Council assets

Roedd y cais yn llwyddiannus.

To the information officer,

I am emailing to request the following information from the council under the Freedom of Information Act 2000:

Note: This request does not relate to social housing stock

1) A list of building, land and heritage assets disposed of (i.e. the council no longer owned the asset) by the council between 2014/2015 and the date on which you received this request, including:

- Name of the asset
- What type of asset is it - building, land or heritage?
- Address (if applicable)
- Postcode (if applicable)
- UPRN (if possible)
- The date it was disposed of
- The type of disposal (for example sale, community asset transfer, etc)
- The valuation of the asset at the point it was classified as an asset held for sale (both lower amount and fair value less, if possible)
- How much it was sold for? (if applicable)
- Who it was sold to?
- How it was disposed of (open market, auction, etc)

2) A list of building, land and heritage assets acquired by the council between 2014/2015 and the date on which you received this request, including:

- Name of the asset
- What type of asset is it - building, land or heritage?
- Address
- Postcode
- UPRN (if possible)
- The date it was acquired
- Who was it acquired from?
- How much did it cost?
- Is it now classed as an investment property?

3) How many land, building and heritage assets did the council have as of
a) the beginning of 2014/15
b) the date on which you received this request

I would like to receive this information electronically a spreadsheet, with the points above as the column headers.

If the decision is made to withhold some of this information using exemptions in the Act, please inform me of that fact and cite the exemptions used.

Please note the questions:
Who it was sold to?
Who was it acquired from?

In response to test FOIs some local authorities declined to release this information relating to these questions, arguing it was exempt under Section 40 - Personal information.

The definition of personal data referred to in the FOIA is that used by the Data Protection Act. This states that, for data to constitute personal data, “it must relate to a living individual, and that individual must be identifiable”. As a result, unless the response relates to a person (or a sole trader) it cannot be exempt under Section 40.

If you need clarification please contact me at this email address. Under your section 16 duty to provide advice and assistance I would expect you to contact me if you find this request unmanageable in any way before the 20th working day.

I would be grateful if you could confirm in writing that you have received this request, and I look forward to hearing from you in the near future.

Thank you for your time,

Gareth

Freedom of Information,

REQUEST FOR INFORMATION

This letter is our acknowledgement of your request received 31-JULY-2018. 
Please note the reference number in the subject line of this email and
refer to it in any future correspondence. The case officer dealing with
your request is:

Julie Hodgson Tel. 03000 268037

Depending on the type of request, it will be handled under the Freedom of
Information Act (FOIA) or the Environmental Information Regulations
(EIR).  Both of these have a statutory 20 working day deadline for a
response however, in some cases, the deadline may be extended to 40
working days. The deadline for an FOIA request can be extended if an
extended public interest test is required before deciding to respond. The
deadline for an EIR request can be extended if the information requested
is too voluminous or complex to respond to fully within the 20 day
timescale. If this is the case, we will write to explain that to you.

If we hold this information, we will let you know and in most cases supply
it to you.  You may request a particular format for receiving the
information and we will do our best to accommodate. In most cases, we will
respond by email or letter in 12 point Arial font.  If you have a
particular need to receive the material in a different format, please let
us know.

In some cases, the information you request will be exempt from disclosure.
What this means is that the legislation allows the Council to refuse to
provide the information. Where this occurs, we will tell you the reasons
why and we will explain how to appeal that decision.

If your requests refers to a third party, then they may be consulted about
disclosing the information before we decide whether to release the
information to you.  For example, if someone asks about a contract with a
supplier, we will contact the supplier to consider their views about
disclosing the information.

NB: There may be a charge for environmental information. Please contact us
if you have any questions about that charge.

In some cases, we may require a payment to cover photocopying, postage, or
other production costs on requests that require large amounts of
photocopying. However, we will discuss this with you and look for ways to
provide the information in electronic formats if possible.  If a payment
is required, it must be provided before we can send you the information. 
If a payment is required, the 20 working day time limit for responses is
suspended until the payment is received. 

We may also need to contact you to clarify your request. We are obliged to
do this under s.16 of the Act, which refers to the duty to provide advice
and assistance to applicants.  When we ask to clarify your request, the 20
working day countdown stops until we hear back from you. If you have not
contacted us about the request within 30 days, we will close it.

Please note that your request and our response will be put on the
Council’s disclosure log.  What this means is that we keep a log of all
the requests and responses if anyone wants to look at them. When we put
the request and response on the log, we remove the applicant’s name and
any personal references. In any case, where personal information remains,
it will be done in accordance with the Data Protection Act (DPA).

If you have any questions or need further information, then please
contact:

The Information Management Team

Durham County Council

Assistant Chief Executive’s Office

Room 4/143-148

County Hall

Durham

DH1 5UF

Tel. 03000 268038

Email: [1][email address]

Further information is also available from the Information Commissioner
at:

Information Commissioner's Office

Wycliffe House

Water Lane

Wilmslow

Cheshire

SK9 5AF

Telephone: 01625 545 745

Fax: 01625 524 510

Email: [2][email address]

[3]www.informationcommissioner.gov.uk

Yours sincerely,

The Information Management Team

══════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════

Customer Notice

We have recently updated our terms and conditions for all our services,
including making some important updates to our privacy notices. To find
out more about how we collect, use, share and retain your personal data,
visit: [4]www.durham.gov.uk/dataprivacy

Help protect our environment by only printing this email if absolutely
necessary. The information it contains and any files transmitted with it
are confidential and are only intended for the person or organisation to
whom it is addressed. It may be unlawful for you to use, share or copy the
information, if you are not authorised to do so. If you receive this email
by mistake, please inform the person who sent it at the above address and
then delete the email from your system. Durham County Council takes
reasonable precautions to ensure that its emails are virus free. However,
we do not accept responsibility for any losses incurred as a result of
viruses we might transmit and recommend that you should use your own virus
checking procedures.

References

Visible links
1. mailto:[email%20address]
2. mailto:[email%20address]
3. http://www.informationcommissioner.gov.uk/
4. https://www.durham.gov.uk/dataprivacy

Freedom of Information,

Dear Gareth Davies,

FREEDOM OF INFORMATION – APOLOGY

We regret that we have been unable to provide the information within the
20 day deadline.

Rest assured that every effort is being made to provide the information
and we shall endeavour to respond to you as soon as possible.

Your request is currently with the service area, we will contact the
service area to remind them of the request and provide it to you as soon
as it is available.

In the meantime, please accept our sincere apologies and please contact
the relevant case officer – Julie Hodgson Tel. 03000 268037, should you
wish to discuss this matter further.

We wish to take this opportunity to thank you for your patience.

Our main contact details are:

The Information Management Team

Durham County Council

Assistant Chief Executive’s Office

Room 4/143-148

County Hall

Durham

DH1 5UF

Tel: 03000 268038

Email: [1][email address]

Yours sincerely,

The Information Management Team

══════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════

Customer Notice

We have recently updated our terms and conditions for all our services,
including making some important updates to our privacy notices. To find
out more about how we collect, use, share and retain your personal data,
visit: [2]www.durham.gov.uk/dataprivacy

Help protect our environment by only printing this email if absolutely
necessary. The information it contains and any files transmitted with it
are confidential and are only intended for the person or organisation to
whom it is addressed. It may be unlawful for you to use, share or copy the
information, if you are not authorised to do so. If you receive this email
by mistake, please inform the person who sent it at the above address and
then delete the email from your system. Durham County Council takes
reasonable precautions to ensure that its emails are virus free. However,
we do not accept responsibility for any losses incurred as a result of
viruses we might transmit and recommend that you should use your own virus
checking procedures.

References

Visible links
1. mailto:[email%20address]
2. https://www.durham.gov.uk/dataprivacy

Freedom of Information,

2 Atodiad

Dear Gareth Davies,

Please find attached our response to your Freedom of Information request.

Kind regards,

Julie Hodgson

Freedom of Information and Data Protection Officer

Transformation and Partnerships

Durham County Council

Room 143 - 148

County Hall

Durham

DH1 5UF

Direct Tel: 03000268037

Switchboard: 03000260000

[1]www.durham.gov.uk

Follow us on Twitter @durhamcouncil

Like us at facebook.com/durhamcouncil

Follow us on linkedin.com/company/durham-county-council

══════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════

Customer Notice

We have recently updated our terms and conditions for all our services,
including making some important updates to our privacy notices. To find
out more about how we collect, use, share and retain your personal data,
visit: [2]www.durham.gov.uk/dataprivacy

Help protect our environment by only printing this email if absolutely
necessary. The information it contains and any files transmitted with it
are confidential and are only intended for the person or organisation to
whom it is addressed. It may be unlawful for you to use, share or copy the
information, if you are not authorised to do so. If you receive this email
by mistake, please inform the person who sent it at the above address and
then delete the email from your system. Durham County Council takes
reasonable precautions to ensure that its emails are virus free. However,
we do not accept responsibility for any losses incurred as a result of
viruses we might transmit and recommend that you should use your own virus
checking procedures.

References

Visible links
1. http://www.durham.gov.uk/
2. https://www.durham.gov.uk/dataprivacy