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Business Rates - Privacy Notice

Who we are?

Orkney Islands Council is a local authority established under the Local Government etc. (Scotland) Act 1994. Its head office is located at Council Offices, School Place, Orkney, KW15 1NY, and you can contact our data protection officer, Gavin Mitchell, by post at this address, by email or by telephone on 01856 873535

Why may we require your personal information and what do we do with it?

In order to administer non-domestic rates bills and determine for instance eligibility for non-domestic rates reliefs, we may require personal information relevant to your non-domestic property.

We may also use your information, as required, to verify your identity, contact you by post, email or telephone and to maintain our records. 

In order to increase transparency around the use of public funds for non-domestic rates relief awards, information associated with the awarding of the non-domestic rates reliefs will be published on the local authority’s website. This information may include the liability holder (company or sole trader name), non-domestic property information (including relevant property reference numbers), the date of the relief award, type of relief award, gross bill and net bill. 

This information may also be analysed internally to help us improve our services.

This data sharing is in accordance with our Information Use and Privacy Policy and covered in our full privacy statement on our website. It also forms part of our requirements in line with our Records Management Plan approved in terms of the Public Records (Scotland) Act 2011.

Legal basis for using your information

You can find more details about this on our Privacy Page.  Processing your personal information may be necessary for the awarding of the relief. If you do not provide us with the information we have asked for then we may not be able to provide this service to you.

Who do we share your information with?

We are legally obliged to safeguard public funds, so we are required to verify and check your details internally for fraud prevention. We may share this information with other public bodies (and also receive information from these other bodies) for fraud-checking purposes.  We are also legally obliged to share certain data with other public bodies, such as other local authorities or Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs and will do so where the law requires this. In order to meet our legal obligations and to promote openness & transparency around the use of public funds and the awarding of non-domestic rates reliefs, relief recipients should be aware that the details of all relief awards will be published on the Local Authority website.

We will also generally comply with requests for specific information from other regulatory and law enforcement bodies where this is necessary and appropriate.  Your information is also analysed internally to help us improve our services.  This data sharing is in accordance with our Information Use and Privacy Policy and covered in our full privacy statement on our website. It also forms part of our requirements in line with our Records Management Plan approved in terms of the Public Records (Scotland) Act 2011.

Your information will be shared with the Scottish Government for the purposes of analysis. This data-sharing is in accordance with our Information Use and Privacy Policy and covered in our full privacy statement on our website. It also forms part of our requirements in line with our Records Management Plan approved in terms of the Public Records (Scotland) Act 2011. The Scottish Government may also publish compiled lists of relief award recipients.

How long do we keep your information for?

We only keep your personal information for the minimum period amount of time necessary.  Sometimes this time period is set out in the law, but in most cases it is based on the business need.  We maintain a records retention and disposal schedule which sets out how long we hold different types of information for.   You can view our Retention and Disposal Schedule or request a hard copy from the contact address stated above.

Your rights under data protection law?

See our privacy notice.

Objecting to how we may use your information

See our privacy notice.

Restricting how we may use your information

See our privacy notice.

Information you have given us about other people

If you have provided anyone else’s details on this form, please make sure that you have told them that you have given their information to Orkney Islands Council  We will only use this information to process and administer your claim.  If they want any more information on how we will use their information they can visit our Privacy Page or email us.

Complaints

See our privacy notice.

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