Isle of Anglesey County Council

Council Tax: how we use your personal information


Fair Processing Notice

Isle of Anglesey County Council will use the information you give and any supporting evidence you provide to assess your liability for Council Tax. This is required under Local Government Finance Act 1992 and all other relevant regulations associated with the assessment of Council Tax.

This to include Council Tax Premium, which is required under Housing Wales Act 2014, part 7, section 139. This also to include discretionary relief, which is required under Local Government Finance Act 1992, section 13 a (1)(c).

You have a right to know about the way information about you is used by us. Please read the following information as it refers to additional rights which you should know about. 

Isle of Anglesey County Council is the data controller for your information. This means that the council protects your information and decides on how it is used. The legal term for using information is processing. Also, the legal term for information about you is personal data. 

Isle of Anglesey County Council is registered as a data controller with the Information Commissioner’s Office. Full details of the registration are available at the ICO register of data controllers

The Council will process your personal information because the processing is necessary for compliance with legislation, and the collection of Council Tax. 

The Council will use your personal information for the billing, collection and recovery of Council Tax (including Council Tax Premium) - this is the intended purpose of processing. The information will not be used for purposes that are not compatible with why it is gathered in the first instance. 

The Council may also check or match the information you have provided, or information about you that someone else has provided, with other information held by us as a Council. The Council may also get or check information you have provided or match information about you with certain third parties to make appropriate and informed decisions with regard to entitlement and liability assessment, debt management, tracing and recovery i.e. Credit Reference Agencies. 

In addition, your personal information will be used by third parties for the purpose of prevention or detection of crime, prevention or detection of fraud, to protect public funds and to make sure that the information is correct. 

The Council collects and uses your personal information because it has a legal duty or right to do so; or to perform a public interest task; or because you have given your consent. The legal term for this is called legal basis of processing

In this instance, the Council is using your personal information because it has a legal duty or right to do so and is undertaking a task in the public interest i.e. the collection of a tax to receive collective benefits paid for by this tax. 

We may share your information with other council services in order to ensure our records are accurate and up-to-date, to improve the standard of the services we deliver, and to perform any of our statutory duties, including enforcement duties. 

The council will not transfer your personal information to another country. 

The council may share your personal data provided for Council Tax purposes internally to provide other statutory services, but this will only happen on a strictly controlled and regulated basis. The council may also use it to check proof of residence. 

The council will collect and share information with public bodies that contain some personal data. Please note that the council will collect and share data with the Auditor General for Wales’ (AGW’s) in connection with his audit work and studies. Data sharing will also take place pursuant to the duty at Section 33 of the Local Government (Wales) Measure 2009. 

The personal information you provide will/can be shared with the following organisations: 

  • Welsh Government
  • HM Revenues and Customs
  • Department for Work and Pensions (DWP)
  • Rent Smart Wales
  • Enforcement Agencies (for statutory enforcement functions only)
  • National Fraud Initiative
  • Police Authorities
  • Local Authorities 

The list above is not exhaustive. Your information will only be shared for the purpose it is intended. 

The information you supply will be kept for as long as is required or necessary in accordance with our retention schedule, and will be destroyed securely. The retention periods are set out in the council’s list of retention periods, known as a retention schedule.

For further information, please contact the Data Protection Officer. 

You have legal rights, and it is important that you know what they are. 

You have the right to obtain confirmation that information about you is being used. The council will provide confirmation if you ask for it. 

You have the right to obtain a copy of your personal data. You will be provided with copies of your personal data within the statutory period of one month (or if providing your personal data is a complex matter, this will be done as soon as is reasonable within 3 months). Your personal data will be provided to you free of charge, however, if your request is deemed manifestly unfounded or excessive, a reasonable fee will be charged. You ask to obtain your personal data by contacting the Council’s Data Protection Officer. 

You have the right to have information about you corrected. This is known as the right of rectification. You have the right to ask that your personal data is rectified if it is incorrect or incomplete. This will be done within 1 month, or if your request is complex, within 3 months. 

The right to have personal data erased. You have a right to have personal data erased in specific circumstances: 

  • Where the personal data is no longer necessary in relation to the purpose for which it was originally collected/processed
  • When you object to the Council’s processing and there is no overriding legitimate interest for continuing the processing
  • If the personal data was unlawfully processed
  • When the personal data has to be erased in order to comply with a legal obligation; or
  • When the personal data is processed in relation to the offer of information society services to a child, for example an “app” developed specifically for children 

The right to restrict processing. Where it is claimed that data is inaccurate or the right to erasure has been exercised you can require the council to restrict processing until verification checks have been completed. 

The right to object. In addition to the right to object to your information being used for direct marketing, you have the right to object to processing based on the performance of a task in the public interest/exercise of official authority (including profiling), and processing for purposes of scientific/historical research and statistics. 

Rights in relation to automated decision making. You have the right not to be subject to decisions based solely on automated processing, including profiling, which produces legal effects on you or affects you in a significant way.

Please contact our Data Protection Officer by email, post or telephone if you have any queries about this privacy policy or the information we hold about you. The council’s Data Protection Officer (DPO) can be contacted by email: DPO@anglesey.gov.wales or SDD@ynysmon.llyw.cymru

We hope that our DPO can resolve any query or concern you may raise about our use of your personal information.

The General Data Protection Regulation also gives you the right to lodge a complaint with a supervisory authority where you work, normally live or where any alleged infringement of data protection laws occurred. The supervisory authority in the UK is the Information Commissioner who may be contacted at: 

Information Commissioner’s Office
Wycliffe House
Water Lane
Wilmslow
Cheshire
SK9 5AF

Email: casework@ico.gsi.gov.uk 

Telephone: 0303 123 1113

Electronic collection of data relating to Housing Benefit and Council Tax Reduction claims

The council has a legal obligation to publicly state its policy regarding electronic collection of data relating to Housing Benefit and Council Tax Reduction claims. 

The Isle of Anglesey County Council, in accordance with: 

For Housing Benefit:

Part 2 of Schedule 11 to the Housing Benefit Regulations 2006.

Part 2 of Schedule 10 to the Housing Benefit Regulations (Persons who have attained the qualifying age for state pension credit) 2006. 

For Council Tax Reduction:

Part 1 of Schedule 12 of The Council Tax Reduction Schemes and Prescribed Requirements (Wales) Regulations 2013 as incorporated by the Isle of Anglesey County Council in its Council Tax Reduction Scheme 2016 – 17 for Pensioner and Non-Pensioner Claimants. 

hereby makes the following directions:- 

1. Providing the method approved by the Authority is used, electronic communication may be used in the following circumstances;

  • Making a claim for Housing Benefit and/or Council Tax Reduction
  • Amending a claim for Housing Benefit and/or an application for a Council Tax Reduction
  • Notifying a change in circumstances for a Housing Benefit claim and/or a Council Tax Reduction application 

2. The methods approved by the Authority for using electronic communication are as follows: 

Making a new claim 

  • The claim/application form used for making a new claim must be that which is on the Authority’s website. The form must be completed in accordance with the instructions set out on the website.
  • The person must keep a copy of any electronic communication, reference number generated, claim/application, certificate, notice, information or evidence so that it can be produced where the Authority so requires. Failure to produce on reasonable request the evidence requested may be deemed to show that an electronic communication was not successfully made to the Authority.
  • Electronic new claims by appointment made via a telephone or by personal visits to the Council’s Offices at Llangefni. Such electronic applications appointments may be made by telephone via 01248 752226 or 01248 752658 from 9.00am to 12.00pm and 3.00pm to 4.00pm Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday each week. 

Amending a claim or notifying a change of circumstance 

  • By electronic mail to benefits@ynysmon.llyw.cymru;
  • By telephone via 01248 752226 or 01248 752658;
  • Any person sending an electronic communication to the Authority must clearly state their full name, full postal address, date of birth and national insurance number. Any communication where the Authority is unable to authenticate the identity of the sender shall be deemed invalidly made. 

3. The Authority may accept digital photographic and scanned images of notices, forms, evidence and information provided by a person where it has been verified by an officer of the Authority or its preferred partner or agent. Where it has not been verified, the Authority may request to see the original where its authenticity cannot be corroborated by other means. 

4. The Authority may determine that specified approved organisations can be used in relation to electronic claims and information. Claimants may need to contact any such organisations in relation to this. 

5. The Authority’s “official computer system” for the purposes of recording information relating to electronic communications is provided by Northgate Information Systems Ltd for Housing Benefits and Council Tax Reduction. The Council’s document forms systems for completion to claim Housing Benefit and Council Tax Reduction is provided by Victoria Forms Ltd. These systems are also regarded as “official computer systems” for the purposes of recording information relating to electronic communications. 

6. The Authority may require further information or original supporting evidence before the claim for Housing Benefit and/or application for a Council Tax Reduction can be assessed/revised. The Authority may verify claims/applications, certificates, notices, information or evidence using third party systems and sources of information as well as by direct contact with a person using electronic communications or by some other means. 

7. Any claim/application, amendment or notification received that: 

a) Does not conform to any of the relevant standards will be invalid;

b) Does conform to the above standard, but is not accepted by the Authority’s official computer system, is not regarded as having been delivered. 

8. This direction may be withdrawn or amended at any time by the issue of a further direction.

Privacy notice: Council Tax

Isle of Anglesey County Council will use the information you give, and any supporting evidence you provide to assess your liability for Council Tax.