Collection and Recovery of Council Tax Privacy Notice

Tunbridge Wells Borough Council
Mount Pleasant Road
Royal Tunbridge Wells
Kent
TN1 1RS

Email: dataprotection@tunbridgewells.gov.uk

Telephone: 01892 526121

We collect information from you when you visit our website; also when you contact us in writing, speak to us on the phone, by email or any other type of electronic communication, or talk to us face to face.

Name, address, phone number, email address, criminal background, financial, court proceedings and employment details.

Our legal basis for using your information is:

Compliance with a legal obligation.

We will use your information to:

Monitor and recover owed Council Tax.

Research and statistics

Anonymised and pseudonymised data may be used for research and statistical purposes. Any data collected may be used for research and statistical purposes that are relevant and compatible with the purpose that the data was collected for.

We may share your information with the following third parties for the reasons detailed above:

• Valuation Office Agency (VOA)
• Kent Intelligence Network (KIN)
• Ascendant Solutions
• other local authorities
• central government

If you make a payment to us, Civica will also use your information, but only on our instructions. They will not use it for any other reason, and they have to look after it in the same way we would. You can view their privacy information on the Civica website.

We may pass anonymised information to Policy in Practice for analytic purposes to identify customers who are in need of support. You can view their privacy information on their website.

The Mid Kent Fraud and Compliance Partnership may also process your personal data as follows:

• We may share your data with the Department for Work and Pensions with regards to any benefits you are registered for or make referrals for the purpose of detecting and preventing fraud.
• We may share your data with the National Fraud Initiative who carry out data-matching exercises for the purpose of preventing and detecting fraud.
• We may share your data with the National Anti Fraud Network who complete checks on our behalf to confirm details such as utilities, land registry, marriage licences, bank details, and credit checks.
• We may share your data with LoCTA to check if you are registered with another Local Authority for Council Tax or Benefits.
• We may share your data with Intec for Business who carry out data matching exercises and credit checks to identify fraud.
• We may collect data about you from Destin Solutions relating to small businesses that might be registered elsewhere.
• We may collect data about you from the Kent Intelligence Network for the purposes of detecting, deterring and preventing fraud and corruption.
• We may pass your details to Kent Registrars to check marriage, death and birth data.
• We may pass your details to other Local Authorities or request information about you from them.
• We may pass your details to the Police or request information about you from them.
• We may collect data about you from Housing Associations.
• We may check your data with our Elections Team to confirm who is registered at an address.

What are your rights in relation to the personal information we process?

• Access – you can request copies of any of your personal information that is held by the council.
• Rectification – you can ask us to correct any incorrect information.
• Deletion – you can ask us to delete your personal information. The council can refuse to delete information if we have a lawful reason to keep this.
• Portability – you can ask us to transfer your personal data to different services or to you.
• Right to object or restrict processing – you have the right to object to how your data is being used and how it is going to be used in the future.
• Right to prevent automatic decisions – you have to challenge a decision that affects you that has been made automatically without human intervention, for example an online form with an instant decision.

In line with our record retention schedule, records relating to the collection and recovery of Council Tax will be kept for 6 years + 1 year.

What security precautions are in place to protect the loss, misuse or alteration of your information?

We are strongly committed to data security and will take reasonable and appropriate steps to protect your personal information from unauthorised access, loss, misuse, alteration or corruption. We have put in place physical, electronic, and managerial procedures to safeguard the information you provide to us.

We want to ensure any information we hold is accurate. You can help us by promptly informing us of any changes to the information we hold about you.

There are no automated decisions in this process.

If you are accessing online services and are aged 13 or under‚ please get your parent/guardian's permission beforehand whenever you provide us with personal information.

What are cookies and why are they used?

Cookies are small text files which identify your computer to our servers. They are used to improve the user experience. View what cookies we use and how you can manage them at on our privacy and cookies page.

If you would like to make a complaint regarding the use of your personal data you can contact our Data Protection Officer:

Email: dataprotection@tunbridgewells.gov.uk

For independent advice about data protection, privacy and data sharing issues, you can contact the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) at:

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

Telephone: 0303 123 1113 (local rate) or 01625 545 745 if you prefer to use a national rate number.

Alternatively, visit the Information Commissioner's Office website or email casework@ico.org.uk.