Dear Ms Moore,

FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT 2000 (FOIA) - INFORMATION REQUEST

The City of London (CoL) acknowledges receipt of your request for
information of 6 July 2010. Public authorities are required to respond to
requests within the statutory timescale of 20 working days beginning from
the first working day after they receive a request. The Act does not
always require public authorities to disclose the information which they
hold.

The FOIA applies to the CoL as a local authority, police authority and
port health authority. The CoL is the local and police authority for the
"Square Mile", ie the historic City of London, and not for London as a
whole. Please see the following link to a map on the CoL's website, which
shows the area covered:

[1]www.cityoflondon.gov.uk/Corporation/maps/boundary_map.htm.
The CoL's port health authority functions extend beyond the City boundary.
For further information please see:
[2]www.cityoflondon.gov.uk/porthealth.

Yours sincerely,

Information Officer
City of London
Tel: 020-7332 1209
[3]www.cityoflondon.gov.uk

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Dear Ms Moore,

FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT 2000 - INFORMATION REQUEST

Following receipt of your request for information on 6^th July 2010, and
our acknowledgement of the same date, the City of London (CoL) responds as
follows.

There are no forcible adoptions undertaken by the City of London. If you
are alluding to children who are adopted following care proceedings, this
is the decision of the court, not the Local Authority. The Local
Authority can only make recommendations from specialist assessments.

Because, uniquely, we are a LA with a very small population, we have to
exercise caution about what information we hold which, if disclosed, could
be linked with identifiable individuals. We can inform you that the figure
is below 5 however we are unable to provide the exact figure as we have a
safeguarding duty, and although you may argue that a child's identity
would not be compromised in this instance, we would have to emphasise that
the City of London `the Square Mile' is a small Local Authority with a
residential population of around 8,000 people, of this figure approx 1200
are within the age bracket of 0-19*.

(*figure according to Office for National Statistics 2008)

We hope that this assists.

If you wish to make a complaint about the way the CoL has handled your
enquiry, please make your complaint in writing to email address:
[email address].

For a link to the CoL's FOI complaints procedure, please visit the
following page: [1]www.cityoflondon.gov.uk/Feedback, at the end of which
is located the FOI complaints procedure. If, having used the CoL's FOI
Complaints Procedure, you are still dissatisfied, you may request the
Information Commissioner to investigate. Please contact: Information
Commissioner, Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow, Cheshire, SK9 5AF.
Telephone: (01625) 545700. Website: [2]http://www.ico.gov.uk/.

Please note that the Act applies to the City of London only as a local
authority, police authority and port health authority. Subject to any
other statutory provisions requiring the City of London to disclose
information, release of information outside the scope of the Act is
subject to the discretion of the City of London.

The CoL holds the copyright in this communication. Its supply does not
give a right to re-use in a way that would infringe that copyright, for
example, by making copies, publishing and issuing copies to the public or
to any other person. Brief extracts of any of the material may be
reproduced under the fair dealing provisions of the Copyright, Designs and
Patents Act 1988 (sections 29 and 30) for the purposes of research for
non-commercial purposes, private study, criticism, review and news
reporting, subject to an acknowledgement of the copyright owner.

Yours sincerely

Department of Community & Children's Services
City of London
[3]www.cityoflondon.gov.uk

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