Homes for Ukraine visa sponsorship scheme: privacy notice
Source: gov.uk (2025-10-01)

Homes for Ukraine visa sponsorship scheme: How we use personal data.

The Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG) and the Home Office are data controllers for the Homes for Ukraine (https://homesforukraine.campaign.gov.uk/) visa sponsorship scheme.

The purpose of this privacy notice is to tell you how MHCLG and the Home Office will process your personal data for their shared purposes to deliver the sponsorship scheme and the common objective of providing homes to those seeking refuge from the war in Ukraine. You have rights concerning how your data is collected and used for this purpose. We inform you here what those rights are and how you can exercise them.

MHCLG and Home Office are committed to protecting the privacy and security of your personal data. As our two departments need to use different personal data for separate purposes, we may publish separate privacy notices where appropriate which further explain how your personal data is used for their respective purposes.

Read more details of how the Home Office will use your personal data, including your data protection rights: Borders, immigration and citizenship: privacy information notice (https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/personal-information-use-in-borders-immigration-and-citizenship/borders-immigration-and-citizenship-privacy-information-notice).

MHCLG – our general privacy charter is available here (https://www.gov.uk/government/organisations/ministry-of-housing-communities-local-government/about/personal-information-charter)

We are only allowed to use, gather, and share personal information where we have an appropriate legal basis to do so. We only collect and processes personal information to fulfil our legal and official functions. We will only use personal information when the law allows us to and where it is necessary and proportionate to do so.

1. The identity and contact details of the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG) and our Data Protection Officer

MHCLG has an appointed Data Protection Officer (DPO) to help ensure that the departments fulfil their legal obligations when processing personal data. You can contact DPO:

MHCLG xxx@xxx.xx (mailto:xxx@xxx.xx) or by writing to the following address:

Data Protection OfficerMinistry of Housing, Communities and Local Government2 Marsham StreetLondonSW1P 4DF

2. What personal data we are collecting and why

For individual sponsors

We collect your name, address, contact details (including email), and details about your property. We may also need to collect and use personal data about others, such as your household members or others living in your property.

For Homes for Ukraine permission holders

In circumstances relating to the re-matching of visa applicants and sponsors we will hold your name, address, and contact details. We will use this information to help keep you advised of the options available to you.

For unaccompanied minor visa applicants

If you are a child travelling to the UK who is:

not travelling with a parent or legal guardian; or

is travelling to join a parent or legal guardian

We collect your name, date of birth, passport number or identification document number and visa application reference number. We use this information to support local authorities in their safeguarding obligations to minors travelling without a parent or legal guardian and to quality assure claims for local authority funding for minors who subsequently move into local authority care.

For parents or legal guardians of children/minors

We collect data to confirm parental consent for sponsorship arrangements for unaccompanied minors (not travelling with you or to join you or a legal guardian), and to contact you in the event of a change in circumstances where new parental consent documents are required. If your child is travelling to the UK to join you or a legal guardian, we will collect your name, address, and contact details (including email). We will also collect this data for your child’s next of kin.

Organisations and non-governmental organisations (NGOs)

We collect your name, work email address, other contact details (including address), and details about offers of accommodation that you submit. If you need to provide additional personal data relating to your offer, we will process this as well.

Future research

If a decision is made to undertake research in order to inform policy development on the Homes for Ukraine Scheme, this may involve processing your personal information. For example:

for applicants - information about you may be provided to us by your sponsor

for sponsors - information about you may be provided to us by your guests

If any ‘special category’ personal data is inadvertently supplied to us during future research, we will delete or anonymise this at the earliest opportunity.

Please note: For anyone who provides data to us, we may also collect certain technical data like your IP address, in order to manage delivery of our sponsor application portal.

How the personal data is used for the scheme to operate

MHCLG

MHCLG collects individual sponsor and organisational offers of accommodation that are submitted for the scheme via our portal on the UK Government website, GOV.UK. We have overall responsibility for compiling, maintaining and managing the central repository of data necessary to collect information about accommodation offers, sponsors and guests from Ukraine.

Home Office

For how the Home Office may use your personal data and your rights please read: Borders, immigration and citizenship: privacy information notice (https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/personal-information-use-in-borders-immigration-and-citizenship/borders-immigration-and-citizenship-privacy-information-notice).

Local authorities

Local authority data is shared to flag any safeguarding concerns through a platform which matches hosts with Ukraine visa holders in the UK (Share). local authorities also use a platform called Jira for safeguarding outcomes covering sponsor and accommodation checks and sponsor and guest withdrawals.

Visa applicants

After your visa has been granted, your personal data may also be used by local authorities to produce management monitoring reports for MHCLG on local delivery of the scheme. Once produced, these reports only contain anonymised data and will not contain any identifiable personal data about you.

Parents or legal guardians of visa applicants travelling as a minor

If you are a parent/legal guardian of a visa applicant travelling as an unaccompanied minor (i.e., who is not travelling with you or to join you), MHCLG will use your personal data you have provided to us to confirm parental consent for the sponsorship arrangements. Local authorities will also use this information to contact you in the event of a change in circumstances of the sponsorship arrangement. If we are unable to contact you in this event, we will use the data you provided to us as being your child’s next of kin.

3. Lawful basis for processing the data

We are relying on the following lawful basis under UK GDPR to process personal data:
- Article 6(1)(e) of the UK GDPR – processing is necessary for the performance of a task carried out in the public interest or in the exercise of official authority
If it becomes necessary to process special categories of personal data which may identify religious, political or health information , sexual orientation, and biometrics, our lawful basis for this will be:
- Article 9(2)(g) of the UK GDPR – processing is necessary for reasons of substantial public interest.
- DPA 2018, Part 2, Chapter 2, section 8 (d) – the exercise of a function of the Crown, a Minister of the Crown or a government department.
4. With whom we will be sharing the data

For the purposes of the scheme’s delivery, MHCLG may need to share your personal data with parties working to match potential sponsors with applicants to the scheme. These parties currently include:

local authorities, so that they can take forward local placement in homes when a suitable match has been made

the UK Devolved Administrations (Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland), to deliver necessary processing to fulfil their obligations under the Homes for Ukraine Scheme, and to deliver offers of suitable sponsors to visa cleared applicants to the scheme and to undertake suitability checks

when personal data is shared with these parties, that organisation will take on responsibility for your data at that point, and you should refer to their own privacy notice for details on how they will process your data

A list of voluntary and community sector organisations running programmes which help to match people coming from Ukraine with sponsor in the UK, and also help people living in the UK to become sponsors as part of the Homes for Ukraine Scheme can be found at: Find a sponsor using recognised providers: Homes for Ukraine (https://www.gov.uk/guidance/find-a-sponsor-using-recognised-providers-homes-for-ukraine).

Data processors

MHCLG appoints organisations to process personal data on their behalf and these are regarded as ‘data processor’. These organisations act under the instruction of MHCLG to help analyse the applications and responses to support the matching of potential sponsors with applicants or for the purpose of visa applications. Where this is done, MHCLG will ensure that the processing of your personal data remains in strict accordance with the requirements of UK data protection legislation and we will update this privacy notice to reflect those arrangements where necessary.

“Homes for Ukraine: record your interest” GOV.UK service – MHCLG has built the form which is linked from GOV.UK – to electronically collect individual sponsor submissions and submissions from organisations. MHCLG has appointed a third-party supplier Made Tech to provide technical support. The form is hosted on cloud infrastructure located in London, United Kingdom.

Share Homes for Ukraine data (Share) – Made Tech also assists with supporting this MHCLG-owned secure analytical platform, for cleansing and analysing personal data. The platform is hosted on cloud infrastructures located in London, United Kingdom.

Jira – MHCLG and local authorities also share data via this platform where enquiries, mostly operational delivery, but on occasion safeguarding matters are submitted then triaged by XBP a third-party contractor who provides a first line response where appropriate, but also ensures the message finds the appropriate MHCLG lead if a more detailed response is required. All personal identifiable information is removed from Jira by XBP before forwarding to MHCLG Operational Delivery team. Although there are exceptions such as when a guest cannot be located on Share by the local authority.

For how long we will keep the personal data, or criteria used to determine the retention period

Your personal data will be kept only as long as it is necessary for these permitted purposes which includes matching suitable host with Ukrainian visa holder, undertaking accommodation and safeguarding checks and policy research.

For data relating to the initial expressions of interest exercise sent by prospective hosts of Ukrainian guests, this will be held for two years from the closure of the site unless MHCLG identifies that its continued retention is unnecessary before that point.

5. Your rights, e.g. access, rectification, erasure

You have the right to:
- ask us what personal data of yours we are processing and to request access to it
- be informed about how and why your data is being used (e.g., in a privacy notice)
- have your data rectified
- the right to object (in certain circumstances)
- the portability of your data (in certain circumstances)
- not to be subject to a decision based solely on automated means; and
- complain to the Information Commissioners Office (ICO), the UK regulator for data protection
More information about your data protection rights can be found on the ICO website: The rights of individuals (https://ico.org.uk/for-organisations/uk-gdpr-guidance-and-resources/data-sharing/data-sharing-a-code-of-practice/the-rights-of-individuals/).

6. Sending data overseas

No data is sent overseas – all logs, and Apps are deployed in AWS, and logs/tables/ etc are all in the UK (London)

MHCLG will send personal data to a secure analytical platform (Share) assisted by a third-party processor, Made Tech, hosted on cloud servers located in London, United Kingdom.

7. Automated decision making

No decision will be made about individuals solely based on automated decision making (where a decision is taken about them using an electronic system without human involvement).

MHCLG may use personal information from previous visa applicants to develop tools that allow the assessment and processing of applications in a particular way, to help us to target resources and ensure processing is efficient and allowing us to minimise costs while protecting the public effectively. However, a case officer would still decide these cases and any such processing will comply with our wider obligations under equality legislation.

8. Storage, security and data management

MHCLG have a duty to safeguard and ensure the security of your personal data and comply with data protection legislation. We do this by having a secure system and policies in place to limit access to your information and prevent unauthorised disclosure, accidental loss, or unauthorised alteration of your data. We have also procedures to deal with any suspected personal data breach and will notify you and any applicable regulator of a breach where we are legally required to do so.

9. Complaints and more information

If you have concerns about the way that MHCLG has acted when using your personal data, you can make a complaint to us (https://www.gov.uk/government/organisations/ministry-of-housing-communities-local-government/about/complaints-procedure). If you remain unhappy with the outcome of your complaint, you should contact the relevant Data Protection Officer at the address above in the first instance.

If you remain dissatisfied, you have the right to raise a concern with the ICO via their website at: Make a complaint about how an organisation has used your personal information (https://ico.org.uk/make-a-complaint/data-protection-complaints/) or by writing to them at:

The Information Commissioner’s OfficeWycliffe HouseWater LaneWilmslowCheshireSK9 5AF

Telephone: xx-xxxx-xxxx or xx-xxxx-xxxx https://ico.org.uk/