Business rates published information

We receive many requests, in accordance with the Freedom of Information Act 2000 ('FOIA'), for information related to business rates (otherwise known as non-domestic rates) administered by the council. 

The First-tier (Information Rights) Tribunal decision on appeal EA/2018/00551 confirmed that information provided to authorities in respect of business rates was confidential and therefore exempt from disclosure under the FOIA in accordance with section 41.

This is an absolute exemption so is not subject to a public interest test.

This appeal decision also considered whether there was an overriding public interest in disclosure of this information but concluded: "....there is only a limited public interest in disclosure of this information, and consequently we conclude that there is insufficient public interest in disclosure to outweigh the importance of the general common law principle of taxpayer confidentiality." 

We consider that section 41 applies to customers' accounts and FOIA requests made for this information will be refused based on this exemption. 

Council accounts  

This exemption does not apply to accounts where the council itself is an account holder.

We publish information related to the business rates for council accounts in the list below.

Nil - There is no data to publish. 

This data will be updated and published every three months, on 1 April, 1 July, 1 October and 1 January.

Further business rates information can be found on the Valuation Office Agency's website.