Dear Sir/Madam

Thank you for making a request for information to the London Borough of
Enfield.

We are aiming to respond to your request within 20 working days and will
let you know if we hold the information you requested and whether or not
we can release it under the Freedom of Information Act 2000.

We are now making an initial assessment of your request and we will
contact you if any clarification is needed.

If you have any queries regarding your request, please contact us at
[1][Enfield Council request email] quoting your reference CRM FOI
8576

Kind Regards,

Quinton Green
Complaints and Information Officer
Complaints and Information Team
Chief Executive Department
Enfield Council
Silver Street
Enfield
EN1 3XY

Protect the Environment – Think Before You Print.

"Enfield Council is committed to serving the whole borough, fairly,
delivering excellent services and building strong communities."

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Classification: OFFICIAL
Dear Mr Roberts

I write regarding your Freedom of Information request received on 8/10/20.

A total of 1859 businesses have received the expanded retail discount
totalling £46,209,05.01 in rate relief.

However in terms of the further detail in your request please treat this
email as a refusal notice under the act.

In issuing our response the Council has applied S31 (1)(a) Law Enforcement
Exemption and S40 (2) Exemption of the Freedom of Information Act and
Section 41.

S31 (1)(a) Law Enforcement Exemption of the Freedom of Information Act.
Information is exempt information if its disclosure under this Act would,
or would be likely to prejudice various law enforcement purposes including
preventing crime, administering justice, and collecting tax. We are unable
to provide the level of detail requested at the current time as we believe
that releasing the names of the companies/individuals that have received
funds could potentially invite fraudulent or criminal activity.
The reasons for the application of this exemption have been captured below
under the public interest test section.
Public Interest Test:
•Public interest in disclosure:
oIt would inform the public how much each business received in funds from
Enfield Council.
•Public interest to maintain the exemption:
•Releasing the requested information could invite fraudulent or criminal
activity.
•Claims that are made fraudulently would require resources, time and money
to investigate and prosecute, taking funds away from other service areas.
Based on the above, it is the council’s view that there is a stronger
public interest to maintain the use of the exemption for section 31. The
key reasons for this is as follows:
The council feels the factors in favour of withholding the information
outweigh those in favour of publication. A realistic outcome/consequence
of releasing this information would be that the Council would be subject
to fraudulent grant claims as well as potentially diverting relief away
from the intended target as releasing this information makes it available
to all.

S40 (2) Data Protection
Personal data of any person (third party data) is exempt under section
40(2) if disclosure would breach one of the data protection principles.
This aspect of Section 40 is an Absolute Exemption and is therefore not
subject to the Public Interest Test. It is therefore subject to the
provisions of the Data Protection Act (1998). The information published
could contain details of sole traders. There is no prior expectation on
the part of individuals that the premises that they own would be published
into the wider public domain under FOI. A disclosure made under FOI
constitutes a publication to the world at large. We believe that to
disclose this would be likely to breach the first Principle of the Data
Protection Act by unfairly contravening their right to privacy and
confidentiality.

Our records are solely for the purposes of collecting a tax and any
information collected and given to us is given in confidence. You are also
asking for specific information about accounts, such information is
personal to the ratepayers in question and I am refusing under Section 41
(Information provided in Confidence) because the release of information
would constitute a breach of confidence. The ratepayers have agents who
deal with their accounts. Tax payer confidentiality is of the upmost
importance.

Information relating to billing and collection of Business Rate is
provided to us by organisations expressly for that purpose and is
commercially sensitive. Companies provide information in confidence to
Enfield and it follows that such information should be protected. The view
is that the Council could be subject to an actionable breach of confidence
if it were to disclose information relating to companies to third parties
without their authorisation.

As a rating agent you work for many different Companies and have authority
to act on their behalf. In this situation the Council would accept you
have good reason to request the information in this FOI where your clients
are the ratepayer.

We would only provide details to rating agents if we know they act for a
client. I am sure you will understand if another Company obtained details
relating to your clients that may result in a loss of commission to your
Company, which in itself may be actionable if it became apparent it was
due to information Enfield had released. If we do not already know a
rating agent is acting on behalf of a company we would need "an authority
to act" from each of their clients before giving them any information
about specific Business Rate accounts. It is usual for an agent to quote
the account number, who they are acting for and the context of why they
are contacting us.

As I said we have published certain information but when connected with
other information we consider other specific details about a company would
be likely to attract a higher degree of sensitivity. For example, in the
area of procurement, the identify of an unsuccessful bidder may be
withheld in certain circumstances. Therefore we consider that to the
extent that the supplementary data account concerning ratepayer is exempt
under Section 41 of the Freedom of Information Act.

Section 41 of the FOIA states:

1) Information is exempt information if-

a) it was obtained by the public authority from any other person
(including another public authority), and
b) the disclosure of the information to the public (otherwise than under
this Act) by the public authority holding it would constitute a breach of
confidence actionable by that or any other person.

2) The duty to confirm or deny does not arise if, or to the extent that,
the confirmation or denial that would have to be given to comply with
section 1(1)(a) would (apart from this Act) constitute an actionable
breach of confidence.

Section 41(1) (a) requires that the information in question was obtained
from any other person. Guidance issued by the Information Commissioner
(regarding Information provided in confidence) states: A person may be an
individual, a company, a local authority or any other “legal entity”.
Individuals and companies supplied information to the Council regarding
the account holder’s details which then activated the account number. This
part of the exemption is therefore satisfied.

Section 41(1) (b) requires the disclosure by the Council to constitute an
actionable breach of confidence by that person. The information must
therefore have the necessary quality of confidence. In our opinion the
information does have the necessary quality of confidence. It is
recognised in English law that an important duty of confidentiality is
owed to taxpayers. This is what is known as “taxpayer confidentiality”.
This is a long established principle of common law, protecting taxpayers’
affairs against disclosure to the public, and has been recognised to be of
the utmost importance when dealing with the administration of tax and
rates. We were satisfied that the requested information is not trivial,
nor is it available by any other means. It is our assessment that
companies or individuals would be able to establish that disclosure would
expose the Council to the risk of a breach of confidence claim which, on a
balance of probabilities, would succeed. This includes considering whether
the Council would have a defence to the claim. This latter point is
expanded upon below.

The duty of confidence is not absolute, and the courts recognise three
circumstances under which confidential information may be disclosed:

• Where the person to whom the duty of confidentiality is owed consents to
the disclosure.
• Where the disclosure is required by law.
• Where there is an overriding public interest in disclosure.

In the context of this request, no consent has been obtained from the
individual taxpayers (and it would be impractical to do so); nor is the
disclosure required by law. Of more relevance is whether there is an
overriding public interest. Guidance issued by the Information
Commissioner states that “the courts have taken the view that the grounds
for breaching confidentiality must be valid and very strong. A duty of
confidence should not be overridden lightly.” Further guidance from the
Information Commissioner states that the “the public interest test within
the duty of confidence assumes that information should be withheld unless
the public interest in disclosure outweighs the public interest in
maintaining the duty of confidence.”

It is appreciated that there may be a public interest in scrutinising how
the Council administers its business rates; however this interest is not,
in our view, sufficient to override the duty of confidence, and apart from
your own private interest in disclosure we have no evidence of a wider
public interest in this matter. It is also the case that we have a
fiduciary duty to our residents and businesses and we have to take the
interests of our Council Tax payers as central.

Ratepayers provide information to the Council and have a legitimate
expectation that the information will be treated in confidence.
Furthermore, there is a public interest in maintaining trust and
preserving a free flow of information to the Council where this is
necessary for the Council to perform its statutory functions relating to
the administration of business rates and council tax. Such functions are
undertaken for the benefit of the public. We therefore consider that it
would be excessive to override the duty of taxpayer confidentiality and
disclose information relating to the affairs of business ratepayers. Your
request for disclosure is therefore refused under section 41 of the FOIA.

If you are unhappy with the service you have received in relation to your
request and wish to make a complaint or request a review of our decision,
you should email: [1][email address] or
[2][Enfield Council request email]

If you are not content with the outcome of your complaint, you may apply
directly to the Information Commissioner for a decision. Generally, the
ICO cannot make a decision unless you have exhausted the complaints
procedure provided by the Authority. The Information Commissioner can be
contacted at: The Information Commissioner’s Office, Wycliffe House, Water
Lane, Wilmslow, Cheshire, SK9 5AF. Or Email: [3][email address]

Kind regards

Simon Ranyard
Business Rates & Inspection Manager
Revenues and Benefits
Enfield Council
Silver Street
Enfield
EN1 3XY

Tel: + 44 (0)20 3821 1946
[4][email address]

[5]https://new.enfield.gov.uk/services/busi...
[6]https://www.gov.uk/coronavirus

"Enfield Council is committed to serving the whole borough fairly,
delivering excellent services and building strong communities."

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