Housing Options Service

Bristol City Council is the data controller for the purposes of the Data Protection Act 1998 and other regulations including the General Data Protection Regulation (Regulation (EU) 2016/679), which means it determines what your data is used for and why it is collected. The purpose of this privacy notice is to tell you about what information we collect about you when you use our service, how we use that information and who we may share it with.

The contact details of the data controller are Bristol City Council, City Hall, College Green, Bristol BS1 5TR.

What data we need to collect and the legal basis for processing it:

To deliver the Housing Options service, we will process data on your name, date of birth, ethnicity, religion/faith, financial circumstances, contact details, information relating to your housing, and information relating to your health and social circumstances insofar as they are relevant to your application for help with housing. We will need to collect this data in relation to every member of your household.

To provide this service, we will process your name, date of birth, national insurance number, address, email address, some household details, relevant health factors; and the reasons for your potential or actual homelessness. We are collecting this data because we are required to under homelessness prevention, housing and welfare reform legislation; and/or because it is necessary for us to provide the service that you wish to receive.

How long we will keep your data for:

We will hold this information for 6 years after we cease to provide a service to you, unless the law says that we need to hold it for longer. After this, your information will be deleted or archived.

Why we need to collect your data:

We will use this information to:

  •  Ensure that you are appropriately and sustainably housed e.g. in supported, temporary, private rented or social housing
  •  Prevent your homelessness
  •  Ensure that you are advised and supported to ensure that your income is maximised
  •  Address any problems and overcome any obstacles with the above.
  •  MHCLG reporting purposes.

Who we share your data with and why:

This data will be available to a range of relevant Housing Options Service staff and may be disclosed to other teams within Bristol City Council (BCC), and/or to other providers of services, where data sharing is necessary to provide our services. These are:

  •  BCC Revenues and Benefits
  •  BCC Adult Social Care
  •  BCC Children and Families
  •  Housing Associations, supported housing and floating support providers
  •  Private landlords.
  •  The National Probation Service, including Community Rehabilitation Companies (CRCs)
  •  HM Prison Service
  •  National Health Service
  •  Schools and children’s centres
  •  The Department for Work and Pensions
  •  Her Majesty’s Revenue & Customs
  •  The Ministry for Housing, Communities and Local Government

NB We will share information with other organisations where this is necessary to prevent fraud.

This data will be shared with some or all of the above services as required by your situation, so that your homelessness can be prevented or relieved.

If we have your consent to use your data:

You can withdraw your consent for us to process your information at any time. If you wish to do so, we will advise you about what you need to do.

Where we have used automated processing or profiling:

This data has been processed automatically and may be used to make non-legally significant decisions based on the information you supply. This decision is reached by matching your circumstances with known homelessness risk triggers, after which we may offer a homelessness prevention service to you. This is important because it is our duty to try to prevent homelessness whenever possible.

Where we have received your data from a third party:

We obtain some data from referrals to our service. This data includes: your name, date of birth, ethnicity, religion/faith, financial circumstances, contact details,

information relating to your housing, and information relating to your health and social circumstances insofar as they are relevant to your application for housing.

We must provide this privacy notice to you within one month of receiving the information from the data subject, at first point of contact with the data subject or when data is passed on to another third party, whichever comes first.

Your rights as a data subject:

You have the right to ask for access to your data and where data is found to be inaccurate to have that data corrected. In certain circumstances you have the right to have data held about you erased, or the use of it restricted. You may be able to object to processing and may also have the right to have your data transferred to another data controller.

You also have a right of complaint to the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) at www.ico.org.uk if you think we have not dealt with your information in a proper manner.

You can ask to see what information we hold about you and have access to it. You can do this by contacting:

Senior Data Protection Officer
Bristol City Council
ICT Commissioning and Information Governance
PO Box 3176
BRISTOL
BS3 9FS

Data.protection@bristol.gov.uk

Other questions about the data being processed may also be sent to the above address.

Fraud Prevention and Detection:

Bristol City Council is required by law to protect the public funds it administers. It may share information provided to it with other bodies responsible for auditing, administering public funds, or where undertaking a public function, in order to prevent and detect fraud. For more information visit www.bristol.gov.uk/data-protection-foi/fraud-prevention-and-detection