Portsmouth City Council is a registered Data Controller (Registration Number Z5578313). Portsmouth City Council aims to meet the highest standards when collecting and using personal information in accordance with data protection law.
This privacy notice tells you about how Portsmouth City Council collects and uses personal information.
What information do we collect?
The Additional Licensing Team collects the names, addresses, and contact information in the form of telephone numbers and email addresses from you as a customer. With your explicit consent we may also collect other personal information such as your mental and physical health where it is impacted by your housing situation when relevant. We keep copies of letters and records of telephone calls along with information we receive about you from other organisations where the law permits, for example other local authorities, departments within the council, the Department for Work and Pensions, the Police, and other government agencies.
Why do we collect your information?
Portsmouth City Council uses personal information to:
- Deliver Services
- Facilitate and oversee works in privately rented properties and owner- occupied properties across the city
- Assist in Service development
- Offer support and access to services
- Enable the recovery of costs for works in privately owned or rented properties
- Manage licences
- Encourage community engagement to understand any local issues and work with the community to find a solution
- To ensure satisfactory student accommodation across the city
- For the purposes of detecting and preventing crime
- To take enforcement action when required
How we use your information?
Portsmouth City Council uses personal information to:
- Ensure that we can contact you when it is necessary to do so
- Take appropriate enforcement action against the appropriate person when property conditions are below that of the expected standard
- Keep records to ensure that all standards are maintained once works have been carried out and to obtain evidence of poor property conditions.
- Maintain housing standards in privately owned properties across the city
How do we keep personal information secure?
Portsmouth City Council ensures that your personal data is kept secure through the use of technical security measures for all our IT systems. We ensure that only employees who should have access to personal data can do so and this is managed through comprehensive training, regular checks and validation. Anyone that processes personal data on our behalf, such as repairs contractors, are governed by specific contracts to ensure that they do so securely and only for the purposes set out by Portsmouth City Council.
How long do we keep hold of personal information?
Records will not be kept for longer than necessary. Full information regarding retention periods for the different types of data can be found on our website
Access to personal information
You have the right to know if Portsmouth City Council holds any personal information relating to you. You can do this by making a ‘Subject Access Request’ using the information in the ‘How to contact us’ section or by going to our FOI page.
You will usually be entitled to see all of the data held about you but may not be entitled to see confidential information about other people.
Access to CCTV images
CCTV and Body Worn Camera images that are stored and catalogued may be accessed by individuals by following the procedure above to make a ‘Subject Access Request’. Portsmouth City Council may not record CCTV at all locations with CCTV signage and not all CCTV cameras will be operational at all hours of the week. Individuals may not be able to see visual images that contain other identifiable individuals or are considered confidential under law e.g. if they are required for the prevention or identification of a crime.
Sharing or disclosing personal information
There may be times when we need to share your information with other people. We will only do this if you have either given your explicit consent or where the law allows or requires us to. This could be in an emergency where there is a safeguarding concern or life threatening situation or for the purposes of preventing or detecting crime or fraud or apprehending and prosecuting offenders where we have a statutory duty to do so.
We will share personal data with other organisations such as the Police, Adult and Children’s Services where the law allows us to do so.
We will only share with each person or organisation the details they need in order to provide their services or support to you or perform their statutory duty.
Complaints or queries
If you have a complaint or query about how we collect and use personal information, if you would like a change to be made to your record or want to object to processing of your information, please contact us using the information in the ‘How to contact us’ section below.
If you would like to make a complaint or are not satisfied with the responses you have received from us after making a request, please contact:
Information Commissioner’s Office, Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow, Cheshire, SK9 5AF Tel: 0303 123 1113 (local rate) or 01625 545 745 (if you prefer to use a national rate number).
Changes to this privacy notice
This privacy notice was last updated on the 24 July 2023.
How to contact us
If you want to request details of our Corporate Privacy Policy please visit our Portsmouth City Council Website. If you require further information about how we and how we collect and use personal information, you can contact:
Data Protection Officer,
Customer, Community & Democratic Service, Portsmouth City Council
Civic offices, Portsmouth, PO1 2AL
Email: Dataprotection@portsmouthcc.gov.uk
Telephone: 023 9282 2251