Council Tax - privacy notice

What personal information is being processed and what for

• Your contact details
• Date of birth
• Family Information
• Employment details
• Data held by Credit Reference Agencies.

We do sometimes use special categories such as health and finance information, and we also use information about criminal convictions and offences where these relate to the administration and recovery of council tax.

We use your personal data for the following reasons

• to work out and collect council tax;
• to resolve complaints made about the service;
• for crime prevention or detection of fraud, including the use of data-matching initiatives designed to protect public funds;
• to ensure safe systems for staff visiting / meeting with customers;
• to prepare statistics and for research.

Why we are allowed to use your information 

We use your personal information in order complete the public task of administering and enforcing Council Tax revenue under Article 6 of GDPR and the Local Government Finance Act 1992. The processing of your information is necessary for compliance with the legal obligations contained in this Act.

Who we will share your information with

Your personal data is shared securely with the following organisations, where it is necessary and appropriate to do so:

• representatives of the person whose personal data we are processing
• debt collection and tracing agencies
• local and central government
• ombudsman and regulatory authorities
• courts and tribunals
• enforcement agents
• police forces
• data processors
• regulatory bodies
• customs and excise
• law enforcement and prosecuting authorities
• other council departments

Where we get your information from

We collect this information from the individual or third parties as listed below: 

• online web forms and web enquiries from the council’s website 
• incoming correspondence such as letters/forms/applications for discounts
• reviews and exemptions from customers and from landlords and letting agents with regard to occupancy
• information received from council property inspectors and other departments such as planning, housing and electoral services
• information given to staff within customer service centres and to our call team
• information from our benefits section

How long we will keep your personal information

We will keep your information for as long as it is required by the Council in order to comply with legal and regulatory requirements.

Our retention period for council tax is 6 years. 

How your information is stored

We retain information on our Northgate billing system indefinitely with regard to council tax liability, transactions, recovery action taken and notepads of conversations with our call team. Access to this system is controlled and all staff submit an annual declaration of interest in any council tax or business rates account or benefit claim. When an employee leaves the section access to this system is deleted.

We also retain data, forms and correspondence from customers as well as outgoing letters and forms generated by our electronic document management system ‘Information at Work’ – this data is held on the system for 6 years before being deleted.

What happens if you don’t provide us with your information

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. 

Will your information be used to make automated decisions

There are automated processes in place for the recovery of Council Tax, but information provided can result in removal (if only sometimes temporary) of these automated processes. Further guidance is available on the ICO website.

Your rights

You have a number of rights regarding your personal data, including withdrawing your consent where we have asked for it. 

You can also ask for a copy of the information we hold about you and ask us to correct anything that is wrong.

For detailed information about your rights please see the Cheshire East privacy notice.