{"id":14272,"date":"2015-10-21T08:15:08","date_gmt":"2015-10-21T08:15:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.propertysurveying.co.uk\/newsletter\/?p=14272"},"modified":"2015-10-21T08:15:08","modified_gmt":"2015-10-21T08:15:08","slug":"housing-group-becomes-the-first-to-use-drones-in-the-housing-sector","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.propertysurveying.co.uk\/newsletter\/?p=14272","title":{"rendered":"Housing Group Becomes the First to Use Drones in the Housing Sector"},"content":{"rendered":"

Walsall Housing Group has become the first housing association in the country to secure permission from the Civil Aviation Authority to fly drones over their housing stock. Though other authorities have ruled out using the equipment for cost reasons, Walsall have stated that they estimate the cost savings to be around \u00c2\u00a320,000 a year.<\/p>\n

\"droneThe move has led to a debate over the legal ramifications, with particular regard to the Data Protection Act 1998. Whilst the legal obligations on domestic drone users are fairly light and essentially extend to a requirement to use them in a responsible way which protects the privacy of others, the requirements on commercial use are more stringent.<\/p>\n

The Information Commissioners Office\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s (ICO) CCTV Code of Practice provides that as drones are privacy intrusive, justifications<\/strong> for their use are imperative. As such, a company or housing association will ideally need to undertake a ‘privacy impact assessment\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 or similar to determine whether drones are appropriate, or whether another method would minimise the privacy impact. This would operate in much the same way as a risk assessment.<\/p>\n

The same Code also offers several additional recommendations to ensure compliance with Data Protection:<\/p>\n