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Homeless person’s applications: collection of personal data - Privacy Notice

The personal information you provide will only be used by Ashfield District Council (the “Data Controller”) in accordance with General Data Protection Regulation 2016/679, Data Protection Act 2018 and The Data Protection, Privacy and Electronic Communications (Amendments etc) (EU Exit) Regulations 2019 (the “UK GDPR”) from 1 January 2021 (“Data Protection Legislation”) to process your application/query or to provide a service that you are requesting.

Why do we need to collect this data?

In order to process your application, query or request under the Housing Act 1996, the local authority has a duty to make reasonable enquiries in order to meet or discharge their statutory duties.

In doing so, Ashfield District Council will use your personal data (including any special category data or criminal offence data) as defined by Data Protection Legislation in order to make those enquiries to advise you properly.

In using that data, Ashfield District Council will process, store and delete your data in accordance with this Privacy Notice as well as our main Privacy Notice.

What data will we collect?

Your personal data will be collected including:

  • your name
  • address
  • telephone number
  • email address
  • and any other contact details we require in order to contact you.

Furthermore, on occasion it may also be necessary to collect sensitive category data (including health, religious, race/ethnic data etc) and criminal offence data should this information be relevant to your application/request.

This information may be necessary to allow Ashfield District Council to conduct statutory enquiries to establish whether a housing duty is owed to you and, if so, any further information that might be needed to assess the suitability of any accommodation that might be offered.

What is our lawful basis for collecting this data?

The basis under which the Council uses personal data for this purpose is that this is necessary for the performance of a task carried out in the public interest by the Council or in the exercise of official authority vested in the Council pursuant to Article 6(1)(e).

The Council also relies on Article 6(1)(c) of the GDPR, “processing is necessary for compliance with a legal obligation to which the controller is subject”

The ground that Ashfield District Council relies on in order to process special category data or criminal offence data (including alleged criminal offences) is Article 9(2)(b) and is necessary for reasons of substantial public interest and in accordance with Data Protection Legislation.

You are not obliged, either by statute or by contract, to provide the information that is requested here but if you want to apply for accommodation then we will need this information to process your application.

It also meets the requirement at paragraph 5 of Schedule 1 to the Data Protection Act 2018 that an appropriate policy document be in place where the processing of special category personal data is necessary for reasons of substantial public interest. The specific conditions under which data may be processed for reasons of substantial public interest are set out at paragraphs 6 to 28 of Schedule 1 to the Data Protection Act 2018.

How long will we retain the data?

The information that you have provided will be kept for 6 years.

Your personal information will be shared with organisations and/or individuals relevant to your circumstances in connection with the above purpose. For example:

  • Department of Work and Pensions
  • Social Services
  • NHS and other health services
  • the police
  • probation services
  • solicitors
  • utility companies
  • other local authorities
  • registered social landlords
  • landlord/managing agent
  • mortgage/loan companies
  • employers and other departments of Ashfield District Council, such as Revenues and Benefits, in order to obtain relevant information to assist you.

It will also be shared with organisation who you are being referred to in order to find accommodation or support your wider needs.

The information provided by you may also be used for the purpose of any other function carried out by the Council. Information about these functions and the legal basis on which information is used for them can be found in the Council’s main Privacy Notice.

All personal data will be held and disposed of in a safe and secure manner.

Your rights

As defined in the data protection law, GDPR Article(s) 12-23, you have the following rights:

  • The right to be informed about the collection and use of your personal data. This is outlined above.

  • The right to erasure. If at any point within the 21 days after your visit you decide you’d like us to delete the personal data you provided, please advise us and we will delete all information related to you.

  • The right to object to us processing your personal data. If you do so, we will delete all the personal data we hold in relation to you.

  • The right to rectification. If the information held is in any way incorrect, you can contact the data controller and request that the information be rectified.

In certain circumstances exemptions to these rights may apply. Further information is available on the Information Commissioner’s Office website.

Do you have a complaint?

If you consider that your personal data has been misused or mishandled by us, you can raise this with the data controller. In this instance, the data controller is the Data Protection Officer who can be contacted by:

If you remain dissatisfied you can make a complaint to the Information Commissioner, who is an independent regulator. The Information Commissioner can be contacted at:

Information Commissioner’s Office
Wycliffe House
Water Lane
Wilmslow
SK9 5AF

Any complaint to the Information Commissioner is without prejudice to your right to seek redress through the courts.

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