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Local Land Charges - Privacy Notice

Who the Council is and what the Council does

West Oxfordshire District Council is a data controller under the Data Protection Legislation as the Council collects and processes personal information about you in order to provide services and meet their statutory and regulatory obligations.

Changes to our Local Land Charges Register

As part of the Government initiative HM Land Registry is working with West Oxfordshire District Council to improve conveyancing and streamline the homebuying process.

When complete, HM Land Registry will provide search results for local land charges searches to all our customers, including solicitors, conveyancers, and personal search agents.

From 1 April 2023, we will no longer provide an Official Certificate of Search under 'LLC1' and personal searches under Environmental Information Regulations 2004 ‘EIR’. 

From 13 April 2023, access to the new HM Land Registry digital service will be available for Personal searches and the submission of LLC1 requests via the Business Gateway and HM Land Registry's pages https://www.gov.uk/search-local-land-charges 

More information on the changes can be found here: Local Land Charges Programme - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)

West Oxfordshire District Council will continue to provide replies to CON29 and CON29O enquiries.

This notice explains why the Council asks for your personal information, how that information will be used and how you can access your records.

Any questions regarding our privacy practices should be sent to:

Data Protection Officer (DPO)
West Oxfordshire District Council
Council Offices, Witney, OX28 1NB
Email: data.protection@westoxon.gov.uk
Tel: 01993 861194

Why the Council needs your information and how the Council uses it

We collect information to process your Land Charge search on forms CON29 or EIR, for a property or piece of land. We will use your contact details to return the search results and in the event that we need to contact you in relation to your search request.

This is a task given to the Council under the Local Land Charges Act 1975 and Limitation Act.

The Council does not sell your personal information to anyone else.

What is the legal process for collecting and processing this data

Under the UK General Data Protection Regulation (UK GDPR) and Data Protection Act 2018, the lawful basis we rely on for processing this information is:

  • UK GDPR Article 6(1)(a) - you, or your legal representative, have given us your consent
  • UK GDPR Article 6 (1) (c) Legal Obligation – we collect and lawfully process your personal data in accordance with the Local Land Charges Act 1975 and Limitation Act

What type of information is collected from you

  • We hold information on solicitors and other third-party agents that request a search on properties on behalf of sellers and buyers and the address of the property or land the subject of the search.

The above list is not exhaustive. The Council will only ask for personal information that is appropriate to enable us to deliver our services. In some cases you can refuse to provide your details if you deem a request to be inappropriate. However, you should note that, this may impact on our ability to provide some services to you.

Who your information may be shared with (internally and externally)

For public viewing of the Local Land Charges Register, we may share with:

  • Our department(s) including Legal Services, Planning, Building Control and Environmental Courts/tribunals
  • Land Registry
  • Ombudsman
  • Lawyers and other professionals who may be acting on your behalf

The Council will not share your information with third parties for marketing purposes. 

Anonymisation - your personal information may be converted ('anonymised') into statistical or aggregated data in such a way that ensures that you cannot be identified from it. Aggregated data cannot, by definition, be linked back to you as an individual and may be used to conduct research and analysis, including the preparation of statistics for use in our reports.

How long the Council keeps your information (retention period)

We keep a Land Charge search request, including your contact information, for 7 years. This is held under the Local Land Charges Act 1975 and Limitations Act.

Once your data is no longer needed it will be securely and confidentially destroyed or disposed of the data in line with retention schedules.

How the Council protects your Information

Your data is stored securely on our systems and accessed only by authorised officers using their own username and password created in line with pre-defined user credentials. Personal data is also held in electronic files on the council’s network drives. These are only accessible through personal logon credentials and access privileges to specific drives. Access to our council sites require a personal electronic pass to access staff only areas. The Council has strict procedures for the way this is done. Any and all information about you is treated as confidential and with respect. There are also clear rules and guidance about storing, recording and sharing information which staff receive training on.

If you use your credit or debit card to make payments, the Council passes your card details securely to our payment processing partner as part of the payment process. The Council does this in accordance with the Payment Card Industry Security Standard and does not store the details on its website. The information you give to the Council when using our online payment system will only be used for the recording of your payment

The Council will not transfer your personal data outside the EU without your consent.

The Council have implemented generally accepted standards of technology and operational security in order to protect personal data from loss, misuse or unauthorised alteration or destruction.  

Please note however that where you are transmitting information to us over the internet this can never be guaranteed to be 100% secure.  

The Council will notify you promptly in the event of any breach of your personal data which might expose you to serious risk.

Your rights

You have the following rights under the Data Protection Legislations:

  • To access your personal data
  • To be provided with information about how your personal data is processed
  • To have your personal data corrected
  • To have your personal data erased in certain circumstances
  • To object to or restrict how your personal data is processed
  • To have your personal data transferred to yourself or to another business in certain circumstances
  • To be told if the Council have made a mistake whilst processing your data and the Council will self-report breaches to the Commissioner.

How you can access, update or correct your information

The Data Protection law gives you the right to apply for a copy of information about yourself. This is called a ‘Subject Access Request'.

If you wish to see a copy of your records you should contact the Data Protection Officer. You are entitled to receive a copy of your records free of charge, within a month.

In certain circumstances access to your records may be limited, for example, if the records you have asked for contain information relating to another person.

The accuracy of your information is important to us to be able to provide relevant services more quickly. The Council is working to make our record keeping more efficient. In the meantime, if you change your address or email address, or if any of your circumstances change or any of the other information the Council holds is inaccurate or out of date, please email us or write to us at:

Local Land Charges
West Oxfordshire District Council
Council Offices, Witney, OX28 1NB
Email: land.charges@westoxon.gov.uk
www.westoxon.gov.uk/planning-and-building/local-land-charges/

Further information

If you would like to know more about how the Council uses your information, or if for any reason you do not wish to have your information used in any of the ways described in this privacy notice, please contact the Data Protection Officer at data.protection@westoxon.gov.uk

For more information about data protection please visit: www.westoxon.gov.uk/about-the-council/council-data-and-information/data-protection/

If you are concerned about the way the Council is handling your personal information you can contact the Information Commissioner (ICO) https://ico.org.uk/make-a-complaint/

The Council reserve the right to update this privacy notice from time to time by publishing a new version on our website.

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