Full Business Rate details of all non-domestic properties including occupation.
Request received 17 August 2026
Under the Freedom of Information Act 2000, please provide the following information relating to non-domestic rates in East Cambridgeshire District Council's area, as at the date of your response.
For each non-domestic property (hereditament) currently entered in the rating list:
- Billing authority property reference
- Full property address, including postcode
- Property description
- Current rateable value
- The name of the ratepayer or liable party, only where the ratepayer is a company, charity or other incorporated body. I am not requesting the names of individuals, sole traders or partnerships of individuals, and I am content for those entries to be left blank, so that no personal data within the meaning of section 40(2) falls within the scope of this request.
- Whether the property is currently occupied or empty. If this is held as separate occupied and empty schedules, either or both schedules in their existing format are fine.
Responded 17 August 2026
Please see the attached spreadsheet for information related to business property rates accounts held in the name of East Cambridgeshire District Council.
East Cambridgeshire District Council confirms that we hold the information requested, but we have taken guidance from the ICO, and we longer provide Business Rates information, as this information has been provided in confidence.
This information is exempt from disclosure under Section 41(1) of the Freedom of Information Act 2000. In respect of those requests that are answered in full, partially or the total refused, please take this as notice under FOIA, that we:
a) Consider the information as exempt from disclosure under the Act.
b) Claim exempt under sections of the Act: Section 41(1) Information Provided in Confidence
c) State why the exemption applies:
41(1) Information is exempt information if - (a) it was obtained by the public authority from any other person (including another public authority), and, (b) the disclosure of the information to the public (otherwise than under this Act) by the public authority holding it would constitute a breach of confidence actionable by that or any other person.
Section 41(1)(a) of the FOI Act provides that information is exempt if it was obtained by the public authority from any other person (or company, local authority or any other legal entity) and disclosure of the information to the public by the public authority holding it, would constitute a breach of confidence. This applies to the account/company name of the liable party and the billing address, the account start/end date, details of if the property is currently subject to rate reliefs, the date from which any reliefs have been applied and their values including if the property has an occupied/empty status. The Council receives all of its business rates information from two external sources:
- the Valuation Office Agency (VOA), for information relating to the property and its value. The VOA is responsible for providing specific property information necessary for billing as set out in the Local Government Finance Act 1988 and provides weekly updates of any amendments to the property rating list, and;
- the ratepayers, to advise on the name of the business, the dates it took occupation of the premises, any circumstances that might entitle the business to financial relief and anything else that contributes to the effective creation and management of billing.
Section 41(1)(b) requires the disclosure by us to constitute an actionable breach of confidence. The information must have the necessary quality of confidence, and in our opinion it does. It is recognised in English law that an important duty of confidentiality is owed to tax and rate payers. This is what is known as “taxpayer confidentiality”. This is a long-established principle of common law, protecting taxpayers' affairs against disclosure to the public. We are satisfied that the requested information is not trivial, nor is it available by any other means and if we were to disclose the requested information ratepayers/their representatives could issue legal proceedings against us.
The Council considered the First tier (Information Rights) Tribunal decision on appeal EA/2018/00551 which considered whether information provided to authorities in respect of non-domestic rates could be confidential for the purposes of section 41 of the FOIA. It was concluded in that appeal that information provided to public authorities for the purpose of calculating rates or reliefs is information which the public would expect to be information provided in confidence.
The Tribunal also considered that the information has the necessary quality of confidence. It is considered that releasing the information could be utilised by third parties for those third parties’ purposes, including unsolicited purposes, and would result in a loss of control to rate payers over the information they have provided to the Council. There could also be a risk of damage to the businesses concerned. It is therefore concluded that there could be an actionable breach of confidence.
Section 41 (1) of the FOIA is an absolute exemption which is not subject to a public interest test. However, it is necessary to consider if there is an overriding public interest in disclosure of confidential information: Releasing information would demonstrate to the public at large that the Council has identified appropriate ratepayers for each property, has charged each ratepayer correctly, and has taken action to collect unpaid liabilities and administer the non-domestic rates account properly. Releasing information may benefit some individuals, groups or organisations who have a personal or commercial interest as it may enable them to focus on marketing or commercial products to businesses.
Some information may already be in the public domain if released by the businesses themselves, e.g. via websites or other promotional tools. However, businesses can retain control of their own information and its dissemination of promoting themselves: disclosure would remove this control from the hands of the business itself.
In the appeal EA/2018/00551 it was concluded that: “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.” There should be significant public interest factors present in order to override the strong public interest in maintaining confidentiality. The Council, therefore, considers that the public interest in the disclosure of the information is weak compared to the public interest in protecting the principle of tax-payer confidentiality.
In coming to this decision, the Council has also considered the Information Commissioner’s Office’s decisions IC-265932-F0Y0, IC-264793-Q3L7 and ic-316240-r3n1.pdf and we have concluded to uphold our decision to refuse your request.