Dear Gavin,

Re: Request for information under the Freedom of Information Act 2000

Thank you for your request for information.

I can confirm your request has been passed to the relevant department who will endeavour to search for any information held and provide you with a response as soon as is possible. This will be within 20 working days and in any case by 16 May 2024.

Many thanks
Ellen Dook

Information Governance Officer
Corporate Resources
City of Doncaster Council

Phone 01302 736745
Address Civic Office, Waterdale, Doncaster, DN1 3BU
Website www.doncaster.gov.uk

show quoted sections

Dear Gavin,

Thank you for your Freedom of Information request dated 17 April 2024 for information about business rates. Please find below City of Doncaster Council’s responses to the questions you have raised.

Request
The complete and most-recently updated list of all business (non-residential) property rates data, including the following fields:
- Billing Authority Property Reference Code (linking the property to the public VOA database reference)
- Firm's Trading Name (i.e. property occupant or ratepayer)
- Full Property Address (Number, Street, Postal Code, Town)
- Occupation / Vacancy status
- Date of Occupation / Vacancy
- Reliefs and / or exemption categories (classifications) granted or applied
- Date that reliefs and / or exemption categories granted or applied
- Value of reliefs and / or exemption categories granted or applied (in Pounds)
- Actual annual rates charged (in Pounds)

Response
Notice under Section 17(1) of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 - REFUSAL TO DISCLOSE INFORMATION

Decision:
After carefully considering your request for information the Council has decided that to respond to your request would exceed the appropriate limit as defined in the Freedom of Information Act 2000.

Basis for decision:
Section 12(1) of the Freedom of Information Act allows for a request for information to be refused where the cost of supplying this information exceeds the appropriate limit. After carefully considering your request for information the Council has decided that to respond to your request would exceed the appropriate limit as defined in the Freedom of Information (Appropriate Limit and Fees) Regulations 2004. The regulations allow a request for information to be refused where the cost of supplying this information exceeds £450 (or 18 hours of officer time).

Why does the exemption apply in this case?
The cost limit applies in this case because City of Doncaster Council would need to extract sole trader or partnership information, which is personal data, from the business information you require. In order to do this, a total of 9,830 records will need to be reviewed. It is estimated that each record will require a 15 second investigation resulting in a total time of approximately 41 hours, which would exceed the time limit.

We are unable to advise how you can make your request more specific however you might find it helpful to consult the Valuation Office website at: https://www.gov.uk/find-business-rates where you can search by authority to obtain a list of all the properties that are rated in Doncaster.

Reviewing any decisions made:
If you are not happy with this reply you can ask us to review our response. To do this write to us within 40 working days of receiving your response at the address below or email [email address]

If you do not agree with the review decision you can apply to the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) for a decision about our compliance or otherwise with the Freedom of Information legislation. Contact details for the ICO are: Information Commissioner’s Office, Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow, Cheshire, SK9 5AF. www.ico.org.uk Telephone 0303 123 1113.

Many thanks
Ellen Dook

Information Governance Officer
Corporate Resources
City of Doncaster Council

Phone 01302 736745
Address Civic Office, Waterdale, Doncaster, DN1 3BU
Website www.doncaster.gov.uk

show quoted sections

Dear Mr Chait

Freedom of Information request – Internal Review

Thank you for informing City of Doncaster Council that you would like us to review the decisions made in the response to your Freedom of Information request.

I am dealing with this review and will who endeavour to provide a response within 20 working days. The due date for your response is 11 June 2024.

If you have any queries about this matter, please do not hesitate to contact me at the above email address.

Yours sincerely

Lucy McMahon
Freedom of Information Officer
Corporate Resources
City of Doncaster Council

Phone 01302 736000
Address Civic Office, Waterdale, Doncaster, DN1 3BU
Email [email address]
Website www.doncaster.gov.uk

show quoted sections

Dear Mr Chait

Freedom of Information request – Internal Review

Further to my email below I am writing to you to inform you that the deadline date for responding to your internal review is being extended. Usually, City of Doncaster Council can provide a response within 20 working days however, we can take up to an additional 20 working days if required. In this case the review is complex, and I need to consult further with the service area who hold the data.

I will endeavour to provide you with my response as soon as possible, and certainly before the additional 20 working day deadline date of 9 July 2024.

Kind regards

Lucy McMahon
Freedom of Information Officer
Corporate Resources
City of Doncaster Council

Phone 01302 736000
Address Civic Office, Waterdale, Doncaster, DN1 3BU
Email [email address]
Website www.doncaster.gov.uk

show quoted sections

Dear Mr Chait

Re: Freedom of Information Act 2000 – Internal Review

Thank you for your request to review our response to your Freedom of Information request dated 8 May 2024, for Complete Non-Residential / Business Property Rates Data (Q1 2024).

I have reviewed the original response and can report as follows:

Decision:

After reviewing the request, I can confirm that your appeal is not upheld.

Basis for decision:

As per guidance from the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO), each Freedom of Information request received by City of Doncaster Council is considered on a case-by-case basis. We are constantly reviewing the information we hold, and data is ever changing, therefore it is immaterial whether we have disclosed information requested previously.

In light of the recent decision at the First -tier Tribunal (General Regulatory Chamber) Information Rights decision EA/2018/055 and after reviewing the information we hold in relation to your request, it was considered that the data contained a vast amount of sole trader and partnership information, which is personal data, and as such would need to be extracted from the information you were requesting. It was explained in the response that this would take 41 hours to extract, exceeding the 18-hour timeframe. Having examined the information as part of my review, I can confirm this is correct.

Within the information retrieved, we also have to consider that there are certain rate payers who are vulnerable to criminal activity, such as women's refuges and as such this information, alongside any other personal data, would need to be identified and removed. In addition, we are not aware of which accounts this applies to unless we are notified by the ratepayer, therefore the task in trying to retrospectively retrieve or remove this data from the public view is monumental and would take up a vast amount of officer time.

If you were able to bring your request within the 18-hour timeframe, we would then need to consider whether the data could be released. As this would still contain personal data, we would withhold the personal information under Section 40 of the FOIA and we would also have to take into account whether any of the information could be used to enable criminal activity and as such be exempt under Section 31.

Considering the findings of my internal review I maintain that the Section 12 Exemption remains.

Reviewing this Decision

You can apply to the Information Commissioner for a decision about our compliance or otherwise with the Freedom of Information legislation. Contact the Commissioner for details on how to do this - telephone 0303 123 1113 (local rate) or 01625 545 745 if you prefer to use a national rate number, address:

Information Commissioner,
Wycliffe House,
Water Lane,
Wilmslow,
Cheshire,
SK9 5AF.
Internet: www.ico.org.uk

Yours sincerely,

Lucy McMahon
Freedom of Information Officer
Corporate Resources
City of Doncaster Council

Phone 01302 736000
Address Civic Office, Waterdale, Doncaster, DN1 3BU
Email [email address]
Website www.doncaster.gov.uk

show quoted sections