The City of London acknowledges receipt of your request.

City of London
www.cityoflondon.gov.uk

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Dear Ms Davis,

Further to your request of 8 May 2009 and our acknowledgement of the same
date, the City of London (CoL) responds as follows.

In your request you asked for "(a) addresses and rateable values of empty
Commercial properties that are within Common Council of the City of London
area; and (b) the names of the owners of those properties referred to in
(a)".

This response acts as a partial refusal notice.

There is an exemption under Section 31(1)(a) of the Freedom of Information
Act (FOIA) which we consider applies partly to this request. This section
provides that information is exempt from disclosure if such disclosure
would prejudice the "prevention or detection of crime". We consider that
the disclosure of information about whether or not properties are empty
puts those properties at risk from crime, as an empty property is more
likely to be the target of, and vulnerable to, crime than is an occupied
property. Hence we consider that disclosure presents a likely prejudice to
the prevention and detection of crime.

This exemption is subject to the public interest test. With regard to
identifying empty properties, it could be considered to be in the public
interest to disclose such information in order to assist, for example, in
encouraging the use of empty properties. The Information Tribunal
considered this in 2007 and paragraph 86 of the decision states:

".....Our conclusion on the public interest test is that, insofar as the
properties are owned by individuals, the public interest in maintaining
the exemption does outweigh the public interest in disclosure. The impact
of crime on individuals as an inherent part of the public interest in this
circumstance is a significant factor and leads to the exemption
outweighing the public interest in disclosure in our view. However, for
those properties that are owned by those other than individuals, including
public authorities, our conclusion is that it [the security
considerations, ie the section 31 law enforcement exemption] does not, and
the public interest is in favour of disclosure. This is because the impact
of crime on an individual is not present and this inherent aspect of the
public interest in preventing crime is therefore absent and changes the
analysis of the balance."

(Tribunal Ref: EA/2006/0060&0066. Decision promulgated 10 May 2007)

Following the above decision, therefore, we apply the Section 31 exemption
to disclosure about empty properties owned by individuals. For rating
purposes the owners are the ratepayers, ie persons entitled to possession.

There is a further exemption, under Section 21 of the FOIA, which applies
to part of your request, ie where information is reasonably accessible to
the applicant by other means. The rateable values of property are public
information available from the Valuation Office Agency (VOA) website. The
section 21 exemption is an absolute exemption, ie it is not subject to the
public interest test.

Attached is a list of empty commercial properties in the City, excluding
those where the ratepayer is an individual or individuals.

<<FOIEmptyNNDRApril2009.pdf>>

The following is the link to the VOA website where the rateable values may
be found: [1]www.voa.gov.uk

Please note that the occupation of property is constantly changing with
some premises being vacated, others occupied and alterations to the rating
list being made by the Valuation Office Agency. The list attached dates
from the end of April 2009. This is the most recent available. It was as
accurate as possible at the time it was produced but inevitably there are
always some amendments pending and there may have been some changes
subsequently.

We hope that this is of assistance.

The FOIA applies to the CoL as a local authority, police authority and
port health authority. Subject to any other statutory provisions requiring
the CoL to disclose information, release of information outside the scope
of the Act is subject to the discretion of the CoL.

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:
[2]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: [3]http://www.ico.gov.uk/.

The CoL holds the copyright in this email and attached document. The
supply of these does not give you a right to re-use the documents 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,

City of London
[4]www.cityoflondon.gov.uk

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