Request for information under the Freedom of Information Act 2000
I am writing to request the following information held by the Council in its capacity as billing authority for National Non-Domestic Rates (business rates).
Please provide a complete list of all live business rates accounts in the Royal Borough as at the date this request is processed, in electronic spreadsheet format (Excel or CSV), containing the following fields for each account:
1. Property reference number (also known as the Billing Authority Reference Number) — not the rate demand or rate account number
2. Current rateable value (2023 rating list)
3. Liable party / account holder name (see note below)
4. Property address
5. Correspondence / billing address where different from the property address
6. Property description (e.g. offices, shop and premises, warehouse)
7. The date the current ratepayer became liable for business rates
8. Whether the property is currently occupied or empty
9. Where the property is empty, the date the ratepayer became liable for empty property rates
10. Where an exemption applies, the type of exemption and its start and (where applicable) end date
11. Where a relief applies, the type of relief, the date it was applied, and the relevant percentages and amounts
Note on personal data: I am content for you to exclude the names of liable parties who are individuals or sole traders, in order to avoid any disclosure of personal data under the Data Protection Act 2018 / UK GDPR. I am requesting the names of liable parties only where the ratepayer is a company, organisation, or other corporate body, the disclosure of which does not engage personal-data exemptions.
If the Council already publishes this information as a routine transparency dataset (for example a quarterly or monthly business rates accounts report), I would be glad to be directed to the relevant download in satisfaction of this request.
If any part of this request is likely to exceed the appropriate cost limit under section 12, please contact me before rejecting it so that the scope can be refined — for example by providing the data in instalments, or limiting it to occupied and empty accounts above a stated rateable value threshold. I would be grateful for your advice and assistance under section 16 in that event.