Expanded Retail Discount October 2020
Dear North Devon Council,
REQUEST FOR INFORMATION UNDER THE FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT 2000.
In accordance with the provisions specified within the above Act I hereby request the following information.
Required Information; - A list of all hereditaments where you have granted EXPANDED RETAIL DISCOUNT for the 2020/21 rate year.
This request relates to business rates but please only refer us to data available for download on your website if it contains the requested EXPANDED RETAIL DISCOUNT data.
• Property Reference Number (also known as Billing Authority Reference Number) of the property on which the charge is made. This is not the Rate Demand or Account Number.
• Current Rateable Value
• Account holder name
• Property address
• The billing address (where different to the property address)
Please provide the information in an electronic, spreadsheet format ideally excel. 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. The requested information passes all required public interest tests and other requirements and is not exempt from disclosure.
Yours faithfully,
Richard roberts
Dear Mr Roberts
I write in response to your request for information received earlier this afternoon.
Section 1(1)(a) of the Act requires the Council to inform you whether it holds information of the description specified in your request. I confirm that the Council does hold this information. In discharge of its obligation under section 1(1)(b) I can confirm that the information you seek is published within the Council's Business Rates datasets that are updated on a quarterly basis:
https://www.northdevon.gov.uk/open-data/...
The datasets are published in comma separate value (csv) format, however if you prefer the format of the information to be Excel, you can easily do this when saving the dataset to your computer. Click once on the link to the dataset you want, a box will pop up giving you the option to open or save. Choose save and then you will need to change the file format from csv to Excel. Then all you need to do is select when you wish to save the file on your computer and it will then convert back to Excel.
In accordance with Section 21(1) of the Act, the Council is not obliged to provide information that is already in the public domain. However, it does have a duty under Section 16(1) to provide all applicants advice and assistance in order to assist with locating the information, which I have done so in providing you with the link to the datasets above.
Within the datasets is a column called 'Additional Relief' which records those premises that receive Expanded Retail discount. In the 30 June 2020 dataset, where it says 'RETDIS' in that Additional Relief column, this means that Expanded Retail discount is in receipt.
We are in the process of preparing the 30 September 2020 update which, in accordance with Section 22 of the Act, should be published in the next two weeks. This will provide the same information in relation to the Additional Relief and will be displayed as described above.
If you are dissatisfied with the handling of your request, you have the right to request an internal review which should be received within two months from the date of this response email and should be sent to;
Solicitor & Data Protection Officer
Legal Services
North Devon Council
PO Box 379, Barnstaple, EX32 2GR
[North Devon Council request email]
If you are not content with the outcome of the internal review, you have the right to apply to the Information Commissioner for a decision:
Information Commissioner's Office
Wycliffe House
Water Lane
Wilmslow
Cheshire
SK9 5AF
Tel: 01625 545 745
Fax: 01625 524 510
Email: [email address]
Yours sincerely
Vicky Eagle
Administrator, FOI & EIR
Legal Services
North Devon Council
PO Box 379, Barnstaple, EX32 2GR
[North Devon Council request email]
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