Dear Mr Roberts,

Oxford City Council – Reference: 10120

Thank you for your email. Your request was received on 14th May 2021 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.

The Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) recognises the unprecedented challenges all are facing during the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.

In particular they understand that resources, whether they are finances or people, may be diverted away from usual compliance or information rights work. Whilst the ICO can’t extend statutory timescales, they will not be penalising public authorities for prioritising other areas or adapting their usual approach during this extraordinary period.

Therefore while the Council will make every effort to comply with the Statutory Requirements you may experience understandable delays when making information rights requests during the pandemic.

Yours sincerely

Kathryn Winfield
Information Governance Requests Officer

Kathryn Winfield | Information Governance Requests Officer | Oxford City Council | Law and Governance | St. Aldate's Chambers | Oxford | OX1 1DS | Email: [email address] | T: 01865 252007
My working days are Mondays, Tuesdays and Wednesdays

Stop the virus from spreading. Keep Oxford safe.
Follow the guidance: Clean hands. Wear a face mask. Keep your distance. Get tested if you have symptoms.

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Dear Mr Roberts,
 
Oxford City Council – Reference: 10120
 
Further to the acknowledgement below, I can respond to your Freedom of
Information Act 2000 request received on 14th May 2021 as follows:
 
Required Information;-
Please provide a copy of the information that the council was required to
submit under The Non-Domestic Rating (Compilation and Alteration of Lists)
(England) Regulations 2020 by 15th January 2021
 
Response:
 
This information is exempt from release and we are only able to provide
you with the Business Rates data published on the website, details below.
 
Exemptions applied s21 (available by other means), s22 (future
publication) and s40(2) (personal data),
 
For your information this email constitutes a refusal notice under Section
17.1 of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 because an exemption under
Section 21 of the Act is being applied, namely the information is already
in the public domain i.e.it is published via the Council’s website.
 
Under section 21 of the Freedom of Information Act 2000, the Council is
not required to respond to requests where the information sought is
reasonably accessible by other means.   Information in respect of Business
Rates can be found on the Council’s website via the following link:
[1]https://www.oxford.gov.uk/info/20020/bus...
This information is updated on a quarterly basis –and the latest update
is 1^st February 2020 data.
 
S.22
 
As the latest data is intended for future publication, the qualified
exemption under s22 of the Freedom of Information Act (which relates to
information intended for future publication) applies.  This is a qualified
exemption and, therefore, I have applied the public interest test.  I have
concluded it is right that the Council makes its own arrangements for
publication and because the data will be published in the near future, the
exemption under s22 does apply in this instance.
 
Section 40
Under s.1(1)(a) FOIA I can confirm the Council does hold the sole trader
details, ratepayers (names, telephone numbers, email addresses, some
billing addresses). However, I consider this to be personal information.
The Council has not received consent from the people concerned to disclose
their details. To release this information would contravene the data
protection principles contained in the Data Protection Act 2018. 
Therefore, I  consider that Sections 40 (2) of the FOIA is engaged.  
 
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.
(5A) The duty to confirm or deny does not arise in relation to information
which is (or if it
were held by the public authority would be) exempt information by virtue
of
subsection (1).
(5B) The duty to confirm or deny does not arise in relation to other
information if or to the
extent that any of the following applies—
(a) giving a member of the public the confirmation or denial that would
have to be
given to comply with section 1(1)(a)—
(i) would (apart from this Act) contravene any of the data protection
principles, or
(ii) 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;
(b) giving a member of the public the confirmation or denial that would
have to be
given to comply with section 1(1)(a) would (apart from this Act)
contravene
Article 21 of the GDPR (general processing: right to object to
processing);
(c) on a request under Article 15(1) of the GDPR (general processing:
right of
access by the data subject) for confirmation of whether personal data is
being
processed, the information would be withheld in reliance on a provision
listed
in subsection (4A)(a);
(d) on a request under section 45(1)(a) of the Data Protection Act 2018
(law
enforcement processing: right of access by the data subject), the
information
would be withheld in reliance on subsection (4) of that section.
(7) In this section—
"the data protection principles" means the principles set out in—
(a) Article 5(1) of the GDPR, and
(b) section 34(1) of the Data Protection Act 2018;
"data subject" has the same meaning as in the Data Protection Act 2018
(see
section 3 of that Act);
"the GDPR", "personal data", "processing" and references to a provision of
Chapter 2 of Part 2 of the Data Protection Act 2018have the same meaning
as in
Parts 5 to 7 of the Data Protection Act 2018 (see section 3(2), (4), (10),
(11) and
(14) of that Act).
(8) In determining for the purposes of this section whether the lawfulness
principle in
Article 5(1)(a) of the GDPR would be contravened by the disclosure of
information,
Article 6(1) of the GDPR (lawfulness) is to be read as if the second
sub-paragraph
(disapplying the legitimate interests gateway in relation to public
authorities) were
omitted.
 
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 – [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
 
Kathryn Winfield
Information Governance Requests Officer
 
Kathryn Winfield | Information Governance Requests Officer | Oxford City
Council | Law and Governance | St. Aldate's Chambers | Oxford | OX1 1DS |
Email: [email address] | T: 01865 252007
My working days are Mondays, Tuesdays and Wednesdays
 
Stop the virus from spreading. Keep Oxford safe.
Follow the guidance: Clean hands. Wear a face mask. Keep your distance.
Get tested if you have symptoms.
 
 
 
 

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