Candidate information should be treated with the strictest confidentiality, regardless of the applicant's success.
This privacy is a cornerstone of the recruiter-candidate relationship, so it is always worrying when job applications are leaked.
Kezia Dugdale, the leader of Scottish Labour, twice tried to get work experience with Richard Lochhead - former SNP MSP for North East Scotland, and current SNP MSP for Moray and Cabinet Secretary for Rural Affairs, Food and Environment - when she was a student, the Scottish Sun reports.
Scottish Liberal Democrat leader Willie Rennie said the issue was “largely trivial” but that “serious questions” had to be answered by the SNP over how this information became public. He has written to the Information Commissioner calling for an investigation into this “serious breach of data protection."
Ian Murray, Shadow Secretary of State for Scotland and MSP for Edinburgh South, said: “Data protection is no laughing matter. People need to know that their correspondence with an MSP will be kept private, not leaked to a national newspaper for petty party politics.
"Richard Lochhead is a cabinet minister. He was named in this story by The Sun and neither he or the SNP can avoid questions on this."
The BBC asked whether she had applied for work experience with the SNP, to which she replied: "Thirteen years ago I supposedly applied for work experience in the Scottish Parliament.
"Now I applied for lots of work experience, lots of young people at university do just that.
"This is 13 years ago, in February 2003, apparently. I was studying law; I likely applied for lots of opportunities for work experience."
However, she rubbished claims that this matters for the upcoming election: “The idea that this is a central issue of the Scottish election campaign is really laughable."
“The law requires organisations to keep personal information secure, and to not keep it longer than is necessary”, a Scottish Labour spokesperson added.
