The Secretary of State must give every local housing authority in England access to information in the database.
(1)The Secretary of State may use information in the database for statistical or research purposes.
(2)The Secretary of State may disclose information in the database to any person if the information is disclosed in an anonymised form.
(3)Information is disclosed in an anonymised form if no individual or other person to whom the information relates can be identified from the information.
(4)A local housing authority in England may only use information obtained from the database—
(a)for purposes connected with its functions under the Housing Act 2004,
(b)for the purposes of a criminal investigation or proceedings relating to a banning order offence,
(c)for the purposes of an investigation or proceedings relating to a contravention of the law relating to housing or landlord and tenant,
(d)for the purposes of promoting compliance with the law relating to housing or landlord and tenant by any person in the database, or
(e)for statistical or research purposes.
(5)For the purposes of paragraph 17 of Schedule 23 to the Finance Act 2011 (which relates to HMRC data-gathering powers), the database is to be treated as being maintained by the Secretary of State.