Housing Services - privacy notice

The personal information you give to us through any of our forms relating to housing and any other personal information we hold about you in this context will be processed by us (East Renfrewshire Council, Eastwood Park, Giffnock, G46 6UG) for the provision of housing and related services.

Your information is processed to help us administer and provide housing and related services. Your information may also be shared with other departments within the council and other organisations for the same purposes, and also to:

• Check the information we have is accurate
• Prevent and / or detect crime
• Protect public funds

Other organisations include bodies responsible for auditing or administering public funds, other councils, public sector agencies, government departments, regulatory and law enforcement bodies and other private companies, principally contractors providing services on our behalf and contractors providing IT systems on which housing information is held.

We process your information in order to perform a task carried out in the public interest and in the exercise of official authority, namely the task of providing housing and related services in terms of the following relevant statutory provisions made by the Scottish Government in relation to housing, homelessness and housing support services:

• Housing (Scotland) Act 1987
• Housing (Scotland) Act 2001
• Housing (Scotland) Act 2006
• Housing (Scotland) Act 2010
• Housing (Scotland) Act 2014
• Homelessness etc. (Scotland) Act 2003
• Homeless (Abolition of Priority Need test) (Scotland) Order 2012
• The Antisocial Behaviour (Scotland) Act 2004
• Private Housing (Tenancies) (Scotland) Act 2016
• Public Bodies (Joint Working) (Scotland) Act 2014

The law gives certain types of information special significance because of its sensitivity such as health information. If we process this type of information about you in relation to housing we do so on the basis that it's necessary for reasons of substantial public interest and / or to protect the vital interests of a data subject or another individual where the data subject is physically or legally incapable of giving consent.

The law also gives special significance to criminal conviction and offence data. If we process this type of information about you we do so on the basis that it's necessary for reasons of substantial public interest in the exercise of official authority in terms of the relevant statutory provisions made by the Scottish Government in relation to housing, homelessness and housing support services.

We can provide housing services outside of our statutory duties for housing, homelessness and housing support services. Where you wish to engage us for these additional services, we'll ask you to enter into a contract with us and / or ask for your explicit consent, before processing or sharing the information you give.

Without the correct information we can't determine your priority group for housing or give housing services that meets your needs. Deliberately providing false information in order to gain a house or gain priority housing services is fraud and may lead to the loss of your home or withdrawal of certain housing services.

Most of the information the council holds about you will come from you as an individual. Some of the information may come from other public sector agencies, government departments, regulatory and law enforcement bodies and other private companies working on the council's behalf. Such information includes:

• your details and those of your household
• your housing circumstances
• your health, care, social and support needs
• any relevant criminal conviction and offence data
• your housing requirements
• your contact details and contact details of anyone acting on your behalf

If you're a landlord we'll also collect information about the properties you own and the condition of these.

We'll hold your information in line with our retention schedule (PDF) [2MB] (opens new window) . Your information will be destroyed under confidential conditions after this period.

Your information will be accessed by our staff who need to do so to administer and provide housing and related services. If such administration is given on our behalf by an external agency, that agency will also have access to your information.

We also need to ensure proper administration of its funds so details will be checked internally for fraud prevention and verification purposes. Information is also analysed internally in order to give management information and inform future service delivery.

Your information may also be shared with other departments within the council, bodies responsible for auditing or administering public funds, other councils and housing associations, public sector agencies, governmental departments and other private companies, principally contractors providing services on our behalf and contractors providing IT systems on which housing information is held.

We also meet requests for specific information from other regulatory and law enforcement bodies where this is necessary and appropriate.

In general, we don't transfer personal information outside the UK. We'll only transfer information outside the UK when we're satisfied that the party that will handle the data and the country it's being processed in have adequate safeguards for personal privacy comparable to those which are in place in the UK.

We don't use profiling or automated decision-making for administering or providing housing services. Some processes are semi-automated but a human decision-maker will always be involved before any decision is reached in relation to you.

Depending on why we need to process your information you'll have rights to how your information is used. More information about your rights, including the circumstances in which they apply, can be found within our main privacy policy.

If you've concerns about the processing of your personal data by us, you can contact our Data Protection Officer at dpo@eastrenfrewshire.gov.uk.

For independent advice about data protection, privacy and data sharing, visit the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) website (opens new window).

Please contact us if you need this information in an alternative format.