This Notice is provided to you under the United Kingdom General Data Protection Regulations (UK GDPR). UK GDPR is intended to ensure that any personal data you provide is processed only as legally permitted, is accurate, is kept secure, is only shared as required and is destroyed securely.
This Notice explains how your personal data will be processed and your rights.
Background
Knowsley Housing Solutions Service provides help & advice on all kinds of housing needs. The Service includes the statutory assessment of housing needs and the statutory requirements in respect of reducing homelessness and is the lead officer for the High Priority Resettlement Panel.
If you are seeking housing advice & support, including presenting as homeless or at risk of becoming homeless, then in order to enable the Service to undertake the legally required assessment of your needs and priorities, you will be asked to provide certain information. This information is legally required and will assess not only your housing priority but also the most appropriate form of accommodation for you and any dependents.
Who will own my data once I submit it?
Knowsley Council.
Why do you need my information?
We collect your personal information for the following purposes:
- To assess your situation.
- To contact you about your situation and the information you have provided.
- To request you to provide documents to prove your homelessness or threatened homelessness and your situation.
- To contact third parties with your personal information to request further personal information about you; and
- Refer you to third parties and/or other agencies that may be able to help you
- To make a decision based on your circumstances.
- To deliver statutory duties on homelessness set out in the Housing Act 1996, including Part 7, Homelessness Act 2002 and Homelessness Reduction Act 2017.
What allows you to use my information?
The legal basis for collecting and processing your personal information is:
- Performing or exercising obligations under law (Housing Act 1996 including Part 7, Homelessness Act 2002 and Homelessness Reduction Act 2017.
We also advice and assist under the Landlord and Tenant Act 1985, the Housing Act 1988, The Housing Act 1996, and the Protection from Eviction Act 1977).
Processing is necessary for reasons of substantial public interest.
In addition, in certain parts of our form, we also ask for your consent to ensure you want us to proceed with assessing your housing needs.
You may withdraw your consent at any time; however, any withdrawal may prevent us from providing all or part of the support and services to you that we could otherwise provide. Should you withdraw your consent, then we will inform you if we can provide you with our full support and service or which support and services are thereafter no longer available to you.
Additionally, if you fail to provide certain information when requested, we may not be able to perform the contract we have entered into with you, or we may be prevented from complying with our legal obligations.
We will respect your Consent.
Under the UK GDPR (Article 6), to enable us to process your personal information and personal information relating to your dependents, a Data Controller needs to have a legal basis. Sometimes, Consent is sufficient. However, as you are presenting as homeless, or potentially homeless, we will need to state another legal basis. We believe our legal basis is the fact that:
The processing is necessary for compliance with a legal obligation to which the Data Controller is subject.
Again, under the GDPR (Article 9), and Schedule 1 paragraph 6 when processing what is known as ‘special category’ data we need to state a legal condition under the GDPR. ‘Special Category’ data is: information relating to you or your dependents regarding: ethnic origin*, race*, health*, sexual orientation*, religion*, politics, genetics, biometrics, sex life, trade union membership. As we may collect data relating to those matters marked with an asterisk, we will need to state a condition. Our reason is:
Processing is necessary for reasons of substantial public interest, based on 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, i.e. the proper allocation of social housing would be a matter of public concern.
What personal information do we process?
- Name
- Address
- Five-year address history
- Gender
- Sexual orientation (special category data)
- Contact telephone numbers
- Email address
- National Insurance Number
- Date of birth
- Current employment
- Current benefits you are in receipt of
- Health Issues (including drug or alcohol dependency/use) (special category data)
- Criminal offence history and any pending proceedings where applicable
- Medical issues (special category data) and GP contact details (consent basis)
- Ethnicity (special category data)
- School details, if applicable
- Reasons for contacting service
- Current/previous agency involvement
- Financial/Income status
- Employment status
- Immigration status
- Religious beliefs (special category data)
- Housing need
- Housing Support that you may need to retain your current housing or support you may need in a new tenancy
- Next of kin details
Any information which is not mandatory will be clearly marked or made clear to you over the telephone to allow you to decide whether you want to provide it or not.
Will this information be collected only from me?
In line with Article 14 of UK GDPR, we will initially receive information only from you. We will also, where appropriate, ask for supporting documents from you to confirm the information you have provided. We will then share relevant parts of your information with other relevant bodies in order to ensure correct information is supplied. We will share with you responses from these bodies and, where any contrary information is provided, we will give you an opportunity to clarify and/or correct.
Any contrary information provided which is found to be correct could adversely affect your application for housing or other support. If false information is provided, this could result in a matter being referred to the relevant authorities. Organisations we may collect information from include DWP, Council Benefits office, other Local Authorities, Police, Welfare Support Agencies, Councillors, MPs and any other representatives acting on your behalf.
Who will my information be shared with?
To assist in the assessment of your housing need or your homeless presentation, we may, on occasion, contact and share your circumstances with the following services:
- Social Housing Providers
- Private Landlords
- Letting Agents/Mortgage lending companies
- Health Partners (NHS medical professionals)
- GP (doctors of associated doctor’ surgery staff)
- Adult Social Care, such as:
- Knowsley Mental Health Team
- Learning Disabilities Team
- Other Adult Social Care Teams, as required
- Children's Social Care, such as:
- Family First
- Youth Offending Team
- Leaving Care Team
- Other Children’s Social Care Teams as required.
- Other services within Knowsley Council, e.g. Housing Benefits, Council Tax
- Knowsley Education Services
- Advice agencies such as Citizens’ Advice Bureau
- Department of Work and Pensions
- Property Pool Plus (Halton, Knowsley, Liverpool, Sefton and Wirral)
- Other Local Authorities
- Harm reduction/addiction services, such as Change Grow Live
- Commissioned Supported Housing Service Providers
- Commissioned Support Providers, such as SHAP
- Local Solutions
- Probation Services
- Prison Resettlement Services
- Knowsley Works
- Police
- Solicitors
- Courts
- Credit Reference Agencies
- Friends/Relatives – may be contacted with your consent to see if they can help with your housing situation or provide information regarding your housing situation.
Do I have to provide this information, and what will happen if I don’t?
The information you consent to provide will assist in the assessment of your housing needs and your homeless presentation or your risk of homeless presentation. Providing the information will reduce the time in which the assessments described will take.
How long will you keep this data for and why?
We will keep your information for as long as the law specifies, or where the law does not specify this, the information will be stored for a maximum of 6 years.
How will my information be stored?
Your information will be stored electronically within a secure homeless case management system referred to ‘Housing Options Module’ provided by Civica and within the Council’s secure servers. We take every precaution to ensure data is safe and secure; however, we cannot guarantee the security of your data transmitted to our site; any transmission of data through email to the Housing Solutions Service is at your own risk. Once we have received your information, we use strict procedures and security features to try to prevent unauthorised access.
Will this information be used to take automated decisions about me?
No
Will my data be transferred abroad?
No
What rights do I have when it comes to my data?
The UK GDPR provides several rights regarding how your personal data is processed:
- The right to subject access – you can see a copy of the personal data that the Council holds about you and find out what it is used for.
- The right to rectification – you have the right to ask the Council to correct or remove any inaccurate data that we hold about you.
- The right to erasure (right to be forgotten) you have the right to ask the Council to remove data that we hold about you.
- The right to restriction – you have the right to ask for your information to be restricted (locked down) on Council systems.
- The right to data portability – you have the right to ask for your data to be transferred back to you or to a new provider at your request.
- The right to object – you have the right to ask the Council to stop using your personal data or to stop sending you marketing information or complain about how your data is used.
- The right to prevent automated decision making – you have the right to ask the Council to stop using your data to make automated decisions about you or to stop profiling your behaviour (where applicable)
If you are not happy about the way your personal data is being processed, or if you require further information about how we process your personal data, you can contact the Council’s Data Protection team by emailing data.protection.officer@knowsley.gov.uk
You also have the right to complain to the Information Commissioner’s Office:-
- Website: Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) website
- By post: The Information Commissioner's Office, Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow, Cheshire, SK9 5AF
- Telephone: 08456 30 60 60 or 01625 54 57 45
Further advice and guidance from the ICO on this issue can be found on the ICO website.