Department for Levelling up, Housing and Communities Privacy Policy – Changing Futures Evaluation Research

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

Qa Research, an independent research company, will be carrying out surveys as part of this research on behalf of DLUHC in areas which are not on the Changing Futures programme.

DLUHC has asked other independent organisations to analyse data and report on findings. Further detail can be found in the Participant Information Sheet for the research.

Our contact details

Data Protection Officer

2 Marsham Street, London

Phone Number:

E-mail: dataprotection@levellingup.gov.uk

Date: Spring 2022

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, telephone number, email address, address, date of birth and national insurance number
• Information about your housing situation, your health, safety and wellbeing and use of health care services, any benefits you receive and any offending behaviour

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 researchers through questionnaires. It will be up to you what information you share.

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

In the questionnaires you will be asked for information about your experiences and about your characteristics. This includes information about your gender, ethnicity, religion and nationality and some other sensitive information about your background, your health and safety, and whether you have spent time in hospital or in prison.

Any information you provide for the questionnaire will be kept strictly confidential, unless a researcher thinks that you or someone else is at risk of harm.

If you agree to answer one questionnaire now, we will be asking for your permission to contact you again in around 12 months time to answer another questionnaire. For this Qa will need some personal information, including your name, address and telephone number. It is up to you whether you provide this and it will be up to you to decide at the time whether you answer the questionnaire.

As well as the information you give us directly in the questionnaire, the researchers commissioned by DLUHC would like to use information about you collected by other government departments and agencies. To use this information, DLUHC need you to provide some personal information such as your name, address, date of birth and national insurance number. It is up to you whether you provide this.

We will share your personal identifiers with other government agencies, so that they can share information about you with DLUHCs researchers.

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

DLUHCs researchers will link this information with your questionnaire responses so they can analyse all of the data. These researchers 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 DLUHC how well the services are working for people.

You will not be named or identified in any research reports.

DLUHC use all this information about you and other people to help us understand how well services you and other people receive, 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.

Why we can use your personal information

Your personal information can only be 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.

If you change your mind

If you change your mind about completing a questionnaire or sharing your personal information, you can tell the researchers. You will be provided with contact details for this at the end of the interview.

DLUHC and their researchers will delete any information that has not been used by the research, and will delete your personal information and not share it further or use it to contact you again.

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.

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.

How to complain

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

You can also complain to the ICO if you are unhappy with how we have used your data.

The ICO’s address:           

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

Helpline number: 0303 123 1113

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