September FOI Request
Dear Fenland District Council,
REQUEST FOR INFORMATION UNDER THE FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT 2000.
In accordance with the provisions specified within the above Act I hereby request the following information.
All information requested relates to Business Rates.
This request for information falls within the parameters of the Act but if you require clarification on any of the points above or should you wish to discuss this further then please do not hesitate to contact me.
Required Information;- A list of all live business rates accounts with a 2017 list Rateable Value.
• Property Reference Number (also known as Billing Authority Reference Number) of the property on which the charge is made. Please note that this is not the Rate Demand or Rate Account Number.
• Current rateable value
• Account holder name
• Property address
• The billing address (where different to the property address), the contact telephone number and email address
• The date the current ratepayer became liable for the business rates – we do not require any historical account liability dates only the current ratepayers liability start date
• whether a property is empty or occupied
• Where a property is currently empty please provide the date the ratepayer became liable for empty rates
• Where there is an exemption on the account please provide the start and end date and type of exemption applied (e.g. listed building)
• Where there is a relief on the account please provide the date it was applied and the type of relief (e.g. Retail Discount)
• We do not require any personal information or sole traders.
Please provide the information in an electronic, spreadsheet format ideally excel. The Act requires that a response be provided within a period of 20 working days from the date hereof.
Yours faithfully,
Richard roberts
Good Afternoon
I acknowledge your request for information received, which is being
investigated.
The Act allows the Council 20 working days to comply with your request.
During this time, the Council will assess the information to establish if
any exemptions apply. If it is felt that any information may be exempt
from disclosure, this will be given careful consideration and the Public
Interest Test will be applied if appropriate. If it is determined that
any material is exempt, you will be notified of which information is not
going to be released and the reasons why.
If you have any queries, please do not hesitate to contact the Freedom of
Information Officer at Fenland District Council, or email
[1][Fenland District Council request email]. It would help us to help you if you could quote
the Information Request No, quoted above, on any correspondence.
Yours sincerely
FOI Officer
Fenland District Council
01354 654321
[2][Fenland District Council request email]
E-mails and any attachments from Fenland District Council (the Council)
are confidential. If you are not the intended recipient, please notify the
sender immediately by replying to the e-mail, and then delete it without
making copies or using it in any other way or placing any reliance on it.
It is not intended that this e-mail shall constitute either an offer or
acceptance nor is it intended to form a contract between the Council and
the addressee or any third party.
Any views or opinions presented are solely those of the sender and do not
necessarily represent those of the Council unless otherwise specifically
stated.
Although any attachments to the message will have been checked for viruses
before transmission, you are urged to carry out your own virus check
before opening attachments, since the Council accepts no responsibility
for loss or damage caused by software viruses.
Senders and recipients of e-mail should be aware that, under the EU
General Data Protection Regulation 2016, the Freedom of Information Act
2000, the Environmental Information Regulations 2004 and other related
legislation, the contents of e-mails may have to be disclosed in response
to a request.
To provide you with our services we will need to record personal
information, such as your e-mail address. This information will be kept
securely and only accessed by approved staff. We will not share your
information with anyone else without first telling you. If you would like
more details about how we protect personal information, then please
contact our Data Protection Officer.
References
Visible links
1. mailto:[Fenland District Council request email]
2. mailto:[Fenland District Council request email]
Good Afternoon,
Many thanks for your Freedom of Information Request submitted on 02/09/21.
In this case we cannot disclose the information requested. Under section
31(1)(a) of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 we can withhold
information for the prevention and detection of crime.
We have conducted a public interest test which you can see below and have
agreed that the public disclosure of this information could aid those
individuals who have used the pandemic for their own gain through
increasing measures of fraud.
As part of the government’s response to the Covid-19 pandemic the council
has been required to administer various forms of grants to individuals and
businesses through electronic measures. Supplying the information may lead
to the Council being targeted by cyber criminals and the publication of
these details could lead to local businesses becoming the victims of
criminal activity.
HMRC, Government Counter Fraud Function and National Audit Office have all
recognised that the fraud threat is higher than at other times and
encouraged local authorities to integrate low friction controls to reduce
the threat of fraud.
We also note that there are no public accountability or transparency
requirement for disclosing this information. Therefore, there is no likely
benefit to the wider public in releasing this information and the risk of
disclosing said information outweighs the public interest.
If you require any further information regarding your request or are
unhappy with the response, you should contact the Member Services Officers
at Fenland District Council or e-mail [1][Fenland District Council request email] in the first
instance.
If after this, you are still dissatisfied with this decision, you may
request the Information Commissioner to investigate. The contact details
are:
Information Commissioner’s Office
Wycliffe House
Water Lane
WILMSLOW
Cheshire SK9 5AF
Tel: 01625 545700
[2]www.ico.org.uk
Yours sincerely
Freedom of Information Officer
01354 654321
[3]www.fenland.gov.uk
[4]Medium logo 2008 cmyk
How did we do? Visit our website to [5]have your say
E-mails and any attachments from Fenland District Council (the Council)
are confidential. If you are not the intended recipient, please notify the
sender immediately by replying to the e-mail, and then delete it without
making copies or using it in any other way or placing any reliance on it.
It is not intended that this e-mail shall constitute either an offer or
acceptance nor is it intended to form a contract between the Council and
the addressee or any third party.
Any views or opinions presented are solely those of the sender and do not
necessarily represent those of the Council unless otherwise specifically
stated.
Although any attachments to the message will have been checked for viruses
before transmission, you are urged to carry out your own virus check
before opening attachments, since the Council accepts no responsibility
for loss or damage caused by software viruses.
Senders and recipients of e-mail should be aware that, under the EU
General Data Protection Regulation 2016, the Freedom of Information Act
2000, the Environmental Information Regulations 2004 and other related
legislation, the contents of e-mails may have to be disclosed in response
to a request.
To provide you with our services we will need to record personal
information, such as your e-mail address. This information will be kept
securely and only accessed by approved staff. We will not share your
information with anyone else without first telling you. If you would like
more details about how we protect personal information, then please
contact our Data Protection Officer.
References
Visible links
1. mailto:[Fenland District Council request email]
2. http://www.ico.org.uk/
3. http://www.fenland.gov.uk/
5. http://www.fenland.gov.uk/threecs
We work to defend the right to FOI for everyone
Help us protect your right to hold public authorities to account. Donate and support our work.
Donate Now