Hartlepool Home Search - Privacy notices by service area

Hartlepool Borough Council (HBC) is committed to protecting the privacy and security of your personal information.

This privacy notice is issued in accordance with the UK General Data Protection Regulation (UK GDPR) and describes how we collect and use personal information about applicants, household members and other persons connected with applications to the Hartlepool Home Search Register, Allocation Scheme and Choice Based Lettings Service.  It explains how we assess housing need, determine eligibility and priority, manage housing applications and allocate social housing accommodation.

This notice applies to information we hold about you.

We may update this notice at any time.

It is important that you read this notice, together with any other privacy notice we may provide on specific occasions when we are collecting or processing personal information about you, so that you are aware of how and why we are using such information.

HBC is a “data controller”. This means that we are responsible for deciding how we hold and use personal information about you. We are required under data protection legislation to notify you of the information contained in this privacy notice.

We will collect, store, and use the following categories of personal information about you:

• Name, address, date of birth, National Insurance number and contact details.
• Household composition and details of people included in your application
• Information regarding your housing circumstances, tenancy and accommodation history
• Financial information relevant to housing applications, including rent accounts and housing related debts.
• Information relating to homelessness applications and housing support needs
• Information concerning local connection to Hartlepool
• Information provided by landlords, support agencies and partner organisations involved with your housing needs.

We may also collect, store and use the following “special categories” of more sensitive personal information:

• Information about your racial or ethnic origin.
• Information regarding disabilities, physical or mental health conditions and medical needs.
• Information relating to support needs or safeguarding concerns.
• Information concerning criminal convictions or anti-social behaviour where relevant to housing eligibility and allocation decisions.

We collect personal information directly from:

• Housing register application forms
• Supporting documents provided by applicants
• Housing options and homelessness interviews / conversations
• Registered Providers (Housing Associations)
• Landlords and Managing Agents.
• Health professionals.
• Social care services
• Support providers
• Government departments and public bodies
• Other agencies where legislation permits information sharing.

We will only use your personal information when the law allows us to. Most commonly, we will use your personal information in the following circumstances:

The primary legal basis relied upon is:

PUBLIC TASK under Article 6(1)(e) UK GDPR, as processing is necessary for the Council to perform its statutory housing functions under:

• Housing Act 1996 (Part VI and Part VII).
• Homelessness Act 2002.
• Homelessness Reduction Act 2017.
• Localism Act 2011
• Relevant housing and local government legislation governing housing allocations and homelessness services.

Where special category data is processed, the Council relies upon:

• Article 9(2)(g) UK GDPR (substantial public interest)
• Article 9(2)(h) UK GDPR where health information is necessary to assess housing need.
• Conditions contained within Schedule 1 of the Data Protection Act 2018.

We may also process information where required to comply with a legal obligation under Article 6(1)(c) UK GDPR, where consent under Article 6(1)(a) UK GDPR has been provided for a specific purpose or for circumstances where processing is necessary in order to protect vital interests of you or another person (Article 6(1)(d) UK GDPR).

We need all the categories of information in the list above (see What kind of information we hold about you?) primarily to allow us to complete a Public Task and/or to meet a legal obligation.

The situations in which we will process your personal information are listed below.

Some of the above grounds for processing will overlap and there may be more than one ground which justifies our use of your personal information.

If you fail to provide certain information when requested, we may not be able to:

• Assess your housing application.
• Determine your eligibility for the Housing Register.
• Award the correct housing priority band.
• Make nominations for suitable accommodation.
• Meet our statutory housing duties.

This may result in delays, suspension or closure of your application. 

We will only use your personal information for the purposes for which we collected it, unless we reasonably consider that we need to use it for another reason and that reason is compatible with the original purpose. If we need to use your personal information for an unrelated purpose, we will notify you and we will explain the legal basis which allows us to do so.

Please note that we may process your personal information without your knowledge or consent, in compliance with the above rules, where this is required or permitted by law.

We will only use your personal information for the purposes for which we collected it, unless we reasonably consider that we need to use it for another reason and that reason is compatible with the original purpose. If we need to use your personal information for an unrelated purpose, we will notify you and we will explain the legal basis which allows us to do so.

Please note that we may process your personal information without your knowledge or consent, in compliance with the above rules, where this is required or permitted by law.

Automated decision-making takes place when an electronic system uses personal information to make a decision without human intervention. We are allowed to use automated decision-making in the following circumstances:

1. Where we have notified you of the decision and given you 21 days to request a reconsideration.
2. Where it is necessary to perform the contract with you and appropriate measures are in place to safeguard your rights.
3. In limited circumstances, with your explicit written consent and where appropriate measures are in place to safeguard your rights.

If we make an automated decision on the basis of any particularly sensitive personal information, we must have either your explicit written consent or it must be justified in the public interest, and we must also put in place appropriate measures to safeguard your rights.

You will not be subject to decisions that will have a significant impact on you based solely on automated decision-making, unless we have a lawful basis for doing so and we have notified you.

We do not envisage that any decisions will be taken about you using automated means, however we will notify you in writing if this position changes.

We may have to share your data with third parties, including third-party service providers and other entities in the group.

We require third parties to respect the security of your data and to treat it in accordance with the law.

We will not transfer your personal information outside the EU. 

Why might you share my personal information with third parties?

We will share your personal information with third parties where required by law or where it is necessary to administer the Housing Register, allocate social housing, prevent fraud, meet legal obligations or protect vulnerable individuals. Examples of the organisations we may need to share information with are:

• Registered Providers (Housing Associations)
• Department for Work and Pensions
• Landlords and Managing Agents
• Health professionals
• Social care services
• Support providers
• Government departments and public bodies
• Law enforcement
• Other agencies where legislation permits information sharing

For the below purposes:

• Administration of social housing nominations.
• Homelessness prevention and relief duties.
• Fraud prevention and investigation.
• Safeguarding and support provision.
• Relevant housing and local government legislation governing housing allocations and homelessness services, which is anonymised.

Which third-parties process my personal information?

”Third parties” includes third-party service providers (including contractors and designated agents). The following third-parties process personal information about you for the following purposes:

• Northgate Public Services – The Council’s IT provider Northgate may have to access the system on occasions where there is a fault.
• Huume Ltd – The cloud-based software platform provider that manages Hartlepool Home Search register.

How secure is my information with third-party service providers?

All our third-party service providers are required to take appropriate security measures to protect your personal information in line with our policies. We do not allow our third-party service providers to use your personal data for their own purposes. We only permit them to process your personal data for specified purposes and in accordance with our instructions.

We have put in place measures to protect the security of your information. Details of these measures are available upon request.

Third parties will only process your personal information on our instructions and where they have agreed to treat the information confidentially and to keep it secure.

We have put in place appropriate security measures to prevent your personal information from being accidentally lost, used or accessed in an unauthorised way, altered or disclosed. In addition, we limit access to your personal information to those employees, agents, contractors and other third parties who have a business need to know. They will only process your personal information on our instructions and they are subject to a duty of confidentiality. Details of these measures may be obtained from the Data Protection Officer.

We have put in place procedures to deal with any suspected data security breach and will notify you and any applicable regulator of a suspected breach where we are legally required to do so.

How long will you use my information for?

We will only retain your personal information for as long as necessary to fulfil the purposes we collected it for, including for the purposes of satisfying any legal, accounting, or reporting requirements. Details of retention periods for different aspects of your personal information are available in our retention policy. To determine the appropriate retention period for personal data, we consider the amount, nature, and sensitivity of the personal data, the potential risk of harm from unauthorised use or disclosure of your personal data, the purposes for which we process your personal data and whether we can achieve those purposes through other means, and the applicable legal requirements.

In some circumstances we may anonymise your personal information so that it can no longer be associated with you, in which case we may use such information without further notice to you.

Your duty to inform us of changes

It is important that the personal information we hold about you is accurate and current. Please keep us informed if your personal information changes during your working relationship with us.

Your rights in connection with personal information

Under certain circumstances, by law you have the right to:

• Request access to your personal information (commonly known as a “data subject access request”). This enables you to receive a copy of the personal information we hold about you and to check that we are lawfully processing it.
• Request correction of the personal information that we hold about you. This enables you to have any incomplete or inaccurate information we hold about you corrected.
• Request erasure of your personal information. This enables you to ask us to delete or remove personal information where there is no good reason for us continuing to process it. You also have the right to ask us to delete or remove your personal information where you have exercised your right to object to processing (see below).
• Object to processing of your personal information where we are relying on a legitimate interest (or those of a third party) and there is something about your particular situation which makes you want to object to processing on this ground. You also have the right to object where we are processing your personal information for direct marketing purposes.
• Request the restriction of processing of your personal information. This enables you to ask us to suspend the processing of personal information about you, for example if you want us to establish its accuracy or the reason for processing it.
• Request the transfer of your personal information to another party.

If you want to review, verify, correct or request erasure of your personal information, object to the processing of your personal data, or request that we transfer a copy of your personal information to another party, please contact the Data Protection Officer in writing. 

We reserve the right to update this privacy notice at any time, and we will provide you with a new privacy notice when we make any substantial updates. We may also notify you in other ways from time to time about the processing of your personal information.

If you have any questions about this privacy notice, please contact the DPO.