We take your privacy seriously and will only keep and use your personal information for reasons law requires or allows. The Council is the data controller for the personal information we hold about you in relation to Housing Options. In order to comply with data protection legislation we want to be sure you understand how we use this information.
The purposes for which the data will be used:
To allow us to investigate reasons for homelessness to assess whether the Council owes a statutory duty to accommodate and how we can prevent a client from becoming homeless.
The prevention of a client becoming homeless is through various interventions including Deposit Guarantee Scheme; mediation; financial assessment; organising a planned move to accommodation; referring a client to supported accommodation; referring a client to Housing Associations; referring a client to a private sector landlord; referring to supporting agencies such as drug and alcohol services; debt management, GP, or Social Services.
Personal data to be collected will include Name, address, NI Number, financial information, ID and previous housing history, medical issues and offending history.
We are able to do this because Section 184 of the Housing Act 1996 as amended by the Homelessness Reduction Act 2017 says that we can do it and it is necessary for compliance with a legal obligation.
Upon the clients consent, we may share your data with relevant agencies both statutory and voluntary such as the police, probation, CAB, housing benefit, private landlords, housing service, supported housing providers, social services, housing benefit, mental health, drug related services and debt management services such as CAB.
Data may also be shared with central government through the submission of quarterly statistical returns
How long we will keep your information
We only keep this data for the time specified in our retention schedule or as required by law.
Data protection law provides you with certain rights, not all of these rights will be available to you in all situations, particularly where we process your information as part of one of our statutory duties. Where we are under a legal duty to use data for a particular purpose you will not have the right to prevent it being used in that way.
A full list of the rights you may have, under data protection law, is given in the 'Your Rights' section.
For specific enquiries regarding personal data which we process you can contact the Data Protection Officer on dpo@staffordbc.gov.uk or at Civic Centre, Riverside, Stafford ST16 3AQ.
If you wish to complain about how your personal information has been handled by Stafford Borough Council then please contact the Data Protection Officer in the first instance using the details above. If you are not satisfied you can submit a formal complaint to the Council via Complaints.
Finally you can complain to the Information Commissioner’s Office at:
The Information Commissioner’s Office, Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow, Cheshire, SK9 5AF, Tel: 0303 123 1113 or you can visit their website at ico.org.uk.
You can also find details of how we handle your personal information by visiting www.staffordbc.gov.uk/PrivacyNotice
For any general enquiries you can contact the council by phone on 01785 619000, via info@staffordbc.gov.uk or by writing to us at Civic Centre, Stafford Borough Council, Riverside, Stafford, ST16 3AQ.