Privacy Notices - Housing services Privacy Notice

The Equalities Act 2010 and Housing legislation, including The Housing Act 1985, Housing Act 1996, the Homelessness Reduction Act 2017 and the Localism Act 2011 are the legal basis for providing you with the service you require, and the need to collect, store and use your personal information. We are committed to protecting the personal information we collect about you. This privacy notice explains what happens to the information we collect for the purposes of homelessness, lettings, allocations, tenant engagement, housing management maintenance and purchase of your home.

A Privacy Notice is a statement issued by an organisation which explains how personal and confidential data about individuals is collected, used and shared.

Swindon Borough Council will act as a "Data Controller" for any personal data that you provide to us. We will ensure that the data given to us is processed in line with our Data Protection Act 2018 (DPA 18) and the EU General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR).

Please note that not providing your personal data may lead to you being unable to use services provided by the housing department.

Personal data relates to a living individual who can be identified from that data. Identification can be by the information alone or in conjunction with any other information in the data controller’s possession or likely to come into such possession. The processing of data is governed by the General Data Protection Regulation 2016/679 (the “GDPR”).

We will hold personal information about you such as your photograph, your name, date of birth, address and contact details (including telephone number(s) and email addresses), ethnicity household and financial details, including your National Insurance number, and sometimes sensitive personal information relating to your health, special needs or alleged or actual criminal offences.

Swindon Borough Council complies with its obligations under the GDPR by keeping personal data up to date; by storing and destroying it securely; by not collecting or retaining excessive amounts of data; by protecting personal data from loss, misuse, unauthorised access and disclosure and by ensuring that appropriate technical measures are in place to protect personal data.

• administer applications for and letting of housing including housing options, mutual exchanges and  prevention of homelessness
• detect and prevent crime and anti-social behaviour
• provide a service as a Social landlord, including the recovery of rent arrears
• monitor fair access of service to all
• administer benefits
• consider housing and assessment health needs
• assist tenants living in sheltered housing or clients of the Homeline service in emergency situations, housing management, repairs and maintenance, including keeping homes safe and meeting our statutory requirements
• to assess your financial situation when considering a right to buy application for your council dwelling
• investigate empty dwellings with a view to bringing them back into use
• consider statistical and analytical purposes
• administer telecoms services
• provide information to, and listen to feedback from our tenants, which we will use, as your landlord, to improve the housing service we provide to you, and to comply with the Regulator of Social Housing’s consumer and economic standards
   

We collect and use this information under Article 6 (lawful processing), and Article 9 (special categories of data), of Data Protection Act 2018:

Article 6 of GDPR:

Public task: the processing is necessary for the local authority to perform a task in the public interest or for official functions, and the task or function has a clear basis in law in terms of Health and Social Care Provision.

For those early help services where the above does not apply:

Consent: the individual has given clear consent for the local authority to process their personal data for a specific purpose.

Article 9 (2) of GDPR – Special Categories of Data and lawful processing of:

(g) processing is necessary for reasons of substantial public interest, on the basis of Union or Member State law which shall be proportionate to the aim pursued, respect the essence of the right to data protection and provide for suitable and specific measures to safeguard the fundamental rights and the interests of the data subject;

The Data Protection Act 2018 (12, Schedule 1, part 2 specifically outlines the responsibilities in relation to processing data for the purposes of safeguarding children and individuals at risk. Further information is available at the GOV.UK website.

Your personal information will be seen by Swindon Borough Council staff and may be disclosed to third parties for the following reasons:

• Department of Work and Pensions: administration of benefits and prevention of homelessness
• Local authorities, registered social landlords, letting agents, private landlords: administration of applications for and letting of housing
• Police: the detection and prevention of crime and anti-social behaviour. Administration of applications for and letting of housing including housing options and prevention of homelessness.
• National Probation Service and Community Rehabilitation Company: the detection and prevention of crime and anti-social behaviour. Administration of applications for and letting of housing including housing options and prevention of homelessness.
• National Health Service: administration of applications for and letting of housing including housing options and prevention of homelessness. Consideration of housing and assessment health needs. To assist tenants living in sheltered housing or clients of the Homeline service in emergency situations.
• Social care services: administration of applications for and letting of housing including housing options and prevention of homelessness. Consideration of housing and assessment health needs.
• Dorset and Wiltshire Fire and Rescue: housing management and fire prevention
• Utility providers: housing management and maintenance
• Telecom providers: administration of telecoms services
• Surveillance equipment: the detection and prevention of crime and anti-social behaviour in public areas
• National and Local Government statistical returns: statistical and analytical purposes
• Repair contractors: housing repairs and maintenance
• Voluntary agencies: administration of applications for letting of housing, including housing options and prevention of homelessness
• Debt collection agencies: administration of applications for letting of housing, including any rent arrears and/or former tenant arrears
• Debt collections agencies: administration of applications for letting of housing, including any rent arrears and/or former tenant arrears
• Mortgage and financial institutions when considering a right to buy purchase
• HM Courts & Tribunals Service: housing related legal proceedings
• Smart survey: administration of affordability assessments and customer satisfaction surveys
• TV Licensing: administration of Accommodation for Residential Care (ARC) concessionary TV Licences
• Housing Ombudsman and Local Government Ombudsman: administration of complaints
• Equifax: a consumer Credit Reference Agency (CRA), to search for information about current customers in relation to debt management and tenancy fraud investigations. This service is utilised when legal action is being considered
• NEC Housing management system: All data covered within Housing Services and Operations and other teams across SBC will be stored within the new software system, this includes but not exclusive to applicant and tenant data, Homelessness and repairs.
• QLP: External consultants commissioned by Housing to support the implementation of the new Housing Management system. Access to existing data currently held by SBC, operate under strict confidentiality agreements and adhere to data protection laws, ensuring the security and integrity of your personal data.
•  DocMail and Apogee: to facilitate the distribution of letters and important communications to customers. These services allow us to securely upload documents to their portals, from where they are printed and mailed to recipients. This may include, but is not limited to, housing-related correspondence such as tenancy agreements, rent statements, or notifications regarding your tenancy.
• Docusign: securely sign documents digitally. This service is used by the Mutual Exchange and Sign-Up Team in the Housing Department to facilitate the signing of agreements such as tenancy contracts and mutual exchange documents. Other Council departments may also use DocuSign to process and sign documents between parties.

We will maintain the reliability, accuracy, completeness and currency of personal data in our databases and to protect the privacy and security of our databases. We keep your personal data only for as long as reasonably necessary for the purposes for which it was collected.

Our servers and databases are protected by industry standard security technology.

The employees who have access to personal data have been trained to handle such data properly and in accordance with latest regulation.

The registration of individuals' housing applications: destroy after seven years

Example:

• Council housing register
• Homelessness applications
• Equalities monitoring information

The process for applying for council housing (unsuccessful applications only, successful applications will be placed on the tenancy file): destroy after seven years

Example:

• Council housing application forms and supporting material
• Equalities monitoring information
• Greenlight to Housing
• Application for transfer of tenancy and supporting information

The process for managing the tenancy of an individual tenant: destroy after 85 years

Example:

• Correspondence re: tenancy
• Tenancy files
• Council housing application forms and Equalities monitoring forms
• Application for transfer of tenancy and supporting information
• Application for emergency housing or referral from another agency

The process for managing sheltered housing and homeline alarm services: destroy after seven years

Example:

• Homeline customer records
• Sheltered housing records
• Equalities monitoring information

Unless subject to an exemption under GDPR you have the following rights with respect to your personal data:

• The right to request a copy of your personal data which Swindon Borough Council holds about you
• The right to request that Swindon Borough Council corrects any personal data if it is found to be inaccurate or out of date
• The right to request your personal data is erased where it is no longer necessary for Swindon Borough Council to retain such data
• The right, where there is a dispute in relation to the accuracy or processing of your personal data, to request a restriction is placed on further processing
• The right to object to the processing of personal data
• The right to lodge a complaint with the Information Commissioners Office
• The right to opt out of our newsletter distribution list

For further details on how your information is used, how we maintain the security of your information, and your rights to access information we hold on you please contact customerservices@swindon.gov.uk or contact the Data Protection Officer at:

Swindon Borough Council
Civic Offices
Euclid Street
Swindon
SN1 2JH

You also have a right of complaint to the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) if you think we have dealt with your information in an inappropriate manner.

You can ask to see what information we hold about you and have access to it. You can do this by contacting the Data Protection Officer at Swindon Borough Council by email: dataprotection@swindon.gov.uk.

Any further questions regarding the data being processed may also be sent to the Data Protection Officer at the above email address.

You are under no statutory obligation to provide personal data to Swindon Borough Council during the application process. However, if you do not provide the data, we may not be able to process your application properly or at all.

A yearly audit will take place on personal data to ensure that we remain legally compliant in accordance with current data protection legislation.

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