Dear Mark Williams

Thank you for your Freedom of Information request, which was received by
Vale of White Horse District Council on 26 September 2022.

Please accept this email as confirmation that your request has been
received and is being considered by the relevant department and that a
response will be sent to you within 20 working days, subject to the
information not being exempt and subject to any need for clarification.

The deadline for this will be 24 October 2022

The reference number for this request is Vale 22/806

I trust that this email is sufficient to assure you that your request is
being dealt with. However, should you have any queries in the meantime,
please do not hesitate to contact the FOI team at
[1][Vale of White Horse District Council request email]

Kind regards

Information Governance Team

Legal & Democratic Services

Vale of White Horse District Council

[2]www.whitehorsedc.gov.uk

We’re moving!

From 3 October, this will be our address:

South Oxfordshire and Vale of White Horse District Councils Abbey House
Abbey Close Abingdon

OX14 3JE

To find out more about how the council holds, uses and stores your
personal data, please click on the link below Vale of White Horse District
Council

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Dear Mark Williams

Thank you for your Freedom of Information request, which was logged under
FOI 22/806 VALE and passed to me to respond accordingly.

Under Section 1 of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 (the 2000 Act) you
are entitled to be informed in writing whether the council holds the
information specified in your request and, if that is the case, to have
that information communicated to you unless any of the statutory
exemptions apply. I have considered your request and can confirm we do
hold some of the information asked. However, I believe a statutory
exemption applies to your request. Please find below the information you
requested (where available):

Section 21 of the FOIA provides an exemption to ensure that there is no
right of access to information via FOIA if it is available to you by
another route. The use of this exemption is not subject to the public
interest test. Therefore, please refer to our published pages using the
links below for the information requested.

Please provide the last 3 years’ worth of full accounting that details
exactly how and on what our annual Council Tax has been spent. This data
must not be provided in a percentages format, but in actual pounds
sterling (£).

Vale of White Horse District Council (VWHDC) has the statutory
responsibility for collecting council tax for itself (the district council
portion) and also for the other precepting bodies that make up the council
tax bill - in our case, Oxfordshire County Council, Thames Valley Police
Authority and the town/parish council. VWHDC issues the council tax
demands (bills), collects the tax on behalf of these precepting
authorities and passes over to those bodies the amounts they have
instructed.  However, VWHDC has no power nor responsibility over the
services provided by those bodies or how their money gets spent.  Whilst
certain financial information relating to the other precepting authorities
(County Council and Police) is also available in the [1]where your council
tax goes page on our website. You will need to contact those other bodies
direct regarding any financial queries or requests for information
relating to their expenditure.

The council’s financial accounts detail the council’s income and
expenditure.  Links to the draft 2021/22 accounts, and prior years
accounts, can be found in the [2]statement of accounts page on our
website.

In addition, the council must publish details of expenditure over £500 as
a requirement of The Transparency Code 2015. We have chosen to publish our
spending over £250 on a monthly basis, therefore, the requested
information about our spend is therefore already publicly available in the
[3]council finances page on our website.

Please also provide the data to show the annual Council Tax income from
both (as separate amounts):

a)      Domestic residences, and

b)      Business rates/tax

Annual council tax income only comes from domestic premises.  Businesses
are liable to pay National Non-Domestic Rates (NNDR) or business rates. 
Council tax income collected by the council is distributed in line with
figures agreed in the annual council tax setting report which is agreed by
full Council in February each year.  The last three annual reports are
available on our website as follows:

[4]Report from February 2022

[5]Report from February 2021

[6]Report from February 2020

Please treat this as the councils’ formal response under the 2000 Act.  If
you are not satisfied with the decision I have made in response to your
request, you can make a request for an internal review by emailing
[7][Vale of White Horse District Council request email] within 40 working days from the day we issued
our response. If you remain dissatisfied after following that procedure,
you have the right under Section 50 of the 2000 Act to complain to the
Information Commissioner if you feel the council has not dealt with your
request properly. You can contact the Commissioner at Wycliffe House,
Water Lane, Wilmslow, Cheshire SK9 5AF (telephone number: 0303 123 1113).
You can also find further information at [8]www.ico.org.uk.

Kind regards

Information Governance Team

Legal & Democratic Services

Vale of White Horse District Council

Visit us at [9]www.whitehorsedc.gov.uk

To find out more about how the council holds, uses and stores your
personal data, please click on the link below

[10]Vale of White Horse District Council

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