Guidance

Changing Futures research: privacy notice

Updated 17 April 2024

Applies to England

The Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities (DLUHC) is carrying out research to understand how well services are working. The research will help shape what services are available and help improve services in future.

1. Our contact details

Data Protection Officer
Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities
2 Marsham Street
London
SW1P 4DF

Email: dataprotection@levellingup.gov.uk

Date: Autumn 2021

2. The type of personal information we collect

As part of the research, and if you agree, we will be collecting and processing the following information:

• Personal identifiers, including your name, address, date of birth and national insurance number
• Information about your:
  • housing situation
  • health, safety and wellbeing
  • use of health care services
  • any benefits you receive
  • and any offending behaviour

3. How we get the personal information and why we have it

Some of this personal information is provided to us directly by you with the help of your support worker, through questionnaires (e.g. your wellbeing and safety, your health and use of health care services and your housing situation). It is up to you what information you share.

If you agree, we will share the information you have provided to us directly with the Changing Futures service working with you. This information will not be used to affect any of the services you receive.

If you agree, we will also receive personal information from the Changing Futures service, and from other government agencies:

• The Changing Futures service will provide us with personal information about your health and safety, use of health care services and any offending behaviour.
• The Changing Futures services will share your personal identifiers (name, date of birth, address etc.) with an organisation that has expertise in with data and keeping it secure
• The organisation will share your personal identifiers with other government agencies, so that these agencies can share information about you. The information will then be sent to the researchers, but without your name or other personal identifiers.

This includes information from:

• the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) on any benefits you receive
• National Health Service Digital (NHS Digital) on your health and use of health care services
• Office for Health Improvement and Disparities OHID (formerly known as Public Health England) on your use of any substance misuse services
• Ministry of Justice (MoJ) and Home Office (HO) on any offending behaviour

Researchers working for us will be receiving all your information except for your personal identifiers. They won’t know whose information they are looking at, but they will tell us how well the services are working for people.

This information is collected to help us understand how well services for people who might be facing a range of issues such as homelessness, mental health issues and substance misuse, are working. These services are part of a programme called Changing Futures.

We use all this information about you and other people to help us understand how well the Changing Futures services are working. It will help shape what services are available in the future but will not affect any of the services or benefits you receive now.

Your personal information can only be shared by the Changing Futures service and used by DLUHC if it is done in a way that fits with the law.

Under the UK General Data Protection Regulation (UK GDPR), the lawful bases DLUHC rely on for using your information is that we need it to perform a public task.

DLUHC is able to use your personal information for the research because the research is expected to help the government make better decisions about services in the future. The law states that personal information can be used if it is in the public interest to do so. DLUHC believes that it is in the interests of the public for this research to be carried out.

The law also states that extra care has to be taken with personal information that is more sensitive.

As some of the data that is going to be collected is sensitive, extra care will be taken to make sure your information is held securely and kept in accordance with the law.

4. How we store your personal information

Your information is securely stored in the UK.

We keep your personal identifiers only for as long as they are needed for the research. We will then securely dispose of all your personal identifiers (e.g. name, date of birth, national insurance number) and ensure that you cannot be identified from the remaining information - it will no longer be personal information.

5. Your data protection rights

Under data protection law, you have rights including:

Your right of access - You have the right to ask us for copies of your personal information.

Your right to rectification - You have the right to ask us to rectify personal information you think is inaccurate. You also have the right to ask us to complete information you think is incomplete.

Your right to restriction of processing - You have the right to ask us to restrict the processing of your personal information in certain circumstances.

Your right to object to processing - You have the the right to object to the processing of your personal information in certain circumstances.

You are not required to pay any charge for exercising your rights. If you make a request, we have one month to respond to you.

Please contact us at dataprotection@levellingup.gov.uk if you wish to make a request.

6. How to complain

If you have any concerns about our use of your personal information, you can make a complaint to us at dataprotection@levellingup.gov.uk.

You can also complain to the ICO if you are unhappy with how we have used your data. The ICO’s address is:

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

Helpline number: 0303 123 1113

ICO website: https://www.ico.org.uk