Guidance

New Homes Accelerator: call for sites privacy notice

Published 29 August 2024

Applies to England

The following is to explain your rights and give you the information you are entitled to under UK data protection legislation.

1. The identity and contact details of the Ministry of Housing, Communities, and Local Government (MHCLG) and our Data Protection Officer   

MHCLG is the data controller. The Data Protection Officer can be contacted at dataprotection@communities.gov.uk.

2. What personal data are we collecting and why?  

Your personal data is being collected as part of the call for sites for the New Homes Accelerator so we can contact you if the site you have submitted is shortlisted for further consideration.

The following personal data is being collected for this purpose:

• your name
• your role/job title
• your email
• your phone number depending on the topic of the consultation, other personal data such as your postcode or employment status
• any personal data you volunteer by either way of evidence or example in your response to the consultation. Please don’t submit any Special Category data in your response.

We may use your personal data to:

• contact you regarding your submission or related matters
• protect ourselves against malicious activity e.g., spam, bots etc.

3.   Lawful basis for processing the data 

UK data protection legislation sets out when we are lawfully allowed to process your data. The lawful basis that applies to this processing is Article 6(1)(e) of the UK GRPR, which allows us to process personal data when this is necessary for the performance of our public tasks in the exercise of our official authority.

4. With whom we will be sharing the data

We may share your data with Homes England, the Local Government Association and the Greater London Authority for the purpose of building our evidence base and reviewing submissions. We will also share your data with Microsoft who provide MHCLG’s IT systems as our Data Processor, under strict terms and conditions.

We will not:

• sell or rent your data to third parties
• share your data with third parties for marketing purposes

We will share your data if we are required to do so by law, for example by court order, or to prevent fraud or other crime.

5. For how long we will keep the personal data, or criteria used to determine the retention period

We will only retain your personal data for as long as:

• it is needed for the purposes of the call for sites
• the law requires us to retain it.

This generally means that we will hold your personal data for at least two years from when we collect it from you.

6. Your rights, e.g., access, rectification, erasure 

The data we are collecting is your personal data, and you have rights that affect what happens to it. You have the right to:

a. know that we are using your personal data

b. see what data we have about you

c. ask to have your data corrected, and to ask how we check the information we hold is accurate

d. complain to the ICO (see below)

In some circumstances you may also have the right to withdraw your consent to us having or using your data, to have all data about you deleted, or to object to particularly types of use of your data. We will tell you when these rights apply.

7. Sending data overseas

Your personal data will not be sent overseas.

8. Automated decision making

We will not use your data for any automated decision making.

9. Storage, security, and data management

We are using a third-party system, Citizen Space, to collect responses to our call for sites. In the first instance your personal data will be stored on their secure UK-based server. Your personal data will be transferred to our secure government IT system as soon as possible, and it will be stored there for two years before it is deleted unless we identify that its continued retention is unnecessary before that point.

10. Complaints and more information

When we ask you for information, we will keep to the law, including the Data Protection Act 2018 and UK General Data Protection Regulation.

If you are unhappy with the way the Department has acted, you can make a complaint.

If you are not happy with how we are using your personal data, you should first contact dataprotection@communities.gov.uk.

If you are still not happy, or for independent advice about data protection, privacy, and data sharing, you can contact:

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

Telephone: 0303 123 1113 or 01625 545 745
https://ico.org.uk/