This privacy notice is designed to help you understand how and why North Yorkshire Council processes your personal data. This notice should be read in conjunction with our corporate privacy notice.
Who are we?
North Yorkshire Council is a ‘data controller’ as defined by Article 4(7) of the UK General Data Protection Regulation (UK GDPR). The housing service is responsible for the management of rental accommodation (including social housing) and the administration of lettings for current tenants across the district. This also includes the licensing of traveller pitches.
This service involves the allocation of council accommodation, including assessment of applications via the North Yorkshire home choice, sub-regional choice-based lettings system; the monitoring and recovery of rents due in relation to housing accommodation and garage accommodation, together with charges applied for supported housing.
A tenancy relations service is also provided in relation to tenancy related issues and breaches of accommodation. A repairs and maintenance service is also provided to all council tenants with an in-house repairs team providing the reactive repair service, supported by external contractors in relation to specialist roles for instance, Asbestos removal. In accordance with prevailing legislation, we provide Fire Safety Assessments which includes inspections of communal areas and actions undertaken where necessary.
The council has appointed Veritau to be its data protection officer. Their contact details are:
Information Governance Office
Veritau
West Offices
Station Rise
York
North Yorkshire
YO1 6GA
Email: infogov@northyorks.gov.uk
Tel: 01904 552848
What personal information do we collect?
To manage your tenancy and associated accommodation, the council processes the following categories of personal data for the tenant / licensee and household members:
- name
- address
- date of birth
- contact details (email address and telephone number)
- marital status
- emergency contact details
- national insurance number
- gender
- photo and video on ID
- financial information (including payment information, benefit details, and unemployment/employment details)
- at certain designated sites CCTV may be in operation (more privacy information on this can be found on the council’s CCTV notice).
We may also need to process the following types of special category information:
- health/medical information
- ethnicity
- religion
- sexual orientation
- gender
In certain circumstances, we may also process information relating to criminal convictions or offences to enable ongoing risk assessment and staff and resident safety.
Why do we collect your personal information?
We process your information for the following purposes:
- to manage the rented property including the arrangement of maintenance and repairs
- to manage your tenancy including the administration of new tenancies, collection of rental payments and terminations/evictions
- to manage the arrangement of payment for services and utilities such as council tax and utility bills
- to allow us to recover debts and other payments due, including any possession proceedings
- to allow for the welfare benefits (including universal credit and housing benefit) to be accounted into the value of rent payable
- to communicate with you regarding your tenancy and maintain records of such communications where required
- to perform our legal obligations for compliance with legal and regulatory requirements in relation to the tenancy and accommodation
- for the prevention and detection of crime including tenancy fraud
- allocation of social housing, garages and commercial units
- undertake repairs, maintenance and servicing of council accommodation as detailed with prevailing legislation.
- to facilitate the works needed to be carried out at the property.
- undertake health and safety fire safety assessments in accordance with regulatory reform (fire safety) order 2005
- in connection with the STAR survey for future planning
- in connection with the collection of key performance indicators
- in connection with the requirements set by the regulator of social housing with regard to the consumer standards
Who do we obtain your information from?
In addition to the information, we collect directly from you, within the council, we may also receive information from the following parties:
- other teams within the council’s housing service for instance, the housing options team
- revenues and benefits
Externally to the council, information may be received from.
- letting agents advertising and or managing properties on our behalf
- referrals from current housing providers for move on accommodation
- Department for Work and Pensions
- specialist support agencies
- police
- youth justice
- other councils
- medical professionals
- third sector services for instance, Citizen’s Advice Bureau
- HM forces service
Who do we share this information with?
Internally within the council, we will share information with the following areas:
- revenues and benefits
- legal services
- community safety
- adults and children’s social care
Externally to the council, we may share information with the following organisations:
- other local authorities
- housing associations/providers
- landlords
- specialist support services
- North Yorkshire Police
- Department of Work and Pensions
- judicial agencies for instance, courts
- services/occupational therapist
- Police
- health authority
- council appointed contractors
- Veritau for example, in the prevention of fraud, and auditing service provision
- North Yorkshire Fire and Rescue Services (breaches of fire safety by private leaseholders in accordance with the fire safety order 2005)
How long do we keep your information for?
|
Data held |
Retention period |
|---|---|
|
Tenancy information |
Lifetime of tenancy and then a further 6 years |
|
Financial records |
Lifetime of tenancy and then archived on IT system indefinitely. |
|
Repairs information |
Lifetime of tenancy and then archived indefinitely (held on the system to show repairs/maintenance undertaken on the property) |
|
North Yorkshire Home Choice – Applications |
Lifetime of application. Held on system indefinitely to enable re-application with existing reference. However, if no application made within seven years the details are anonymised. Any documents held on the system are automatically removed after seven years, even if the application is active. |
What is our lawful basis for processing your information?
North Yorkshire Council relies on the following lawful basis to process your personal data:
- UK GDPR Article 6 (1) (b) – processing is necessary for the performance of a contract to which the data subject is party or in order to take steps at the request of the data subject prior to entering into a contract
- UK GDPR Article 6 (1) (c) – processing is necessary for compliance with a legal obligation to which the controller is subject
- UK GDPR Article 6 (1) (e) – processing is necessary for the performance of a task in the public interest
When processing criminal conviction data, processing meets schedule 1, part 2 of the data protection act 2018 as below:
- (10) Preventing or detecting unlawful acts
- (18) Safeguarding of children and individuals at risk
When processing special category data, the council will rely on the following lawful basis:
UK GDPR Article 9 (2) (g) – processing is necessary for reasons of substantial public interest with processing meeting schedule 1, part 2 of the data protection act 2018 as below:
- (6) statutory and government purposes
- (16) support for individuals with a particular disability or medical condition
- (18) safeguarding of children and individuals at risk
The legislations, policies and guidance that relate to this service includes, but is not limited to:
- housing act 1985
- regulatory reform (fire safety) order 2005
- fire safety (England) regulations 2022
- regulator of social housing – consumer standards
For more information about how we use your data, including your privacy rights and the complaints process, please see our corporate privacy notice.