North Somerset Council is registered with the Information Commissioner’s Office for the purposes of processing personal data.
The information you provide will be held and used in accordance with the requirements of UK and European data protection law. The information will form part of your housing application (either HomeChoice and/or homeless application), and will be held for six years from last contact with you.
Unless otherwise agreed with you, we will only collect the minimum personal data required to deliver the service, which includes name, family composition, address, personal opinions and professional opinions. Where specialist provision is required, we will also collect information relating to physical or mental health conditions, if these have a direct impact on the type of home to be allocated.
The information will be used for the administration of the HomeChoice and homelessness prevention services, as part of our statutory duty under Part 6 Allocation of housing accommodation and Part 7 Homelessness and threatened homelessness of the Housing Act 1996. This includes the priority given to a household’s housing circumstances, and is in accordance with Articles 6(1)(d) and 9(2)(g) of GDPR.
We will not use your personal information in a way that may cause you unwarranted nuisance. Failure to provide the information could result in your housing application being suspended or cancelled.
The information provided will be shared with our partners such as registered providers and supported housing providers, who have demonstrated that they have a lawful and legitimate interest in the information, for the purposes of a housing allocation under Part 6 or Part 7 of Housing Act 1996. Where a service user is identified as someone who may benefit from our extra care housing scheme, your contact details will be shared with a member of this team, for them to make direct contact with you. We may also share the information with our troubled families team, for the purposes of protecting the welfare of a child. Your data is never shared or processed outside of the UK.
You have the right to see the personal data we process about you, as well as the right of rectification and restriction (of destruction of records only).