Dear Mr Roberts,

Freedom of Information Request - National Non-Domestic Rates Accounts
RFI-6760-23

Further to your request for information relating to National Non-Domestic
Rates Accounts I can tell you the following:

In accordance with our obligation to respond to requests made under the
Freedom of Information Act 2000 (FOI Act) and also our commitment to Open
Data, we intend to publish on our website information relating to Non
Domestic Rates Accounts.

[1]https://go.walsall.gov.uk/opendata-datas...

The information will be provided in CSV format and will be published twice
yearly, in March and September.

Under the FOI Act the information is exempt from disclosure under the
provisions of section 21 (information accessible to the applicant by other
means).

We are not required to release the information if it reasonably accessible
to you in another way (such as via the above website).

Regarding the scope of your request, and the dates of publication of our
NNDR information - the information that you have requested relating this
subject is exempt under Section 22 of the FOIA as it is information
intended for future publication.

Section 22 provides that:

1. Information is exempt if –

a) The information is held by a public authority with a view to its
publication, by the authority or any other person, at some future date
(whether determined or not).

b) It is reasonable in all circumstances that the information should be
withheld from disclosure until the date referred to in paragraph a).

Section 22 is a qualified exemption subject to the public interest test.
We have considered the public interest in releasing the information
against the interest in withholding it.

There is a public interest in transparency being demonstrated by releasing
the information with this reply.

However transparency is also achieved by the publishing this information
on our website.

There is a public interest in us providing information we hold that falls
within the scope of an FOI request as quickly as possible.

But this needs to be balanced with the public interest in us ensuring the
maximum cost effectiveness. Providing this information in response to all
FOI requests we receive on this subject is not the most cost effective way
of placing this information in the public domain, when it will be
published in due course on our website.

The exemption under Section 22 of the FOIA recognises that it must be
reasonable to withhold the information until the date of publication.
Given the necessary preparation and administration involved in publishing
the information, which includes liaison with multiple departments within
the council, and collation and submission of the information to managers,
we consider that our publication timetable is reasonable.

We have therefore concluded that the public interest in withholding this
information outweighs the public interest in releasing it.

If your request is also for information relating to NNDR Credits on
accounts, please note that following recent decision notices from the
Information Commissioners Officer Walsall Council has made the decision to
no longer publish information in respect of credit balances on Business
Rate accounts.

This decision has been made in line with Section 31(a) of the Freedom of
Information Act to ensure the prevention or detection of crime.

Full details of this decision, including public interest test can be
located on the open data website:

[2]https://go.walsall.gov.uk/opendata-datas...

This notice, therefore, acts as a refusal notice to your request under
section 17 of the FoIA.

Most of the information that we provide in response to Freedom of
Information Act 2000 and Environmental Information Regulations 2004
requests will be subject to copyright protection.  In most cases the
copyright will be owned by Walsall Council. The copyright in respect of
other information may be owned by another person or organisation, as
indicated.

You are free to use any information supplied to you in response to this
request for your own non-commercial research or private study purposes.
The information may also be used for any other purpose allowed by a
limitation or exception in copyright law, such as news reporting.
 However, any other type of re-use, for example by publishing the
information in analogue or digital form, including on the internet, will
require the permission of the copyright owner.

I hope that the information provided is useful to you. However, if you are
dissatisfied, you should set out in writing your grounds for complaint and
send to: Lead Assurance Officer, Resources & Transformation, Civic Centre,
Darwall Street, Walsall, WS1 1TP.

If you are not content with the outcome of your complaint, you may apply
directly to the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) for a decision.
Please remember that, generally, the ICO cannot make a decision unless you
have first exhausted the complaints procedure provided by the council. The
Information Commissioner can be contacted at: The Information
Commissioner’s Office, Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow, Cheshire SK9
5AF. [3]https://ico.org.uk/global/contact-us/

Yours sincerely

James Sparrock

Lead Assurance Officer

Walsall Council 

0800 0856018

[4]www.walsall.gov.uk 

[5]Walsall Council, Proud of our past, our present and for our future 

Disclaimer: The information in this message should be regarded as
confidential and is intended for the addressee only unless explicitly
stated. If you have received this message in error it must be deleted and
the sender notified. The views expressed in this message are personal and
not necessarily those of Walsall Council unless explicitly stated. Emails
sent or received from Walsall Council may the subject of a request under
data protection, freedom of information or environmental information
legislation and therefore could be disclosed to third parties. We strongly
advise you not to email any information, which if disclosed to unrelated
third parties would be likely to cause harm or distress. If you have an
enquiry related to your confidentiality or data protection, please visit
the council data protection pages on our website

References

Visible links
1. https://go.walsall.gov.uk/opendata-datas...
2. https://go.walsall.gov.uk/opendata-datas...
3. https://ico.org.uk/global/contact-us/
4. http://www.walsall.gov.uk/

Dear Mr Roberts

Request for Information RFI-6760-23 Review of Request

Thank you for your correspondence about your request for information which
was received on 07 August 2023.

I can confirm that this case has now been escalated to Internal
Review/Appeal stage on the grounds that:

Not all information requested was supplied

This case has been allocated to a member of the Assurance Service who will
review the handling of your request and respond to you.

In accordance with the Freedom of Information Act 2000 and the
recommendations of the ICO the council will respond to your appeal within
20 working days, or 40 working days if the appeal is particularly
complex. 

If we believe that this case is complex and requires an extension we will
contact you to advise you of this. 

In the meantime, if you need to contact us about your request, please do
so quoting the above reference number.

Yours sincerely,

James Sparrock

Lead Assurance Officer

Walsall Council 

0800 0856018

[1]www.walsall.gov.uk 

[2]Walsall Council, Proud of our past, our present and for our future 

Disclaimer: The information in this message should be regarded as
confidential and is intended for the addressee only unless explicitly
stated. If you have received this message in error it must be deleted and
the sender notified. The views expressed in this message are personal and
not necessarily those of Walsall Council unless explicitly stated. Emails
sent or received from Walsall Council may the subject of a request under
data protection, freedom of information or environmental information
legislation and therefore could be disclosed to third parties. We strongly
advise you not to email any information, which if disclosed to unrelated
third parties would be likely to cause harm or distress. If you have an
enquiry related to your confidentiality or data protection, please visit
the council data protection pages on our website

References

Visible links
1. http://www.walsall.gov.uk/

Dear Mr Roberts

Request for Information RFI-6760-23 APPEAL RESPONSE

Thank you for your correspondence in regards to your request for
information in which you requested a review of you case, which was
received on 07 August 2023.

First of all I would like to apologise that you have been dissatisfied
with the service that you have received in regards to your request for
information.

Whilst we always endeavour to provide a service that customers are happy
with, I am extremely sorry that in this instance we have failed to do so.

In order to address this, the processing of your request for information
has been reviewed, and the case has been discussed with the original
responding officer.

Set out below details of the findings in relation to your complaint.

Chronology:

- 20/06/2023 - Your request is received by Walsall Council. In this you
are seeking the following:

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

- 23/06/2023 - A response is issued to you directing you to the councils
published NNDR information.

- 07/08/2023 - You contact the council to advise that the link you have
been directed to does not work, and that the information you are seeking
is not standard NNDR info and ask that the case is reviewed. 

Elements of Your Complaint:

Having reviewed your case and your correspondence where you detail why you
are dissatisfied, we have identified there is 1 element or issue that have
been raised:

Not all information requested was supplied

Each of these has been detailed and responded to below. 

1)      Not all the information requested was supplied. 

Having reviewed your request, and discussing this with the
relevant subject matter experts in the councils council tax/NNDR
service it is clear that your request was misunderstood. 

It was believed at the time of response that the relevant details (the
service of a completion notice) was included in the published data on the
council website that relates to NNDR accounts.

However, it is clear now that this is not the case. 

This element of your complaint has therefore been upheld

First of all I would like to apologise personally for this
misunderstanding and any inconvenience that this may have caused. I can
assure you this was in no way intended to withhold the information, but
was a result of a misinterpretation of the published data. 

In order to rectify this, please see included with this response a copy of
the information that you are seeking. 

In addition to this, I can confirm that the council are considering the
publication of completion notice data alongside the standard NNDR
information, so that in future this information could be readily
available to those that require it. 

Again I would like to offer my sincere apologies for the fact that you
have been unsatisfied with the service you have received from us in
response to your Subject Access Requests.

In addition, thank you for informing us that the link included in your
response was not working. It would appear that the template response for
this had been slightly changed - I can confirm that this has now been
amended. 

I hope that the information provided above and in the attached documents
is useful to you, and provides a satisfactory response to your concerns
that you have raised.

However, if you are not content with the outcome of your complaint, you
may apply directly to the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) for a
decision. The Information Commissioner can be contacted at:

Yours sincerely,

James Sparrock

Lead Assurance Officer

Walsall Council 

0800 0856018

[1]www.walsall.gov.uk 

[2]Walsall Council, Proud of our past, our present and for our future 

Disclaimer: The information in this message should be regarded as
confidential and is intended for the addressee only unless explicitly
stated. If you have received this message in error it must be deleted and
the sender notified. The views expressed in this message are personal and
not necessarily those of Walsall Council unless explicitly stated. Emails
sent or received from Walsall Council may the subject of a request under
data protection, freedom of information or environmental information
legislation and therefore could be disclosed to third parties. We strongly
advise you not to email any information, which if disclosed to unrelated
third parties would be likely to cause harm or distress. If you have an
enquiry related to your confidentiality or data protection, please visit
the council data protection pages on our website

References

Visible links
1. http://www.walsall.gov.uk/