Privacy Notices - Housing surveys Privacy Notice

You need to be aware of this Privacy Notice if you are completing the annual Tenant Satisfaction Measure survey, sent out by SBC Housing as required by the Regulator of Social Housing through the Tenant Satisfaction Measures standard. 

You should also read this Privacy Notice if you are completing any other survey that SBC Housing is required to carry out on behalf of other Government regulated housing bodies, these may include the Housing Ombudsman Service, the Regulator of Social Housing and the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities.

A Privacy Notice is a statement issued by an organisation which explains how personal and confidential data about individuals is collected, used and shared.

We will act as a “Data Controller” for any personal data that you provide to us.  We will ensure that the data given to us is processed in line with our Data Protection Act 2018 and the UK General Data Protection Regulations. (GDPR)

Please note that if you do not provide your personal details as requested, we may not be able to consider your feedback.

Personal data relates to a living individual who can be identified from that data. Identification can be by the information alone or in conjunction with any other information in the data controller’s possession or likely to come into such possession. The processing of data is governed by the UK General Data Protection Regulation 2016/679 (the “GDPR”).

We will hold personal information comprising of your name, contact details and address. 

We will also collect special category data, age, disability, and race.

We comply with our obligations under the DPA 2018 / UK GDPR by keeping personal data up to date; by storing and destroying it securely; by not collecting or retaining excessive amounts of data; by protecting personal data from loss, misuse, unauthorised access and disclosure and by ensuring that appropriate technical measures are in place to protect personal data.

We have an interest in processing personal data during the Housing Tenant Satisfaction Measure survey, keeping records of the diversity of survey respondents.

We need the following to:

• comply with Government requirements in ensuring the responses we receive are representative of the tenants we serve.
• help with statistical and analytical purposes
• monitor access to our survey.
• deliver services and support to you.
• manage those services we provide to you.
• train and manage the employment of our workers who deliver those services.
• check the quality of services.
• help with research and planning of new services

We may process categories of data such as address to review survey statistics, the results of which will influence future Housing service delivery with a view to improving overall tenant satisfaction.

We collect and use this information under Article 6 of DPA 2018 / UK GDPR, (e) Public task: the processing is necessary for the local authority to perform a task in the public interest; (h) Health and Social Care Provision.

Article 9 - Special Categories of Data DPA 2018 / UK GDPR: (g) Processing is necessary for reasons of substantial public interest. (h) Health and Social Care Provision, with bases in Part 2 of Schedule 1 of the DPA 2018 - Statutory and Government Purposes.

Your personal information will be seen by Swindon Borough Council staff and may be disclosed to third parties for the following reasons:

• Department of Work and Pensions: administration of benefits and prevention of homelessness
• Local authorities, registered social landlords, letting agents, private landlords: administration of applications for and letting of housing
• Police: the detection and prevention of crime and anti-social behaviour. Administration of applications for and letting of housing including housing options and prevention of homelessness.
• National Probation Service and Community Rehabilitation Company: the detection and prevention of crime and anti-social behaviour. Administration of applications for and letting of housing including housing options and prevention of homelessness.
• National Health Service: administration of applications for and letting of housing including housing options and prevention of homelessness. Consideration of housing and assessment health needs. To assist tenants living in sheltered housing or clients of the Homeline service in emergency situations.
• Social care services: administration of applications for and letting of housing including housing options and prevention of homelessness. Consideration of housing and assessment health needs.
• Dorset and Wiltshire Fire and Rescue: housing management and fire prevention
• Utility providers: housing management and maintenance
• Telecom providers: administration of telecoms services
• Surveillance equipment: the detection and prevention of crime and anti-social behaviour in public areas
• National and Local Government statistical returns: statistical and analytical purposes
• Repair contractors: housing repairs and maintenance
• Voluntary agencies: administration of applications for letting of housing, including housing options and prevention of homelessness
• Debt collection agencies: administration of applications for letting of housing, including any rent arrears and/or former tenant arrears
• Debt collections agencies: administration of applications for letting of housing, including any rent arrears and/or former tenant arrears
• Mortgage and financial institutions when considering a right to buy purchase
• HM Courts & Tribunals Service: housing related legal proceedings
• Smart survey: administration of affordability assessments and customer satisfaction surveys
• TV Licensing: administration of Accommodation for Residential Care (ARC) concessionary TV Licences
• Housing Ombudsman and Local Government Ombudsman: administration of complaints
• Equifax: a consumer Credit Reference Agency (CRA), to search for information about current customers in relation to debt management and tenancy fraud investigations. This service is utilised when legal action is being considered
• NEC Housing management system: All data covered within Housing Services and Operations and other teams across SBC will be stored within the new software system, this includes but not exclusive to applicant and tenant data, Homelessness and repairs.
• QLP: External consultants commissioned by Housing to support the implementation of the new Housing Management system. Access to existing data currently held by SBC, operate under strict confidentiality agreements and adhere to data protection laws, ensuring the security and integrity of your personal data.
•  DocMail and Apogee: to facilitate the distribution of letters and important communications to customers. These services allow us to securely upload documents to their portals, from where they are printed and mailed to recipients. This may include, but is not limited to, housing-related correspondence such as tenancy agreements, rent statements, or notifications regarding your tenancy.
• Docusign: securely sign documents digitally. This service is used by the Mutual Exchange and Sign-Up Team in the Housing Department to facilitate the signing of agreements such as tenancy contracts and mutual exchange documents. Other Council departments may also use DocuSign to process and sign documents between parties.

We will maintain the reliability, accuracy, completeness and currency of personal data in our databases and to protect the privacy and security of our databases. We keep your personal data only for as long as reasonably necessary for the purposes for which it was collected.

Our servers and databases are protected by industry standard security technology.

The employees who have access to personal data have been trained to handle such data properly and in accordance with latest regulation.

We will hold this information for a retention period of 36 months, from completion of the survey.

Under data protection law, you have rights including:

• Your right of access - you have the right to ask us for copies of your personal information
• Your right to rectification - you have the right to ask us to rectify personal information you think is inaccurate. You also have the right to ask us to complete information you think is incomplete
• Your right to erasure - you have the right to ask us to erase your personal information in certain circumstances
• Your right to restriction of processing - you have the right to ask us to restrict the processing of your personal information in certain circumstances
• Your right to object to processing - you have the right to object to the processing of your personal information in certain circumstances
• Your right to data portability - you have the right to ask that we transfer the personal information you gave us to another organisation, or to you, in certain circumstances

In the event that you wish to complain about the way that your personal data has been handled by Swindon Borough Council, you should write to our Data Protection Officer and clearly outline your case. Your complaint will then be investigated in accordance with our customer complaint and data protection incident procedures.

Data Protection Office

You can contact our Data Protection officer by email: DataProtection@swindon.gov.uk

If you remain dissatisfied with the way your personal data has been handled, you have the right to complain to the Information Commissioner’s Office at www.ICO.org.uk.

You may refer the matter to the Information Commissioner’s Office whose contact details are below:
Information Commissioner’s Office

Wycliffe House
Water Lane
Wilmslow
Cheshire
SK9 5AF

Email: casework@ico.org.uk

The ICO website also contains information on data protection and your rights and remedies.

You are under no statutory obligation to provide personal data to Swindon Borough Council. If you do not provide your contact details we cannot enter you into the prize draw.

A yearly audit will take place on personal data to ensure that we remain legally compliant in accordance with current data protection legislation.

You are viewing the Privacy Notice for Housing surveys.

Read the main Privacy Notice