Dear Richard Roberts

Thank you for your Freedom of Information request, which was received by Vale of White Horse District Council on 12 December 2023.

Please accept this email as confirmation that your request has been received and is being considered by the relevant department and that a response will be sent to you within 20 working days, subject to the information not being exempt and subject to any need for clarification.

The deadline for this will be 15 January 2024

The reference number for this request is Vale 23/827

I trust that this email is sufficient to assure you that your request is being dealt with. However, should you have any queries in the meantime, please do not hesitate to contact the FOI team at [Vale of White Horse District Council request email]

Kind regards

Information Governance Team

Legal & Democratic Services
Vale of White Horse District Council
www.whitehorsedc.gov.uk

We’ve moved – our address is now:

Abbey House
Abbey Close
Abingdon
OX14 3JE
Please update your records.

To find out more about how the council holds, uses and stores your personal data, please click on the link below
Vale of White Horse District Council

show quoted sections

Dear Mr Roberts

 

Thank you for your Freedom of Information requests, which were received by
both South Oxfordshire District Council and Vale of White Horse District
Council, logged under FOI 23/979 South and 23/827 Vale. Please note that
the two councils operate as a shared service hence this joint response.

 

Under Section 1 of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 (the 2000 Act) you
are entitled to be informed in writing whether the council holds the
information specified in your request and, if that is the case, to have
that information communicated to you unless any of the statutory
exemptions apply. I have considered your request and can confirm we do
hold the information however I believe some of the statutory exemptions
apply to your request as follows.

 

You have asked for:

 

“In accordance with the provisions specified within the above Act I hereby
request the following information.

 

Information Requested; -

• A copy of all Non Domestic Rates Completion Notices served in the
borough since 01/06/2023 or list of addresses showing the same
information.

The Act requires that a response be provided within a period of 20 working
days from the date hereof.

 

This request for information falls within the parameters of the Act but if
you require clarification on any of the points above or should you wish to
discuss this further then please do not hesitate to contact me.”

 

Our response:

 

We have previously published a large amount of information in relation to
business rates in order to be transparent, accountable and to respond
efficiently to the large number of Freedom of Information requests that we
receive. However, in light of recent Information Tribunal and Information
Commissioner decisions, we have decided this information will no longer be
disclosed either on our website or in response to Freedom of Information
requests.

 

We consider the following categories of business rate data held by the
council to be exempt from disclosure under the Freedom of Information Act
2000 (the 2000 Act) and are therefore refusing your request:

 

• Business name
• Correspondence address and contact details
• Liability start date or end dates
• All information relating to exemptions and reliefs
• Rates due and rates actually paid
• Empty property details
• Credit balances
• Amounts written on or written off

 

The reason is that this information engages some or all of the exemptions
under Sections 31, 40(2) and 41 of the 2000 Act. See below for more
details of these exemptions.

 

In arriving at this decision, we have considered the following cases:

 

• The Appeal Decision of the Information Rights First-tier Tribunal -
(Appeal Reference Number: EA/2018/0033) (Westminster)
• The Information Rights First-tier Tribunal – Appeal Reference Number:
EA/2018/0055 (Sheffield)
• The Information Commissioners Office decision reference FS50873141
(Cornwall)

 

Exemptions under the 2000 Act we believe are engaged for withholding
business rate details:

 

• Section 40(2) – Personal data. Information relating to sole
traders/partnerships is exempt from disclosure under Section 40(2).
The Tribunal decisions referred to above confirms that trading names
and addresses are personal data as they relate to a living individual
and the individual is identifiable from those data. This section of
the Act provides an exemption to the general right of access to
information, where the disclosure of personal information would breach
any of the Data Protection principles.

 

• Section 31 – Prevention of crime. We consider that disclosure of empty
property information would increase the risk of fraud and that the
provision of a list of empty properties would make it easier for
criminals to identify targets for property crimes. Disclosure of
credit balances, write offs and write ons also exposes both the
council and businesses to the risk of fraud. As a result, we consider
that disclosure of this information would be likely to prejudice the
prevention of crime. Although we aim to be transparent and accountable
to the public, we consider that the limited wider public interest in
disclosure is outweighed by the very significant public interest in
maintaining the exemption.

 

• Section 41 – Information provided in confidence. This can include the
name, property and billing address, periods of liability, contact
telephone numbers, and whether exemptions and reliefs might have been
applied to those accounts. This information was provided to the
council with an expectation of confidence for the purposes of
calculating rates or reliefs to arrive at an amount payable. We
consider that the withheld information is more than trivial in nature
and is not accessible to the public by other means. This is exemption
is not subject to the public interest test, but section 41(b) has an
assumption that the public interest in maintaining the duty of
confidence will prevail unless the public interest in disclosure
outweighs maintaining that duty. The council recognises the public
interest in openness and transparency however, we consider this does
not outweigh the stronger case against disclosure.

 

Information already available:

 

The following information is already available in the public domain via
the Valuation Office Agency (VOA). Please note the council is prohibited
under section 44(1)(a) of the 2000 Act from disclosing information
received from the VOA.

 

·       Property reference

·       Description of the property (e.g. ‘Hall and Premises' ‘Store and
Premises etc.)

·       Property address (with any personal data removed)

·       Current rateable value

·       Current rateable value effective date

 

For more information on finding business rates valuations, visit the
[1]Valuation Office Agency.

 

Please treat this as the councils’ formal response under the 2000 Act.  If
you are not satisfied with the decision I have made in response to your
request, you can make a request for an internal review by emailing
[2][email address] and [3][Vale of White Horse District Council request email]  within 40 working
days from the date we issued our response. If you remain dissatisfied
after following that procedure, you have the right under Section 50 of the
2000 Act to complain to the Information Commissioner if you feel the
council has not dealt with your request properly. You can contact the
Commissioner at Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow, Cheshire SK9 5AF
(telephone number: 01625 545745). You can also find further information at
[4]www.ico.org.uk.

 

Kind Regards

 

Vicky Johnson
Revenues & Benefits Client Officer

 

Finance

Vale of White Horse District Council & South Oxfordshire District Council

Direct Line: 01235 422481 (Abingdon - VWHDC) Text phone users add 18001
before you dial

[mobile number]

Email : [5][email address]

 

Visit us at:

[6]www.whitehorsedc.gov.uk

[7]www.southoxon.gov.uk

 

To find out more about how the council holds, uses and stores your
personal data, please click on the appropriate council’s link:   

 

[8]South Oxfordshire District Council  [9]Vale of White Horse District
Council

 

We’ve moved – our address is now:

Abbey House
Abbey Close
Abingdon
OX14 3JE

Please update your records.

 

 

 

References

Visible links
1. https://www.gov.uk/find-business-rates
2. mailto:[email address]
3. mailto:[Vale of White Horse District Council request email]
4. http://www.ico.org.uk/
5. mailto:[email address]
6. http://www.whitehorsedc.gov.uk/
7. http://www.southoxon.gov.uk/
8. https://www.southoxon.gov.uk/south-oxfor...
9. https://www.whitehorsedc.gov.uk/vale-of-...