Exempt accommodation
Dear Oxford City Council,
This is a request for information under the Freedom of Information Act.
This request concerns “exempt accommodation”. The UK Parliament defines this as: “Supported housing which is exempt from certain Housing Benefit provisions. It is a sector which houses more marginalised groups with support needs, such as recent prison leavers; care leavers; those fleeing domestic violence; and homeless people with substance dependence or mental health issues.”
I understand that housing benefit for people in “exempt accommodation” is paid by the council directly to landlords.
I would like to request the following information:
(1) Please state how much housing benefit has been paid by the council directly to landlords to provide “exempt accommodation” for those in receipt of the benefits. Please provide the figures for each of the past three financial years (2018/19, 2019/20, 2020/21), as well as any available data for 2021/22.
(2) Please provide a list of the 20 landlords that have received the highest amount in housing benefit from the council for providing “exempt accommodation” for those in receipt of the benefits. Again, please provide this information for each of the past three financial years (2018/19, 2019/20, 2020/21) as well as any available data for 2021/22. For each year, please (a) provide the landlord’s full name or company name, (b) state the total amount they received from the council in each year.
I would like to highlight how the Information Commissioner’s Office has previously ruled that this type of information should be disclosed. For example, in 2015, the ICO held that Torbay Council was not entitled to withhold the names of landlords who have directly received the largest amounts of housing benefit. In 2014, the ICO also ruled that Halton Borough Council was wrong to withhold similar information.
I would like to receive the data in an Excel format. If you feel that a substantive response to this request is not possible within a reasonable timeframe, I would be grateful if you could contact me and provide assistance as to how I can refine the request. If you need any clarification, please contact me.
I look forward to receiving a response in 20 working days. Many thanks.
Yours faithfully,
Jenna Corderoy
Dear Ms Corderoy,
Thank you for your email below. We received your request on 10th February 2022, and you will be sent a response within 20 working days (of receipt) in accordance with the Freedom of Information Act 2000/ Environmental Information Regulations 2004 (EIR), subject to the information not being exempt or containing reference to a third party.
Yours sincerely,
Joyce Fagan
Information Governance Requests Officer
Joyce Fagan | Information Governance Requests Officer | Oxford City Council | Law and Governance | St. Aldate's Chambers | Oxford | OX1 1DS |
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Dear Mr Corderoy,
Further to the email below, I can respond to your request, as follows:
See below and attached:
We only hold the requested data from April 2020 onwards. We can provide
the information in the attached document. We are currently unable to
detail who the top 10 recipients are on our database as this information
in a format that is not extractable, due to a system upgrade. We can
provide that part of the request in a couple of months when this upgrade
is completed.
Please note in regards to the attached spreadsheet.
The blank rental charge on the spreadsheet (column K) means that the
property is registered with us but does not have a tenant in place, or
they do not qualify for Housing Benefit, so for example that the occupant
is no recourse to public funds.
We have engaged section 40 in relation to personal information.
40- Personal information
(1)Any information to which a request for information relates is exempt
information if it constitutes personal data of which the applicant is the
data subject.
(2)Any information to which a request for information relates is also
exempt information if—
(a)it constitutes personal data which does not fall within subsection (1),
and
(b)the first, second or third condition below is satisfied.
3A) The first condition is that the disclosure of the information to a
member of the public otherwise than under this Act—
(a) would contravene any of the data protection principles, or
(b) would do so if the exemptions in section 24(1) of the Data Protection
Act 2018 (manual unstructured data held by public authorities) were
disregarded.
3B)The second condition is that the disclosure of the information to a
member of the public otherwise than under this Act would contravene
Article 21 of the GDPR (general processing: right to object to
processing).]
4A)The third condition is that—
(a)on a request under Article 15(1) of the GDPR (general processing: right
of access by the data subject) for access to personal data, the
information would be withheld in reliance on provision made by or under
section 15, 16 or 26 of, or Schedule 2, 3 or 4 to, the Data Protection Act
2018, or
(b)on a request under section 45(1)(b) of that Act (law enforcement
processing: right of access by the data subject), the information would be
withheld in reliance on subsection (4) of that section.
If you disagree with any part of the response to your request, you are
entitled to ask the Council for an internal review of the decision(s)
made. You may do this by writing to the Monitoring Officer, by either
email – [1][email address] – or by post to Monitoring Officer, Oxford City
Council, St Aldate’s Chambers, St Aldate’s, Oxford, OX1 1DS. After the
result of the internal review, if you remain dissatisfied, you may ask the
Information Commissioner to intervene on your behalf. You may do this by
writing to the Information Commissioner's Office, Wycliffe Lane, Wilmslow,
Cheshire, SK9 5AF.
Yours sincerely,
Joyce Fagan
Information Governance Requests Officer
Joyce Fagan | Information Governance Requests Officer | Oxford City
Council | Law and Governance | St. Aldate's Chambers | Oxford | OX1 1DS
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