Dear Mr Chait,

Thank you for your request relating to Non Domestic Rates, I can confirm
that the information you have requested is in the process of being
published on the Walsall Council Website. Therefore, your request has been
refused under section 22(1) (information intended for future publication)
of the Freedom of Information Act.

Rates information will be published on the Councils Open Data pages
available via the link below.

[1]http://cms.walsall.gov.uk/opendata

Once published, the data will be available under the datasets link at the
top left hand corner of the page.

Section 22 is a qualified exemption, meaning it is subject to the public
interest test. The information can only be withheld if the public interest
in withholding it outweighs the public interest in releasing it.

Considerations in favour of disclosing the information immediately

Having considered the public interest in this case, the Council
acknowledges there is a general public interest in increased transparency
of public income and increased accountability to the Council.

Considerations in favour withholding the information until the planned
publication date

Walsall Council intends to publish this material in the very near future;
consequently the requestor will not have to wait for a significant amount
of time before they have sight of it.

There is a strong public interest in permitting the Council to publish
information in a manner and form of its own choosing. Publication before
the planned date would undermine the Councils pre-planned publication
procedure, and ability to use staff resources in a planned way so that
reasonable publication timetables are not undermined.

We conclude that the balance of the public interest lies in requiring the
requestor to wait for the information until the planned publication date.
We believe that in this case the overall public interest lies in favour of
ensuring that the Council is able to plan its publication of this
information in a managed and coherent way.

Most of the information that we provide in response to Freedom of
Information Act 2000 and Environmental Information Regulations 2004
requests will be subject to copyright protection.  In most cases the
copyright will be owned by Walsall Council. The copyright in respect of
other information may be owned by another person or organisation, as
indicated.

You are free to use any information supplied to you in response to this
request for your own non-commercial research or private study purposes.
The information may also be used for any other purpose allowed by a
limitation or exception in copyright law, such as news reporting.
 However, any other type of re-use, for example by publishing the
information in analogue or digital form, including on the internet, will
require the permission of the copyright owner.

I hope that the information provided is useful to you. However, if you are
dissatisfied, you should set out in writing your grounds for complaint and
send to: Information Risk & Governance Manager, Business Change, Civic
Centre, Darwall Street, Walsall, WS1 1TP.

If you are not content with the outcome of your complaint, you may apply
directly to the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) for a decision.
Please remember that, generally, the ICO cannot make a decision unless you
have first exhausted the complaints procedure provided by the council. The
Information Commissioner can be contacted at: The Information
Commissioner’s Office, Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow, Cheshire, SK9
5AF. [2]https://ico.org.uk/global/contact-us/

Kind Regards

Julie Noble

References

Visible links
1. http://cms.walsall.gov.uk/opendata
2. https://ico.org.uk/global/contact-us/

Dear Mr Chait,

Thank you for your request for information, relating to Non Domestic
Rates, I can tell you that under the FOI Act the information is exempt
from disclosure under the provisions of section 21. Section 21 sets out
that the local authority need not provide information under the FOI Act
where the information requested is ‘ reasonably accessible’ by other
means.  

This information can be accessed via the link below;

[1]http://cms.walsall.gov.uk/opendata-datas...

This request is therefore refused. I hope that the information provided is
useful to you. However, if you are dissatisfied, you should set out in
writing your grounds for complaint and send to: Information Risk &
Governance Manager, Business Change, Civic Centre, Darwall Street,
Walsall, WS1 1TP.

If you are not content with the outcome of your complaint, you may apply
directly to the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) for a decision.
Please remember that, generally, the ICO cannot make a decision unless you
have first exhausted the complaints procedure provided by the council. The
Information Commissioner can be contacted at: The Information
Commissioner’s Office, Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow, Cheshire SK9
5AF. [2]https://ico.org.uk/global/contact-us/

Kind Regards

Julie Noble

References

Visible links
1. http://cms.walsall.gov.uk/opendata-datas...
2. https://ico.org.uk/global/contact-us/