Local authorities are allowed access to data on the Tenancy Deposit Protection schemes – the DCLG may disclose details of Deposit Protection Service activities to regulators, industry bodies and other organisations for the purposes of fraud prevention, money laundering prevention and where there are concerns over activities.
These other organisations are required to protect personal information on behalf of DCLG and cannot use personal information for purposes unconnected with The Deposit Protection Service.
The information is usually used to check that landlords and agents have protected deposits properly and that they also appear on the respective Landlord Registers.
“Measures within the Housing and Planning Act 2016 allow local housing authorities in England to access information held by the Tenancy Deposit Protection (TDP) schemes. Local Housing Authorities must only use the data:
1. For a purpose connected with the exercise of their functions under Parts 1-4 of the Housing Act 2004 in relation to any premises (in general improving housing conditions, licencing of Houses in Multiple Occupation, selective licencing of other accommodation and management orders); and
2. For the purpose of investigating whether an offence has been committed under any of those Parts in relation to any premises.
Local Housing Authorities are not required to access the information provided by the TDP schemes. It is up to individual authorities to decide whether to access and use the information or not, depending on local circumstances and other data sources available to them.
A list of local Housing Authorities in England who are known to have applied to the schemes for access to the information in the first quarter of 2017 is shown below. …”
https://www.theyworkforyou.com/wrans/?id=2017-07-11.4183.h&s=%22east+devon%22#g4183.r0
[EDDC is named as one of the organisations which accesses this information.]
East Devon Watch 