Housing Service – Provision of Housing Advice - Privacy Statement

Your Personal Data

What information do we need?

Argyll and Bute Council will act as the ‘Data Controller’ for the personal data you provide to us. The Data Protection Officer, who is responsible for ensuring personal data is managed in accordance with data protection legislation, can be contacted as follows:

Address: Iain Jackson, Governance and Risk Manager, Argyll and Bute Council, Governance and Law, Kilmory, Lochgilphead PA31 8RT.  

Email:  Iain.Jackson@argyll-bute.gov.uk   or  data.protection@argyll-bute.gov.uk  

Telephone:  01546 604188 or 01546 605522 

The information we collect from you will include details such as your name, address and e-mail address,

For the purposes of this specific service, the personal data we require includes special category information about you (also known as “sensitive personal data”), specifically:

Why we need this information?

Your information is being collected for the following purpose(s):-

• Provision of Housing Advice and Assistance
• Assessing duties with regards to homelessness applications
• Provision of Welfare Rights Advice
• Provision of Housing Support
• Assessing duties with regards to private housing grant applications
• Enabling the HOMEArgyll partners (Argyll Community Housing Association, Dunbritton Housing Association, Fyne Homes, West Highland Housing Association ) to assess applications for social housing

We need to know this personal data in order to provide you with the correct advice, support and to establish your rights when you are requesting assessment for the above services.

If you do not provide this information then we will be unable to:

• Provide Housing Advice and Assistance
• Assess duties with regards to homelessness applications
• Provide Welfare Rights Advice
• Provide Housing Support
• Assess duties with regards to private housing grant applications
• Enable the HOMEArgyll partners (Argyll Community Housing Association, Dunbritton Housing Association, Fyne Homes, West Highland Housing Association ) to assess applications for social housing

We will not collect any personal data from you that isn’t needed for delivery of those services.

The lawful basis for collecting your information in these circumstances are*:-

Legal obligation – processing is necessary for compliance with a legal obligation i.e. Statutory duties under: Housing (Scotland) Act 1987, Housing (Scotland) Act 2001, Housing (Scotland) Act 2006, Housing (Scotland) Act 2010.

Public task – processing is necessary for the performance of a task carried out in the public interest or in the exercise of official authority vested in the Council i.e. the provision of Welfare Rights advice and assistance provided to individuals to maximise their income; Home Energy Efficiency Advice and Assistance to improve property conditions and reduce fuel poverty; Empty Homes Advice and Assistance to individuals to enable empty homes to be brought back into use.

We are required to collect the special category information i.e. race, health, ethnic origin and sexual orientation for the following reason(s):

• For reasons of substantial public interest for aims that are proportionate and which contain appropriate safeguarding measures.

What we will do with your information?

In order to provide this service to you, we will share your information with the agencies or categories of organisations listed below for the purposes specified. 

1. Other public bodies (and also receive information from these other bodies) for the purpose of preventing or detecting fraud
2. HMRC in compliance with legal obligations
3. Regulatory and law enforcement bodies in compliance with legal obligations
4. Other Council services to help us improve our services
5. Partner organisations (listed below).

When you do not provide information directly to us, we may receive it from any of the above partner organisations.

All of the information we collect from you will be processed by staff in the United Kingdom.  You should also be aware that your data will be stored on servers located in within the United Kingdom; the data will not be processed outside the European Union.  We will take all reasonable steps to ensure that your data is kept securely and more information on how we do this can be requested from the Data Protection Officer.

How long will we keep your information?

We will usually keep your information for a minimum of 180 days, after this period it will be destroyed under secure arrangements if it is no longer required for the lawful purpose for which it was obtained.  More information on our retention policy and procedure can be obtained from the Data Protection Officer if required.

Automated Decision Making

There are no Automated Decision Making systems used for any of the purposes identified above.

Your Rights

When you provide information to the Council, you will have the following rights:

• to withdraw consent at any time, where the lawful basis specified above is consent
• to lodge a complaint with the Information Commissioner’s Office – see below for details
• to request access to your personal data – please contact the Data Protection Officer if you wish to submit a request.
• to data portability, where the Legal basis specified above is i) consent or ii) performance of a contract
• to request rectification or erasure of your personal data, as far as the legislation permits – please contact the Data Protection Officer and provide details of what data you wish to be rectified or erased.

You can find out more about your rights in relation to data protection here: www.argyll-bute.gov.uk/data-protection or from the Data Protection Officer by telephone or in writing, as detailed above.

Information Commissioner’s Office

The ICO is the UK’s independent body set up to uphold information rights. 

Information Commissioner’s Office

Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow, Cheshire, SK9 5AF

Telephone:  0303 123 1113   Email:  casework@ico.org.uk 

The Information Commissioner’s Office – Scotland

45 Melville Street, Edinburgh, EH3 7HL

Telephone:  0303 123 1115  Email:  Scotland@ico.org.uk