Dear Mr Lockyer

Thank you for your FOI request below, which was received on 11th March 2013. You will be sent a response within 20 working days, as required under the Freedom of Information Act.

Yours sincerely

Laura Pearce

Oxford City Council
Town Hall
Oxford
OX1 1BX

Tel: 01865 252313

On behalf of:
Michael Newman
Corporate Secretariat Manager

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Dear Mr Lockyer

 

Further to the acknowledgement below, please see the attached spread sheet
in response to your request of 11^th March 2013.

 

The names of the ratepayers have not been included because I consider this
information to be exempt from disclosure under the Freedom of Information
Act.

The exemption that I am applying is covered by the following section of
the Freedom of Information Act:  Section 41 – Information provided in
confidence.  I am applying this exemption because Section 41 of the
Freedom of Information Act 2000 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.

In the context of Section 41(1)(a), the Information Commissioner’s
Guidance states that a person may be an individual, a company, a local
authority or any other “legal entity”.

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.

The information requested is held by the Council purely in relation to its
statutory duty to collect Business Rates, and, therefore, does have the
necessary quality of confidence.

Taxpayer confidentiality is a long established principle of common law,
which protects taxpayers’ affairs against disclosure to the public.

As an alternative, if you require information in relation to specific
companies or people, the Council would be happy to deal with the matter as
a service request via its Business Rates email address.  Any such request
must include valid authority from clients to act on their behalf.  The
Business Rates email address is as follows: [1][email address]

If you disagree with any part of this response, 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 -
[2][email address] - or by post to Monitoring Officer, Oxford City
Council, Town Hall, Oxford, OX1 1BX.  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

 

Michael Newman

Corporate Secretariat Manager

 

Michael Newman

Corporate Secretariat Manager

Chief Executive’s Office

Town Hall

St Aldate’s

Oxford

 

 

 

 

 

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