Gifts and hospitality

The request was partially successful.

Dear City of London Corporation,

Under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 I seek the following information about the Aldermen of the City of London Corporation:

For the period 1 January 2011 to present I would like to be
provided with all recorded information held by the Corporation in relation to gifts and hospitality offered to the Aldermen. For each instance recorded I would expect the following information to be released if recorded: who the offer was made to, when it was made, whether it was accepted or declined, the value/estimated value of offer and who made the offer/gift.

I would prefer to receive this information electronically, preferably as a data set, eg. in Excel, NOT as a PDF.

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

If some parts of this request are easier to answer than others, I would ask that you release the available data as soon as possible.

If you need any clarification then please do not hesitate to contact me. Under Section 16 it is your duty to provide advice and assistance and so I would expect you to contact me if you find this request unmanageable in any way.

Yours faithfully,

Isobel Finbow

COL - EB - Information Officer, City of London Corporation

Dear Ms Finbow,

FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT 2000 (FOIA) - INFORMATION REQUEST

The City of London (CoL) acknowledges receipt of your request for information of 7 November 2012.

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:
www.cityoflondon.gov.uk/maps/Pages/explo...<http://www.cityoflondon.gov.uk/maps/Page...>.
The CoL’s port health authority functions extend beyond the City boundary.
For further information please see: www.cityoflondon.gov.uk<http://www.cityoflondon.gov.uk>.

Yours sincerely,

Information Officer
Town Clerk’s Department
City of London
Tel: 020-7332 1209
www.cityoflondon.gov.uk<http://www.cityoflondon.gov.uk>

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COL - EB - Information Officer, City of London Corporation

Dear Ms Finbow,

FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT 2000 (FOIA) - INFORMATION REQUEST

Following your request of 7 November 2012, and our acknowledgement of the same date, the City of London (CoL) responds as follows.

All information held which pertains to Members’ declarations of gifts and hospitality is accessible (on a Member by Member basis) at http://democracy.cityoflondon.gov.uk/mgM... . Please click on any Member and you will see a page relating to that Member and it will include a link to that Member’s register of interests entry.

For the period in which you are interested only one Member is not included and he has left. The CoL holds no historic records of gifts or hospitality attributed to him.

Please note also for future reference that, through the Localism Act 2011, the Government has abolished the Standards Board regime and introduced new requirements in respect of the code of conduct and the declaration of interests. Previously, all elected Members were required to declare gifts and hospitality in excess of £25. A register for each elected Member, including each Alderman, has been published on the CoL’s website disclosing such information (as indicated above). Under the revised regime, determined by the Secretary of State, only those interests defined as disclosable pecuniary interests are required to be disclosed. Consequently, it is anticipated that the existing registers of interest for each Member will be taken down from the CoL’s website at the end of November. In due course (we anticipate by the end of November), any new entries following the new requirements will be posted on the CoL website.

We hope that this response is of assistance.

If you wish to make a complaint about the way the CoL has managed your enquiry, please make your complaint in writing to email address: [email address]<mailto:[email address]>. For a link to the CoL’s FOI complaints procedure, please visit the following page: www.cityoflondon.gov.uk/Feedback<http://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: http://www.ico.gov.uk/.

The FOIA applies to the CoL as a local authority, police authority and port health authority.

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,

Information Officer
City of London
Tel: 020-7332 1209
www.cityoflondon.gov.uk<http://www.cityoflondon.gov.uk>

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