Business Rates Occupiers
Dear Kirklees Borough Council,
Please can you provide me with the following information under the
Freedom Of Information Act 2000 in an excel format:-
(a) List all non-domestic properties and their addresses.
(b) The names of the Rate payers referred to above for each
property (excluding all the personal information).
(c) The billing authority reference number for each property (Not
the account number).
(d) The date the rate payer became liable for the bill
(e) Details of what reliefs, if any, the rate payer receives (Mandatory, Discretionary, Exempt)
Can you also please make sure this information is as up-to-date as possible at the time of receiving the request
Yours faithfully,
Gareth Elton
Dear Mr Elton
I confirm receipt of your information request and that I am looking into this.
I will respond to you in due course.
Regards
Information Governance Team
Legal & Governance
Email: [email address]
Telephone: 01484 221000
Fax: 01484 221293
Dear Mr Elton
I am writing in reply to your recent request for information made under
the Freedom of Information Act 2000. You asked for details of:
(a) List all non-domestic properties and their addresses.
(b) The names of the Rate payers referred to above for each property
(excluding all the personal information).
(c) The billing authority reference number for each property (Not the
account number).
(d) The date the rate payer became liable for the bill
(e) Details of what reliefs, if any, the rate payer receives (Mandatory,
Discretionary, Exempt)
Can you also please make sure this information is as up-to-date as
possible at the time of receiving the request”
I have considered your request under the Act and can provide some of the
information you have requested. Please find attached a spreadsheet which
details liabilities of properties where the liable party is not a natural
person. This includes the property reference, name of liable party,
address of property, the date liability began, details of any exemptions
or reliefs that do not identify the property as being empty. A key to the
relief codes is as follows:
CASC – community sports club
CATU – community sports club top up
DIS - discretionary rate relief
DVS – discretionary rural rate relief
MAND – mandatory charitable relief
REOC – reoccupation relief
RETR – retail relief
SBRE – small business rate relief
SBRN – small business rates relief
TU – top up
I consider the rest of the information to be exempt from disclosure under
the Act.
Section 21 of the Act provides that:
(1) Information which is reasonably accessible to the applicant otherwise
than under section 1 is exempt information.
(2) For the purposes of subsection (1)—
(a) information may be reasonably accessible to the applicant even though
it is accessible only on payment, and
(b) information is to be taken to be reasonably accessible to the
applicant if it is information which the public authority or any other
person is obliged by or under any enactment to communicate (otherwise than
by making the information available for inspection) to members of the
public on request, whether free of charge or on payment.
(3) For the purposes of subsection (1), information which is held by a
public authority and does not fall within subsection (2)(b) is not to be
regarded as reasonably accessible to the applicant merely because the
information is available from the public authority itself on request,
unless the information is made available in accordance with the
authority’s publication scheme and any payment required is specified in,
or determined in accordance with, the scheme.
Whilst the Council holds information regarding the rateable values of
properties, it notes that information regarding a complete list of NNDR
properties can be found on the VOA website:
[1]http://www.2010.voa.gov.uk/rli/en/advanc...
Section 40 of the Act provides that:
(1) Any information to which a request for information relates is exempt
information if it constitutes personal data of which the applicant is the
data subject.
(2) Any information to which a request for information relates is also
exempt information if—
(a) it constitutes personal data which do not fall within subsection (1),
and
(b) either the first or the second condition below is satisfied.
(3) The first condition is—
(a) in a case where the information falls within any of paragraphs (a) to
(d) of the definition of “data” in section 1(1) of the Data Protection Act
1998, that the disclosure of the information to a member of the public
otherwise than under this Act would contravene—
(i) any of the data protection principles, or
(ii) section 10 of that Act (right to prevent processing likely to cause
damage or distress), and
(b) in any other case, that the disclosure of the information to a member
of the public otherwise than under this Act would contravene any of the
data protection principles if the exemptions in section 33A(1) of the Data
Protection Act 1998 (which relate to manual data held by public
authorities) were disregarded.
(4) The second condition is that by virtue of any provision of Part IV of
the Data Protection Act 1998 the information is exempt from section
7(1)(c) of that Act (data subject’s right of access to personal data).
(5) The duty to confirm or deny—
(a) does not arise in relation to information which is (or if it were held
by the public authority would be) exempt information by virtue of
subsection (1), and
(b) does not arise in relation to other information if or to the extent
that either—
(i) the giving to a member of the public of the confirmation or denial
that would have to be given to comply with section 1(1)(a) would (apart
from this Act) contravene any of the data protection principles or section
10 of the Data Protection Act 1998 or would do so if the exemptions in
section 33A(1) of that Act were disregarded, or
(ii) by virtue of any provision of Part IV of the Data Protection Act 1998
the information is exempt from section 7(1)(a) of that Act (data subject’s
right to be informed whether personal data being processed).
(6) In determining for the purposes of this section whether anything done
before 24th October 2007 would contravene any of the data protection
principles, the exemptions in Part III of Schedule 8 to the Data
Protection Act 1998 shall be disregarded.
(7) In this section—
“the data protection principles” means the principles set out in Part I of
Schedule 1 to the Data Protection Act 1998, as read subject to Part II of
that Schedule and section 27(1) of that Act;
“data subject” has the same meaning as in section 1(1) of that Act;
“personal data” has the same meaning as in section 1(1) of that Act.
In decision notice FS 50072180 the Information Commissioner found that the
tax liabilities of natural persons constituted personal data as their tax
liabilities and personal affairs could not be separated. Therefore any
details regarding the liabilities of natural persons is exempt from
disclosure.
This part of the request is therefore refused.
If you are not content with the handling of your request, you have the
right to ask for an internal review. Requests for internal reviews should
be submitted within 2 months of the date of receipt of the response to
your original request and should be addressed to the Monitoring Officer,
Civic Centre I, PO Box 1274, Huddersfield HD1 2WZ. Alternatively, you can
send an email to: [2][email address].
Please remember to quote the reference number above in any future
communications.
If you are not content with the outcome of any review you have the right
under section 50 of the 2000 Act to apply to the Information Commissioner
for a decision as to whether your request for information has been dealt
with in accordance with the requirements of the Act. The Information
Commissioner’s website is at [3]www.ico.org.uk and gives more information
about the role and duties of the Commissioner. The Information
Commissioner can be contacted at: Information Commissioner’s Office,
Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow, Cheshire, SK9 5AF.
Yours sincerely
Information Access Team
Legal, Governance & Monitoring
Telephone: 01484 221000 (voice activated switchboard – please ask for Data
Protection)
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References
Visible links
1. http://www.2010.voa.gov.uk/rli/en/advanc...
2. mailto:[email address]
3. http://www.ico.org.uk/
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