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?

I tend to be very selective about who I give demographic information to. My doctor might need to know in order to treat me. But my breakdown cover company doesn't. The providers of the online course I'm taking don't.

“They can rely on consent.”

Hmmm. I’d frame that slightly differently.

In addition to i) needing to have a legitimate reason for requesting in the first place and then holding onto the information and ii) only using the information in relation to the purpose for which it was originally requested, they must also obtain consent. And make their Data Privacy Policy / Data Protection Policy available to their customers.

But a legal entity like a social landlord, which may have customers who are vulnerable or with difficulties in understanding English, shouldn’t be asking for unnecessary information ‘because they find it helpful to know about their tenants” and using “well, they agreed to provide it” as their justification.

Particularly when they are asking for highly sensitive personal information like experience of domestic abuse. And it appears that they are holding that information on a non-anonymised basis, given that they know she hasn’t supplied the information previously.

But I’m often shocked at the information which organisations think it’s acceptable to ask for.

And as a PP has pointed out, the data they are requesting is considered to be 'sensitive personal data' under GDPR and a whole lot of additional requirements come into play with regards to use and storage of this kind of data. I'd ignore the form and. if pestered, ask them about their GDPR compliance.

I’m just genuinely shocked that no one appears to have challenged the housing company or their backers about why the heck it is even acceptable to ask people for this information. Especially form a group of people in their accommodation, who are probably not the demographic to quote GDPR back as a reason not to provide, or even understand that b providing the information they’re giving consent to it being used.

frankly, I’d also be writing to my local councillor and MP about over reach, intrusiveness etc and legal piss taking for some woke company to say “look aren’t we good”

but then I bloody hate this sort of thing, and have often refused to answer perosnal questions. Or if I can’t be arsed to pick a fight, I’ll fill it in with information on the LEAST. divoerse box ticking info I can…white, male hetero, employed and entitled. Even though my first name is quite obviously feminine …let that fuck up their stats on how diverse they are

but then I bloody hate this sort of thing, and have often refused to answer perosnal questions. Or if I can’t be arsed to pick a fight, I’ll fill it in with information on the LEAST. divoerse box ticking info I can…white, male hetero, employed and entitled. Even though my first name is quite obviously feminine …let that fuck up their stats on how diverse they are

I had planned to send an email enquiring why they were asking for sensitive information like my sexual preferences and gender identity and what they were going to use it for. Instead I got quite angry and completed it in a spectacularly ridiculous way. I wonder if they’ll have the audacity to contact me about it.

I wonder if they'll contact you @Vertigo2851? After all, people are who they say they are! 😂

LoobiJee

But a legal entity like a social landlord, which may have customers who are vulnerable or with difficulties in understanding English, shouldn’t be asking for unnecessary information ‘because they find it helpful to know about their tenants” and using “well, they agreed to provide it” as their justification.

Thanks, that's very interesting to learn.

The government's social housing regulatory standards, which came into effect in April 24, state that social housing landlords must deliver fair and equitable outcomes, and therefore, they need to hold detailed info on each tenant in order to evidence that they are taking in to account individual needs and identifying if there are any issues for particular groups. There is much discussion in the sector about the appropriateness of this and profiling etc. Disclosing is consent based and landlords must hold info securely and be mindful of data protection rules. The Regulator is inspecting all landlords and part of what they consider will be whether they are compliant with this element of the standards. They don't prescribe what info a landlord should hold but it will link to the protected characteristcs in the Equality Act.
1.2 Diverse needs
1.2.1 In relation to the housing and landlord services they provide, registered providers must take action to deliver fair and equitable outcomes for tenants and, where relevant, prospective tenants.

Is gender a protected charecteristic? Should they be asking for this?

.2 Diverse needs
“1.2.1 In relation to the housing and landlord services they provide, registered providers must take action to deliver fair and equitable outcomes for tenants and, where relevant, prospective tenants.”

Does that Standard provide a definition of “housing service outcome” or “landlord service outcome”? And, if so, is it defined as “renting out safe and sanitary properties at an affordable price” by any chance?

I suppose it’s too much to hope that there’s a tenant-friendly version of that Standard, to empower the tenants to know what they can expect from the housing providers?

The safety and quality standard talks about safe homes and the rent standard restricts rent rises above a certain amount - applicable to social housing landlords only. HHSRS applies to all rented property. The standards are set out here https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/regulatory-standards-for-landlords and a useful government website focused on explaining rights to tenants is here https://www.fourmillionhomes.org/

According to the equality act 1010, gender isn't a protected characteristic. The possession of a gender recognition certificate is.

Th EA is often misquoted and it gets my goat!

Sorry, gender reassignment certificate.

You were right the first time - it's a gender recognition certificate.

But the EA protection covers anyone who is undergoing or proposing to undergo gender reassignment.

So, you don't need a GRC to be protected from discrimination under the EA.

No.

'Sex' is a pc, and 'gender reassigment' is a pc.

In truth, the whole thing's a fucking guddle, though.

Badly written law that nobody understands.

And when I say nobody, we've just had the Supreme Court baffling over it.

I'm increasingly pissed off that lawyers and government have created a law that even they can't understand, and that every person in the UK is supposed to be bound by. And that people can be dragged through court for not abiding by.

We've had to sue the buggers to try and clarify it! Do your fucking jobs! Make it clear!

You shouldn't need to be a Supreme Court judge to know and describe what a woman is. We all came out of one, ffs.

And a greater degree of recourse to accountability when a minimum standard of housing is not being maintained.

The emphasis is back to front.

It's empowering the power to find out more and removing the privacy from the masses.

Instead the masses should have greater rights, greater awareness of those rights and greater ability to enforce those rights.

This is representative of our society as a whole at present regardless of political persuasion.

The balance of power has shifted away from the public interest the name of 'their best interests' in this paternalistic fashion.

Agree with all of this. I’d also suggest querying how they are holding and collecting the data. It is understandable that data needed to help the HA deliver equitable services to you specifically be stored with your record, but data that is just going to be used for wider equality monitoring doesn’t need to be stored with your record. So it goes back to whether and how they will actually use it.

The fact that they are chasing you because there are gaps suggests the intention is that all of this data is attached to your record. I’d query whether this is necessary or justified by the actual use. I’d also query the wisdom of asking for this on a paper form as it’s much less secure from a GDRP perspective - or that would be my assumption. Lots of potential for human error.

Some non profit organisations and charities have aims that are based on improving outcomes for marginalised groups. They need to collect data to assess how well they are doing. However, if this were the case with the OP, they should have done this at the outset of them becoming a tenant. Alternatively, as per another post, new legislation has been brought in requiring efforts to be made to collect this data (there should be a 'prefer not to say' option allowing the respondent to complete and return without having to disclose personal data).

I doubt most DEI data, even when gathered, is meaningful. Last month, a leading charity advertised an amazing internship for people with a specific disability. When questioned, they confirmed that it was open to anyone who identified as having the disability, you didn't actually have to have it. Of course, they didn't say 'you don't have to have it'. I expect they feel between a rock and a hard place - being pilloried by the woke or bring pilloried by the woke hunters. I think most charities side with the woke as the 'most vulnerable' narrative feels more comfortable than the 'snowflake' narrative.

Social housing bodies are asked to ask for this information to ensure they are being fair and letting their properties in a fair manner. They are asked by the Ministry of Housing to enter this info in an anonymous form onto a website which uses it for statistics and monitoring of their lets. The provider is also asked to take this information to ensure they are adequately caring for their tenants, I.e with mental/physical health issues, DV - are they at risk, can the provider offer help. If they don’t ask existing tenants, they can fall through the net. We recently asked this of our existing tenants and picked up several that were vulnerable due to recent health issues and we could put support in place. Unlike private landlords, we are there to provide ongoing support, safeguarding and signposting to our existing tenants. We have whole teams of support staff which we cannot deploy if we don’t know these things. If you’ve been a tenant a while, you may not have been asked any of this when you signed up so it’s to catch up now and to make sure any info we hold is up-to-date.

There should be an option which states ‘prefer not to say’ or similar. It’s perfectly fine to pick this option but obviously, we cannot support if everyone picks this. The ministry of housing can also not ensure social housing providers are letting properties fairly if tenants do not engage in providing this info. It is a tenant right, however and believe me, not something your HA will have just decided to do for fun. The amount of paperwork we have to complete and things we have to ask about is huge and all to do with what we’re told to capture. It’s the same for all HA’s and Councils.

The amount of paperwork we have to complete and things we have to ask about is huge and all to do with what we’re told to capture. It’s the same for all HA’s and Councils.

I think part of the problem is that DEI data has been collected for decades now, and there is little evidence to show 'equality' has improved because of it. This is the same for lots of (not all) DEI initiatives. Since the post modernist turn, where feelings are given primacy, we have seen money being poured into initiatives to 'raise the voices of.....', the creation of 'allyship groups' and increasingly authoritarian approaches to policing speech and language, with little material impact on 'equality'. It's no wonder people don't want to engage in filling in forms.