Council Tax privacy notice

This privacy notice should be read in conjunction with Colchester City Council’s Privacy Policy.

Information collected

• Name of occupant/s
• Address (including occupation date/vacation date/ tenancy start & end date
• Forwarding address
• Property owner or agent’s name & address
• Email address
• Telephone number
• Bank account details (where Direct Debit payer)
  Where there is an Housing Benefit/Local Council Tax Support claim, the claim details are linked to the Council Tax account (in most cases).

Agencies we might share your information with

• Essex County Council (Vigilant)
• Magnet Solutions (Locta)
• National Fraud Initiative
• FDM & Proprint (Print Companies)
• Experian
• His Majesty’s Revenues and Customs
• Office of National Statistics 
• Police (Crime and fraud prevention/detection)
• Capita Software Services
• Enforcement Agents
• Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities (formerly Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government)
• The Cabinet Office (Spotlight).
• Valuation Office Agency (purposes of maintenance of the National Non-Domestic Rates (NNDR) database and maintenance of Council Tax valuation lists)
• Colchester Borough Homes (tenancy information shared for tenancy management and debt collection purposes)
• Other Local Authorities (for tax collection purposes)
• Other Council Departments including Corporate Debt, Parking, Elections, Environmental health, Zone wardens, Building Control, Private sector housing, Local Land and Property Gazetteer, Business Rates, Benefits and Planning Enforcement for complaints and investigations.
• Planning Enforcement and the use of Council Tax data privacy notice

The purpose and lawful basis for processing

The lawful basis for the processing of your personal data is legal obligation. Colchester City Council has a statutory duty to collect Council Tax and this is done under The Council Tax (Administration and Enforcement) Regulations 1992 which make provision for the administration and collection of Council Tax in England and Wales under the Local Government Finance Act 1992.

Your information is stored securely in Capita Revenues and Benefits, our preferred IT Council Tax software management system. If you work for the Council we may use your payroll information for the purpose of recovering any debts owed to us.

Length of time we keep your information

We keep records relating to Council Tax dating back to 1993. We need to keep your information as in some instances the Valuation Office Agency revise property bandings resulting in a reduction in the amount of Council Tax that is owed to us. In order to be able to provide refunds we need to be able to trace those eligible and we do this by keeping a complete history. However, you do have the right to contact us and ask for your information to be removed where there is no obligation or statutory requirement for it to be kept. You can exercise this right by contacting Council.tax@colchester.gov.uk.

How we protect and store your personal data

We take the confidentiality of personal information very seriously and use recognised security and access controls to protect your information from unauthorised access, loss, misuse, alteration or corruption. We have procedures and processes in place to ensure that your personal information is managed appropriately.

Your information may be held outside of the UK. Where this is the case, we ensure that additional measures are in place to protect your data and to ensure that we continue to comply with data protection requirements.

Updates to this privacy notice.

We will continually review and update this privacy notice to reflect changes in our processes and procedures, as well as to comply with changes in the law. When such changes occur, we will revise the "last updated" date at the bottom of this notice. We encourage you to periodically review this notice and to be informed of how we protecting your information.