Grants and Rate Reliefs

The request was successful.

Dear Torridge District Council,

1/ Could you please provide the amount of any discretionary grants made to the Torrington Farmers Hunt Hunt since 1st Jan 2000 to the present day. Itemised by year and amount. Please confirm the reason for application such as CASC, charity, sporting club, this is not an exclusive list just examples.

2/ Please provide any Small Business Relief payments made to the Torrington Farmers Hunt for the period 1st April 2006 to 31st March 2017. Itemised by year and amount

3/ Please provide any payments made to theTorrington Farmers Hunt under ' Supporting Small Business Relief' for the period 1st April 2017 to the present day.

4/ Provide details by amount & year, of any rate reliefs provided to the Torrington Farmers Hunt

Yours faithfully,

P A Gadd

FOI, Torridge District Council

Thank you for your information request which is receiving attention. We
will respond to your request within the 20 working day statutory deadline.

Please do not reply to this auto acknowledgement.

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FOI, Torridge District Council

Dear Sir/Madam
 
Thank you for your Freedom of Information Request.
Unfortunately, we are unable to provide information on individual
organisations. To clarify any grants issued by Torridge District Council
where issued on behalf of the Government under their eligibility and rules
- full details can be found here:
[1]https://www.gov.uk/government/collection...
 
An exemption under Section 31(1)(a) – Law enforcement is applied as
disclosure of this information would be likely to prejudice the prevention
or detection of crime. We consider that there is a legitimate risk to the
use of information by fraudsters to identify the business entities which
were entitled to claim grants on their accounts and pursue obtaining funds
illegally. This exposure outweighs the public interest in us sharing such
details. Furthermore, the cost implications to the Council and public
purse are an unjustified consequence. The Council follows a robust
verification procedure to process such submissions, which need not be
compromised and result in additional checking exercises being required. A
successful fraudulent claim would require significant resource to rectify.
 
If you are dissatisfied with the handling of your request, you have the
right to ask for an internal review. Internal review requests should be
submitted within two months of the date of receipt of the response to your
original request and should be addressed to: Freedom of Information
Officer at Torridge District Council, Riverbank House, Bideford EX39 2QG.
 
If you are not content with the outcome of the internal review, you have
the right to apply directly to the Information Commissioner for a
decision. The Information Commissioner can be contacted at: Information
Commissioner’s Office, Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow, Cheshire, SK9
5AF.
 
With kind regards.
 
Ann
FOI Office
Torridge District Council
 
 

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Dear Torridge District Council,

Please pass this on to the person who conducts Freedom of Information reviews.

I am writing to request an internal review of Torridge District Council's handling of my FOI request 'Grants and Rate Reliefs'.

Could you please review your decision because I cannot see how release of information about rate reliefs or government payments could be considered a law enforcement or prevention of crime issue. I understand that the NNDR (National Non-Domestic Rates) document should be available for public scrutiny.

1/Could you please explain how you have applied the Public Interest Case in reference to this request and how you have applied that to your refusal . You have failed to explain how release of the information is likely to prejudice the prevention or detection of crime.

2/ Could you explain how by providing the information requested would enable fraud.
"We consider that there is a legitimate risk to the use of information by fraudsters to identify the business entities which were entitled to claim grants on their accounts and pursue obtaining funds"

3/ You state cost implications to the council. The cost of providing the requested information should be available by normal search methods within the scope of the FOIA. Could you confirm why you consider it would be more than normal cost please.

I provide a link to the NNDR Data Set of Melton Borough Council relating to all type of accounts which shows the Account Holders, Business Address and any reliefs applied. From your reply you are suggesting all this type of information should not be disclosed?
http://www.melton.gov.uk/downloads/downl...

Could I refer you to line 116 of the NNDR Document freely available. This relates to reliefs provided to the Belvoir Hunt where all the information you have refused is available.

Could I also refer you to the FOI return from Melton Borough Council
https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/g...

I refer you to your own NNDR Data and would suggest that you have provided 100% Rate relief under SBRR to a property with the account owner as Torrington Farmers Hunt. This appears under 3841 where you have provided transitional and SBRR relief amounting to £2700. I spent 30 minutes find this so you can hardly hide behind the time to find your own data.
https://www.torridge.gov.uk/freedomofinf...

Perhaps you could confirm this is part of the information I legally requested but you failed to provide or advised it was available? Hardly a section 31 Issue ?

It does appear that the Council does have the information and for some reason have failed to assist or provide it but instead seek to deny access by incorrect refusal.

These FOIs provided from other Councils confirm the amounts provided under each request. I also have replies from other councils regarding the same information which has been provided without appeal or recourse to the ICO. Therefore, I feel you need to consider your refusal with regarding to the issues and evidence I have provided.

A full history of my FOI request and all correspondence is available on the Internet at this address: https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/g...

Yours faithfully,

P A GADD

FOI, Torridge District Council

Thank you for your information request which is receiving attention. We
will respond to your request within the 20 working day statutory deadline.

Please do not reply to this auto acknowledgement.

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Dear Torridge District Council,

To further add to my request for internal review. I understand the ICO case you have quoted for refusal was this
https://ico.org.uk/media/action-weve-tak...

It does appear this related to the following request

"I request a breakdown of credit balances accrued since your earliest records, for the
amounts owing to all ratepayers within you billing area."

The information I requested was historic data about rate reliefs applied not credits or refunds relating to the Wandsworth Judgment.

I have also limited the request at this time . I have not asked for blanket searches or a phising exercise. I also think you need to examine and show that there is a causal link between any historic data and any future harm.

Yours faithfully,

P A GADD

FOI, Torridge District Council

Thank you for your information request which is receiving attention. We
will respond to your request within the 20 working day statutory deadline.

Please do not reply to this auto acknowledgement.

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FOI, Torridge District Council

Dear Sir/Madam
 
Thank you for your email dated 26th October 2020.
 
We have now reviewed our response as follows:
 
1/ Could you please provide the amount of any discretionary grants made to
the Torrington Farmers Hunt  since 1st Jan 2000 to the present day.
Itemised by year and amount. Please confirm the reason for application
such as CASC, charity, sporting club, this is not an exclusive list just
examples.
No discretionary grants have been paid to Torrington Farmers Hunt
 
2/ Please provide any Small Business Relief payments made to the
Torrington Farmers Hunt for the period 1st April 2006 to 31st March 2017.
Itemised by year and amount
Torrington Farmers Hunt qualify for SBRR as their rateable value is below
the threshold of 15,000. They have not received payments for this, but the
relief awarded reduces their bill accordingly. Relief awarded as follows:
2006/7   £553.80
2007/8   £573.30
2008/9   £595.40
2009/10 625.30
2010/11 £970.17
2011/12 £1457.27
2012/13 £1597.50
2013/14 £1640.10
2014/15 £1672.05
2015/16 £1704.00
2016/17 £1718.20
2017/18 £1840.19
2018/19 £2037.55
2019/20 £2292.86
2020/21 £2678.98
 
3/ Please provide any payments made to the Torrington Farmers Hunt under '
Supporting Small Business Relief' for the period 1st April 2017 to the
present day.
No payments under Supporting Small Business Relief have been made to
Torrington Farmers Hunt
 
4/ Provide details by amount & year, of any rate reliefs provided to the
Torrington Farmers Hunt
Please see Small Business Rate Relief awards detailed above
 
 
 
With kind regards.
 
Ann
FOI Office
Torridge District Council
 
 
 
 

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