Number of Cars paying road tax

Summary

The requester asked for the number of private cars paying road tax over the last five financial years, broken down by fuel type. The Department of Infrastructure refused the request under Section 11 of the Act, stating the data is not held in a format that allows for extraction without substantial manual compilation.

Key Facts

• The Department of Infrastructure does not record road tax data in a format that allows for the requested breakdown by fuel type.
• Answering the request would require manually viewing every road tax application for a five-year period.
• The authority cited Section 11 of the Freedom of Information Act 2015 to justify not creating or deriving the information.
• Less detailed vehicle registration statistics are published annually in the 'Isle of Man in Numbers' media publication.
• The request was formally closed on 24 June 2020.

Data Disclosed

• 2020-06-04
• 2020-06-24
• 1318811
• 2008 – 2019
• page 76
• Section 11

Exemptions Cited

• Section 11 of the Freedom of Information Act 2015 (Information not held in required format)

Original Request

For the last five financial years could you provide the total number of vehicles, classified as private cars, that paid road tax and (if possible) the breakdown between Petrol, Diesel, Electric and Hybrid vehicles.

Data Tables (1)

Full Response Text

Department of Infrastructure Sea Terminal Building, Douglas, Isle of Man, IM1 2RF

Contact: FOI Response Team/DWG/MF Telephone: (01624) 686785 Email: dpo-doi@gov.im

Our ref: 1318811 24 June 2020

Dear ###

We write further to your request which was received on 4 June 2020 and which states:

"For the last five financial years could you provide the total number of vehicles, classified as private cars, that paid road tax and (if possible) the breakdown between Petrol, Diesel, Electric and Hybrid vehicles."

While our aim is to provide information whenever possible, in this instance the Department does not record the information in a format that allows us to answer this question. Under section 11 the Act states that “a public authority is not required to create or derive information from the information that it holds; undertake research into, or analysis of, information that it holds; or undertake substantial compilation or collation of information that it holds. In this case every road tax application would have to be viewed for the five year period with the information being extracted manually. However, you may be interested to know that we do send less detailed information to the Cabinet Office on the numbers of 3 different categories of vehicles for the media publication ‘Isle of Man in Numbers’. There is a link below for the 2020 version and on page 76 there is a spreadsheet detailing the amount of vehicles registered yearly from 2008 – 2019. https://www.gov.im/media/1369616/isle-of-man-in-numbers-2020.pdf

Please quote the reference number 1318811 in any future communications.

Your right to request a review

If you are unhappy with this response to your freedom of information request, you may ask us to carry out an internal review of the response, by completing a complaint form and submitting it electronically or by delivery/post.

An electronic version of our complaint form can be found by going to our website at https://services.gov.im/freedom-of-information/Review . If you would like a paper version of our complaint form to be sent to you by post, please contact us and we will be happy to arrange for this. Your review request should explain why you are

dissatisfied with this response, and should be made as soon as practicable. We will respond as soon as the review has been concluded. If you are not satisfied with the result of the review, you then have the right to appeal to the Information Commissioner for a decision on; 1. Whether we have responded to your request for information in accordance with Part 2 of the Freedom of Information Act 2015; or 2. Whether we are justified in refusing to give you the information requested.
In response to an application for review, the Information Commissioner may, at any time, attempt to resolve a matter by negotiation, conciliation, mediation or another form of alternative dispute resolution and will have regard to any outcome of this in making any subsequent decision. More detailed information on your right to a review can be found on the Information Commissioner’s website at www.inforights.im. Should you have any queries concerning this letter, please do not hesitate to contact us. Further information about freedom of information requests can be found at www.gov.im/foi. We will now close your request as of this date.

Yours sincerely

FOI Response Team