{"id":958634,"date":"2026-05-14T05:44:17","date_gmt":"2026-05-14T05:44:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/958634\/"},"modified":"2026-05-14T05:44:17","modified_gmt":"2026-05-14T05:44:17","slug":"city-of-edinburgh-council-breaches-privacy-law-in-tourist-tax-rollout","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/958634\/","title":{"rendered":"City of Edinburgh Council breaches privacy law in tourist tax rollout"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n Mr Phillips, who is a board member of the Association of Scotland’s Self-Caterers<\/a> (ASSC), contended that the council had neglected to meet its obligations under Articles 12, 13 and 14 of the UK GDPR, which require data controllers to be transparent about how personal data is held and processed.\n<\/p>\n

\n After Mr Phillips raised the complaint, the local authority confirmed it had “not met its obligations” and acknowledged that a privacy notice “should be produced”.\n<\/p>\n

\n \"man\"\/Paul Phillips submitted the complaint. (Image: Supplied)\n<\/p>\n

\n “I raised this complaint as a matter of principle,\u201d Mr Phillips told The Herald. \u201cIf the council is asking operators to hand over their personal data, the very least they can do is tell us how it will be used. That they failed to do so is a serious failing.\n<\/p>\n

\n \u201cI’m left wondering how many of Edinburgh’s<\/a> 3,000 operators received the same non-compliant correspondence without even realising it. We need answers on the scale of this embarrassing breach and whether the ICO will be informed.\u201d\n<\/p>\n

\n A council spokesperson acknowledged that the relevant privacy notice had not been made available, but told The Herald that it had now been uploaded online.\n<\/p>\n

\n Edinburgh\u2019s visitor levy is set to come into force on July 24 this year.\n<\/p>\n

\n The local authority was the first in Scotland to approve plans for the scheme in January 2025. The percentage-rate scheme, which has been criticised by business groups including ASSC, will charge visitors an 5% fee for overnight stays.\n<\/p>\n

\n ASSC chief executive Fiona Campbell MBE also raised concerns about the breach.\n<\/p>\n

\n “This data protection blunder is symptomatic of the council’s determination to be the first in Scotland to implement a levy come what may, even if it is at the detriment of proper process and legal compliance,\u201d she said.\n<\/p>\n

\n \u201cOperators are already deeply concerned about the council’s insistence on a percentage-based levy model, which we believe is unworkable and disproportionate. When you add this GDPR breach to the picture, confidence in the council’s handling of this scheme is seriously undermined.”\n<\/p>\n

\n \"woman\"\/Fiona Campbell, ASSC chief executive. (Image: Supplied)\n<\/p>\n

\n In late March, the Scottish Parliament<\/a> approved a change to the \u201ctourist tax\u201d law, allowing local authorities to institute a fixed-rate scheme (for example, \u00a35 per night) and adjust the rate according to the time of year.\u00a0\n<\/p>\n

\n However, when asked by The Herald if the scheme would be revamped, in line with the view of many operators, a council spokesperson said there were no such plans in the making.\n<\/p>\n

\n The spokesperson said that the local authority is working towards introducing the\u00a0already-agreed scheme this summer, and did not \u201ccurrently have plans to change this\u201d.\u00a0\n<\/p>\n

\n One City of Edinburgh<\/a> councillor told The Herald they believed that changes to the scheme would not be considered until after the council elections in 2027.\n<\/p>\n

\n \u201cMy gut feel is there won\u2019t be any change until the first three year review,\u201d they said. \u201cIt will be a different council then so there may be an appetite to move.\u201d\n<\/p>\n

\n Over the initial three year<\/a> scheme, it is hoped that more than \u00a390m will be generated by the scheme and subsequently allocated to projects focused on culture, heritage, events, and destination management.\n<\/p>\n

\n Speaking last week, city council leader Jane Meagher said some of the cash had been earmarked for the city\u2019s festivals.\n<\/p>\n

\n \u201cOur role in supporting the world-renowned festivals is a real source of pride, and their great reputation is a testament to the dedication and creativity of organisers, performers, and Council colleagues, whose collective efforts ensure these events remain among the very best in the world,\u201d she said.\n<\/p>\n

\n Read more:<\/strong>\n<\/p>\n

\n \u201cAs we near the 80th anniversary of our festivals, it is a moment to celebrate their global impact, but also the communities that bring them to life year after year.\n<\/p>\n

\n A \u00a31.46 million innovation fund is expected to benefit groups including the Edinburgh International Festival, the Fringe<\/a>, the Traverse Theatre<\/a>, and the Filmhouse cinema.\n<\/p>\n

\n A City of Edinburgh Council spokesperson said: \u201cThere was no issue identified with how this information was used. However, the relevant privacy notice was not available online, and this has now been uploaded<\/a>.\n<\/p>\n

\n \u00a0\u201cWe look forward to introducing the Edinburgh Visitor Levy in July. This will allow us to invest tens of millions of pounds towards enhancing and sustaining the things that make our city such a great place to visit \u2013 and live in \u2013 all year round.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Mr Phillips, who is a board member of the Association of Scotland’s Self-Caterers (ASSC), contended that the council…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":140802,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8816],"tags":[748,1102,4884,712,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-958634","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-edinburgh","8":"tag-britain","9":"tag-edinburgh","10":"tag-great-britain","11":"tag-scotland","12":"tag-uk","13":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/958634","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=958634"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/958634\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/140802"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=958634"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=958634"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=958634"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}