Privacy Notice for Suppliers and Contractors

Who are we?

Missing Link provides women’s mental health services, supporting homeless women with complex needs to recover, secure and sustain housing.

Next Link provides domestic abuse services and a specialist forced marriage service.

Safe Link provides emotional and practical support to women, children and male victims of rape and sexual assault.

Missing Link/Next Link/Safe Link’s registered office is at 5 Queen’s Square, Bristol, BS1 4JQ and we are a Housing Association with charitable status, registered under the Co-operative and Community Benefit Societies Act (2014). Register No. 24218R.

We are registered on the Information Commissioner’s Office Register; registration number Z3246008 and act as the Data Controller when processing your data. Our designated Data Protection Appointed Person is Bally Kandola, Director of Resources, who can be contacted at dataprotection@missinglinkhousing.co.uk

This Privacy Notice provides you with the necessary information regarding your rights and our obligations, and explains how, why and when we process your personal data.

Information That We Collect

The information that you provide to us is required in order for us to procure goods and/or services and to make payments to you.

We are collecting information about you which is relevant to procuring goods and/or services and making payments. This includes:

  • Personal details (such as name)
  • Contact details (such as your personal telephone number and email address)
  • Confirmation of your identity (such as a copy of your driving licence)
  • Information about your tax status (such as HMRC records of self-assessment)
  • Financial information (such as bank account details).

The above information which we collect about you will be obtained through a variety of sources, including:

  • From you directly as part of the process of becoming a supplier/contractor;
  • from third parties as part of the process of becoming a supplier/contractor (such as credit checks, trade references); and
  • Information obtained about you in the course of our working relationship.

How We Use Your Personal Data

Missing Link/Next Link/Safe Link will always process your personal data in a way that is lawful and fair. We will not process the data in a way that is unduly detrimental, unexpected or misleading.

The legal basis for processing your personal data is detailed below:

  • Legitimate Interest – to process data for the purposes pursued by the organisation or by a third party
  • Legal Obligation – to process  your information for us to comply with legal and regulatory obligations to which we are subject
  • Contract – for us to perform the contract between us.

We use the types of personal data which we have listed above for the following purposes:

  • The process of applying for and becoming a supplier/contractor (such as making a decision about procuring goods or services; determining the payment terms for your invoices such as payment in advance)
  • Make payments to you for goods and/or services;
  • Complaints (such as gathering evidence in relation to any complaints made by or about you; dealing with legal disputes involving you);
  • Determining your continued supplier/contractor status;
  • To comply with our legal obligations such as to prevent fraud.

Sharing your Personal Data

We keep your information securely on our internal systems.  Staff who access your information have had data protection training to make sure your information is handled sensitively and securely.

We will share your personal information with third parties where required by law, where it is necessary to administer the contractual relationship with you or where we have another legitimate interest in doing so.

This may include sharing your information with our auditors, banks or other financial institutions to facilitate payments and with contractors who work on our systems.

All our third-party service providers are required to take appropriate security measures to protect your personal information in line with our policies. We do not allow our third-party service providers to use your personal data for their own purposes. We only permit them to process your personal data for specified purposes and in accordance with our instructions.

Your Rights

You have the right to access any personal information that Missing Link/Next Link/Safe Link processes about you and to request information about:

  • What personal data we hold about you
  • The purposes of the processing
  • The categories of personal data concerned
  • The recipients to whom the personal data has/will be disclosed
  • How long we intend to store your personal data for
  • If we did not collect the data directly from you, information about the source.

Security Measures

Missing Link/Next Link/Safe Link takes every reasonable measure and precaution to protect and secure your personal data. We work hard to protect you and your information from unauthorised access, alteration, disclosure or destruction and have several layers of security measures in place, including password security, encryptions, restricted access, IT authentication, firewalls and anti-virus/malware.

How Long We Keep Your Data

Missing Link/Next Link/Safe Link only ever retains personal information for as long as is necessary and we have strict review and retention policies in place to meet these obligations.

Supplier, organisation relationship documents, contracts, Service Level Agreement’s, audits, reviews etc End of relationship + 6 years

A copy of our Data Retention and Erasure Policy is available on request.

Lodging A Complaint

Missing Link/Next Link/Safe Link only processes your personal information in compliance with this privacy notice and in accordance with the relevant data protection laws.

If, however you wish to raise a complaint regarding the processing of your personal data or are unsatisfied with how we have handled your information, you have the right to complain to the person responsible for Data Protection:

Bally Kandola, Director of Resources: dataprotection@missinglinkhousing.co.uk

If you are not satisfied with how your complaint has been dealt with, you have the right to lodge a complaint to the supervisory authority:  Information Commissioners Office https://ico.org.uk/