Privacy notice (Housing)

Gosport Borough Council is a registered Data Controller (Registration Number Z5578313).

The Council tries to meet the highest standards when collecting and using personal information in accordance with data protection law.

This privacy notice tells you about how the Gosport Borough Council - Housing Services collects and uses personal information. It applies to information we collect about:

• People who use our services, or request a service from us;
• People who register for Council Tax;
• People who apply for an allotment, planning permission or parking permits;
• Business customers;
• Complainants and other individuals in relation to a complaint or query;
• Job applicants and our current and former employees; and
• Visitors to our website.

What information do we collect?

Gosport Borough Council collects the names, addresses, dates of birth and contact information in the form of telephone numbers and email addresses from you as a customer or tenant. We may also collect other personal information about your family, your mental and physical health, financial circumstances and housing and social care needs when relevant. We keep copies of letters and records of telephone calls along with information we receive about you from other people, for example your doctor. We also keep details of your next of kin, people you wish us to contact and details of any payments made in connection with your tenancy.

Why do we collect your information?

Gosport Borough Council - Housing Services uses personal information to:

• Deliver services
• Manage tenancies
• Facilitate both planned and response repairs to our properties and buildings
• Offer support and advice
• Manage licenses
• Assist in service development
• Enable payments for services
• Assess your housing application and ensure that you meet Gosport Borough Councils Housing Allocation Policy
• Maintain and manage our housing waiting list
• Ensure that your needs are met and understood
• Allow us to confirm your identity when talking to you about your housing application
• Provide emergency accommodation when needed

How we use your information?

Gosport Borough Council uses personal information to:

• Ensure that we can contact you when we need to. For example make you aware of any changes, for example your tenancy agreement or discuss your housing application.
• Contact you in the case of a repair affecting the property you live in.
• Contact you in the case that a suitable property becomes available.
• Allow you to pay for services via Direct Debit.
• Let you know if the terms of a licence you hold with us is changing.
• Help you to access services relating to Housing.
• Help investigate any concerns or complaints including concerns or complaints raised by Councillors or MPs on behalf of constituents.
• To investigate your housing situation and contact related parties to clarify information.
• Assess any need that you may have for additional housing support and make referrals where appropriate.
• Ensure that you are able to meet your conditions as a tenant including payment of rent.

How do we keep your personal information secure?

We will take appropriate steps to make sure that the personal information we hold (on paper and electronically) is kept securely and only used by people who have a right to see it. The Council's security measures include encrypting personal data and equipment, system access controls and training in data protection for all staff.

Where another company or organisation processes personal information on behalf of the Council, they will only process your personal information in line with the Council's instructions and are obliged to provide security assurances to the Council and to certain regulatory bodies.

How long do we keep hold of personal information?

Records will not be kept longer than necessary.

Access to personal information

Individuals can find out if we hold any personal information by making a 'subject access request'. If we do hold information about you we will:

• Give you a description of it;
• Tell you why we are holding it;
• Tell you who it could be disclosed to; and
• Let you have a copy of the information in an intelligible form.

To make a request to the Council for any personal information we may hold you need to put the request in writing addressing it to:

Data Protection Officer
Gosport Borough Council
Town Hall
Gosport
PO1 1EB

A request form is available to print and complete by accessing Subject Access Request. If you cannot come to the Town Hall, have difficulty making a written request, or don't have any form of identification please use the contact details below to discuss your request with us.

If we do not hold information about you, you can ask us to correct any mistakes by, once again contacting the Data Protection Officer.

Please be aware that we would not let you see any parts of your record which contain:

• Confidential information about other people; or
• Information that a professional thinks will cause serious harm to you or someone else's physical or mental wellbeing; or
• If we think that a crime may be prevented or found out by disclosing information to you.

Access to CCTV images

CCTV images that are stored and catalogued may be accessed by individuals by making a 'Subject Access Request'. Gosport Borough Council may not record CCTV at all locations with CCTV signage and not all CCTV cameras will be operational at all hours of the week. Individuals may not be able to see visual images that contain other identifiable individuals or are considered confidential under law for example they are required for the prevention or identification of a crime.

Sharing or disclosing personal information

In many circumstances we will not share or disclose personal information without consent. However when we investigate a complaint, for example, we will need to share personal information with the organisation concerned and with other relevant bodies.

We may pass relevant information, such as your contact details, on to different parts of the Council so that we can co-ordinate our services properly. For example, housing will tell the Council tax team when someone has a change of address.

Where we do not directly provide a particular service, we may need to pass your information on to the company or organisation which provides services on our behalf.

A list of the types of organisations can be found on our Data Protection Register Entry

We may pass your information to other agencies or organisations as allowed or required by law, for example to enable them to carry out their statutory duties or where it is necessary to prevent harm to yourself or other individuals.

We may be required by law to disclose your personal information without your consent for the purposes of preventing or detecting crime/fraud or apprehending and prosecuting offenders (for example to the police, Cabinet Office, Department for Work and Pensions or as part of the National Fraud Initiative) or where we have a statutory duty to do so. For more information follow the link to read our Fair processing notices.

Sometimes we are required to give personal information to a court, for example for child protection purposes and in connection with mental health law.

We will only share appropriate information about you with your family or carers and usually only where you have given specific permission to do so. We may withhold information where it places any individual at risk.

We will share personal data with other organisations such as Social Care, other housing providers, landlords, Police; GP's to access your housing application. This information will be used to assess your housing need and will impact any offer of a property that is made.

We will only share with each person or organisation the details they need in order to provide their services or support to you or perform their statutory duty.

Complaints or queries

We take any complaints we receive very seriously. Please bring it to our attention if you think that our collection or use of information is unfair, misleading or inappropriate.

You should let us know if you disagree with something written in your record. We may not always be able to change or remove the information. However, we will correct factual inaccuracies and may include your comments in the record.

We are happy to provide any additional information or explanation about how the Council collects and uses personal information.

Any complaints, queries or requests should be sent to the Council's Data Protection Officer.

Email: foi@gosport.gov.uk

Telephone: 023 9258 4242

For independent advice about data protection, privacy and sharing issues, you can contact the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) at:

Information Commissioner's Office, Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow, Cheshire, SK9 5AF

Tel: 0303 123 1113 (local rate) or 01625 545 745 (if you prefer to use a national rate number).