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Council tax privacy notice

Published
Last updated

The purpose of this Privacy Notice is to explain how and for what purposes we process your personal data. It applies to personal data that is processed electronically and on paper. 

Why we are collecting your data

Brentwood Borough Council needs to collect your personal data to enable the Council to carry out our statutory duty to bill, collect and enforce payment of Council Tax. We will only collect the personal data that we need in order to do this.

Information collected

  • Name
  • Address
  • Bank details (if you choose to pay by direct debit)
  • Date of birth (of people in your household who are approaching the age of 18 and may affect your Council Tax liability)
  • Phone Number - you do not have to provide this but if you do we may use your phone number to contact you about your application for a reduction in your Council Tax charge
  • Email address - you will have to provide this if you wish to access your Council Tax account details online.  You may choose to provide this if you wish us to contact you by email regarding your Council Tax
  • Health information (if you claim a disability band reduction or severely mentally impaired reduction).

The data is collected through:

  • Online form
  • Hard copy form
  • Emails
  • Phone
  • Website
  • Article 6 (1)e Public Task: the processing is necessary for you to perform a task in the public interest or for your official functions, and the task or function has a clear basis in law.
  • Article 9 (2)b: processing is necessary for the purposes of carrying out the obligations and exercising specific rights of the controller or of the data subject in the field of employment and social security and social protection law

Who your information will be shared with

  • Your information will be shared with Basildon Borough Council’s Revenue and Benefits team who administer this service on our behalf, HM Courts and Tribunals Service, Cabinet Office (National Fraud Initiative), His Majesty's Revenues and Customs, Vigilant Apps Limited, Mag:Net Solutions Limited, Destin Solutions Ltd, Equifax Ltd, Newlyn PLC, CDER Group, Rundles & Co Ltd, oneSource, The Office of National Statistics (ONS) for the purpose of preventing and detecting fraud and error or recovering unpaid Council Tax.
  • Other internal Council Departments, Council Officers, Council Contractors.
  • Integrated Care Systems (ICS) are partnerships that bring together providers and commissioners of NHS services across a geographical area with local authorities and other local partners to collectively plan health and care services to meet the needs of their population.
  • We have arrangements with a range of IT providers who support the Council's IT systems and services, therefore your data may be accessed by these suppliers. Where we have these arrangements there is always a contractual agreement with them to ensure they comply with the Data Protection Law.

Your data will be shared with third parties to:

  • Comply with legal obligations and legislative requirements
  • Help business partners, suppliers and sub-contractors to deliver any contract we enter with them or you 
  • To help if there is need of any professional or legal advice on a matter relating to you
  • To help prevent fraud and/ or tackle crime
  • To improve and optimise the performance of our services

We will never sell your data.

Provide accurate information

We need to hold accurate and up to date information about you so that we can deliver appropriate services. If any of your details change, you need to tell us as soon as possible so that we can update your records.

We won't:

  • use your information for marketing or sales purposes without your prior explicit consent
  • send or store your data abroad unless it meets the requirements of the Data Protection regulations
  • process your application using automated systems to make decisions

How long we hold your data for

We will keep all records relating to Council Tax for you as long as you have an ongoing liability with us, up to a maximum of six years plus current year when you are no longer under Brentwood  Borough Council.

Your rights

You have the right to access the personal information we hold about you. Any access requests are free of charge. If the information we hold about you is inaccurate, you have a right to have this corrected and you have the right to request completion of incomplete data. You have the right to ask us to erase your personal data in certain circumstances (right to be forgotten). You have the right to ask us to stop or restrict the processing of your personal data, in certain circumstances. Where possible, we will seek to comply with your request, but we may need to hold or process information to comply with a legal requirement.

You can make any of these requests by:

The Data Protection Officer
Brentwood Borough Council
Town Hall,
Ingrave Road,
Brentwood
CM15 8AY.

If you're dissatisfied with how we have used your personal information, you can complain to the Information Commissioner's Office, by:

Information Commissioner's Office
Wycliffe House
Water Lane
Wilmslow
Cheshire SK9 5AF

For more independent advice about data protection, privacy and data sharing issues is available from the Information Commissioner's Office, visit Information Commissioner's Office (ICO).

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