Complete Non-Residential / Business Property Rates Data (Q2 2024)

Gavin Chait made this Freedom of Information request to New Forest District Council as part of a batch sent to 21 authorities Automatic anti-spam measures are in place for this older request. Please let us know if a further response is expected or if you are having trouble responding.

The request was refused by New Forest District Council.

Dear New Forest District Council,

In terms of the Freedom of Information Act of 2000, and subject to section 40(2) on personal data, could you please provide me with your local authority’s 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)

If you are unable to provide an absolute “Occupation / Vacancy” status, please provide the balance of the information requested..

Please could you also provide a list of definitions for the codes for the Exemptions and / or Reliefs you use.

Please provide these data as machine-readable as either a CSV or Microsoft Excel file, capable of re-use, and under terms of the Open Government Licence (reuse for any and all purposes, including commercial).

I last requested these data three months ago, and this is a request for your latest updated dataset.

Yours faithfully,

Gavin Chait

Freedom of Information, New Forest District Council

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request under the Freedom of Information Act 2000. Your request will be
dealt with at the earliest opportunity.

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Freedom of Information, New Forest District Council

4 Attachments

Dear  Gavin,

 

Thank you for your request for information under the Freedom of
Information Act 2000 (‘FOIA’) received by the Council on the 9^h July
2024.

 

You have requested:

 

Please provide me with your local authority’s 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)

 

I confirm that the information is held by the Council and is not being
disclosed based on the exemptions stated below:

 

1.        Section 41 (1) of the FOIA

 

Section 41 (1) of the FOIA states:

 

“Information is exempt information if –

 

a) it was obtained by the public authority from any other person
(including another public authority), and

 

b) the disclosure of the information to the public (otherwise than under
this Act) by the public authority holding it would constitute a breach of
confidence actionable by that or any other person.”

 

1.1.   Obtained by the public authority from any other person

 

The Council receives its non-domestic rates information from two sources:

 

 a. Valuation Office Agency (‘VOA’), an executive agency sponsored by His
Majesty’s Revenue and Customs); and
 b. The rate payer (or a third party such as the rate payer’s agent or
property landlord).

 

With the exception of information that relates to where the Council is the
account holder itself, the information within the scope of the request, is
therefore, obtained by the Council from another person meeting the
requirements of part a) of section 41(1) of the FOIA.

 

1.2.   Actionable breach of confidence

 

In considering whether disclosure of information constitutes an actionable
breach of confidence we have considered the following:

 

• whether the information has the necessary quality of confidence;
• whether the information was imparted in circumstances importing an
obligation of confidence; and
• whether disclosure would be an unauthorised use of the information to
the detriment of the confider

 

The Council has considered the First-tier (Information Rights) Tribunal
decision on appeal EA/2018/00551 which considered whether information
provided to authorities in respect of non-domestic rates could be
confidential for the purposes of section 41 of the FOIA.

 

It was concluded in that appeal that information provided to public
authorities for the purposes of calculating rates or reliefs is
information which the general public would expect to be information
provided in confidence. The Tribunal also considered that the information
has the necessary quality of confidence.

 

It is considered that releasing the information could be utilised by third
parties for those third parties’ purposes, including unsolicited purposes
and would result in a loss of control to rate payers over the information
they have provided to the Council. There could also be a risk of damage to
the businesses concerned.

 

It is therefore concluded that there could be an actionable breach of
confidence.

 

Section 41 (1) of the FOIA is an absolute exemption which is not subject
to a public interest test. However, it is necessary to consider if there
is an overriding public interest in disclosure of the confidential
information.

 

Releasing information would demonstrate to the public at large that the
Council has identified appropriate ratepayers for each property, has
charged each ratepayer correctly, and has taken action to collect unpaid
liabilities and administer the non-domestic rates account properly.

 

Releasing information may benefit some individuals, groups or
organisations who have a personal or commercial interest as it may enable
them to focus marketing or commercial products to businesses.

 

Some information may already be in the public domain if released by the
businesses themselves, e.g. via websites or other promotional tools.
However, businesses can retain control of their own information and its
dissemination if promoting themselves: disclosure would remove this
control from the hands of the business itself.

 

In the appeal EA/2018/00551 it was concluded that:

 

“….there is only a limited public interest in disclosure of this
information, and consequently we conclude that there is insufficient
public interest in disclosure to outweigh the importance of the general
common law principle of taxpayer confidentiality.”

 

There should be significant public interest factors present in order to
override the strong public interest in maintaining confidentiality.  The
Council, therefore, considers that the public interest in the disclosure
of the information is weak as compared to the public interest in
protecting the principle of tax-payer confidentiality.

 

In coming to this decision, the Council has also considered the
Information Commissioner’s Office’s decisions IC-265932-F0Y0 and
IC-264793-Q3L7.

 

2.        Section 21 of the FOIA

 

Section 21 of the FOIA provides that information which is already
reasonably accessible to the applicant is exempt from disclosure. 

 

The Valuation Office Agency [1]Valuation Office Agency - GOV.UK
(www.gov.uk) publishes information relevant to your request online at
[2]Find a business rates valuation - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk).

 

The Council publishes data regarding business rate accounts where the
Council is the account holder.  This information is accessible via the
following link [3]Business rates published information - New Forest
District Council and is updated quarterly.

 

If you are not satisfied with the handling of your request, you may wish
to request an internal review.  Requests for internal review should be
submitted within 40 working days of the date of this email, and will be
responded to within 40 working days of the request being received.  Please
put any request for a review in writing to the Information Governance and
Complaints Manager, at:

                              New Forest District Council

Appletree Court

Beaulieu Road

LYNDHURST

SO43 7PA

[4][email address]

 

If the decision is upheld to refuse disclosure, or your complaint is not
resolved to your complete satisfaction, having exhausted the internal
appeal procedure, you have a right under section 50 of the Act to apply to
the Information Commissioner for review at:

                  The Information Commissioner

                  Wycliffe House

                  Water Lane

                  Wilmslow

                  Cheshire SK9 5AF

                  [5]www.ico.org.uk

 

 

 

Kind Regards.

 

Kaley Bicker
Information Governance and Complaints Assistant

New Forest District Council
Tel: 02380 285 663

 

[6][email address]

[7]www.newforest.gov.uk

 

 

[8]Facebook logo  [9]LinkedIn logo  [10]Search our jobs

 

[11]Read our corporate plan at newforest.gov.uk/corporateplan New Forest
District Council

 

The information in this electronic mail (email) and any appendices to it
is the property of New Forest District Council. It may contain
confidential information. It is intended for the addressee only.
Communications using this email system may be subject to recording and/or
monitoring in accordance with relevant legislation.
Please examine the full terms of this disclaimer by clicking on the
following hyper link: [12]Email Disclaimer
Our privacy notice can be read here: [13]Privacy Notice
This email was sent using the New Forest District Council Corporate Email
Service.
[14]New Forest District Council

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References

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https://www.gov.uk/government/organisati...
2. https://www.gov.uk/find-business-rates
https://www.gov.uk/find-business-rates
3. https://www.newforest.gov.uk/article/362...
4. mailto:[email address]
5. http://www.ico.org.uk/
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7. http://www.newforest.gov.uk/
8. https://www.facebook.com/newforestgov
9. https://www.linkedin.com/company/new-for...
10. https://www.newforest.gov.uk/article/157...
11. http://www.newforest.gov.uk/corporateplan
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13. https://www.newforest.gov.uk/Privacy
14. https://www.newforest.gov.uk/