Freedom of information response

1. Which bank does the local authority bank with for the following?

•       Your current account(s)  - National Westminster Bank

•       Managing your financial transactions e.g.  - Council Tax National Westminster Bank

•       Any savings – CONFIDENTIAL

•       Any cash balances – CONFIDENTIAL

2. At the last round of tendering for banking services, which banks submitted a bid for your banking services? – CONFIDENTIAL

3. When is your banking contract up for renewal? What is the duration of your current banking contract? – CONFIDENTIAL

4. Has your Council declared a climate emergency?  If yes, please give the date of the declaration. - Yes. At the Meeting of Council on 23rd October 2019 a motion was carried for Thurrock Council to declare a climate emergency and commit to reduce its net CO2 emission to zero by 2030.

5. Does the local authority specifically seek information and advice on ethical and sustainable investment and banking e.g. as part of any Treasury Management consultancy contracts?  - No

6. To minimise the climate-related impact of your banking, do you have any procedures in place to lower your carbon emissions and help avoid funding fossil fuel projects, such as transfer of surplus funds/cash balances from your current account to green or low carbon investment or banking options? If yes, please provide details. -  No

7. Which institutions does the local authority currently have investments with? - CONFIDENTIAL

8. Are any of these investments in ethical or sustainable funds/deposits, and if yes: - CONFIDENTIAL

•       what funds/deposits are these and on what basis were they selected?

•       To what extent do they exclude fossil fuel and arms trade investments?

•       What percentage of the local authority’s total investments were placed in ethical/sustainable funds at the end of the 2023 financial year?

9. Please share the counter-parties list of your local authority. - CONFIDENTIAL

In issuing our response the Council has applied S31 (1)(a) Law Enforcement Exemption and S40 (2) Exemption of the Freedom of Information Act .  

S31 (1)(a) Law Enforcement Exemption of the Freedom of Information Act. 

Information is exempt information if its disclosure under this Act would, or would be likely to prejudice various law enforcement purposes including preventing crime, administering justice, and collecting tax. We are unable to provide the level of detail requested at the current time as we believe that releasing the names of the companies/individuals that have received funds could potentially invite fraudulent or criminal activity.  

The reasons for the application of this exemption have been captured below under the public interest test section. 

Public Interest Test: 

• Public interest in disclosure: 

• It would inform the public how much each business received in funds from Thurrock Council. 

• Public interest to maintain the exemption: 

• Releasing the requested information could invite fraudulent or criminal activity.  
• Claims that are made fraudulently would require resources, time and money to investigate and prosecute, taking funds away from other service areas. 

Based on the above, it is the council’s view that there is a stronger public interest to maintain the use of the exemption for section 31. The key reasons for this is as follows: 

The council feels the factors in favour of withholding the information outweigh those in favour of publication. A realistic outcome/consequence of releasing this information would be that the Council would be subject to fraudulent claims. 

S40 (2) Data Protection 

Personal data of any person (third party data) is exempt under section 40(2) if disclosure would breach one of the data protection principles. This aspect of Section 40 is an Absolute Exemption and is therefore not subject to the Public Interest Test. It is therefore subject to the provisions of the Data Protection Act (1998). The information published could contain details of sole traders. There is no prior expectation on the part of individuals that the premises that they own would be published into the wider public domain under FOI. A disclosure made under FOI constitutes a publication to the world at large. We believe that to disclose this would be likely to breach the first Principle of the Data Protection Act by unfairly contravening their right to privacy and confidentiality.