Council assets

The request was partially 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

Freedom Of Information Mailbox, Dacorum Borough Council

Dear Gareth,
Thank you for your request.
Please note the Ref No/Target Date above - your request has been routed to the relevant department for consideration.
'Automatically Generated e-mail.'

The information in this message should be regarded as confidential and is intended for the addressee only unless explicitly stated. If you have received this message in error it must be deleted and the sender notified. The views expressed in this message are personal and not necessarily those of Dacorum Borough Council unless explicitly stated. Please be aware that emails sent to or received from Dacorum Borough Council may be intercepted and read by the council. Interception will only occur to ensure compliance with council policies or procedures or regulatory obligations, to prevent or deter crime, or for the purposes of essential maintenance or support of the email system.

Richard Rice, Dacorum Borough Council

2 Attachments

Dear Gareth Davies

Please see response to FOI 6254 attached as requested

Yours sincerely

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Mr Rice,

Thank you for your response to my FOI.

There is some information missing from both questions (1) and (2) but I can't see any exemptions cited.

In question (1) data relating to how much the asset was sold for and to whom has been left out. While Section 40 of the Act allows for the names of individuals to be withheld, the council should be able to provide information about companies, charities, other public bodies, etc.

In question (2), the vendor name has been included (unlike in question 1) but the amount has not been. Could this be provided?

Yours sincerely,

Gareth Davies

Richard Rice, Dacorum Borough Council

Dear Mr Davies
Apologies for the oversight, we should have cited S21 exemption which states information accessible to applicant by other means. The information is available publicly at the Land Registry.
Yours sincerely

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Dear Dacorum Borough Council,

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

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

Specifically I am objecting to the use of Section 21 to withhold the sale price and who the asset was sold to relating to question (1) and the purchase price relating to question (2).

My main concern is that this exemption has been applied inconsistently. For example, the identity of the vendor has been provided for question (2) but the equivalent information is said to be exempt for question (1). This suggests the exemption has been used selectively to withhold information the council does not want to be released.

Furthermore, while the information is available via the Land Registry, I do not believe that expectation is "reasonable", as described in the Act, because it would cost more than £100 to obtain the records, and I would not have known which ones to look for were it not for the council's response to my FOI, which on one hand provides information and on the other withholds it because it is available on the Land Registry.

Yours faithfully,

Gareth Davies

Freedom Of Information Mailbox, Dacorum Borough Council

Dear Gareth,

Thank you for your email requesting an internal review which has been passed to Nargis Sultan in our Legal Department to respond to.

Regards,

Jean Bellis

Dacorum Borough Council| Legal Team| Corporate and Contracted Services |The Forum |Marlowes | Hemel Hempstead|
Herts HP1 1DN
Direct Line: 01442 228126
Hours of Work: Tues - Fri - 8-3.30pm

“Please note that we no longer subscribe to DX delivery services”

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Freedom Of Information Mailbox, Dacorum Borough Council

1 Attachment

Dear Mr Davies,

Thank you for your request for a review of previous FOI Response 6524

Please find attached our official review response letter.

Yours Sincerely

FOI Team

The information in this message should be regarded as confidential and is intended for the addressee only unless explicitly stated. If you have received this message in error it must be deleted and the sender notified. The views expressed in this message are personal and not necessarily those of Dacorum Borough Council unless explicitly stated. Please be aware that emails sent to or received from Dacorum Borough Council may be intercepted and read by the council. Interception will only occur to ensure compliance with council policies or procedures or regulatory obligations, to prevent or deter crime, or for the purposes of essential maintenance or support of the email system.