Who we are and what we do

Milton Keynes Council, Revenues and Benefits Service includes the Non-Domestic Rates (NDR) Team. We maintain databases to ensure efficient and effective billing, collection and recovery of Business Rates.

For the purposes of this Privacy Notice Business Rates also covers the administration and collection of the Business Improvement District levy (BIDs).

Why we need your information and how we use it

The information you provide will be used to:

• create an account for billing purposes
• verify your identity should you contact the Council to discuss your account
• process applications for exemptions and rate relief
• collect any unpaid liability
• perform any other statutory duties under the following legislation

The information we collect and the information provided to us is required for the calculation of your Business Rates liability under the following legislation;

• the Non-Domestic Rating (Collection and Enforcement) (Local Lists) Regulations 1989
• the Local Government Finance Act 1988
• the Business Improvement Districts (England) Regulations 2004

In order to assess your liability we collect information about you, your company and the property you occupy/own. This information includes;

• name
• address
• contact details
• details of occupancy/lease/freehold interests in a property
• we will also collect bank details if you decide to pay by direct debit or are due a refund on an overpayment
• we may also ask for further financial information to assess your entitlement to rate relief or assess your circumstances
• any other information required to assess and administer your Business Rates liability

We have a duty to protect public funds we administer, and may use information held about you for all lawful purposes, including and not limited to the prevention and detection of fraud, and protecting public funds in investigating misuse of public money.

The council will also use the information for the purpose of performing any of its statutory enforcement duties.

Who your information may be shared with (internally and externally)

We will not share your information with other parties unless it is lawful to do so.

We will send information about you and your property to the Valuation Office as part of our duty to inform them of any changes that may require a list alteration.

Information may be shared with other departments at Milton Keynes Council to ensure our records are accurate and up to date. It may also be shared with other agencies in accordance with prevailing Data Protection statute for the detection and prevention of fraud and crime or the collection of any tax or duty.

We also share information with external partners, agencies and contractors acting on behalf of the Council.

Information may be shared with rating agents or other members of the public who are acting on your behalf, in circumstances where we have your consent to liaise directly with these people.

We routinely publish Non-Domestic Rates datasets on our website which are available to the general public. Personal data is removed prior to the dataset being published. 

How long we keep your information

We aim to retain your personal information for only as long as is necessary to undertake our functions and in line with our retention schedule. We will also adhere to any legal or regulatory requirements for retaining or deleting the information.

How you can access, update or correct your information

If you pay on time and do not claim any form of rate relief it is likely that the only time you will hear from us is when your annual bill is sent, but you may find us approaching you to review the data we hold. There is no set pattern but typically every year we will review aspects of the data we hold.

The Data Protection law gives you the right to apply for a copy of information about yourself. This is called a ‘Subject Access Request'.  Find out more on how to make a Subject Access Request.

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.

Marketing

We do not use your information for marketing purposes.