Council Tax and Business Rates Privacy Notice

This Privacy Notice is regularly reviewed and may be updated or revised at any time. It was last updated in July 2025. It is important that the personal data we hold about you is accurate and current. Please keep us informed if your personal data changes.

Introduction

Our core data protection obligations and commitments are set out in Wigan Council Primary Privacy Notice.

This notice provides additional privacy information for Council Tax and Business Rates.

What personal data do we collect?

To carry out activities and obligations as a Council Tax and Business Rates service, we process the following personal data:

Personal contact details such as name, title, addresses, telephone numbers and personal email addresses
Bank account details
Employment and payroll as well as national insurance status information
Home Office information including UK residency status
Information regarding student status
Financial information including Welfare Benefit and Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs information and information about assets and leases to establish business rates liability
Images (via body worn cameras).

We also process the following Special Category Data:

Medical information including information regarding health conditions relevant to your Council Tax or Business Rates liability.

How we use personal data

The main purposes for processing your personal data are:

To calculate your tax/rates liability and send you a bill for this
To provide you with any tax/rates relief, discounts or exemptions you are entitled to
To enable us to assess and process offers of payment you may make
To enable you to pay your bill by direct debit
To enable us to update your account where you have a change of address or circumstance relevant to your bill
To allow us to put into place recovery procedures where your bill remains unpaid
To allow us to assess your eligibility and make payment, when administering any current or future grant schemes based on Business Rates liability i.e. Covid restrictions grant funding
To apply the breathing space scheme protections (where applicable).

Legal Basis for processing

The lawful basis we rely on for processing your personal data is:

It is necessary for the performance of a task carried out in the public interest or in the exercise of official authority
It is necessary to fulfil a legal obligation. The legal obligation and official authority arise from our statutory duty to administer and collect Council Tax and Non-Domestic Rates in accordance with the following legislation:
- Local Government Finance Act 1992 and Council Tax (Administration and Enforcement) Regulations 1992 and a duty to disclose information to debt advisors under The Debt Respite Scheme (Breathing Space Moratorium and Mental Health Crisis Moratorium) (England and Wales) Regulations 2020
- The Local Government and Finance Act 1988 and The Non-Domestic Rating (Collection and Enforcement) (Local Lists) Regulations 1989 and other associated legislation/regulations
- The Local Government Act 2003.

The Council may also use your information for the purpose of performing any of its statutory enforcement duties.

If we intend to use your information beyond legal obligations or public tasks, we will seek your consent to process your information, and full guidance will be provided.

The condition we rely on for processing your special category data is:

It is necessary for reasons of substantial public interest – statutory etc and government purposes.

Who do we share personal data with?

In addition to the general reasons for data sharing described in the Council’s Primary Privacy Notice, we share data with the following when required:

Other Council departments, including, but not limited to, Housing Benefits and Council Tax Reduction, Housing Rents, Adults Social care, Housing, Planning, Health Protection and Civil Contingencies, Registrars Service and Environmental Services
Other local authorities
Government Departments and Agencies including, but not limited to, Department for Work and Pensions, HMRC, HMCTS (formally HMCS)
Police
Enforcement Agencies and authorised third parties who undertake services on behalf of Wigan Council
Registered Social and Private Landlords including their representatives
Credit reference agencies
External Auditors
Debt advisors or the Insolvency Service where you are registered with the breathing space scheme. For more information on the scheme, please visit debt respite scheme guidance (external link)
Minister for Cabinet Office for matching. The use of data for this data matching exercise is carried out with statutory authority under part 6 of the Local Audit and Accountability Act 2014. It does not require the consent of the individuals concerned under Data Protection legislation. Data matching by the Cabinet Office is subject to a Code of Practice. You can view further information on the Cabinet5 Office’s legal powers and the reasons why it matches particular information
Office for National Statistics (ONS) to help with the production of statistics related to the economy, population and society and to help with the Census. Details of the information we share and how it will be used can be viewed on the Office for National Statistics (ONS) website.

This is not an exhaustive list.

How long do we keep personal data?

We will only retain your personal data for as long as necessary to fulfil the purposes we collected it for, including for the purposes of satisfying any future legal, accounting, or reporting requirements.

We must continue to retain necessary data in accordance with our corporate records policy to fulfil legal, statutory and regulatory requirements.

Automated decisions

All the decisions we make about you involve human intervention.

Your rights

More information on how to seek advice to exercise your rights, raise a concern or complain about the handling of your personal data by the council can be found in at Wigan Council Primary Privacy Notice.

Data Protection Officer

If you wish to raise a concern or seek clarification about any aspect of this notice, please contact our Data Protection Officer. Please provide documents to prove your identity along with a description of your concern.

We will respond to all requests within one month.

If you are unhappy with the way that we handle your concern you may complain to the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) (external link).

Document information

Owner: Joanne Mitchell, Assistant Director - Customer Experience and Support

Author: Michael Barlow, Service Manager Collections Assessments and Systems

Version and date: V9.0 July 2025