Duty of care for enforcement agents

Response to this request is long overdue. By law, under all circumstances, Blackpool Borough Council should have responded by now (details). You can complain by requesting an internal review.

Dear Blackpool Borough Council,

under freedom of information can you please confirm

under your enforcement contracts for business rate collections the council has a duty of care for the debtor or victims of any errors via the

Local authorities (contracting out of tax billing, collection and enforcement functions) order 1996

and this duty of care is indemnified by the enforcement agents in order to protect the public purse

Yours faithfully,

steve

Yours faithfully,

steve

FOI, Blackpool Borough Council

Dear Sir

FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT 2000 – INFORMATION REQUEST

Thank you for your request for information that we received on 08/03/2021. Your request is being dealt with under the terms of the Freedom of Information Act 2000.

We note that you requested the information under a first name only.

The Information Commissioners Office guidance states that in order for a request to be a valid request under the Freedom of Information act it must contain the requester’s name. It states that 'Any variation of the requester’s title or first name combined with their surname (e.g. Mr Smith or John Smith) will be sufficient to meet this requirement. However, a first name or surname provided in isolation, or a set of initials, will not'.

It is our view that this does not meet the criteria set out on Section 8(1)(b) due to the absence of a real name. Therefore we will be unable to respond to your request in its current format. If you wish your request to be actioned, please supply a full name.

You should note that the Act defines a number of exemptions that may prevent disclosure of the information you have requested. If any of the exemption categories apply, the information will not be disclosed. If there are references to a third party, they may be consulted prior to a decision being made on whether or not to disclose the information. You will be informed if either of these is applicable, including your rights of appeal.

If you have any queries you can contact me or write to: FOI, PO Box 4, Blackpool, FY1 1NA, or email us at [email address]. Please remember to quote your reference number when you contact us.

Yours sincerely

Information Governance Team

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