nndr Credits

Response to this request is long overdue. By law, under all circumstances, City of York Council should have responded by now (details). You can complain by requesting an internal review.

Dear City of York Council,
we seek to receive certain detailed reports under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 (c.36). Could you please reply to me with the following report attached:
- Unclaimed business rate credit balances.
We are cognizant of the fact that Billing Authorities hold on account sums of money that are due to be returned to ratepayers and for a variety of reasons have not been repaid.
I therefore request a breakdown of credit balances accrued since your earliest records, for the amounts owing to all incorporated companies within your authority's billing area, including the following information:
A. The legal name of each business in respect of which non-domestic rate credit balances remain payable
B. The value of overpayment in each case which remains unclaimed
C. The years(s) in which overpayment was made
D. The hereditament address
E. The legal name of each business in respect of which non-domestic rate credit balances have been written back on to the NDR account
F. The value of write back in each case which remains unclaimed
G. The years(s) in which the write back was made (if available)
H. The hereditament address that the write back relates to
We look forward to working with you in sourcing the information we require
If you have any questions or comments pertaining to our request, please don't hesitate to contact me directly.

Yours faithfully,

c smith

foi@york.gov.uk, City of York Council

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For information :

* The timescale for responding to Freedom of Information Act (FOI) and Environmental Information Regulation (EIR) requests is up to 20 working days. We will contact you promptly if we need you to clarify your request or an extension to complete a public interest test.

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Information Commissioner's Office
Wycliffe House Water Lane
Wilmslow
Cheshire
SK9 5AF
Tel: 0303 123 1113 (local rate) or 01625 545 745 if you prefer to use a national rate number
Fax: 01625 524 510
Or email: [email address]<mailto:[email address]> (please include your telephone number)

Regards
Customer Feedback Team

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foiresponses_NO-REPLY@york.gov.uk, City of York Council

Dear c smith,

This request is being handled under the Freedom of Information Act 2000. I can confirm that City of York Council holds the information you requested. However we are withholding that information since we consider that the following exemptions apply to it.

This information is exempt from disclosure under Section 31(1)(a) - Law enforcement. Disclosure of this information would be likely to prejudice the prevention or detection of crime.

Section 31(1)(a) is a qualified exemption, and therefore is subject to the Public Interest Test. Section 31(1)(a) provides an exemption where prejudice could be caused to allow potential fraudsters to use the information to identify business entities which were entitled to claim credits on their accounts. Once such a business had been identified, there would be a number of avenues open to the fraudsters to seek to obtain funds.

To use this exemption we are required to undertake a public interest test. The matters which were considered in applying the public interest test are as follows:

Factors in favour of disclosure
Withholding the information could be perceived as the council attempting to retain monies that belong to the public.

It is in the public interest to be open and transparent about our use of public funds.

It is also in the public interest to provide some transparency regarding the records we hold in respect of the administration of business rates. It is also in the public interest to provide information to ensure that people entitled to a refund are made aware of this and are able to make an appropriate claim.

Factors in favour of withholding

Notifications are made to individuals who are entitled to a refund so that they have the information they need to submit and appropriate claim. Providing this information publicly could leave businesses open to unwanted Direct Marketing from organisations or individuals offering to claim the refund on their behalf for a percentage of the total amount.

There is a public interest in ensuring that monies from the public purse, such as rebates on business accounts, are not fraudulently claimed and also a public interest in not making it easier for fraud to be committed.

Our current verification procedure for refund claims is simple and cost effective. Disclosure of the requested information would result in additional verification processes needing to be implemented, at additional cost to the public which appeared disproportionate to the benefits that would accrue from disclosure. The additional verification procedures would also be likely to slow the verification process, resulting in detriment to the genuine ratepayer which would be contrary to the public interest.

In relation to any new verification processes that might be needed, these would be likely to require the production of additional documents by those claiming a rebate which would place a new administrative burden on the majority of those legitimate claimants that did not currently exist. This would be compounded by the fact that the level of scrutiny of those documents would be higher than at present, given the increased suspicion that some of the claims (and associated documents) might well be fraudulent. The result would be that a new verification process would be likely to slow the rate at which credit balance claims could be considered and refunded, causing delay in all refunds and the likelihood of complaints, which would further burden our limited resources.

Disclosure of the requested information would result in the need to implement disproportionate steps and additional expense to the public purse to counter an increased fraud risk that do not exist at present.

The cost consequences of a successful fraudulent claim would:
• have incurred the cost of paying out to the fraudster;
• remain liable to the legitimate rate payer for an equivalent amount, raising the prospect of paying out twice; and
• be faced with the cost (legal and incurrence of internal management time) of seeking to recover the funds wrongly paid to the fraudster.

It would not be in the public interest to expose it to such potential costs and expenses, given that they would be funded from the public purse.

It is considered that the greater public interest, therefore, lies in not providing the information at this time. In coming to that conclusion, the public interest in providing the information has been carefully weighed against any prejudice to the public interest that might arise from withholding the information; in all the circumstances of the case, the public interest in maintaining the exemption outweighs the public interest in disclosing the information. This response, therefore, acts as a refusal notice under section 17 of the FoIA.

City of York Council now considers that it has complied with your request. However, you have a right to appeal if you are dissatisfied with our response. Requests for an internal review must be made in writing, and within 40 calendar days of this response being issued to you. When requesting an internal review, please include your reference number, the date of your original request and your contact details. Please also include an explanation of why you are dissatisfied with our response. Requests for an internal review should be sent to:

If you are dissatisfied with our response you have the right to ask for a review of how your enquiry was handled and responded to. This can be done by contacting us through [City of York Council request email] stating your reason(s) why you are dissatisfied, and we will pass this to the information governance team who deal with all reviews of how we have dealt with FOI enquiries. If after they complete their investigation and reply to you with their findings, you still remain dissatisfied you can contact the Information Commissioner, contact details below:
Information Commissioner's Office
Wycliffe House Water Lane
Wilmslow
Cheshire
SK9 5AF
Tel: 0303 123 1113 (local rate) or 01625 545 745 if you prefer to use a national rate number
Fax: 01625 524 510
Or email: [email address] (please include your telephone number)

Yours Sincerely

David Walker

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