Scientology Rates - Date and basis of relief granted

The request was successful.

Dear Sunderland City Council,

I refer you to an earlier FOI request by William Thackery on 1 May 2010 (http://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/sc...) to which you responded:

"Records have been checked and up until the date of your request, 1st May 2010, the Council does not hold this information."

I further refer you to a response by you to Roland Berry, sent on or about the 20th August 2010, in which your Business Rate Manager stated:

"Sunderland City Council granted the Church of Scientology College 80% Charity Relief and 20% Discretionary Relief for their property at 51 Fawcett Street. It was granted this year but backdated to 2006."

In light of this, could you please advise:

(1)
The date or dates that the decision to 'charity' and 'discretionary' grant relief was made

(2)
A copy of the application and all documents supplied in support of it.

(3)
The reasons behind the Council’s decision to apply:
(3a) the 80% 'charity' relief.
(3b) the 20% 'discretionary' relief.

(4)
Further, please advise the specific act or acts, with reference to parts, sections or sub-sections, which were applied in determining to provide the relief, for
(4a) 80% 'charity' relief
(4b) 20% 'discretionary' relief

Please provide all information in electronic format via email.

Yours faithfully,
J Maxwell

Solicitor - Freedom of Information, Sunderland City Council

Dear Mr Maxwell,

I confirm that your request for information has been received and is receiving attention

The Council aims to provide available information promptly and in any event within 20 working days, unless, exceptionally, there is a need to consider whether the information is exempt from disclosure. Please note that there may be a charge for providing copies of the information. If the cost of complying with your request in full exceeds £450, we will ask you to reconsider your request, or to pay a fee before the information is supplied. If we need to ask you to refine your request or to pay a charge or fee we will let you know. Please quote the reference below if you contact the Council regarding this request.

Yours sincerely,

[email address]

Our reference: Customer number - 1614 and RFI number - 2453 Due Deadline Date 20.9.2010

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Anastasia left an annotation ()

Point 1 - has been dealt with now

http://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/sc...

Dear Solicitor - Freedom of Information,

I note that the statutory 20 days for a reply has now passed. Could you advise if a response is expected shortly?

Yours sincerely,

J Maxwell

Steele Stewart, Sunderland City Council

4 Attachments

J Maxwell, please find attached a reply from the City Treasurer to your
FOI request.
 

Steele Stewart
Business Rate Manager
Office of the Chief Executive
Sunderland City Council
Telephone Number 0191 5611893
[1]www.sunderland.gov.uk

 

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Sunderland is aiming to become the most liveable city in the UK.
Visit www.Sunderland.gov.uk for Council services and information.
Business investors can access www.Investinsunderland.co.uk
Visitors to the City should log onto www.Visitsunderland.com

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Sunderland is aiming to become the most liveable city in the UK.
Visit www.Sunderland.gov.uk for Council services and information.
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Visitors to the City should log onto www.Visitsunderland.com

References

Visible links
1. http://www.sunderland.gov.uk/

Dear Sunderland City Council,

Thank you for the information provided with respect to my FOI request. While generally very happy with your response, I do need to challenge it in one regard. Therefore, please pass this on to the person who conducts Freedom of Information reviews.

I request an internal review of Sunderland City Council's handling of my FOI request 'Scientology Rates - Date and basis of relief granted'; specifically with regard question #2, where your response stated:

"Regarding all documents supplied in support of CoS' application, the Council does hold this information however it is considered to be exempt from disclosure under Section 41 of the Freedom of Information Act 2000, on the grounds that the information was provided in confidence to the Council and its disclosure would constitute a potential breach of confidence actionable by the CoS."

In the first instance,

(1) I ask whether it is reasonable for a claimant to taxation relief on the basis of providing a public benefit, to have a reasonable expectation of privacy for documents provided in support of such an application. Any reference to case-law, or other similar background material you might be able to easily provide in this regard would be useful.

(As general feedback to the Council: It would seem to me that any organisation making such an application and yet requiring that the entire evidential basis for such relief be held confidential immediately compromises their claim to providing such benefits.)

Additionally, within the review, I would ask the Council to consider:

(2) Whether some parts of the withheld information can be disclosed (such as perhaps evidence provided by the organisation to establish it's public benefit to the community, etc);

(3) Whether the nature or type of information or document can be disclosed, if not the content;

(4) Whether documents can be disclosed with redactions of necessarily confidential content; and especially,

(5) whether the public interest in keeping the information confidential is overwhelmed by the public-interest in understanding the evidential basis for granting relief to a controversial organisation, thus imposing a greater financial burden on other taxpayers.

With regards (5), please see the third bullet, under item (C) of this document: http://www.ico.gov.uk/upload/documents/l...

Furthermore, for consideration with regards (5), but also generally in response to the Councils granting of relief per question #3, "on balance the COS (although not a registered charity) has been established for charitable purposes ... this decision based on ... the Charity Commission's latest guidance on public benefit":

It is not just that the organisation is not registered as a charity by the Commission - it has been DENIED registration. Furthermore, the UK Charity Commission in their evidence to the recent Australian Senate enquiry stated that the subsequent 2006 law essentially encodes earlier decisions, specifically including the prior denial of registration to COSRECI.

It is therefore difficult to understand the Councils opinion in this matter, accentuating that the balance of public-interest shifts again further away from the necessity to protect confidentiality, to disclosure, in this instance.

(6) Again referring to the ICO document linked above, this time to part (B) subpart (a), I would ask that the Council reviews whether each specific piece of withheld information was stated to be provided in confidence, or is assumed to have been so; and if the latter, whether that assumption is in-line with the guidance.

And finally :-)

(7) Again referring to the ICO document, part (B) sub-part (b), whether any of the information is 'trivial' and thus should be disclosed; or if any of the information is available elsewhere, and thus should be disclosed.

A full history of my FOI request and all correspondence is available on the Internet at this address:
http://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/sc...

Again, thanks for the reply thus far, yours faithfully,

J Maxwell

Dear Sunderland City Council,

I have become aware of an internal review request on another FOI request, covering the information where this request intersect with that one.

If you are prepared to consider the grounds for appeal (1) thru (7) per my earlier communication alongside and in addition to the grounds proffered by Mr Thackery in his review request, I would be happy to withdraw my appeal and regard my FOI requests as dealt with (since all other aspects of my requests have been addressed).

Mr Thackery's FOI is referenced
Customer number: 1490
RFI number: 2466

Please let me know if this approach is acceptable to you. If so, I will assume the bases for my request for review will be addressed in your response to his request for review.

Yours faithfully,

J Maxwell

Steele Stewart, Sunderland City Council

1 Attachment

J Maxwell, our FOI people are giving me a bit of grief as there is still
an open FOI request down to you on the whatdotheyknow site. The link is:
 
[1]http://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/ru...
 
I don't think it is outstanding but if it is tell me and I will get the
information to you. If it is complete would you be willing to update the
page?
 
Thanks.
 
Steele Stewart
Business Rate Manager
Office of the Chief Executive
Sunderland City Council
Telephone Number 0191 5611893
[2]www.sunderland.gov.uk

 

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Sunderland is aiming to become the most liveable city in the UK.
Visit www.Sunderland.gov.uk for Council services and information.
Business investors can access www.Investinsunderland.co.uk
Visitors to the City should log onto www.Visitsunderland.com

References

Visible links
1. http://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/ru...
2. http://www.sunderland.gov.uk/

J Maxwell left an annotation ()

Replied at request linked in letter, confirming info received and closing that request.

Solicitor - Freedom of Information, Sunderland City Council

Dear Sir,

I am writing to advise you that a response to your Freedom of
Information review will
be provided within 40 working days from the receipt of your review
request. The reason
for the extension is due to the large volume of information being
considered following
receipt of a number of requests for information relating to Scientology.

This review will be covered under Mr Thackeray's request.

Regards

Mr Darren Rigg

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Solicitor - Freedom of Information, Sunderland City Council

Dear Sir,

I am pleased to confirm that your review has been completed and the
Council's response prepared for release. I am advised that the
correspondence in question includes over 500 A4 sheet paper documents,
many of which are double-sided, together with some A3 sheet paper
documents. Many of the documents involved are primarily text but a
number also include images: in total it is estimated that the resulting
response comprises approximately 800 A4-equivalent sides to release. I
am sure you will appreciate that this would produce a
significantly-sized attachment if scanned and supplied electronically -
we have estimated a file size of between 1 and 6MB (based on web-based
figures for typical e-book file sizes).

Regrettably we have encountered significant difficulties to date in the
supply of FOI information in larger attachments, problems often
manifesting in hung Council e-mail functionality or difficulties with
recipients' e-mails. Accordingly, I would be obliged if you would
provide a postal address to enable the results of your review to be
issued in hardcopy.

I appreciate you may not wish to post your postal address in a public
forum and will therefore be happy to receive your postal details via the
Council's dedicated FOI inbox, at [Sunderland City Council request email]

Kind regards,

O Thomas
Sunderland City Council

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Sunderland City Council

Dear Mr Maxwell

Re: Freedom of Information Act 2000 Your request for information
concerning the Church of Scientology Religious Education College
Inc. Reference No: 2453, Customer No: 1614

I refer to your posting dated 9th October 2010, on the
‘WhatDoTheyKnow’ website. The information you have requested does
intersect with Mr Thackeray’s request for information (Reference
No: 2466, Customer No:1490) also published on the website.

I can confirm that your grounds of appeal (1) through to (7) have
been considered as part of the review and the information you have
requested, which I am able to supply, has been uploaded to the
website.

I would be grateful if you could refer to the Council’s response to
Mr Thackeray’s request.

Yours sincerely Mrs. V. Gamble

Anastasia left an annotation ()