Part 2: Rogue Landlords and Property Agents in England Chapter 3: Database of Rogue Landlords and Property Agents Access to information in the database Section 39: Use of information in database
This section provides that the Secretary of State may use the information in the database for statistical or research purposes and may disclose to any person information in an anonymised form for those purposes. A local housing authority may only use information obtained from the database of rogue landlords and property agents for certain specified purposes, which includes purposes connected with its functions under the Housing Act 2004, investigating contraventions of housing or landlord and tenant law and promoting compliance with such law. The section also provides that for the purposes of paragraph 17 of Schedule 23 to the Finance Act 2011, the database is to be treated as being maintained by the Secretary of State. This will ensure that Her Majesty's Revenue and Customs are able to use their existing powers to access information held on the database in order to assist them in particular in ensuring that residential landlords comply with their tax obligations.