As a Local Housing Authority and Data Controller we respect an individual’s right to data privacy and data protection in line with the Data Protection Act 1998 as amended by the General Data Protection Regulations which come into force on the 24 May 2018.

This Privacy Statement has been developed in order to advise you of how we process the data (information) we hold about you. This includes how we: collect, store, use, share and protect your data including any personal or sensitive data such as information about any medical / health issues you may have.

The personal data that you provide will be used by the Council to assist you in obtaining accommodation by assessing your housing needs and vulnerabilities. The Council has a statutory obligation to process this information under social protection law.

Only the minimum personal information required will be shared these professionals to enable our enquiries. You have the right to access your personal information and complain if you think your information has being used incorrectly or unfairly; you may also have other rights that apply. For further details on your rights and the contact details for the Data Controller and the Data Protection Officer please see the Council’s Full Privacy Notice which can be found at www.warwickdc.gov.uk/privacynotices.

The Homelessness Reduction Act 2017

On 3 April 2018 the new Housing Reduction Act comes into force.

This Act alters the ways in which local authorities support homeless households. The Act aims to ensure that all eligible customers can get help and support to:

  1. Remain in their current home or
  2. Find a suitable home

If you contact us because you are homeless or threatened wit homelessness within 56 days – we will ask you to complete and sign a number of forms which will help us to make a full assessment of your case and provide you with suitable advice and assistance. We also collect data about you through your Housing Options interview.

The following describes the various reasons why we collect and use data about you and the different types of information that might be collected from you.

How we use the data we collect:

  1. To prevent and detect fraud
  2. As part of your housing options assessment
  3. To submit statistical and research information to the UK Government (see details below)

What type of data do we collect?

Examples of the type of Personal information (data) we collect about you including photocopies of your documents?

  • Name (including previous names);
  • Names and details of anyone else who is part of your household
  • Address History covering the past 5 years;
  • Contact number;
  • Email address;
  • Date of birth;
  • Marital status;
  • Employment status and details
  • National insurance number.

    Examples of the type of Special information (data) we collect about you including photocopies of your documents?

  • gender;
  • race;
  • ethnicity;
  • Nationality and Immigration
  • Pregnancy
  • physical or mental health medical needs;
  • incomes and expenditure; and
  • bank details

The following describes your Data Protection rights including controlling who has access to your data.

Your Data Protection rights:

  • You have the right to ask us not to process your personal data for direct marketing purposes.
  • You have the right to access the personal information that we hold about you, to know what we hold, what format it is in, and to have a copy of it if you wish. This is called a Subject Access Request.
  • If the information we hold on you is incorrect you have the right to ask us to correct it without undue delay and free of charge. You can exercise this right at any time by contacting us.  You will be required to specify the information that is incorrect and what it should be replaced with.
  • You have the right to request that all data held by us which identifies you, is deleted. You can also make this request at any time by contacting us, but please note we may be compelled to maintain your information due to specific legislative or regulatory requirements, for example to prevent or detect fraud or criminal activities.
  • In order to assess your housing needs and investigate your housing options case, we will require your specified informed consent to process your information, on these occasions the consent will be recorded and you have the right at any time to withdraw the consent.
  • If we need to share your information with a third party for example in order to help you to access additional support or assistance – we will ask you to consent to your details being shared. If we have your consent we will (as part of a formal data sharing agreement with third parties) ensures that the third party keeps information private, secure and processed only in the way specified by Warwick District Council

Where do we store your data?

All information you provide to us is stored on our secure servers. Where we have given you a unique reference number (URN) or password you are responsible for keeping this password confidential. Please do not give your password or URN to anyone else.

How long do we store your data for?

Your data will be stored for six years from the date that we last had contact with you.

Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG) Research Project | Understanding more about what causes homelessness and how well homelessness services meet peoples’ needs

This above research is being carried out by the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG)

What’s the aim of this study?

By carrying out this research, MHCLG aims to find out whether:

  1. Housing services prevent homelessness
  2. People return for help and/or move regularly
  3. Homelessness programmes, such as Housing First, reduce homelessness
  4. There are other causes of homelessness and outcomes, such as poor health.

To do this, MHCLG wants to link information about you and others in your household together with other information, including your homelessness application and past and future information on your use of services and benefits.

MHCLG will use your personal information - name, date of birth, gender, last known address, National Insurance number (if known) - to gather the right data held by other government agencies.

Any information you provide will not be used to make any decisions about what benefits you get, services you use, now or in future, or used to identify fraud.

Whose data are you collecting?

We want to collect data on all people asking for help with homelessness.

What’s involved?

At your assessment you will be asked questions about:

  • Your experiences of homelessness
  • Your support needs
  • Whether you have spent time in local authority care, and your current employment status.

What will happen to the information provided?

Your information will only be used for research and will be anonymised, so the researchers will not know whose data they have.

Your local authority will send your information to MHCLG using a secure IT system.

Your personal information (name, date of birth, gender, last known address) will be used to identify data collected as part of your assessment and linked to information held by other government departments:

  • Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) – to see what benefits you have received and whether you have been employed
  • Ministry of Justice (MOJ) – to see what contact you may have had with the criminal justice system
  • Department for Education (DfE) – to see when your child has been in school, how well they are doing at each Key Stage and whether they are a Child in Need. 

Your information will be kept strictly confidential. Your name, date of birth, gender, address and National Insurance number will be kept separately from all the other information in a secure, password-protected document on a computer system. You will be assigned a unique reference number, so that even though a researcher will see all your information, they will not be able to know it is you.

How long will my information be kept for?

DWP, DfE and MOJ will only keep your personal information for a month and will not keep records showing you were part of this research.

MHCLG will keep your personal information for five years.

We will only use your data within the terms of data protection laws, will delete your data securely and only keep it for as long as necessary. We will review dates for keeping personal data in the future and if necessary update these privacy notices.  To legally share data for this research, local authorities and MHCLG will rely on the Digital Economy Act 2017.

The collection of personal information by MHCLG for this project is compliant with data protection legislation.

Your local authority will collect your personal data under the public task basis (in this case to provide housing services) and agree to share this data with MHCLG under the public task basis (in this case to reduce homelessness).

MHCLG will rely on the following reasons for processing personal data and additional special category data below:

A.  Lawful basis for processing personal data under Article 6 GDPR

The processing is necessary for this reason:

  1. Public task: the processing is necessary for you to perform a task in the public interest or for your official functions, and the task or function has a clear basis in law.

B. Additional condition for processing special category data under Article 9(2) GDPR

 Special category personal data may be processed if:

(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;

  1. The DPA 2017 will provide a lawful basis to process criminal offence data (as required by Article 10 GDPR).

What are my rights?

You can talk to your local authority about whether your data is being used for this project without it affecting your legal rights or routine care. You can also see copies of all the data MHCLG hold about you and ask for it to be corrected or deleted.

What if I want more information?

If you want more information you can ask a member of staff. You can also contact MHCLG’s Knowledge and Information Team about seeing your data or withdrawing from the research by emailing MHCLG’s Data Protection Officer at dataprotection@communities.gsi.gov.uk

If you are unhappy with the way your personal information is being handled, you can contact the independent Information Commissioner at: Home | ICO

What will happen to the results of this research?

The final results of this research will be published on the main government website. You will not be identified in any research report.

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