Privacy Notice

1. Introduction

Shropshire Rural Housing Association (SRHA) takes the privacy and security of personal information seriously. Personal information or data is information that can identify you as an individual. We recognise that when someone provides such information to us, they trust us to handle the information appropriately, to keep it secure and to retain it for no longer than necessary.

This notice provides an explanation of how we collect personal information, what we use it for, how we store it, who we share it with and why.

2. Responsibilities

2.1 The Finance Director is responsible for ensuring that this notice is made available to data subjects (individuals) prior to SRHA collecting/processing their personal information/data.
2.2 All employees of SRHA who interact with data subjects are responsible for ensuring that this notice is drawn to the data subject’s attention and their consent to the processing of their data is secured.

3. Who are we?

SRHA is a Housing Association registered under charitable rules and providing affordable housing throughout Shropshire. The registered address is The Maltings, 59 Lythwood Road, Bayston Hill, Shrewsbury, SY3 0NA.

Our Finance Director can be contacted directly at the above address or by e-mail or telephone:

4. How do we collect personal data

SRHA only collects personal data for specific purposes. This includes information about current and former tenants and other service users. This may also include information about other household members or next of kin. We collect this information in many ways, most commonly through paper and online application forms, other requests for our services, requests for information about our homes and services and through our ongoing relationship with you.

The personal information we would like to collect from you is:

  • Your Full Name
  • Address
  • Contact telephone numbers
  • Email Address
  • National Insurance Number
  • Date of birth
  • Details of race, gender etc.

It is important that you keep us informed of any changes to your personal information, especially contact numbers and email address.

5. Sensitive Personal Data

When SRHA collects and holds more sensitive personal data (including that described by law as ‘special category’ information) we will always seek your clear consent for this, explain why we need it and who we may need to share it with. The special categories of personal data concerned are:

  • Race
  • Ethnic origin
  • Political opinions
  • Religious belief
  • Philosophical beliefsTrade Union membership
  • Genetic data
  • Biometric data
  • Health data
  • Data concerning a natural person’s sex life
  • Sexual orientation
  • Other

We aim to minimise the holding and use of this type of personal information but, given the service provided by SRHA, there may be times when we need to use it; for example, when providing housing to someone who has disabilities or when resolving neighbourhood disputes and when helping someone to access care and support services.

We collect information from applicants for employment and from individuals who are on our Board and/or Committees or who apply to join the Association.

If you apply to work at SRHA we will use the personal information you provide to process your application, and to produce and monitor recruitment statistics. Your information will not be shared or disclosed unless we have your consent to do so or we are required to do so by law. Personal information about unsuccessful applicants will be held for a reasonable period of time after the recruitment process has been completed.

6. How we use your personal information

For applications for housing, we may request and hold on file any references necessary to assess your application. If relevant to your enquiry, service or accommodation we may collect other information, such as details of convictions, proceedings and criminal acts.

The personal data we collect will be used for the following purposes:

To:

  • Provide appropriate homes
  • Manage tenancies
  • Provide repairs and maintenance services
  • Receive rent and service charge payments
  • Offer help with debts and benefits
  • Provide support services
  • Improve our current services
  • Resolve disputes and respond to anti-social behaviour
  • Promote safety and the quiet enjoyment of our neighbourhood and communities
  • Seek the views of our customers about our homes and services to help us make improvements to them.
  • Provide information about homes and/or services that you request from us
  • Promote equal opportunities and fair treatment for all colleagues and customers
  • Provide employment and trading advice and opportunities
  • Manage employment and colleague development
  • Complete reports and notifications as required by our regulators and the law.

7. Consent

By consenting to the privacy policy described in this notice you are giving SRHA permission to process your personal data specifically for the purposes identified.

Consent is required for SRHA to process personal data, but it must be explicitly given. Where we are asking you for sensitive personal data we will always tell you why and how the information will be used.

Your personal data will be kept on file as long as you hold a tenancy with us, and if in the future you should leave us, your data will be held for a further seven years in line with legislation retention periods.

8. Sharing Data

The personal information will normally only be used by SRHA, but there may be times when we need to disclose your details to others. In most cases this will be basic contact details to enable us, for example, to carry out our duties as a landlord:

  • Enabling contractors to undertake repairs or improvements to your home
  • Enabling our appointed handlers of out of hours service calls
  • To assist our professional advisors and auditors
  • To provide assistance to an external third party when you have consented to such a referral: for example, to enable the provision of debt advice or care and support services

In some circumstances SRHA may disclose information to authorised third parties without your consent. Such circumstances include:

  • To comply with the law
  • Where there is clear evidence of fraud
  • In connection with legal proceedings
  • Where it is essential to enable SRHA to carry out its duties
  • Where the Health and Safety of an individual would be at risk by not disclosing the information.
  • Where the data is anonymised and to be used for statistics/research

We will not share your personal information with anyone who claims to represent you unless we are satisfied that you have appointed them or they act in some recognised official capacity for you.

9. Telephone Recording

SRHA records telephone calls. We do this to check we are meeting the standards we set for handling customer service enquiries and complaints, and for training purposes.

SRHA will not share the recordings with third parties, except in exceptional circumstances, such as law enforcement.

10. Security of Information

SRHA takes security of data seriously and will take the appropriate precautions to prevent unauthorised access, loss, misuse or alternation of your personal information. SRHA does this by ensuring we have up to date ‘firewalls’ and ‘anti-virus’ software on our computer systems. We also ensure that all of our contractors requiring personal data in order to deliver services on our behalf sign up to a Data Sharing Agreement and Code of Conduct to ensure they share our values. We use secure means (password protecting and encrypting emails) to transfer personal information to appropriate third parties; for example, to enable contractors to carry out repairs.

We take the necessary steps to keep our paper records secure in our offices.

11. Accessing your information

You may request a copy of the information held about you by SRHA (known as Subject Access Requests), and you can request to have this amended or erased if it is inaccurate or no longer required. There are certain rules and exceptions to these rights: if you wish to know more or be provided with your personal information, please contact us either by writing to us at (our address) The Maltings, 59 Lythwood Road, Bayston Hill, Shrewsbury, SY3 0NA or by emailing us at enquiries@shropshirerural.co.uk

We will respond to any subject access requests within 30 calendar days. To comply with any request, we will need to confirm your identity (and may do this in a number of ways) so that personal data is not disclosed to anyone who is not entitled to see it.

12. Links to other websites

This notice is limited to this website only. If you follow a link to an external site, we recommend that you check the privacy notice of that site before giving any personal details.

Our website may contain links to other websites of interest. However, once you use these links to leave our site, you should note that we don’t have any control over other websites. SRHA cannot be held responsible for the protection or privacy of any information you provide whilst visiting these websites as they are not governed by this notice. Using these sites is entirely at your own risk and SRHA is not responsible for any loss or damage you may suffer from using these sites.

13. Making a complaint

In the event that you wish to make a complaint about how your personal data is being processed by SRHA (or by third parties described in 8 above), or about how your complaint has been handled, you have the right to lodge a complaint directly with the Association’s Finance Director, the contact details for whom are::

The Finance Director
Shropshire Rural Housing Association
The Maltings
59 Lythwood Road
Bayston Hill
Shrewsbury
SY3 0NA
Email: enquiries@shropshirerural.co.uk
Tel: 01743 874848

You also have the right to complain to the Information Commissioners Office (ICO).

Information Commissioner’s Office
Wycliffe House
Water Lane
Wilmslow
Cheshire
SK9 5AF

Tel: 0303 123 1113 (classed as a local rate)
Or visit – www.ico.org.uk