Complete Non-Residential / Business Property Rates Data
Gavin Chait made this Freedom of Information request to Wiltshire Council as part of a batch sent to 24 authorities This request has been closed to new correspondence. Contact us if you think it should be reopened.
Dear Wiltshire Council,
In terms of the Freedom of Information Act of 2000, could you please provide me with a complete and up-to-date list of all business (non-residential) property rates data for your local authority, and including the following fields:
- Billing Authority Code
- Firm's Trading Name (i.e. property occupant)
- Full Property Address (Number, Street, Postal Code, Town)
- Occupied / Vacant
- Date of Occupation / Vacancy
- Actual annual rates charged (in Pounds)
While such data series are often published by local authorities, I have undertaken a thorough search of your website and have not found these. If they are available, as requested, then please - in terms of Section 21 of the act - could you provide a link to the page where the data are published, as well as guidance on the update frequency.
I appreciate that properties owned / rented by individuals are personal information and such personal data (i.e. the Firm's Trading Name) would be excluded from my request in terms of Section 40(2) of the Freedom of Information Act 2000. In such cases, please provide the remaining information with the Firm's Trading Name either blank or listed as 'individual'.
Please provide this as machine-readable as either a CSV or Microsoft Excel file, capable of re-use, and under terms of the Open Government Licence.
I am compiling a comprehensive time-series database of business activity across the UK and will require the dataset updated on a quarterly basis. Some 20% of local authorities already provide this dataset (and a total of 30% of local authorities provide a subset of these data) on a monthly to quarterly basis on a dedicated page on their websites or on an open data service. I would appreciate it if you could do the same.
Yours faithfully,
Gavin Chait
Dear Mr. Chait,
Request for Information – reference RFI - ENQ05138-REQ001
Thank you for your request for information received on Monday, 14 March
2016.
Your request is being considered and if the information is held you will
receive the information requested within the statutory timescale of 20
working days of receipt of your request as defined by the Freedom of
Information Act 2000 and Environmental Information Regulations 2004.
I may contact you during that time if the request needs to be clarified;
this is to ensure that we provide you with the information you require.
Please note that some information you have requested may not be provided
to you; this will only be information that can be withheld by law. If we
find it necessary to withhold any information we will explain our reasons
for doing so at the same time as we provide you with your copy of any
information that can be released to you.
Yours sincerely
Corporate Information Team
Governance Service
Legal and Governance
Wiltshire Council
Bythesea Road
Trowbridge
BA14 8JN
[1][Wiltshire Council request email]
Web: [2]www.wiltshire.gov.uk
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Dear Mr.Chait,
Request for information – reference RFI - ENQ05138-REQ001
Thank you for your request for information received on Monday, 14 March
2016. In response to your request officers have provided the attached
spreadsheet.
There may be blank cells in the information provided, this will be where
names of sole traders have been removed. Information relating to sole
traders is determined to be personal information and, under [1]Section
40(2) of the Freedom of Information Act, is exempt from disclosure. The
ICO’s Decision Notice (Mid Devon District Council) [2]FS50072180
determined that information relating to non domestic business rates was
information about the financial standing of a sole trader’s business with
the Council and that this amounted to the sole trader's personal data,
therefore disclosure would be unfair and contravene the first Data
Protection principle.
Some of the exemptions under the Act are absolute, and some are qualified.
The qualified exemptions are subject to the public interest test. This
exemption is absolute so the test does not need to be applied.
If you are unhappy with this result, you can raise a complaint under the
council’s [3]Review Procedure for Information Requests (enclosed) within
40 days of receiving the information. When you have exhausted the
council’s procedure you can contact the Information Commissioner’s Office
at Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow, Cheshire, SK9 5AF,
[4]www.ico.gov.uk or 01625 545745. If you would like to discuss any of the
information provided to you or would like further information on the
review procedure, please contact me.
Information supplied under the Freedom of Information Act and/or
Environmental Information Regulations will be subject to copyright
protection under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. Information
can be re-used for the purposes of research for non-commercial purposes,
for private study or for news reporting and reviews, without requiring
formal consent. However, if you wish to re-use the information for
commercial purposes, including publishing, you are required to seek the
permission of the copyright owner. Permission to re-use Wiltshire
Council’s copyright information is granted in the form of a licence.
Authorisation to re-use copyright material not owned by Wiltshire Council
should be sought from the copyright holders concerned.
Kind regards
Pat Prince
Corporate Information Officer
Legal and Governance
Wiltshire Council
01225 718443
Email: [5][email address]
Web: [6]www.wiltshire.gov.uk
Freedom of Information: Mon, Wed, Fri
Data Protection: Tues, Thurs
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Dear FOI,
Thank you very much for providing the dataset.
I have a query relating to the last column, 'Current Exemption start date?'. There's no detail of the nature of the exemption. Is that an exemption purely related to the property being void?
Yours sincerely,
Gavin Chait
I am out of office until Tues 29th March. Please re-direct your enquiry to
[Wiltshire Council request email] (for Freedom of Information requests) or
[email address] (for matters relating to Data Protection)
Request for information – reference RFI - ENQ05138-REQ001
Thank you for your email below.
The service have confirmed that the exemptions reported on this request
related to those which apply to Void properties.
Sharron Evans LLM
Principal Information Officer
Corporate Information Team
Governance Service
Legal and Governance
Wiltshire Council
Bythesea Road
Trowbridge
BA14 8JN
01225 713643
[email address]
Web: [1]www.wiltshire.gov.uk
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Dear FOI,
Thank you for the data and the clarification. In terms of your release, I do intend to use these data commercially.
The purpose of our use of the data requested is in informing entrepreneurs and business seekers about opportunities in empty premises when they are advertised for new tenants. Further details on our activities are available at http://pikhaya.com, but our activity is supported by the Open Data Institute and we have received funding from the EU Open Data Incubator to develop this service.
According to the Information Commissioners Office, "RPSI is intended to encourage re-use of public sector information" - https://ico.org.uk/for-organisations/gui... In addition, organisations "may impose conditions on re-use but the conditions must be as open and non-restrictive as possible. The easiest way to do this is to use the Open Government Licence."
Could you please advise if you are able to release these under the UK Open Government License so that I am able to republish?
Yours sincerely,
Gavin Chait
Dear Mr Chait,
Request for information - RFI - ENQ05138-REQ001
Thank you for your email below regarding reuse of the information
provided.
I have contacted the service and they are happy for you to reuse the
information as you have requested.
Regards
Sharron Evans LLM
Principal Information Officer
Corporate Information Team
Governance Service
Legal and Governance
Wiltshire Council
Bythesea Road
Trowbridge
BA14 8JN
01225 713643
[email address]
Web: [1]www.wiltshire.gov.uk
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