Under UK Law, you have certain rights in relation to your personal information and we have responsibilities regarding that information.

You are entitled to request access to the information we hold about you. This is known as a Subject Access Request.

How to make a Subject Access Request.

If you wish to make a subject access request, you should contact:

Corporate Compliance Officer, Southside Housing Association, Southside House, 135 Fifty Pitches Road, Glasgow, G51 4EB.

You can also email: csd@southside-ha.co.uk

Your request should include the following information:

• your full name, address and contact telephone number
• any information used by us to identify or distinguish you from someone else of the same name (e.g. rent reference number, application number, common charges account number)
• details of the specific information you require and any relevant dates.

You do not have to tell us why you want to see your information.

Before we release information to you, we need to be confident of your identity so we may ask you for additional information in order to verify it.

Can I access information on someone else’s behalf?

We will need to be satisfied that you have the individual’s permission to act on their behalf.

If you wish to access information about someone else, you will require their written consent confirming that you are acting on behalf of the individual.

You must also submit proof of your identity and there must be a representation mandate in place.

Click on the link to download a representation mandate form. You should pass it to a Southside staff member when it’s complete.

How long will it take for you to respond to my request?

We will respond to you within the statutory timescale of 1 calendar month, starting from the day we receive your request and all information necessary to answer your request.

Before we release information to you, we need to be confident of your identity so we may ask you for additional information in order to verify it.

Will any information be withheld?

There are some circumstances where the information you have asked for contains information that relates to another person.

Unless the other person gives their permission, or it is reasonable in all the circumstances to provide the information without permission, we are entitled to withhold this information.

Third party information may be edited out (redacted) so that it does not form part of the requested information.

There are exemptions within the Data Protection Act 2018 which may allow us to refuse to comply with your request.

Where an exemption applies to the facts of your request, we may refuse to provide all or some of the information requested, depending on the circumstances. For example, if providing you with the information would be likely to affect the way crime is detected or prevented. When responding to you, the reasons will be explained.

What if I am not happy with the handling of this request

If you are dissatisfied with the handling of this subject access request and wish to seek a review, please contact the Corporate Compliance Officer.

Should you remain dissatisfied with the handling of your subject access request and the review, you may wish to contact the Information Commissioner’s Office

You can find full details about how we process your personal data across the range of services we provide in our Fair Processing Notices.

You can find full details about how we process your personal data across the range of services we provide in our Fair Processing Notices:

Southside Housing Association Fair Processing Notice

Southside Housing Association Privacy Policy

Southside Housing Association – Document Retention Schedule May 2018

Welfare Rights and Money Advice Service – Fair Processing Notice

GDPR Housing Applicant Booklet

Southside Factoring and Related Services: Privacy Policy

Southside Factoring and Related Services Fair Processing Notice

Southside Factoring and Related Services – Private Letting Fair Processing Notice

The Environmental Information (Scotland) Regulations 2004 provide a right to access environmental information which is held by a designated body. Although Housing Associations are not currently subject to the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002, Housing Associations have been designated bodies with regard to Environmental Information (Scotland) Regulations since 2014.

Environmental Information

The regulations apply a very broad definition to what may be considered to be environmental information. This includes any information that we may hold in written, visual, electronic or any other material form on;

• The state of the elements of the environment – Such as air, water, soil, land and landscape.
• Substances – Energy, noise, radiation or waste, emissions, discharges and other releases into the environment affecting or likely to affect the state of any of the elements of the environment outlined above.
• Administrative measures such as our policies, plans, programmes, environmental agreements and any activities affecting or likely to affect the state of any of the elements outlined above.
• Reports – Cost-benefit and other economic analyses used in our policies, plans, programmes, agreements and other activities.
• Effects of the environment on conditions of human life – Health and safety, contamination of the food chain, floods, cultural sites and the built environment.

How to request environmental information

You can make a request for environmental information simply by contacting us. Unlike a Freedom of Information request your request does not have to be made in writing.

Timescales

We will acknowledge your request, and respond to your request within 20 working days. if your request is quite general we may contact you for further clarification to assist us in providing the information you have asked us for.

We may in exceptional circumstances extend our response timescales by up to another 20 working days if your request is particularly large or complex. We will always contact you to inform you if we are not able to respond to your request within 20 working days.

Charges

We can charge a reasonable amount towards making environmental information available. Any charge we make for providing environmental information is based only on estimated costs of staff time to locate and retrieve information plus any costs which may be associated with providing the information in a particular format, copying and postage costs. We will not charge for the time taken to decide if we hold the information you have requested or the time it takes to decide whether the information can be released. You can find details of our charging structure here: Charging Schedule for Providing Environmental Information.

From 11^th November 2019 the provisions of the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002 come into force with regard to Scottish Housing Associations and Co-operatives. Freedom of Information allows anyone the right to access to a range of information the Association holds with regard to for example how we make decisions or financial information about the Association.

Publication Scheme

The Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002 (the Act) requires Scottish public authorities to adopt and maintain a publication scheme which has the approval of the Scottish Information Commissioner, and publish information in accordance with that scheme.

Authorities are under a legal obligation to:

• publish the classes of information that the authority makes routinely available
• tell the public how to access the information and whether information is available free of charge or on payment

Alongside the Act, the Environmental Information (Scotland) Regulations 2004 (the EIRs) provide a separate right of access to the environmental information that we hold.

Southside Housing Association has adopted the Model Publication Scheme 2018, produced and approved by the Scottish Information Commissioner. Our Management Committee approved the adoption of this Model Publication Scheme in October 2019

The Scheme can also be viewed in Publication Scheme Resources at the Scottish Information Commissioner website.

The scheme set out our commitment to make certain classes of information routinely available, such as policies and procedures, minutes of meetings, annual reports and financial information. We have developed a Guide to Information for this purpose and this also contains details of the environmental information that we routinely make available.

The Association has also produced our own Guide to Information which sets out information about who we are and what we do, and provides signposts to where we proactively publish information under the classes of information sets out in the Model Publication Scheme.

How to Make a Request

Anyone can make a request under the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002. You can make your request in writing, by email or by any other method that is recorded.

If you wish to make a request for information or if you require any advice or assistance in relation to Freedom of Information or the Environmental Information (Scotland) Regulations 2004 please contact us at the address below:

Corporate Compliance Officer

Southside Housing Association

Southside House

135 Fifty Pitches Road

Glasgow

G51 4EB

Tel:      0141 422 1112

Email: csd@southside-ha.co.uk

Withholding Information

Under Freedom of Information legislation, information may be withheld if there is a good reason for doing so.

If we withhold information, we will let you know why. If you are unhappy with our decision, or with the way we have dealt with your request, you can ask us to review our decision.

If you do not agree with the outcome of the review, you can ask the Scottish Information Commissioner to investigate.