In the course of its recruitment processes Cancer Council may consider it necessary or desirable to undertake a nationally coordinated criminal history check (“Police Check”) of a potential worker or volunteer to determine their suitability for a position of trust, specified field of endeavour or as required by legislation.
Cancer Council undertakes its Police Checks through the Australian Criminal Intelligence Commission (ACIC) and the National Police Checking Service pursuant to the Agreement for Controlled Access by Duly Accredited Bodies to Nationally Coordinated Criminal History Checks, which is held between the ACIC and Cancer Council NSW. In doing so it must comply with the Australian Crime Commission Act 2002 (Cwlth). The ACIC may be contacted via email.
Cancer Council requires the informed consent of the potential worker or volunteer in order to undertake a police check, and the information on this page is designed to give you, the potential worker or volunteer, sufficient information to decide whether to consent to a police check being undertaken.
Process
Collection and handling of information
As an “APP entity” (as defined under the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth)), Cancer Council is bound by the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth) and the Australian Privacy Principles, as well as the Health Records and Information Privacy Act 2002 (NSW) which governs the handling of health information in NSW. Cancer Council’s privacy policy sets out the way that Cancer Council handles all personal information collected by it. The following information supplements Cancer Council’s privacy policy with respect to information relating to Police Checks.
With your informed consent Cancer Council may:
- disclose your personal information to Government bodies, agencies or other duly Accredited Bodies (such as the ACIC and the National Police Checking Service) in order to access a police check;
- receive criminal history check information from that body or agency which contains your personal information, and police information that is disclosable about you.
The types of information that Cancer Council may collect from you (by any means, but usually electronically) and may disclose in the course of obtaining a police check includes:
- all types of personal information, such as sensitive, biometric and demographic information,
- contact information (both home and work) such as full name (first and last), email address, residential history, current postal address and phone numbers,
- date of birth,
- other information relevant to the police check application process
- information or opinion relating to your current or previous application process
The information that Cancer Council obtains in the course of obtaining a police check will be used primarily for the purposes of assessing your suitability for the position that you have applied for. It may also be used for the internal administrative tasks of Cancer Council, such as audits, quality control and system updates.
Storage and security of information and systems
Cancer Council’s Information Security Policy sets out the security management measures that Cancer Council has implemented to secure its information assets and information systems, including the personal information of applicants, and information and systems accessed in the course of conducting nationally coordinated criminal history checks.
In addition, Cancer Council has implemented the following measures for the protection and storage of nationally coordinated criminal history check information, including applicant data:
- Police Checks will be conducted only by trained staff, using secure network workstations, to which digital certificates have been applied, and which lock after 15 minutes of inactivity;
- System accounts used for Police Checks will be protected by strong passwords of not less than 10 characters (including one numerical and one upper case character), reset every 90 days;
- the data gathered for the purposes of the criminal history check will be stored for no less than 12 months, but no more than 15 months, following collection
- no data collected for the purposes of the criminal history check will be transferred or stored outside of Australia.
Disputes
If you believe that the National Police Check provides incorrect information back to Cancer Council NSW, you are able to raise a dispute if it falls within one of the types of claims set out below:
Claim type 1—when police information released does not belong to you.
Claim type 2—when part of the police information released does not belong to you.
Claim type 3—when police information belongs to you, but the details are inaccurate.
Claim type 4—when police information belongs to you, but should not have been released.
