Introduction
St. Leger Homes of Doncaster (SLHD) is registered as a data controller under the Data Protection Act 1998 (registration number Z9202655) because we collect and process personal information about you and use this to provide and manage our housing service. This Privacy Statement explains how we use, share and protect information which may be collected in any way, for example on paper, webform, by telephone, email, SLHD staff or any of our partners or contractors.
Why do we collect information about you?
We need to collect and hold information about you so that we can:
- Allocate our homes quickly and efficiently
- Manage tenancy agreements and administer rent collection
- Carry out repairs and maintenance
- Contact you in your preferred format e.g. by post, email, telephone etc.
- Understand your needs to provide the services that you request
- Keep your records up to date
- Ask for your feedback about our services
- Help build up a record of how we deliver our housing services across SLHD and plan and improve future services
- Help to detect and prevent fraud
- Comply with legal obligations to our funding bodies and to local and national government
- We may not be able to provide a service or product for you or for all our customers unless we have enough information and have your permission to use it or share it with partnering groups.
How do we use your information?
We will only use the information you provide to understand your needs and provide a better service. Your information can also aide us in meeting our business purposes of managing the housing services we provide, and we will not ask you for any information that is not necessary to enable us to do this.
We will keep your information up to date and not keep it for longer than is necessary, in line with the Data Protection Act 1998, any legal requirements and our retention policy.
We are legally obliged to protect SLHD staff, partners and contractors’ staff and will record any act or threat of violence, abuse or anti-social behaviour towards them by adding a marker to our customer records. We will use it to advise staff, partners and contractors to ensure they are protected in delivering our services and will be reviewed after 12 months.
Controlling your personal information
Within the Data Protection Act you have a right as to how we process your information, in that you have a right:
- Of access to a copy of the information we hold about you
- To object to the processing if it is likely to cause or is causing damage or distress
- To prevent processing for direct marketing
- To object to decisions being taken by automated means
- In certain circumstances to have inaccurate personal data removed, blocked, erased or destroyed
- To claim compensation for damages caused by a breach of the Act
We will not sell, distribute or lease your personal information to third parties unless we have your permission or are required by law to do so.
How do we protect your information?
We have rigorous measures and policies and procedures in place, to ensure the information you give us, will not be seen or shared with anyone who does not need to see it in order to provide our services to you.
We have an Information Security Policy, Document Retention Policy and Data Protection Policy which defines how we use and protect your information. We provide training for staff who handles personal information and if they misuse or do not look after your personal information properly is treated as a disciplinary matter.
Disposal of records that include personal information is carried out in line with our Document Retention Policy.
How do we share your information with other organisations?
We will only share information with other organisations if it is relevant and necessary for us to do so. These may include the Police, DMBC departments, the Courts, repairs and maintenance contractors and utility providers.
These organisations are obliged to keep your information safe and only use it for the purpose(s) for which it was supplied. We require them to store information securely and remove it from their files when they no longer need it and are not allowed to pass information onto anyone else.
Where we share information, we will make it clear to you that this is in line with the Data Protection Act 1998 and we will not share it with any 3rd party without your written consent for us to do so.
We will not share your personal information with anyone else without your permission, except where disclosure is required by law in relation to the prevention and detection of crime or fraud, for the purpose of legal proceedings or where there is good reason to believe that failing to share it would put someone else at risk.
What are your rights under the Data Protection Act 1998?
The Act gives you a legal right to make a formal written request (called a Subject Access Request) for a copy of all personal data we hold about you, the reasons why this is stored and how it is processed and details of who we may have shared it with.
If you request a copy of the personal information we hold about you this must be made in writing and we have 40 calendar days to complete your request.
If you would like to know more about data protection, to use any of the rights under the Act, or if you would like to see any of your personal information, this can be made in writing to The Customer Relations Team, St. Leger Homes of Doncaster, St. Leger Court, White Rose Way, Doncaster DN4 5ND or you can contact them by telephone on 01302 862726 or emailing to CustomerCare@stlegerhomes.co.uk.
You can find out more about the Data Protection Act 1998 and your rights from the Information Commissioner’s Office’s website at www.ico.gov.uk
