Council assets

The request was successful.

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

Warwickshire County Council

 
Information request
Our reference: 3596628

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Dear Mr Davies
 
Freedom of Information Act 2000
 
Thank you for your request for information that was received on 31 July
2018.
 
We are dealing with your request under the Freedom of Information Act
2000 and we aim to send a response by 29 August 2018.
 
In some case, a fee may be payable. If we decide a fee is payable, we will
send you a fee notice and we will require you to pay the fee before
proceeding with your request.
 
The Freedom of Information Act 2000 may restrict the release of some or
all of the information you have requested. We will carry out an assessment
and if any exemptions apply to some or all of the information then we
might not provide that information to you. We will inform you if this is
the case and advise you of your rights to request an internal review and
to complain to the Information Commissioner's Office.
 
We will also advise you if we cannot provide you with the information
requested for any other reason together with the reason(s) why and details
of how you may appeal (if appropriate).
 

 Kind regards

Sarah Turpin
Programme Support Manager

Resources
Shire Hall Warwick CV34 4RL

 

 
NOTE: Please do not edit the subject line when replying to this email.

Warwickshire County Council

1 Attachment

 
Information request
Our reference: 3596628

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Dear Mr Davies
 
Thank you for your request for information received on 31 July 2018.
 
Please find attached our response to your request.
 

 Kind regards

Sarah Turpin
Programme Support Manager

Resources
Shire Hall Warwick CV34 4RL

 

 
NOTE: Please do not edit the subject line when replying to this email.

Warwickshire County Council

2 Attachments

 
Information request
Our reference: 3596628

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Dear Mr Davies
 
Freedom of Information Act 2000
 
Our ref: 3596628 Your ref: Date: 29 August 2018

Thank you for your request,

Please see attached our response to Q1 and Q2, please note not all the
information has been supplied because some information is deemed
commercially sensitive. 
 
After due consideration, the County Council considers that the public
interest in withholding the information outweighs the public interest in
disclosing it.

In accordance with section 17 of the Freedom of Information Act 2000
please treat this letter as a Public Interest Refusal Notice.

The exemption applied is Section 43 (2) Information is exempt information
if its disclosure under this Act would, or would be likely to, prejudice
the commercial interests of any person (including the public authority
holding it).

When considering the arguments in favour of release or withholding
information when applying the public interest test for Section 43 it will
depend on the individual case in considering the arguments for and
against.

In favour of release is generally standard e.g. it is in the public
interest due to

* Transparency in respect of how the Council spends public money
* Enabling public scrutiny in ensuring that the Council is securing the
best use of public resources.

As far as the arguments against not in the public interest if it prevents
the local authority getting the best value on our contracts, the best
service at the best possible price, if it would mean the authority would
not be spending public money efficiently.

 Kind regards

Sarah Turpin
Programme Support Manager

Resources
Shire Hall Warwick CV34 4RL

 

 
NOTE: Please do not edit the subject line when replying to this email.

Dear Warwickshire County Council,

Please pass this on to the person who conducts Freedom of Information reviews.

I am writing to request an internal review of Warwickshire County Council's handling of my FOI request 'Council assets'.

I am appealing against the use of the section 43 exemption.

The council said that it had withheld information from the response because it was "commercially sensitive". Unhelpfully the council did not specify which exact information had been withheld using this exemption. As a result I am left to guess that this is referring to the following information:

Question 1:
The sale price
Who the asset was sold to

Question 2:
The purchase price
Who the asset was bough from

The council claims this information is commercially sensitive. I strongly believe that it is not.

Firstly, these details refer to completed transactions. Public knowledge of these transactions - which I should stress involve the sale of publicly-owned assets and the use of public money - would in no way impact anyone's commercial interests.

Secondly, anyone who might be interested in details of individual asset sales or purchases is already able to obtain this information from the Land Registry. Is the council claiming that the land registry records should also be withheld because they are 'commercially sensitive'? Clearly it could not argue this and, as a result, there is no case for withholding this information.

Even if there were a case, the public interest in revealing this information strongly outweighs the public interest in withholding it (especially as the latter argument is so flimsy). We are in the middle of a period of unprecedented pressure on local government finance and, as such, there has never been a more important time for the public to have full oversight of how local authorities spend their money and manage the land and buildings that they own. Furthermore, this case has been strengthened since the introduction of flexible use of capital receipts in March 2016, as this gave councils the power to sell assets in order to fund certain revenue costs. People have a right to know what councils are doing in this area.

Yours faithfully,

Gareth Davies

Warwickshire County Council

 
Information request
Our reference: 3596628

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Dear Mr Davies
 
Thank you for your request for a review received on 18 October 2018. I am
sorry that you are dissatisfied with our attempts to handle your request
under the Freedom of Information Act 2000
 
I can confirm that we are considering your concerns and we will aim to
provide you with a response by 15 November 2018.
 

 Kind regards

Jason Williams
Legal Assistant

Law and Governance - Legal Services
Shire Hall
Warwick
CV34 4RL

 

 
NOTE: Please do not edit the subject line when replying to this email.

Samantha Woolley, Warwickshire County Council

4 Attachments

Dear Mr Davies

 

Further to your request for an internal review on 18 October, please find
attached our internal review report and copies of the information
requested that we can disclose to you. I apologise that this information
was not disclosed to you in the first instance.

 

I hope this review resolves the issues you have raised about the initial
response to your request.

 

Kind regards

 

Samantha Woolley
Solicitor
Corporate and Commercial Team
Warwickshire Legal Services

Governance and Policy

Resources Directorate - Warwickshire County Council

Internal:       8868 (Shire Hall)
Direct Line:  01926 738868

Mobile:        07818 523981

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