Talent Platform privacy notice for workers
Version 1.0, effective 14 November 2026.
1. Who we are and what this notice covers
This notice explains how Ascend People Solutions Ltd uses your personal information when we engage you to work for one of our clients and pay you, and when you use the Talent Platform to do that.
Ascend People Solutions Ltd is the controller of your information. That means we decide how it is used and we are responsible for looking after it.
- Company number 15145981, registered in England and Wales
- Registered office: 9 Ulysses Road, London NW6 1ED
- Registered with the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO): ZB689941
- Privacy contact: Aaron George, Privacy Lead, connect@ascend-people.com
Who this notice is for. It covers everyone we engage through the Talent Platform in the UK, whichever way you are paid:
- PAYE: you are paid by Ascend through our payroll.
- Limited company: you work through your own company, and we hold your company's details as well as yours.
- Umbrella: you are employed and paid by an umbrella company you choose from our client's approved list. We pass your details to that company. Once it has them, it is responsible for them under its own privacy notice.
- Sole trader: you are self-employed and invoice us. We hold your Unique Taxpayer Reference and bank details as well as your contact details.
If you are a candidate we hold so that we can offer you work, our candidate privacy notice applies instead. You can ask us for a copy.
We will tell you before we make any significant change to this notice. The version and date above show which one applies.
2. What information we collect
We collect only what we need to engage you, pay you and meet the law.
| Type | What it includes | Do you have to give it? |
|---|---|---|
| Identity and contact | Name, title, gender, nationality, home address and postcode, email, phone number | Yes, to engage you |
| Emergency contacts | Name and phone number of the people you choose | Optional. Please tell them you have shared their details with us |
| Tax and pay (PAYE) | National Insurance number, HMRC starter statement (A, B or C) or P45, student loan and postgraduate loan plan, bank details | Yes, required by law to pay you correctly |
| Right to work | Passport, or birth or naturalisation certificate with an official NI document, or a Home Office share code | Yes, required by law before you start |
| Proof of address | A document dated within the last 3 months | Yes, to engage you |
| Contract records | Your contract, Key Information Document (PAYE), working time opt-out (if you choose to sign one), declarations and confidentiality agreement. For each signature: the name you typed, and the date and time | Yes, to engage you |
| Limited company details | Company details, certificate of incorporation, VAT certificate, business bank details, insurance, and the client's IR35 Status Determination Statement | Yes, if you work through your own company |
| Health adjustments | Any adjustment you ask for because of your health, only if you tell us and only after you have been offered the work. For PAYE workers, also sickness absence and fit notes for statutory sick pay, and what we need to pay statutory maternity or other family pay | Optional |
| Background checks | The results of checks a client requires, such as Baseline Personnel Security Standard (BPSS) checks, which can include a basic criminal record check | Only with your agreement, and only if the client requires it for the role. If you say no, we cannot put you forward for that role, but nothing else changes |
| Equal opportunities | Optional questions about, for example, ethnicity, disability or sexual orientation | Optional. Kept apart from your other records |
| Sign-in and activity | Your sign-in method, sign-in times, and a record of changes made to your details | Yes, to keep your account secure |
Where we get it from. Most of it comes from you. We also receive information from:
- the client you work for: your role, dates, rate and, for limited company workers, the IR35 Status Determination Statement
- YunoJuno, if you are engaged through them
- any screening provider that carries out background checks for us
- HMRC, for tax codes and related notices
- if you already work with us, the records we hold today, including your current signed contract and payroll number
Refer a friend. Where the client has switched it on, you can give us a friend's name and contact details so we can offer them work. Please only refer someone who is happy to hear from us. We email your friend when you refer them, so they know where we got their details and how we will use them. We keep a record of each referral you make and any referral reward we pay you.
3. Why we use it, and our legal reasons
Data protection law says we need a legal reason (a "lawful basis") for each use of your information. Ours are:
| What we do | Lawful basis |
|---|---|
| Set up and run your engagement, pay you, and manage your contract | Performance of a contract with you (or, for limited company workers, steps needed to engage your company) |
| Check your right to work, run PAYE and report to HMRC, enrol you in a workplace pension, and keep working time records | Legal obligation |
| Run the programme for the client, confirm to them that you are cleared to start, keep an audit trail, and keep our systems secure | Legitimate interests (explained below) |
| Record health adjustments you ask for, and pay statutory sick pay or family pay (PAYE workers) | Employment and social security obligations: UK GDPR Article 9(2)(b), with the Data Protection Act 2018, Schedule 1, Part 1, paragraph 1 |
| Carry out background checks a client requires, including criminal record checks | UK GDPR Article 10, with your consent (Data Protection Act 2018, Schedule 1, Part 3, paragraph 29). Where the law itself requires the check: Schedule 1, Part 1, paragraph 1 |
| Collect equal opportunities answers | Your explicit consent: UK GDPR Article 9(2)(a). You can withdraw it at any time |
| Keep your basic profile after your engagement records are deleted, so we can offer you suitable work in future, and record whether our emails reach you | Legitimate interests (explained below) |
| Run Refer a friend: contact the people you refer about suitable work, and pay any referral reward | Legitimate interests (explained below) |
Our legitimate interests. We need to show clients that the people working on their projects are properly engaged and cleared, to keep a reliable record of who changed what, to know that important onboarding emails have reached you, to stay in touch about future work, and to offer work to people you refer to us. We have weighed these interests against your rights. We share only what the client needs, and never your bank, tax, health or criminal record details.
Our policy document. For health and criminal record information, we keep an appropriate policy document that explains how we protect it and how long we keep it. You can ask us for a copy.
Automated decisions. We do not make decisions about you by automated means alone. No artificial intelligence (AI) is used on worker records. If that ever changes, we will update this notice first.
4. Who we share it with
We never sell your information. We share it only as set out below.
| Who | What they receive | Why |
|---|---|---|
| The client you work for | Your name, role, dates, charge rate, and whether you are cleared to start | To run the engagement. Clients never see your bank, tax, health or criminal record details, or your background check results |
| HMRC | Pay, tax and National Insurance details | Required by law |
| Our workplace pension provider, NEST | Details needed to enrol you and pay contributions | Required by law (auto-enrolment) |
| Your umbrella company (umbrella workers only) | The details it needs to employ and pay you | It becomes responsible for them under its own privacy notice |
| YunoJuno (only if you are engaged through them) | The details needed to run your engagement on their system | They are responsible for them under their own privacy notice |
| A background screening provider (only if the client requires a check) | The details needed to run the check | Carries out the check on our instructions. We may also run some checks ourselves. The client is told only "cleared" or "not cleared" |
Service providers who work for us. These companies process your information only on our instructions, under contracts that require them to keep it secure:
- Merit: our payroll software
- EasyTime: our timesheet system
- Supabase: the database behind the Talent Platform, hosted in London
- Resend: sends our emails
Signing in with Google or LinkedIn. This is your choice. If you use it, Google or LinkedIn confirms who you are to us under their own privacy notices. Otherwise you can sign in with a link sent to your email.
We may also share information where the law requires it, for example with the police or a regulator, or with our professional advisers.
5. Where your information is held
Your records are stored in the UK, in London. Our email provider keeps email delivery records in Ireland, in the European Union, which the UK recognises as giving adequate protection.
Some of our providers are US companies, but they store and process your information in the UK or the European Union. We do not send your information to the US.
Our payroll software, timesheet system and background screening provider store your information in the European Union.
6. How long we keep it
We keep your information only as long as the law requires or we genuinely need it. After that we delete it securely, or keep it only in a form that no longer identifies you.
Our general rule is that we keep your records for 6 years after your engagement ends. We delete a few sensitive items sooner:
When the clock starts. Each period runs from the end date of your last placement, or the date it ended if it finished early. If you start a new placement with us, the clock restarts from the end of that placement. If a placement is cancelled before it starts, the clock runs from the cancellation date.
| Record | How long we keep it |
|---|---|
| Everything not listed below, including payroll, tax, pension, working time, contracts and signing records, limited company documents, health adjustments, proof of address, background check outcomes, consent records, onboarding answers and the audit trail | 6 years after your engagement ends |
| Copies of your right to work documents | For your engagement, plus 2 years after it ends. The record that we checked, and when, is kept for 6 years |
| Detailed background check results | Detailed notes are deleted 6 months after the check. The outcome ("cleared" or "not cleared") and its date are kept for 6 years. The full results are held by our screening provider, not in the Talent Platform |
| Equal opportunities answers | 12 months after you give them, then kept only as anonymous totals. If you withdraw your consent, we delete your answers straight away |
| Emergency contacts | Deleted when your engagement ends |
| Email delivery records (address, subject, delivered, opened or bounced) | 90 days. We do not keep the content of emails |
We may keep records longer if they are needed for a legal claim, or if the law requires it.
Deleted information can stay in our secure backups for up to 7 more days. After that it is gone for good.
After the 6 years. We keep your basic profile (name, contact details and work preferences) so that we can offer you suitable work in future. It stays until you ask us to delete it, which you can do at any time. Placement and payment records (rates, timesheet spend and fee statements) are kept for our accounts and our clients' reports, with your name and contact details removed.
7. How we keep it secure
- Only you, Ascend's payroll staff and Ascend's programme team can see your payroll, bank, health and criminal record details.
- Ascend staff sign in with a second step, using an authenticator app.
- Every change to your records is logged. For sensitive details we log which field changed, never the value itself.
- Our providers must keep your information secure under their contracts with us.
If something goes wrong and your information is put at high risk, we will tell you without undue delay.
Cookies. The Talent Platform uses only strictly necessary cookies, which keep you signed in securely. We do not use advertising or tracking cookies. Our emails contain a small image that tells us whether an email has been opened.
8. Your rights, and how to contact us
You have the right to:
- see the information we hold about you and get a copy
- correct anything that is wrong or incomplete. You can update most of your details yourself in the Talent Platform
- ask us to delete your information, where the law allows
- ask us to limit how we use it while a concern is looked into
- object to uses based on our legitimate interests
- receive information you gave us in a format you can reuse elsewhere, where we use it under our contract with you
- withdraw your consent to the equal opportunities questions at any time, or to a background check before it is complete. This does not affect anything done before you withdraw it
Some rights have limits. For example, we cannot delete payroll, tax or right-to-work records while the law requires us to keep them (see section 6). If we cannot do what you ask, we will explain why.
There is no charge. We will reply within one month. If your request is complex, we may need up to two more months, and we will tell you if so.
Contact us at connect@ascend-people.com, with "Privacy" in the subject line, or write to Aaron George, Privacy Lead, Ascend People Solutions Ltd, 9 Ulysses Road, London NW6 1ED.
Complaints. If you are unhappy with how we have handled your information, please tell us first so we can put it right. We will acknowledge your complaint within 30 days and tell you what we are doing about it. You can also complain to the Information Commissioner's Office at ico.org.uk/make-a-complaint or on 0303 123 1113.