Privacy notice
Last updated 7 October 2026
This notice explains how TopSport Recruitment Ltd uses personal information when providing specialist recruitment services for non-playing roles in sport. It covers candidates and prospective candidates, client and supplier contacts, people who contact us and visitors to our website.
Who we are
TopSport Recruitment Ltd is the controller responsible for our use of personal information. We are registered in England and Wales under company number 17447234.
You can contact us about this notice, your information or your rights at:
Email: harry@topsportrecruitment.com
Post: 71–75 Shelton Street, Covent Garden, London WC2H 9JQ, United Kingdom
Website: topsportrecruitment.com
The information we use
We use information relevant to our relationship with you. Depending on the services involved, this includes:
- Identity and contact details: name, email address, telephone number, professional profile, job title and relevant location or address information.
- Recruitment information: CVs, employment and education history, qualifications, skills, experience, current and expected remuneration, notice period, availability, preferred roles and locations, and relevant career preferences.
- Communications and recruitment records: correspondence, meeting and call notes, applications, introductions, interview feedback, placement details and records of permission to share identifiable CVs or profiles.
- Business records: client and supplier contact information, service history, instructions, contracts, invoices, relevant payment records, and information needed for enquiries, complaints, rights requests or legal claims.
- Contact preferences: marketing preferences and minimal records of requests not to be contacted.
- Website technical information: connection and request information processed to deliver and protect the website, such as IP address, browser/device information, requested pages and request time.
CVs may contain incidental details such as a date of birth, gender or marital status. We do not request these for routine candidate matching or use unnecessary personal details to assess suitability. We minimise or remove information that is not needed. Please avoid sending unnecessary sensitive information, such as medical details, in a CV.
If sensitive information is needed for a particular purpose, such as an adjustment to the recruitment process, we explain that purpose and establish the additional legal condition before using it. Including sensitive information in a CV does not give us blanket permission to use it.
Providing information is generally voluntary. Without relevant contact details and professional information, we may be unable to assess suitability or put you forward for a role. Where specific information is required by law or under a contract, we explain the requirement and the consequences of not providing it.
Where information comes from
We obtain information directly from you, including through CVs, emails, calls and LinkedIn messages. We also use professional profiles available through LinkedIn and LinkedIn Recruiter, publicly available organisation websites and professional sources, and business contact information supplied by Lusha. Client clubs and sports organisations provide recruitment updates and interview feedback, and professional contacts may provide referrals or recommendations. Suppliers may provide their representatives’ business contact information.
When we obtain information indirectly, we provide privacy information within the applicable legal timeframe, including at first contact where required. You can ask which source we used for your information.
Why we use information and our lawful bases
Recruitment and business administration
We rely on legitimate interests to identify and assess suitable candidates, discuss relevant opportunities, coordinate introductions, applications, interviews and placements, and manage client and supplier relationships. Our interests are in delivering an effective recruitment service, helping candidates find suitable work, helping organisations recruit and administering our business. Relevant professional and contact information is needed to perform these activities.
We balance those interests against your rights and reasonable expectations. We limit information to what is relevant, restrict access, review its accuracy and retention, and protect the confidentiality of your job search. We obtain your permission before sending an identifiable CV or profile to a prospective employer. This permission is separate from the lawful basis for our wider recruitment processing.
Marketing and recruitment communications
We rely on legitimate interests to promote relevant recruitment services to appropriate business contacts at corporate organisations, discuss hiring needs and share candidate summaries that do not identify individuals. We also use relevant professional information to identify people who may be interested in opportunities. We consider the rules applying to each communication, including electronic-marketing rules.
Where consent is required for electronic marketing, we obtain it before sending those messages and rely on consent for that activity. Where the law permits marketing without consent, we rely on legitimate interests and provide an easy way to opt out. A public profile or an existing business connection is not treated as blanket consent.
You can object to direct marketing at any time by replying to a message or emailing harry@topsportrecruitment.com. We then stop using your information for that purpose and retain only what is needed to respect your choice. You do not need to use legal terminology.
Legal requirements and resolving concerns
We rely on legal obligation for required employment-agency records, tax and accounting records, responding to data protection rights requests and meeting applicable data-protection complaint-handling duties. We rely on legitimate interests to answer ordinary enquiries, investigate concerns, recover unpaid fees, resolve disputes and establish, exercise or defend legal claims. We use only the records relevant to the matter.
Website operation
We rely on legitimate interests to deliver, maintain and protect our website, diagnose faults and investigate misuse. These interests are in providing a reliable and secure means of learning about and contacting TopSport. If we introduce cookies or similar technology requiring consent, we obtain that consent before their use.
AI-assisted administration
We may use AI-assisted productivity tools to organise information, draft recruitment communications and prepare summaries of written information. For routine administration involving relevant personal information, our lawful basis is legitimate interests in accurate, efficient recruitment administration. We minimise the information used and check outputs before relying on or sharing them.
Our recruitment assessments involve human judgment. We do not make decisions producing legal or similarly significant effects on you solely through automated processing. AI-generated material or suggestions are checked by a person; you can ask us to correct inaccurate information.
Who we share information with
We share only relevant information needed for the activity concerned with:
- Prospective employers, including football clubs and other sports organisations in the UK and overseas, to assess suitability and progress recruitment. Identifiable CVs and profiles are shared with candidate permission.
- Microsoft, providing Microsoft 365 business email, document storage, meetings and productivity services, including Outlook, OneDrive, SharePoint and Teams.
- LinkedIn, providing Recruiter searches, messages, projects and candidate records. LinkedIn processes customer-provided information under its applicable service terms and separately controls information used for its professional-network services.
- Lusha, providing professional contact lookup and verification. Relevant professional identifiers and lookup information may be processed to provide those services. Lusha independently controls its contact database; additional uploaded information is handled according to the applicable service and data terms.
- Providers of business productivity and AI-assisted administration services used for the purposes described above.
- Website hosting, content-delivery and security providers that deliver and protect the website.
- Professional and legal advisers, and debt collection agencies where necessary to recover unpaid fees. Debt recovery information is limited to relevant contact details, invoices and supporting evidence.
- Authorities and other recipients where required by law, such as HMRC or a competent regulator.
Service providers processing information on our behalf are subject to applicable data protection terms. Prospective employers and other independent controllers are responsible for their own processing and may provide their own privacy information. Removing a name from a candidate summary does not make it anonymous if the individual can still reasonably be identified.
International recruitment and overseas processing
Our work can involve overseas employers and technology providers. Information may be stored or accessed outside the UK, including through support teams and subprocessors. Microsoft and LinkedIn operate internationally, including in the United States and Europe. Lusha’s arrangements include operations in the United States and Israel.
For transfers covered by UK adequacy regulations, we rely on that recognised level of protection. For other restricted transfers, we use an appropriate safeguard, such as the UK International Data Transfer Agreement or the UK Addendum to EU Standard Contractual Clauses, and carry out the required assessment. A legal exception is used only where its specific conditions are met.
The applicable Microsoft, LinkedIn and Lusha data terms provide contractual transfer mechanisms for relevant services. Before introducing a candidate to an overseas employer, we identify the destination and establish the appropriate transfer arrangements. Candidate permission to share a CV does not automatically provide an international-transfer mechanism. We provide further information about the proposed employer, destination and relevant safeguards as appropriate before disclosure.
Contact harry@topsportrecruitment.com for information about a particular transfer, processing location or a copy of the relevant safeguards, subject to appropriate redaction of confidential information.
Website enquiries and cookies
Our website provides email links so you can contact us using your email application. It does not provide an online CV-upload or enquiry-submission form. Information you send by email is handled for the relevant enquiry or recruitment purpose in this notice.
We do not add advertising pixels or visitor-analytics scripts to the website. Hosting and security infrastructure processes technical connection information needed to deliver and protect the site. Any necessary platform technologies are used for those functions. We explain any additional cookies or similar technologies, including their purposes and duration, and provide any required choice before introducing them.
External links take you to services with their own privacy information. Following a link does not give us control over the other organisation’s processing.
How long we keep information
We retain information only for as long as needed for its purpose, including relevant legal requirements. We review information and delete it sooner where it is no longer necessary. Our usual periods and criteria are:
| Record | Usual period or criterion |
|---|---|
| Candidate CVs and recruitment files | Up to 2 years after the last meaningful two-way contact or completion of an active assignment, whichever is later. Unanswered messages and profile views do not restart the period. |
| Prospects who have not engaged | Within 6 months of collection unless meaningful engagement begins. Any required statutory agency-record subset follows its legal minimum. |
| Required agency records | At least 12 months after creation and 12 months after the last relevant service, whichever is later. After that, only for another justified purpose. |
| Client and supplier contacts | During the relationship and up to 2 years after it ends. Obsolete contacts are updated or removed sooner. |
| Marketing records | Reviewed annually and removed after 2 years without meaningful two-way engagement, or sooner on objection. Unengaged prospects follow the 6-month rule. |
| Do not contact records | Minimal identifiers and objection details for as long as needed to prevent renewed unwanted contact; necessity reviewed annually. |
| Contracts and essential placement evidence | Up to 6 years after the assignment or contract ends, with annual necessity review. This does not extend retention of the whole CV file. |
| Accounting and tax records | 6 years from the end of the last company financial year concerned, or longer where required by law. |
| Enquiries and complaints | Routine enquiries: up to 12 months after closure. Routine complaints and data-rights handling records: up to 2 years after closure. |
| AI inputs and working outputs | Temporary identifiable working copies are removed when the task and checking are complete. Information retained as a business or recruitment record follows that record’s period. |
| Website technical information | For the period needed for delivery, fault diagnosis and security. We consider the provider’s documented retention, the time needed to detect or investigate incidents and any continuing legal requirement. |
| Disputes and legal claims | Relevant evidence while a matter is active or reasonably anticipated. We set a justified deletion date using applicable legal time limits, continuing obligations and adviser or insurer requirements, with regular review. |
Where purposes overlap, we retain only the subset required for the longer purpose. Identity-verification copies are deleted promptly when no longer needed. Limited records retained for a legal obligation or claim have their use restricted accordingly.
Deletion includes records under our control in email, document storage and recruitment systems. Residual backup copies remain protected until expiry through the applicable backup cycle and are not used for ordinary business purposes. If a backup is restored, relevant deletions are reapplied. Contact us about a particular record or retention criterion.
Your rights
Depending on the processing and applicable exemptions, you may have the right to access your information, correct inaccuracies, complete incomplete information, request erasure, restrict processing and object to processing based on legitimate interests. Data portability applies in the circumstances specified by law, generally to information you supplied that is processed automatically on the basis of consent or contract.
Where we rely on consent, you can withdraw it at any time by contacting us, without affecting the lawfulness of earlier processing. You have an unconditional right to object to the use of your personal information for direct marketing, including related profiling.
Email harry@topsportrecruitment.com to exercise your rights. We respond without undue delay, normally within one month. Where the law permits an extension, we explain why and when to expect a response. We may need information to verify your identity or, where permitted, clarify a request. We explain any lawful refusal or limitation and how to challenge it.
Further information about your rights from the ICO
Complaints
Please contact us using the email or postal address above if you have concerns about our use of your information. We acknowledge data protection complaints within 30 days, investigate without undue delay, keep you informed and explain the outcome and any action taken.
You can also complain to the Information Commissioner’s Office:
ICO Head Office, 4th Floor, No.3 Circle Square, 5 Hawkshaw Street, Manchester M1 7BL
Helpline: 0303 123 1113
Changes to this notice
We review this notice when our activities change and update it where necessary. The date above identifies the latest version. Where required, we bring material changes or new uses of information to your attention before that processing begins.