Data Protection Act – Code of Practice

Contents

• Your rights under the Data Protection Act
• How do you protect my rights?
• What if I wish to see the information you hold?
• What if I am unhappy with your response?
• Complaints
• Further information
• Our Service Commitment to you

The Data Protection Act (DPA) 1998 supports our commitment to customer confidentiality. We take reasonable care to prevent any unauthorised access to, or disclosure of, your personal data.

Your rights under the Data Protection Act

You are entitled to know why we are asking for information and how we intend to use it. You are also entitled to ask to see the information that we hold on you.

You can be sure that we will:

• take care of your information
• only use your information for the reasons we give you
• make sure that the information about you is accurate and up-to-date.

How do you protect my rights?

We will only process the information we need to carry out our duties.

We may get information about you from others, or we may give information to them. If we do, it will only be as the law permits, for example to:

• check accuracy of information
• prevent or detect crime
• protect public funds.

We may check information we get about you with what is already on our records. This can include information given by you as well as by others, such as other government departments, agencies and overseas tax authorities.

We will not give information about you to anyone outside the Valuation Office or HM Revenue and Customs, unless the law allows or we have your permission.

We aim to do everything necessary to take care of any information about you that we hold. We will make sure that:

• we follow our security guidelines
• your information is kept secure
• we only see your information if we genuinely need to in order to do our job
• your information is only used as the law allows.

Your rights and the rules we have to follow under the DPAare available by writing to:

What if I wish to see the information you hold?

The Data Protection Act 1998 gives you the right to ask to see details of any personal information that we hold about you. So we can be sure that we are giving information to the right person, please write to:

Remember to include your name and address so that we can reply to you. We will reply to your request within 40 days.

It will help us to deal more quickly with your request if you also tell us:

• the address of your property, including any business premises you own/occupy
• the type of information that you want

The law allows us to withhold certain information, for example, in connection with:

• the prevention or detection of crime
• the apprehension (arrest) or prosecution of offenders
• the assessment or collection of any tax or duty, or
• information that may reveal the identity of another person who has not agreed to their identity being given to you.

We apply these conditions as narrowly as we can, without damaging the effectiveness of our work, so that we can meet your requests as fully as possible.

What if I am unhappy with your response?

If you have asked for information we hold about you and you are not happy with our response, you can complain by writing to the addressabove explaining why you are not satisfied.

We will look into your complaint and will reply to you within 20 working days.

If you are still not happy with our response, or if you believe that we have broken any of the Data Protection Principles (or any other requirements of the Act), then you can write to the Information Commissioner.

You can find out how to do this in the Information Commissioner’s leaflet ‘Using the law to protect your information’.

Complaints

The Information Commissioner should be approached if you have concerns about whether we have complied with the DPA. If you have more general concerns as to how we have handled your affairs, our Code of Practice on mistakes, as set out in the leaflet ‘putting things right for you’ explains our complaints procedure and when we pay compensation for mistakes we make.

Please tell us if you believe:

• you have been denied your rights
• we have made a mistake
• you have been treated badly
• we have not acted in accordance with this Code of Practice.

To help you to do this and to avoid any further inconvenience, we have a straightforward and easy to use complaints procedure.

You can complain in writing, by phone or fax, or by visiting your local office. We will try to settle your complaint as quickly as possible. So if you have a complaint, please follow the steps below.

Step One

When you have a complaint, it is usually best to contact the person you have been dealing with. You may however prefer to contact that person’s manager, the Group Customer Service Manager, or the Group Valuation Officer or District Valuer who as overall responsibility for the office you are dealing with.

Step Two

If your complaint cannot be sorted out at step one, you can ask for it to be reviewed at the Chief Executive’s Office.

The Chief Executive’s address is:

Step Three

If you are not happy with the response from the Chief Executive’s Office, you can ask the Adjudicator to look into your complaint. The Adjudicator’s is a fair and unbiased referee whose recommendations are independent.

You can contact the Adjudicator at:

The Adjudicator’s leaflet AO1 (available from the Adjudicator’s Office and the Chief Executive’s Office) tells you how to make a complaint and gives information on what the Adjudicator can look into.

You can also contact, at any stage of your complaint, your own (or any) MPto ask the Parliamentary Ombudsman to investigate your complaint. The Ombudsman is independent and also considers complaints about the Adjudicator’s Office.

For more information about the Ombudsman’s services please contact:

Further information

We produce a wide range of leaflets, which are available in our Publications and from any VOA office. Our offices are open to the public from 9.00am to 5.00pm Monday to Friday.

Your local library of Citizens Advice Bureau may also have copies of these leaflets.

We can supply a full range of services for people with disabilities, including leaflets in Braille and large print. For details please contact your local VOAoffice.

Our commitment to you

We think that meeting your needs is important. We will do this by:

• giving you the best possible service
• providing helpful and impartial advice
• helping you to understand your rights and obligations
• treating everyone fairly by valuing all properties accurately impartially

Further information on customer service is set out in our Charters.