Small Business Rate Relief

The request was partially successful.

Dear Cheshire West and Chester Council,

Please provide a complete list of addresses and rateable values that qualify for small business rate relief upto £11k but are NOT actually in receipt of it for whatever reason.

Please also include the liability amounts and the date that they are liable from.

Yours faithfully,

Jamie Dee

Cheshire West and Chester Council

RE: Your request under the Freedom of Information Act 2000

Case Reference: 101001482879

Dear J Dee

Thank you for your email.

It will be treated as a request within the meaning of the Act: this means that we will send you a full response within 20 working days, either supplying you with the information which you want, or explaining to you why we cannot supply it.

If we need any further clarification or there is any problem we will be in touch.

In the meantime if you wish to discuss this further please contact me. It would be helpful if you could quote the log number 1482879.

Yours sincerely

Caroline Timms
FOI Unit

Solutions Team

Cheshire West and Chester Council

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FOI West, Cheshire West and Chester Council

1 Attachment

Dear Mr Dee

Thank you for your request under the Freedom of Information Act 2000, please find the information attached.

Please note that we have excluded details of any private individuals from this list under Section 40 (2) of the Freedom of Information Act. Section 40 (2) of the Act states that information is exempt from disclosure if it constitutes the personal data of a third party and its disclosure under the Act would breach any of the data Protection principles or section 10 of the Data Protection Act (DPA). Blank rows within the spreadsheet indicate where personal data has been redacted.

The Council considers that the information is exempt from disclosure under subsection 40 (2) for the following reasons:

1. The requested information is the personal data of a third party, namely the individual. The definition of personal data is taken from Section 1 of the DPA.

It is the Council’s view that: -

• Disclosing the data would be unfair to the individual concerned,

• Disclosure is considered incompatible with the purpose for which the information was gathered.

2. The Data Protection Act Principles - the council considers that disclosure will contravene the first data protection principle, which states that “ personal data shall be processed fairly and lawfully, and in particular, shall not be processed unless –

(a) At least one of the conditions in schedule 2 is met, and
(b) In the case of sensitive personal data, at least one of the conditions in Schedule 3 is also met.”

The Council considers that disclosure will be unfair, as the requested information held in relation to the individual was not intended for wider public disclosure.

If you are unhappy with the way your request for information has been handled, you can request a review by writing to:

Solutions Team
Cheshire West and Chester Council
HQ
58 Nicholas Street
Chester
CH1 2NP

If you remain dissatisfied with the handling of your request or complaint, you have a right of appeal to the Information Commissioner at:

The Information Commissioner's Office
Wycliffe House
Water Lane
Wilmslow
Cheshire SK9 5AF

Telephone: 08456 30 60 60 or 01625 54 57 45
Website: www.ico.gov.uk

There is no charge for making an appeal.

Yours sincerely

Miriam Wallace
Solutions Team
Cheshire West and Chester Council

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Dear FOI West,

Thank you for this.

There does seem to be commercial address data thats been removed from that list, if thats correct can you tell me how many you have removed pls.

Is there an issue with supplying just the address for the ones you have not supplied, this has never been an issue previously.

I look forward to hearing from you

Yours sincerely,

Jamie Dee

FOI West, Cheshire West and Chester Council

Dear Mr Dee

Thank you for your email. I am checking the information previously provided to you with the service and will respond in more detail shortly.

Yours sincerely

Miriam Wallace
Solutions Team
Cheshire West and Chester Council

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Dear Miriam

Thank you, Also just to clarify I am looking for commercial addresses of all businesses, However I dont require any personal information.

Yours sincerely,

Jamie Dee

Dear Miriam

Can you give me an update pleas

Yours sincerely,

Jamie Dee

Dear FOI West,

Hello?

Yours sincerely,

Jamie Dee

FOI West, Cheshire West and Chester Council

Dear Mr Dee

Thank you for your emails dated 16 & 18 August 2013. I apologise for the delay in responding. I can confirm that we have chased the service area for a response to your further enquiry. I will forward the response as soon as it is available.

Yours sincerely

Caroline Timms
FOI Unit
Cheshire West and Chester Council
 

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Dear Caroline

Why is is taking so long to get this information from you.

Yours sincerely,

Jamie Dee

FOI West, Cheshire West and Chester Council

Dear Mr Dee

Having conducted a review of outstanding cases I have noticed that your further enquiry below remains unanswered. Please accept my apologies for the delay.

Your enquiry related to the number of commercial addresses withheld from the list of information provided to you because they were registered to private individuals.

The complete list of addresses and rateable values that qualify for small business rate relief up to £11k but are NOT actually in receipt of it for whatever reason was provided to you along with a statement that blank rows indicated where information had been withheld, this amounts to around 700 records.

The reason for applying the exemption was outlined in the response, i.e. it related to personal data of a third party, namely an individual. In this case information has been withheld where it is an address that qualifies for small business rate relief that is registered to an individual.

The Council considers that the address of a property that qualifies for small business rate relief that is registered to an individual rather than a business is personal information and should not be disclosed, applying the exemption in Section 40(2) of the FOIA. This states that information is exempt from disclosure if it constitutes the personal data of a third party and its disclosure under the Act would breach any of the data protection principles or section 10 of the Data Protection Act 1998 (DPA).

8.2 Section 1 of the DPA defines personal data as follows:

“personal data” means data which relate to a living individual who can beidentified –

(a) from those data, or

(b) from those data and other information which is in the possession of, or is likely to come into the possession of, the data controller,

and includes any expression of opinion about the individual and any indication of the intentions of the data controller or any other person in respect of the individual.”

As you were advised in the original response, the Council considers that your request has been answered in full by either confirming that information is not held, providing you with the information requested, or explaining why any information has been withheld and the reasons for any redaction. Where applicable, the Council has also told you the reasons for the delay in responding to your request.

If you are unhappy with the way your request for information has been handled you can request a review by writing to the Solutions Team within 40 working days from the date of the Council’s response. You are entitled to a review by the Council if:
• You are dissatisfied with the Council’s explanation of why the application was not dealt with within the 20 working day time limit.
• All the information requested is not being disclosed and you have not received an explanation why some information is not being disclosed.
• A reason for the disclosures under the request being refused is not received.
• You consider that exemptions have been wrongly applied, and/or
• You consider that a fee has been wrongly applied.
Please set out your grounds for seeking a review together with what specific part of your request those grounds apply to and the outcome you are seeking. The Council reserves the right to ask you for clarification of the grounds for your review request if the grounds are not clear, and to delay commencing the review if such grounds are not provided.

The Solutions Team can be contacted by email via: [Cheshire West and Chester Council request email] or at the following address:

Solutions Team
Cheshire West and Chester Council
HQ
58 Nicholas Street
Chester
CH1 2NP

The Solutions Team will acknowledge a request for an internal review within 5 working days and complete the review as soon as possible and no later than 40 working days from receipt of the request.

More information about the Council’s internal review process can be found via: http://www.cheshirewestandchester.gov.uk...

If you remain dissatisfied following the outcome of your review, you have a right of appeal to the Information Commissioner at:

The Information Commissioner's Office
Wycliffe House
Water Lane
Wilmslow
Cheshire SK9 5AF

Telephone: 08456 30 60 60 or 01625 54 57 45
Website: www.ico.gov.uk

There is no charge for making an appeal.

Yours sincerely

Miriam Wallace
Solutions Team
Cheshire West and Chester Council

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