Council Tax privacy notice

Privacy notice for Council Tax

This privacy notice sets out how the Revenue and Benefits Team at Reigate & Banstead Borough Council will use and process your information.

Statutory obligations to provide the personal data

You are required to provide the information that we need to administer, collect and recover Council Tax under The Council Tax (Administration and Enforcement) Regulations 1992. If you do not provide the information required, or if you make a false statement, you may be required to pay a penalty.

What type of information is collected about you?

• contact details; including name, address, email address, telephone number
• IP address and information regarding what pages are accessed and when
• lifestyle, social and personal circumstances
• the services you receive
• financial details for purposes of receiving or making payments
• licenses or permits held
• business activities

We may also collect Special Category (sensitive) Data that may include:

• physical or mental health details
• racial or ethnic origin
• gender and sexual orientation
• religious or other beliefs of a similar nature
• criminal proceedings, outcomes and sentences

We need your information for the following services and functions:

Your information will be used for the functions of the Council Tax Team. The services we provide are:

• Council Tax and the Council Tax Reduction Scheme (CTRS)
• Business Rates
• Local Social Welfare Schemes
• Council Tax rebate (Energy Rebate)

We will also use your information for our wider functions which are:

• the prevention and detection of benefit fraud and any other crime
• to administer non-payment claims of council tax
• to protect public funds in investigating misuse of public money

Who your information may be shared with

We will share information with a third party where you have given us written permission to do so or the sharing is otherwise permitted by law.

We may share some of your information, for example your name and address, internally with other departments in the Council if this:

• helps you to access services more easily
• promotes the more efficient and cost- effective delivery of services
• helps recover monies owed to the council

We match Council Tax data with Electoral Registration records.

We are required by law to participate in National Fraud Initiative (NFI) data matching exercises. Council Tax information may be provided to the Audit Commission for NFI purposes and will be used for cross-system and cross-authority comparison for fraud prevention and detection

We will also share our data with companies who undertake data matching exercises for Single Person Discount, this is to identify discrepancies. We also share our data through LOCTA - the Local Authority Council Tax data sharing hub, who locate debtors who no longer reside in the council.

We may also share your information with:

• the Cabinet Office
• the Department for Work and Pensions
• the Home Office
• external credit agencies
• external bailiff companies
• the Office National Statistics (ONS)

The legal basis for processing your information

We have statutory authority to collect and process your personal information for the provision of our service, your consent therefore is not required to process your information. Where the service is optional, we will not process your information until you have consented to receive the service. Once we have your consent for the service, your information will be processed under our statutory authority to provide the service.

We are required by legislation to levy and collect Council Tax from those who are liable. That legislation is as follows:

• The Council Tax (Administration and Enforcement) Regulations 1992
• The Local Government Finance Act 1992

We will use your information

We use your information for administering Council Tax to set up an account for billing and collection purposes and for processing any discounts, disregards and exemptions you may be entitled to. We also use your information to undertake enforcement action where payment is not made.

We will use your information for the purpose of performing any of our statutory enforcement duties. We will make any disclosures required by law and may also share this information with other bodies responsible for detecting/preventing fraud or auditing/administering public funds. We may share the details with other organisations that handle public funds and assist in the processing of other benefits.

• Process housing benefit and council tax reduction claims - a legal obligation.
• Collect council tax and business rates - a legal obligation.
• Administer discretionary housing payments and local social welfare schemes - a legal obligation, public task.
• Participate in the National Fraud Initiative and other data matching exercises - a legal obligation, public task.

How long will we keep your information?

We will retain your information for the period in which your information is being used for service provision or for our wider functions including debt collection. We have legal authority to process your information; your right to be forgotten does not apply to our functions and services.

Council Tax liability and collection information is retained for financial and audit purposes from April 1993. Application forms and other information that you provide in respect of Council Tax liability will be retained for up to seven years.  We only hold information as long as it is needed or required by law and then dispose of it securely. This is in accordance with RBBC's Records Retention and Disposal Schedule. 

Questions or concerns?

If you have any questions or concerns about how we are collecting or using your personal information, please contact our Data Protection Officer: data.protection@reigate-banstead.gov.uk