Equality diversity and inclusion form from landlord.

[Vertigo2851]

I have received this form today and it asks for the following,

My gender, including trans, non binary.
Sexual orientation
religion
ethnicity
marital status
Physical or mh conditions
Whether I have been a domestic abuse victim
If I have PTSD
Questions about neurodiversity.

Are they allowed to ask these things?

You do not have to reply.

You've got to be fucking joking!

(sadly I know you're not)

Who do they think they are? Massive overreach. Who needs this information and why? Who safeguards it and how?

File in the recycling bin, and if pursued say you assumed it was junk mail as clearly it contravenes GDPR.

If the landlord is being weird about other things, please contact Shelter.

Is it from an individual landlord or a letting agency?

If an agency, name and shame here.

What kind of form? Anonymous or not? Letting agency or Landlord?

If it's an anonymous form designed to collect data about all tenants so the letting agency can find out about whether they are getting clients from a cross section of the population, yes that's legal I would imagine, like it is with job applications. Although it is in no way illegal to refuse to fill it in. If it's an individual landlord or it isn't anonymous then no I doubt whether it is legal!

It’s from my housing association and it’s not anonymous, it’s addressed to me personally. It’s the second one I’ve received because there are “gaps” in the information I gave them last time, like how I identify and my sexuality.

They say they collect this information to learn more about their customers and to ensure they are fair and transparent. Is that a reasonable excuse to ask me these things? I feel really annoyed about it.

If housing associations get any money from government or charitable funding, their funding bodies almost certainly are asking them for this information about the clients they're serving. So they will then turn around and ask you and all the other tenants for this data.

It's all about accountability of how the money is spent.

A HA will collect relevant data upon offering a tenancy.

So probably additional questions have been added for existing tenants. Still do not have to answer.

From what you've said it doesn't really sound GDPR compliant

www.gov.uk/data-protection

Just ignore it it.

It's reasonable to ask you.

However it's also reasonable to not give an answer.

I would respond accordingly, that you do not consent to your data being used in this manner.

They can't hold against you because it's potentially discriminatory.

No one should feel compelled to reveal to a stranger whether they've been a victim of domestic abuse.

Tell them no. I hate this intrusion and these demands to know personal information.

Even employers subject to the government's equality monitoring don't ask the second half of this.

They say they collect this information to learn more about their customers and to ensure they are fair and transparent.

I hate this kind of "justification". You see it a lot. It's intrusive. It just makes me think, would you not be fair and transparent to everyone anyway?

Sorry didn't mean to quote you @Precipice. Although I do agree with you!

On what basis?

And this is why I hate DEI. It's nobody's business what we all are.

Is one of the options "prefer not to say"? If so just tick that for everything. If not write it on.

@Dandylione under GDPR if you collect personal data, there are a zillion rules around how it's used and stored - for instance you're not supposed to hold personal data where it can be identifiable ie. breach of confidentiality so if your sample size is small, that's far more likely.

We get these kinds of EDI data requests all the time at work from our funders and we are supposed to go out and collect it on a voluntary basis. I hate even asking, but the funders often make the funding conditional on us at least trying to gather what we can every year and feed back to them. I try and push back but I also don't want to seem obstructive and potentially lose the funding next time as I couldn't fulfil their monitoring requirements. It's my least favourite part of my otherwise very enjoyable job.

Ask them to provide you with the same personal information so you can interact with them more genuinely…

Seriously though, those questions are intrusive and I wouldn’t answer them at all - it’s none of their business.

I never answer questions like this for anything.

Under GDPR they are under a general duty to a) only collect personal information they actually need in order to carry out their functions; and b) not hold onto personal information they no longer need.

In order to provide housing to tenants, the landlord needs to: know which tenant is resident in which property, have a means of collecting rent, and understand how best to communicate with tenants (eg if a tenant is blind, is deaf, doesn’t understand English etc). Social housing landlords may also see it as part of their role to provide additional support to tenants who may be vulnerable in some way.

Collecting information on that basis (eg is the tenant disabled? eg are their children in the property? eg is the tenant a vulnerable adult who could be at risk of “cuckooing”?) could be a legitimate reason under GDPR for requesting and holding information about tenants.

However “the organisation which supplies me with grant funding requires me to collect this info” is not, in and of itself, a legitimate reason under GDPR.

Nor is “we like to know stuff about our tenants’ personal lives so please fill in this form”.

They are also under a duty to not be discriminatory in the provision of services. They might argue that collecting all this info is a way of checking whether there is any unconscious bias in the way they are providing housing services eg are any groups under represented. However that doesn’t mean they can require you to supply any of this information.

If the supply of this information is not a condition of your tenancy (which it shouldn’t be imo), you can simply ignore the letter.

Lays it all out comprehensively. Thanks.

They can rely on consent. You're right thought it's fine to to ignore the request.