Chesterfield Borough Council will not provide information about any individual or business regarding Council Tax credit balances, such as accounts in credit or liability, under the Freedom of Information Act 2000.

This is following guidance from the Information Commissioners Officer (ICO), and recent legal cases that support exemptions.

Specifically, information that could compromise commercial confidentiality, infringe on personal privacy or pose security risks is exempt from disclosure, balancing public transparency and protection of sensitive data.

Below are the legal cases that support the council’s decision:

• the Information Commissioners Office decision reference FS50619844 - 6 February 2017 (Wandsworth Council) 
• the Information Commissioners Office decision reference FS50649626 - 28 March 2017 (East Riding of Yorkshire Council)
• the Information Commissioners Office decision reference FS50611895 - 16 December 2016 (Westminster City Council) 

The exemptions below will be applied to limit the information disclosed under the Freedom of Information Act regarding Council Tax Credit balance data.

Under Section 31 - prevention of crime

Financial data

Revealing details about credit balances “Credit” and “In arrears” would place the council and the businesses at risk of fraud. Therefore, this information will no longer be disclosed, as this could undermine crime prevention efforts.

Under Section 40.2 - personal data

Information relating to sole traders or partnerships is exempt from disclosure under Section 40(2).

The names and contact address of the rate payer are not disclosed if the rate payer is an individual, such as a sole trader or partnership, as the council considers this information to be personal data, as they relate to a living individual and the individual is identifiable from those data.

This section of the Act provides an exemption to the general right of access to information, where the disclosure of personal information would breach any of the data protection principles.

Under Section 41 - information provided in confidence

This can include the name, property and billing address, telephone numbers, and whether exemptions might have been applied to those accounts. 

This information was provided to the council with an expectation of confidence for the purposes of calculating Council Tax. 

We consider that the withheld information is more than trivial in nature and is not accessible to the public by other means. This exemption is not subject to the public interest test, but section 41(b) has an assumption that the public interest in maintaining the duty of confidence will prevail unless the public interest in disclosure outweighs maintaining that duty. We recognise the public interest in openness and transparency, however we consider this does not outweigh the stronger case against disclosure.

Some Council Tax data, such as property address, description are already publicly accessible via the UK Government Valuation Office Agency website and the UK Land Registry website.

Therefore, this information is exempt from disclosure under Section 21 of the Freedom of Information Act, as it is considered reasonable accessible to the public by other means.