Dear Mr Dooley,
 
FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT 2000 (FOIA) - INFORMATION REQUEST
 
The City of London (CoL) acknowledges receipt of your request for
information of 4 December 2013, as attached:
Public authorities are required to respond to requests within the
statutory timescale of 20 working days beginning from the first working
day after they receive a request. The Act does not always require public
authorities to disclose the information which they hold.
 
The FOIA applies to the CoL as a local authority, police authority and
port health authority. The CoL is the local and police authority for the
“Square Mile”, ie the historic City of London, and not for London as a
whole. Please see the following link to a map on the CoL's website, which
shows the area covered:
[1]www.cityoflondon.gov.uk/maps/Pages/explore-the-city.aspx.
The CoL does have some functions, including Port Health Authority
functions, which extend beyond the City boundary. For further information
please see: [2]www.cityoflondon.gov.uk.
 
Yours sincerely,
 
Information Officer
Town Clerk’s Department
City of London
Tel: 020-7332 1209
[3]www.cityoflondon.gov.uk
 
 
 
THIS E-MAIL AND ANY ATTACHED FILES ARE CONFIDENTIAL AND MAY BE LEGALLY
PRIVILEGED. If you are not the addressee, any disclosure, reproduction,
copying, distribution or other dissemination or use of this communication
is strictly prohibited. If you have received this transmission in error
please notify the sender immediately and then delete this e-mail.
Opinions, advice or facts included in this message are given without any
warranties or intention to enter into a contractual relationship with the
City of London unless specifically indicated otherwise by agreement,
letter or facsimile signed by a City of London authorised signatory. Any
part of this e-mail which is purely personal in nature is not authorised
by the City of London. All e-mail through the City of London's gateway is
potentially the subject of monitoring. All liability for errors and
viruses is excluded. Please note that in so far as the City of London
falls within the scope of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 or the
Environmental Information Regulations 2004, it may need to disclose this
e-mail. Website: http://www.cityoflondon.gov.uk

References

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2. http://www.cityoflondon.gov.uk/
3. http://www.cityoflondon.gov.uk/

Dear Mr Dooley,
 
I write further to your request for information on 4^th December 2013 and
the City’s reply of the same date.
 
In your request you asked for the following information: “A list of all
Non Domestic Rates Assessments within your Billing Authority, detailing
the property address, Rateable value, Billing Authority Reference and
liable party for each”
 
This response acts as a Refusal Notice in pursuance of the Freedom of
Information Act.
 
We refuse part of the request under Section 21 of the Act in that part of
the information is accessible by other means. All non-domestic rating
assessments including the property address, rateable value and billing
authority reference numbers are public information and are available on
the Valuation Office Agency (VOA) website. You may need to search in
“agent mode”.  Below is a link to the VOA website in agent mode:
 
[1]http://www.2010.voa.gov.uk/rli/en/advanc...
 
You may search for all properties or select by value, description,
address, etc.
There is an exemption under Section 31(1)(a) of the Freedom of Information
Act (FOIA) which we consider applies to the remainder of your request, the
liable party for each assessment. This section provides that information
is exempt from disclosure if such disclosure would prejudice the
“prevention or detection of crime”. We consider that the disclosure of
information about ratepayers puts their properties at risk from crime.
We now consider that circumstances are such in the City that the names of
all ratepayers are in the current circumstances exempt from disclosure
under Section 31(1)(a). This exemption is subject to the public interest
test. We believe that, particularly bearing in mind the protests in the
City and surrounding areas in recent years, there is a strong public
interest in protecting all property from unlawful occupation or damage.
Non disclosure would not prevent the protestors from exercising their
right to protest lawfully.
Although the campsite at St Paul’s Cathedral was removed, the threat to
buildings in the City remains. The evidence is that illegal occupation has
happened and that more action has been considered, with St Paul’s
Cathedral again targeted in October 2012. “The traditional solemnity of St
Paul's Sunday evensong was disrupted when four members of the [2]Occupy
London movement, which camped outside the cathedral for four months,
chained themselves to the base of the pulpit…………..to mark the anniversary
of the start of the Occupy camp outside St Paul's, accusing the cathedral
authorities of colluding with banks and failing to help the poor”.
(Guardian on-line 14^th October 2012)
Also on 2^nd February 2013, there was an attempt to occupy a hospital in
outer London: “Chase Hospital (Barnet and Enfield NHS Trust) was occupied
after a march and rally on Saturday [2/2/13] by a coalition of local
groups and campaigns. ……… ………...The occupation was subsequently removed by
security and the police around 10pm that evening.” (Occupy London website)
If there were to come to light after an event evidence that information
from rating records had been used, it would be too late to retrieve the
situation. We have a responsibility, acting reasonably, to consider the
disclosure of ratepayer information within this context.
There is also an exemption under section 31(1)(d) of the FOIA which we
believe applies to this request. This section provides that information is
exempt from disclosure if such disclosure would prejudice the assessment
or collection of any tax or duty.
 
If information regarding ratepayers of commercial properties were to be
disclosed, it is entirely possible that a criminal act or acts might
follow. In the event it is likely that the assessment or collection of any
tax or duty in the guise of non-domestic rates could be prejudiced.
Occupation of commercial premises that may well follow from the
information being released is likely to prejudicially affect the
collection of both unoccupied and occupied non-domestic rates for the
subject premises. While there is a public interest in making available
public sector information, whether to allow that information to be
exploited commercially by the public or to promote the transparency and
accountability of public bodies, in this case the public interest weighs
against disclosure as there is a strong public interest in ensuring the
most efficient and effective collection of local taxes which are directed
to supporting local public services in a difficult economic environment
where available public sector funds are much reduced.
 
Finally, I should mention that a public authority is compelled under the
FOIA to consider any disclosure made under the Act as a disclosure to the
world. The Information Tribunal has stated that “Disclosure under [the]
FOIA is effectively an unlimited disclosure to the public as a whole,
without conditions” (Information Tribunal Appeal Decision EA/2006/0011 &
0013 of 8 Jan 2007). This has also been referred to by the Information
Commissioner (eg Information Commissioner's Decision Notice FS 50294078 of
28 April 2010). Therefore I would have to consider any disclosure to you
as being a disclosure to the public as a whole.
 
If you wish to make a complaint about the way the CoL has managed your
enquiry under the FOIA, please make your complaint in writing to email
address: [3][email address]. For a link to the CoL’s FOI
complaints procedure, please visit the following page:
[4]www.cityoflondon.gov.uk/Feedback, at the end of which is located the
FOI complaints procedure. If, having used the CoL’s FOI Complaints
Procedure, you are still dissatisfied, you may request the Information
Commissioner to investigate. Please contact: Information Commissioner,
Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow, Cheshire, SK9 5AF. Tel: (01625)
545700. Website: [5]http://www.ico.org.uk/
 
The FOIA applies to the City of London as a local authority, police
authority and port health authority.
 
The City of London holds the copyright in this email. The supply of it
does not give a right to re-use it in a way that would infringe that
copyright, for example, by making copies, publishing and issuing copies to
the public or to any other person. Brief extracts of any of the material
may be reproduced under the fair dealing provisions of the Copyright,
Designs and Patents Act 1988 (sections 29 and 30) for the purposes of
research for non-commercial purposes, private study, criticism, review and
news reporting, subject to an acknowledgement of the copyright owner.
 
Yours sincerely,
 
Head of Revenues
City of London
P.O. Box 270, Guildhall, London, EC2P 2EJ
Tel: 020 7332 1387     
Website: [6]www.cityoflondon.gov.uk
 
 
 
 
 
THIS E-MAIL AND ANY ATTACHED FILES ARE CONFIDENTIAL AND MAY BE LEGALLY
PRIVILEGED. If you are not the addressee, any disclosure, reproduction,
copying, distribution or other dissemination or use of this communication
is strictly prohibited. If you have received this transmission in error
please notify the sender immediately and then delete this e-mail.
Opinions, advice or facts included in this message are given without any
warranties or intention to enter into a contractual relationship with the
City of London unless specifically indicated otherwise by agreement,
letter or facsimile signed by a City of London authorised signatory. Any
part of this e-mail which is purely personal in nature is not authorised
by the City of London. All e-mail through the City of London's gateway is
potentially the subject of monitoring. All liability for errors and
viruses is excluded. Please note that in so far as the City of London
falls within the scope of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 or the
Environmental Information Regulations 2004, it may need to disclose this
e-mail. Website: http://www.cityoflondon.gov.uk

References

Visible links
1. http://www.2010.voa.gov.uk/rli/en/advanc...
2. http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/occupy-london
3. mailto:[email address]
4. file:///tmp/www.cityoflondon.gov.uk/Feedback
5. http://www.ico.org.uk/
6. file:///tmp/www.cityoflondon.gov.uk