What we do with your data
Blackpool Council is under a duty to protect public funds it administers, and may use the information you have provided for the prevention and detection of fraud, or the purpose of assessing or collecting any tax, duty, levy or other imposition, contribution or charge payable to a government department. Our investigations may also include checks on un declared cohabiters. Information may be shared with organisations such as The Department for Work and Pensions, The Audit Commission other Local Authorities and Experian, a credit referencing agency.
How the council uses your information The council is committed to abiding by the Data Protection Act, as well as protecting people's rights to confidentiality and privacy.
We treat your private information with respect. It is kept secure and only staff who are entitled to see it have access to it.
We will do our best to keep information about you accurate and up to date.
When we no longer need information about you, we will dispose of it in a secure manner.
In particular, we will use information about you in the following circumstances:
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- To effectively and efficiently undertake any law enforcement, regulation and licensing, criminal prosecutions or court proceedings
- Where you owe money to the council or where we are paying you money, for example if you are claiming grants or receiving Housing and Council Tax Benefit.
Your personal information (other than just your name, address, dates of occupancy etc) will be kept secure and used only for the purposes shown above.
This means we are able to:
- provide you with a better level of service by ensuring that our information about you is accurate and up to date;
- ensure that public (taxpayers’) money is spent wisely and efficiently;
- avoid people being paid money to which they are not entitled;
- avoid having to ask people to pay money back when it has been paid to them incorrectly;
- reduce fraud and crime
The Council will always try to ensure that your name, address, date of occupancy etc, are used intelligently, in order to minimise inefficiency. It is important to us that we co-ordinate what we do for you properly. As a result, when you tell us that you are moving address or changing your name, we will try and make it as easy as we can for you. We will try to keep your name and address details up to date on all of our records.
For further information about your rights under the Data Protection Act 1998
use this link to the Information Commissioners Office website.
Alternatively
this link will take you to further information provided by Blackpool's Council's website.