Hi
In common with all local authorities, Aberdeenshire has its fair share of
customers who move away, leaving a debt but no forwarding address. A proportion
of these customers are never found, and this has an adverse affect on our
Council Tax cash flow, as well as taking up valuable staff time to institute
searches in the first place.
Probably the most lucrative sources of information would be the Gas and
Electricity companies, but relevant legislation (currently Section 105 of the
Utilities Act 2000) has always been very particular in listing those
organisations that are allowed access to their customer data, and, needless to
say, local authorities are currently NOT included. I assume the same applies to
the Telecommunications companies.
I understand that, under section 29 of the Data Protection Act 1998, local
authorities can, in their capacity as tax collectors, request address
information from virtually any source, but presumably the utilities legislation
overrides this.
However, I hear through the grapevine that there is to be data protection
legislation which may allow local authorities to access utilities data. Has
anyone out there heard this, or am I misinformed?
Regards
Bill Cowsell
Revenues Development Officer
Aberdeenshire Council
Tel: 01224 665357
Fax: 01224 665368
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