Non Domestic Rates - Privacy notice
Who we are and what we do
The council is a data controller under the Data Protection Legislation as we collect and process personal information about you in order to provide NNDR services and meet our statutory obligations.
We maintain databases to ensure efficient and effective billing, collection and recovery of NNDR.
This notice explains why we ask 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 we need your information and how we use it
In accordance with prevailing legislation, Local Authority Tax collectors are obliged to levy and collect taxes. The legislation that requires Local Authorities to collect and administer tax from its residents is as follows, the list is not exhaustive:
- The NNDR Regulations 2013 and 2016
- The Local Government Finance Act 1992
We use your information collected for purposes of administering NNDR, setting up your account for billing purposes, processing reliefs etc.
What type of information is collected from you
In order to administer our services we collect the following information from you:
- name
- address
- telephone number
- bank details
We 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)
Information may be shared with other services at our partner authorities. It may also be shared with other agencies in accordance with prevailing Data Protection Legislation for the detection and prevention of fraud and crime.
By law we must give out some information if we are asked.
We will also use the information for the purpose of performing any of its statutory enforcement duties. It will make any disclosures required by law and may also share this information with other bodies responsible for detecting/preventing fraud or auditing/ administering public funds. We may share the details with other organisations that handle public funds and assist in the processing of other benefits.
We can share information collected with other departments in the council and other local authorities.
How long we keep your information (retention period)
NNDR began on 1st April 1990 and in order that we are able to refund any monies due, we keep the necessary records relating to the last rating list prior to the current rating list.
For account holders who no longer carry out business in the district, we retain your information for six years after the last payment. If an account has an outstanding debt, we will retain your information for six years after full payment.
If the claim has an active fraud investigation, we will retain all information until 6 years after the end of the fraud investigation and conclusion of court action.
How we protect your information
We will not transfer your personal data outside the EU without your consent.
We 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.
For any payments which we take from you online we will use a recognised online secure payment system.
We 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 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
- you have the right to be told if we have made a mistake whilst processing your data and we will self report breaches to the Commissioner.
How you can access, update or correct your information
As far as taxation is concerned you will find us approaching you to review the data we hold. There is no set pattern but typically every year or so we will review aspects of the data we hold.
The Data Protection Legislation allows you to find out what information is held about you, on paper and computer records. This is known as ‘right of subject access’ and applies to your NNDR data along with all other personal records. For more information see our data protection page.
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 our 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. We are 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 we hold is inaccurate or out of date please email us or write to us at:
Revenues and Benefits Service
West Oxfordshire District Council
Council Offices, Witney, OX28 1NB
Contact us
Further information
If you would like to know more about how we use your information or if for any reason you do not wish to have your information used, email data.protection@westoxon.gov.uk.
You can also complain to the Information Commissioner.
We reserve the right to update this privacy notice from time to time by publishing a new version here on our website.