Council Tax and Business Rates

The following information provides details on how we may collect use and where appropriate share personal information in accordance with the UK General Data Protection Regulations (UK GDPR). It should be read in conjunction with the Council’s privacy notice document.
 

What personal data we collect and why we collect it

The data that we collect and process for the purposes of billing, collecting and enforcing Council Tax and Business Rates is:

• name
• current and previous addresses
• household make up (Council Tax), in order to accurately apply relevant discounts, exemptions and reliefs
• Dates of occupation
• We will also collect your bank details should you pay by direct debit

In some circumstances we'll need more details and sometimes sensitive personal data, for example if you are applying for a discount or exemption for council tax. In addition, information relating to employment, assets or receipts of benefit may be held where recovery action has been taken.

We may monitor and record electronic communications (website, email and phone conversations) for a number of reasons such as:

• staff training
• records of conversations
• the detection, investigation and prevention of crime

We will inform you if your call is being recorded or monitored. 

Emails that we send to you or you send to us may be retained as a record of contact and your email address stored for future use in accordance with our retention periods. If we need to email sensitive or confidential information to you, we may perform checks to verify the correct email address and may take additional security measures.

How we use your personal data

We'll only use your personal data in accordance with data protection legislation, and for the purposes stated in this privacy notice.

We'll:

• only ask for what is necessary for the purposes of billing, collecting and enforcing council tax and business rates. This includes contacting you to remind you of non-payment of council tax or business rates
• protect it and make sure nobody has access to it who shouldn’t
• ensure you know if you have a choice about giving us personal data
• only share your personal data with other Scarborough Borough Council departments or with external partners, agencies and contractors involved in delivering services on our behalf
• make sure we don’t keep it for longer than is necessary
• delete or destroy it securely when we no longer have a need to keep it

We ask that you:

• give us accurate information
• tell us as soon as possible of any changes
• tell us as soon as possible if you notice mistakes in the information we hold about you

See our Data Protection Policy for details on how we define personal and non-personal data.

Who we share your personal data with

Any information we use in presentations or reports will be anonymised and will not identify any individuals. For example a report on the amounts of Council Tax collected will not feature any of your personal data.

We do not disclose or share sensitive or confidential information without your explicit consent except where disclosure is required by law, or where we have good reason to believe that failing to do so, would put you or someone else at risk.

We may be required or permitted, under data protection legislation, to disclose your personal data without your explicit consent, for example if we have a legal obligation to do so, such as for:

• law enforcement
• fraud investigations
• regulation and licensing
• criminal prosecutions
• court proceedings

We must protect public funds and may use personal data and data-matching techniques to detect and prevent fraud, collect taxes and ensure public money is targeted and spent in the most appropriate and cost-effective way. To do this, your personal data may be shared with other council departments and bodies responsible for auditing or administering public funds, including the Department for Work and Pensions, HM Revenue and Customs, the Police and other local authorities.  This also may include credit agencies such as Experian used in debt collection and discount verification.

For businesses, we may also share your data with other council departments such as our Regeneration Service to allow you to be contacted over matters which may be of interest to you.

We are developing a data sharing agreement in place with the Office for National Statistics (ONS) which will allow them to use data in line with their statutory functions laid out in the SRSA, and the Census Act. We are required to provide Data to the ONS under the terms of the Government’s Single Data List.  More information can be found at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/single-data-list

In respect of Business Rates, information may be shared with the BEIS in relation to Covid 19 Business Support Grants.  The BEIS will store data securely and process it for monitoring and evaluation purposes only. This includes, but is not limited to, follow up evaluation surveys relating to the business support grant schemes.

Scarborough Borough Council is currently embarking upon a review of all residents in receipt of the 25% Single Person Discount on their council tax. This discount can be claimed where a dwelling or property has a sole adult occupant who is liable to pay council tax.  Whilst we are aware that the majority of our residents will be claiming the discount appropriately there is, unfortunately, a minority who are attempting to defraud the system. 

In light of this, we will shortly be sending residents in receipt of Single Person Discount a letter asking for them to confirm their current circumstances. Not only will this be a way of keeping our records up to date it will also be a way of allowing our residents to notify us if there has been a change in their circumstances. All returned forms will be returned to and handled by a centrally based local government scanning facility based in Nottingham; they process documents on behalf of many local authorities across the United Kingdom.

This exercise will be on an ongoing format until further notice, all correspondence will be issued on a monthly basis.  This is one of many steps that Scarborough Borough Council is taking to stamp out fraud across the authority.

Yorkshire Coast DBID

A Data Sharing agreement is in place between Scarborough Borough Council and Yorkshire Coast DBID Ltd to facilitate the sharing of Personal Data relating to those liable to pay (BID) rates for the Yorkshire Coast BID. 

Shared Personal Data will only be processed for the billing, collection, enforcement and general administration of the Yorkshire Coast BID.

For this purpose, the following types of Personal Data may be shared between the Council and the Yorkshire Coast DBID:

• Name
• Address
• Contact telephone numbers/email addresses
• Account reference numbers
• Account Balances and payment history
• Details of enforcement activity
• Rates payable
• Business Name
• Any other such personal data as may be required from time to time to achieve the agreed purpose

Our legal basis for collecting and sharing personal data

We process personal data in relation to taxation, in accordance with legal obligations to which we are subject or because processing is necessary for performance of a task carried out in the public interest.

We process certain special categories of personal data, such as medical data, because processing is necessary for the performance of a task of substantial public interest.

How long we keep your personal data

We will only retain your personal information for as long as necessary to fulfil the purposes we collected it for, including for the purposes of satisfying any legal, accounting or reporting requirements.  For Council Tax purposes, we will keep some personal data from 1993 as Council Tax re-bandings are still effective from that date. For Business Rates we will keep personal data for 7 years unless there is ongoing collection procedures in place for an older debt.  We will delete or destroy your personal data securely.

At the end of the retention period, we may pass any relevant information to the Archives where it is required or appropriate to do so.

Further processing of personal data

If we wish to use your personal data for a new purpose, not covered by this Privacy Notice, then we'll provide you with a new notice.

The new notice will:

• explain this new use before we start the processing
• set out the relevant purposes and processing conditions

Where and whenever necessary, we'll seek your consent to the new processing, if we start to use your personal data for a purpose not mentioned in this Privacy Notice.

See our Data Protection Policy for details about the further processing of personal data.

Personal data from online payments

The personal data you give to us when using our online payment system will only be used for the recording of your payment. We'll ensure that it is used for no other purpose and is not disclosed to a third party such as other companies or individuals, unless required to do so by law for the prevention of crime and the detection of fraud.

We'll hold it securely and only for as long as is needed. It will then be deleted in line with our Retention and Disposal Policy and Procedures.

See our Data Protection Policy for details on how we process your personal data in connection with online payments.

Your rights relating to your personal data

When we collect your personal data we'll tell you how we are going to use it. Where we process your personal data, you have a number of rights under data protection law.

Find information about your rights on our UK GDPR page.

Further information

If you have any questions, want to exercise your rights, or if you have a complaint about how your information has been used, please contact us at dataprotection@scarborough.gov.uk or on 01723 232323 or write to:

Data Protection Officer
Scarborough Borough Council
Town Hall
St Nicholas Street
Scarborough
North Yorkshire
YO11 2HG