FOI request (FOIR-211393834)

CV Grant

Requested Thu 28 May 2020
Responded Wed 02 September 2020

Please can you provide me with the following information under the Freedom Of Information Act 2000:

1) Please confirm how much funding has been received by the local council from central government to support Small Business Grants Fund (SBGF) scheme in England during corona virus?

2) How many hereditaments has the local authority identified may be in scope to receive the Small Business Grants Fund (SBGF) scheme? Please provide the relevant BA reference numbers?

3) How many Small Business Grants Fund (SBGF) scheme payments have been made to hereditaments to date (please confirm the date of extract)?

4) Please confirm the total amount of money that the local authority in England has distributed for Small Business Grants Fund (SBGF) scheme to date (please confirm the date of extract)?

5) A list of NNDR Business Rates accounts who were in receipt of small business rate relief or rural rate relief or whom subsequently became entitled to such relief as of 11 March 2020 for all incorporated companies within the authorities billing area, including the following information:

i) The name of each incorporated company in respect of which account is held.

ii) The properties address in which the account relates to.

iii) A write to address and write to company name, if applicable.

Response

Please accept my apologies for the delay in responding, we have been experiencing problems with our FOI software.

NOTICE OF REFUSAL

The information requested relates to those eligible for SBRR which will relate to individual (sole traders) and private addresses. This information is exempt under Section 40(2) of the Freedom of Information Act 'personal data'. This is an absolute exemption and so the requested information will not be disclosed.

In addition to Section 40(2), to compile of all the information that could identify an individual would far exceed the time limit set out by the Information Commissioner under S12 of the Freedom of information Act 2000 which provides an exemption from the obligation to comply with a request for information if the estimated costs of complying with that request would exceed the prescribed appropriate limit.

We estimate that the costs of complying with your request would exceed the appropriate limit by a significant amount.

The information could also provide someone with the opportunity to submit false claims in respect of properties that have not yet claimed.