC to use this service.

Sovereign Fire & Security uses Securi-Guard Monitoring and EMCS to provide alarm monitoring and a number of reporting services. Securi-Guard Monitoring and EMCS will commit to protecting the data that Sovereign Fire & Security or our customers provide to them.

Here is a link to their Privacy Notice:

Enquiries about Securi-Guard’s Privacy Policy can be made by sending an email to: arcadmin@securi-guard.co.uk

http://www.emcs.co.uk/privacy-policy

Police Service

As a condition of owning and/or operating an intruder and hold-up alarm system that has the capability to automatically generate signals that will be used to summon the police, you agree to comply with the requirements of the National Policy Chiefs Council (NPCC) policy on the operation of your intruder and hold-up alarm system. Part of this policy requires you to submit data to your local police constabulary and request a URN to cover either your intruder alarm system or your hold-up alarm system, or both.

Your application for your URN will be made to your local police constabulary. As part of this application, your local constabulary undertakes to protect your data in accordance with their Privacy Policy, which can be found on their “police.uk” web site.

Fire Service

As a condition of owning and/or operating a fire detection and alarm system that has the capability to automatically generate signals that will be used to summon the fire service, you agree to comply with the requirements of the Association of Chief Fire Officers (CFOA) policy on the operation of your fire detection and alarm system. Part of this policy requires you to submit data to your local fire service and you may be asked for a URN to cover either your fire detection and alarm system.

Your application for your URN will be made to your local fire service. As part of this application, your local fire service undertakes to protect your data in accordance with their Privacy Policy, which can be found on their “fire.gov.uk” web site.

NSI Data

Sovereign Fire & Security are approved by National Security Inspectorate (NSI) for the design, installation, commissioning and maintenance of intruder and hold-up alarm systems.

Sovereign Fire & Security are approved by National Security Inspectorate (NSI) for the design, installation, commissioning and maintenance of fire detection and alarm systems.

As part of this approval, Sovereign Fire & Security are committed to supply data to NSI about systems that have been installed and upgraded. Once supplied to NSI, this data will be controlled in accordance with the NSI’s Privacy Notice, which can be found at:

https://www.nsi.org.uk/privacy-notice

BAFE Data

Sovereign Fire & Security are approved by British Approvals for Fire Equipment (BAFE) for the provision of certain services and the design, installation, commissioning and maintenance of fire detection and alarm systems.

As part of this approval, Sovereign Fire & Security are committed to supply data to BAFE about systems that have been installed and modified. Once supplied to BAFE, this data will be controlled in accordance with BAFE’s Privacy Policy. Enquiries about their Privacy Policy can be made by sending an email to:

info@bafe.org.uk

Visitors to our websites

When you browse this website, you do so anonymously, unless you have previously indicated that you wish Sovereign Fire & Security to remember your personal information or login and password. We use a third-party service, Google Analytics, to collect standard Internet log information and details of visitor behaviour patterns. We do this to find out things such as the number of visitors to the various parts of the site. This information is only processed in a way which does not identify anyone. We do not make, and do not allow Google to make any attempt to find out the identities of those visiting our website. If we do want to collect personally identifiable information through our website, we will be up front about this. We will make it clear when we collect personal information and will explain what we intend to do with it.

Use of cookies

Sovereign Fire & Security use cookies on our web site to enhance the experience of users and to try to show appreciation to repeat and returning users. You can read more about how we use cookies on our Cookies Policy page.

CARD PAYMENTS

All external transmissions of personal data facilitated by us are protected by encryption. Processing of personal data will take place in accordance with applicable legislation and best practices concerning data security.

We use Global Payments, an approved service provider, to collect and process transaction information.

Here is a link to their Security Policy:

Https://www.globalpaymentsinc.com/en/privacy-statement

Security and performance

Sovereign Fire & Security uses a third-party service, Squarebird LLP, to help maintain the security and performance of Sovereign Fire & Security website. To deliver this service it processes the IP addresses of visitors to Sovereign Fire & Security website.

People who Telephone Us

For customers who call Sovereign Fire & Security’s service centre to use the customer support service or service desk, we will collect and handle that information for as long as is necessary to ensure the support has been given effectively. If the caller is a registered customer, the data will be handled in accordance with our policy on handling customer data. If not, the information will be retained for 6 months from the date of the call.

When you call Sovereign Fire & Security by telephone we collect Calling Line Identification (CLI) information. We use this information to help improve its efficiency and effectiveness.

People who email us

We use Transport Layer Security (TLS) to encrypt and protect email. If your email service does not support TLS, you should be aware that any emails we send or receive may not be protected in transit.

We will also monitor any emails sent to us, including file attachments, for viruses or malicious software. Please be aware that you have a responsibility to ensure that any email you send is within the bounds of the law.

People who make a complaint to us

When we receive a complaint from a person we make up a file containing the details of the complaint. This normally contains the identity of the complainant and any other individuals involved in the complaint.

We will only use the personal information we collect to process the complaint and to check on the level of service we provide.

We usually have to disclose the complainant’s identity to whoever the complaint is about. This is inevitable where, for example, the accuracy of a person’s record is in dispute. If a complainant does not want information identifying him or her to be disclosed, we will try to respect that. However, it may not be possible to handle a complaint on an anonymous basis.

We will keep personal information contained in complaint files in line with our retention policy. This means that information relating to a complaint will be retained for two years from closure. It will be retained in a secure environment and access to it will be restricted according to the ‘need to know’ principle.

Similarly, where enquiries are submitted to us we will only use the information supplied to us to deal with the enquiry and any subsequent issues and to check on the level of service we provide.

When we take enforcement action against someone, we may publish the identity of the defendant in our Annual Report or elsewhere. Usually we do not identify any complainants unless the details have already been made public.

People who use Sovereign Fire & Security services

Sovereign Fire & Security offers various services to the commercial and public sectors.

We have to hold the details of the people who have requested the service in order to provide it. However, we only use these details to provide the service the person has requested and for other closely related purposes. For example, we might use information about people who have used our services to carry out a survey to find out if they are happy with the level of service they received. When people do subscribe to our services, they can cancel their subscription at any time and are given an easy way of doing this. The procedure to follow to cancel a contract is detailed within the contract.

Service providers reporting a breach

Public electronic communications service providers are required by law to report any security breaches involving personal data to Sovereign Fire & Security. If we are advised of any breach that affects the data that we hold about you, we will inform you as soon as possible, and at least within 48 hours.

Job applicants, current and former EMPLOYEES OF Sovereign Fire & Security

Sovereign Fire & Security is the data controller for the information you provide during the process unless otherwise stated. If you have any queries about the process or how we handle your information, please contact us at Info@sguk.net

What will we do with the information you provide to us?

All of the information you provide during the process will only be used for the purpose of progressing your application, or to fulfil legal or regulatory requirements if necessary.

We will not share any of the information you provide during the recruitment process with any third parties for marketing purposes or store any of your information outside of the European Economic Area. The information you provide will be held securely by us and/or our data processors whether the information is in electronic or physical format.

We will use the contact details you provide to us to contact you to progress your application. We will use the other information you provide to assess your suitability for the role you have applied for.

What information do we ask for, and why?

We do not collect more information than we need to fulfil our stated purposes and will not retain it for longer than is necessary.

The information we ask for is used to assess your suitability for employment. You do not have to provide what we ask for, but it might affect your application if you do not.

If you have applied for employment in a regulated position, we will use the information that you have provided to carry out limited security screening and full written security screening, in accordance with the requirements of the National Police Chief’s Council and in full compliance with BS7858 – security screening of personnel employed in a security environment. This will involve contacting your referees and previous employers using the information that you have supplied to us. We will also share this information with the Police, the Disclosure and Barring Service and may share this information with any of your subsequent employers.

Application stage

We ask you for your personal details including name and contact details. We will also ask you about your previous experience, education, referees and for answers to questions relevant to the role you have applied for. Our recruitment team will have access to all of this information.

Your security screening information will be carefully controlled by an authorised Security Screening Controller and may be reviewed by an authorised Security Screening Executive. In exceptional circumstances we may share this information with our insurers.

You will also be asked to provide equal opportunities information. This is not mandatory information – if you do not provide it, it will not affect your application. This information will not be made available to any staff outside of our recruitment team, including hiring managers, in a way that can identify you. Any information you do provide, will be used only to produce and monitor equal opportunities statistics.

Shortlisting

Our hiring managers shortlist applications for interview. They will be provided with your name or contact details or with your equal opportunities information if you have provided it.

Assessments

We might ask you to participate in assessment days; complete tests or occupational personality profile questionnaires; and/or to attend an interview – or a combination of these. Information will be generated by you and by us. For example, you might complete a written test, or we might take interview notes. This information is held by Sovereign Fire & Security.

If you are unsuccessful following assessment for the position you have applied for, we may ask if you would like your details to be retained in our talent pool for a period of six months. If you say yes, we would proactively contact you should any further suitable vacancies arise.

If you are unsuccessful following assessment for the position you have applied for, we will retain the information obtained in a secure location for a period of 7 years, in line with the requirements of BS7858.

Conditional offer

If we make a conditional offer of employment we will ask you for information so that we can carry out pre-employment checks. You must successfully complete pre-employment checks to progress to a final offer. We are required to confirm the identity of our staff, their right to work in the United Kingdom and seek assurance as to their trustworthiness, integrity and reliability.

You will therefore be required to provide:

  • Proof of your identity – you will be asked to attend our office with original documents, we will take copies. For your convenience, this will be done at the interview.
  • Proof of your qualifications – you will be asked to attend our office with original documents, we will take copies. For your convenience, this will be done at the interview.

You will be asked to complete a criminal records declaration to declare any unspent convictions.

We will provide your email address to the organisation that will contact you to complete an application for a Basic or Enhanced Criminal Record check via the Disclosure and Barring Service, or Access NI, which will verify your declaration of unspent convictions.

We will contact your referees, using the details you provide in your application, directly to obtain references.

We will also ask you to complete a questionnaire about your health. This is to establish your fitness to work. This is done through a data processor (please see below).

If we make a final offer, we will also ask you for the following:

  • Bank details – to process salary payments
  • Emergency contact details – so we know who to contact in case you have an emergency at work
  • Membership of an existing pension scheme – so we can send you a questionnaire to determine whether you are eligible to re-join your previous scheme.

Post start date

Some roles require a higher level of security clearance – this will be clear on the advert. If this is the case, then you will be asked to submit information via the vetting process to National Security Screening Agency Limited. National Security Screening Agency Limited will be the data controller for this information.

National Security Screening Agency Limited will tell us whether your application is successful or not. If it is unsuccessful, Sovereign Fire & Security will not be told the reason(s) why but we might need to review your suitability for the role or how you perform your duties.

Our Code of Conduct requires all staff to declare if they have any potential conflicts of interest, or if they are active within a political party. If you complete a declaration, the information will be held on your personnel file.

Use of data processors

Data processors are third parties who provide elements of our recruitment service for us. We have contracts in place with our data processors. This means that they cannot do anything with your personal information unless we have instructed them to do it. They will not share your personal information with any organisation apart from us. They will hold it securely and retain it for the period we instruct.

Application System

If you use our online application system, you will provide the requested information to National Security Screening Agency Limited who provide this online service for us. Once you click ‘apply now’ you will be taken to National Security Screening Agency Limited’s website and they will hold the information you submit but Sovereign Fire & Security will have access to it.

Here is a link to their Privacy Notice:

Http://www.7858.co.uk/privacy-notice/

Payroll

If you are employed by Sovereign Fire & Security, relevant details about you will be provided to Milsted Langdon LLP who provide payroll services to Sovereign Fire & Security. This will include your name, bank details, address, date of birth, National Insurance Number and salary.

Here is a link to their Privacy Notice:

https://www.milsted-langdon.co.uk/privacy-policy/

Pensions

Likewise, your details will be provided to Royal London who are the administrators of the company pension scheme, of which Sovereign Fire & Security is a member organisation. You will be auto-enrolled into the pension scheme and details provided to Royal London will be your name, date of birth, National Insurance number and salary. Your bank details will not be passed to Royal London at this time.

Occupational Health

If we make you a conditional offer, we will ask that you complete a questionnaire which will help to determine if you are fit to undertake the work that you have been offered or advise us if any adjustments are needed to the work environment or systems so that you may work effectively.

If you are invited to join our company health scheme, this will be administered by Bupa. They may ask for additional personal data for the scheme.

Here is a link to their Privacy Notice:

Https://www.bupa.co.uk/legal-notices/privacy-and-cookies?homepagelink=footer-privacy

Vehicle Tracking Scheme

As part of our commitment to the health and safety of personnel and to our fleet vehicle insurers, Sovereign Fire & Security operates a vehicle tracking scheme. This scheme collects data about the location of our vehicles. It is not intended to collect data about our personnel except in so far as they are drivers or passengers within one of our tracked vehicles. This scheme is operated by CEMA. Data collected by the operation of this scheme can be shared with emergency services and our insurers and will be provided to Sovereign Fire & Security on a regular basis. This data will only be used by Sovereign Fire & Security for your protection and in line with the vehicle tracking policy and procedures in force within Sovereign Fire & Security to comply with health and safety and insurance obligations, which may change from time to time.

Here is a link to their Privacy Notice:

Http://cemaltd.co.uk/privacy.html

For How long is the information retained?

If you are successful, the information you provide during the application process will be retained by us as part of your employee file for the duration of your employment plus 6 years following the end of your employment. This includes your criminal records declaration, fitness to work, records of any security checks and references.

If you are unsuccessful at any stage of the process, the information you have provided until that point will be retained for 6 months from the closure of the campaign.

As your employment requires security screening to BS7858, if you are successful, the information you provide during the application process will be retained by us as part of your employee file for the duration of your employment plus 7 years following the end of your employment. This information will be retained for a further 3 years in a summarised form. This includes your criminal records declaration, fitness to work, records of any security checks and references.

As your employment requires security screening to BS7858, if you are unsuccessful at any stage of the process, the information you have provided until that point will be retained for 7 years and in a summarised format for a further 3 years.

Information generated throughout the assessment process, for example interview notes, is retained by us along with all other recruitment records.

Equal opportunities information is retained for 6 months following the closure of the campaign whether you are successful or not.

National Security Screening Agency Limited will provide us with management information about our recruitment campaigns. This is anonymised information which tells us about the effectiveness of campaigns, for example, from which source did we get the most candidates, equal opportunities information for monitoring purposes. This anonymised information will be retained for 7 years from the end of the campaign.

How we make decisions about recruitment?

Final recruitment decisions are made by hiring managers and members of our recruitment team. All of the information gathered during the application process is taken into account.

You are able to ask about decisions made about your application by speaking to your contact within our recruitment team or by emailing Info@sguk.ne

ONLINE LEARNING

During your employment, training may be delivered via a training organisation that specialises in online learning, Nimble Elearning Limited, and administered by our management consultants, Hantec Systems Limited.

Nimble Elearning and Hantec Systems will not use your personal data for any purpose other than the delivery of online learning through their website.

Should you wish for your contact details to be removed from the Nimble Elearning system or wish to know what information is held about you, please email support@hantec.co.uk

For further information on Nimble Elearning’s Privacy Policy, please visit their website https://www.nimble-elearning.com/privacy

For further information on Hantec’s Privacy Policy, please visit their website https://www.hantec.co.uk/Privacy_Policy.html

Your rights

Under the Data Protection Act 1998 and the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), you have rights as an individual which you can exercise in relation to the information we hold about you.

You can read more about these rights here – https://ico.org.uk/for-the-public/is-my-information-being-handled-correctly/

Complaints or queries

Sovereign Fire & Security tries to meet the highest standards when collecting and using personal information. For this reason, we take any complaints we receive about this very seriously. We encourage people to bring it to our attention if they think that our collection or use of information is unfair, misleading or inappropriate. We would also welcome any suggestions for improving our procedures.

This privacy notice was drafted with brevity and clarity in mind. It does not provide exhaustive detail of all aspects of Sovereign Fire & Security’s collection and use of personal information. However, we are happy to provide any additional information or explanation needed. Any requests for this should be sent to the address below.

If you want to make a complaint about the way we have processed your personal information, you can contact the Information Commissioner’s Office in their capacity as the statutory body that oversees data protection law – www.ico.org.uk/concerns

Access to personal information

Sovereign Fire & Security tries to be as open as it can be in terms of giving people access to their personal information. Individuals can find out if we hold any personal information by making a ‘subject access request’ under the Act or the Regulation. If we do hold information about you, we will:

  • give you a description of it;
  • tell you why we are holding it;
  • tell you to whom it could be disclosed; and
  • let you have a copy of the information in an intelligible form.

To make a request to Sovereign Fire & Security for any personal information we may hold you need to put the request in writing addressing it to our compliance department or by writing to the address provided below.

If you agree, we will try to deal with your request informally, for example by providing you with the specific information you need over the telephone.

If we do hold information about you, you can ask us to correct any mistakes by, once again, contacting the compliance department.

Disclosure of personal information

In many circumstances we will not disclose personal data without consent. However, when we investigate a complaint, for example, we will need to share personal information with the organisation concerned and with other relevant bodies.

You can also get further information on:

  • agreements we have with other organisations for sharing information;
  • circumstances where we can pass on personal data without consent for example, to prevent and detect crime and to produce anonymised statistics;
  • our instructions to staff on how to collect, use and delete personal data; and
  • how we check that the information we hold is accurate and up to date.
  • Links to other websites

Children’s Online Privacy Protection

Sovereign Fire & Security does not knowingly collect personal information from persons who are under 16 years of age. By agreeing to use our products or services, you represent that you are 16 years or older.

Links from our websites

Some pages of our websites contain external links. You are advised to verify the privacy practices of such other websites. We are not responsible for the manner of use or misuse of information made available by you at such other websites. We encourage you not to provide personal information, without assuring yourselves of the privacy practices of other websites.

Changes to this privacy notice

We keep our privacy notice under regular review. This privacy notice was last updated on 22nd May 2018.

How to contact us

If you want to request information about our privacy policy or provide feedback regarding this policy, please email Info@sguk.net or write to Sovereign Fire & Security Holdings Limited, incorporating Sovereign Fire & Security Limited and Sovereign Fire & Security Plymouth Limited, Unit 7a, St Martins Industrial Park, Moorend Farm Avenue, Bristol BS11 0RS.