It is an iQ business requirement that we are not seen to house residents who have been involved in serious crime or terrorist activity.
To allow us to meet this requirement iQ uses a process of sanctions screening.
Sanctions screening involves comparing our applicants against public lists maintained by the US Office of Foreign Asset Control, UK Treasury Sanctions Lists and other lists maintained by other Governments. We do this through a secure on-line service provided by Thomson Reuters. The data used to undertake such searches is restricted to your name, date of birth and nationality.
These lists contain details of those who have been convicted of serious crimes and terrorism offences. This is very different to a Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) check which we do not perform. All the information used as part of the screening process is already in the public domain.
For common names, the system will sometimes return a result known as a ‘False Positive’. We will then use additional data you have provided such as your address to close the case and rule out any match. This additional data is contained within iQ systems and provided by you as part of the application process and is not passed to third parties for this process to occur.
All applicants and guarantors are subject to sanctions screening.
As part of our application process, you are asked to consent to such screening. If you are unwilling to provide such consent, then we will be unable to conduct business with you and your application will terminate at that point.
If you are acting as a guarantor, you will be asked to give this consent at the point you are asked to confirm your details. Again, if you are not willing to give us consent we will be unable to accept you as a guarantor and the applicant will be asked to find an alternative.
The process of sanctions screening occurs during the period after which your application is accepted and before you move in. When you accept the terms and conditions of your tenancy agreement you warrant that you do not appear on such lists. In the unlikely event that your name returns a full positive match, your booking will be cancelled, and we will return any monies collected to you.
If you have any questions concerning this process, please contact our Data Protection Officer using this e-mail address. dpo@iqstudent.com