Freedom of Information Request - Business Rates
We produce a standardised set of reports on a quarterly basis. Any requests which are received in that quarter will receive the same standardised reports as answers.
Please note the following information is not releasable under the Freedom of Information Act for the following reasons:
Section 31(1)(a) Prevention or detection of crime
Credit balances notices have been sent to all ratepayers where credits appear on their accounts. Ashford Borough Council does not publish information about Business Rates accounts that currently have credit balances in response to Freedom of Information requests. Information in respect of credit balances is considered exempt under section 31(1)(a) of the FOIA (prevention or detection of crime) We hold this information but believes that its disclosure could result in fraudulent refund claims being made to the council for these credit balances.
Account Number
Information in respect of account number is considered exempt under section 31(1)(a) of the FOIA (prevention or detection of crime) We hold this information but believes that its disclosure could result in fraudulent claims being made to the council.
Empty Properties
We do not release the occupancy status of properties, we believe the identification of empty commercial and residential properties would make them a target of crime. Therefore this information is exempt from disclosure under section 31(1)(a) of the FOIA.
Section 40(2) – Personal data
Information relating to sole traders/partnerships is exempt from disclosure under Section 40(2). This information is redacted from the released schedule.
Section 41 - Information Provided in Confidence
Correspondence address. This exemption applies because the correspondence address information is provided by third parties in confidence to the Council, for the sole purpose of the Council meeting its statutory obligation in collecting National Non-domestic rates (NNDR) and reliefs. This information is not readily accessible to the public and is not trivial in nature. Therefore, this basis of information sharing creates a duty of confidentiality owed to the ratepayer.
