Council tax bands redacted
Over the weekend, the Telegraph produced some new revelations about numerous MPs who, , had over-claimed for their council tax.
This story makes more interesting another aspect of how the Commons blacked out expenses information which would seem to have no obvious implications for the security of MPs.
From the examples I've looked at, the Commons authorities have redacted the council tax valuation bands for MPs' second homes. Yet this data was disclosed in the material already officially released last year for the 14 MPs subject to a specific FOI request.
Thus, here is a council tax bill for John Prescott as disclosed last week:
And here is the version released in May 2008:
Similarly, it was disclosed last year that William Hague's flat in Westminster was in band H, while Sir Menzies Campbell's Westminster flat was band C and Mark Oaten's Lambeth flat was band B - but this information was redacted in the material published last week.
(Just to be clear, none of these four MPs was named by the Telegraph as among the dozens who it said had over-claimed for council tax).
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