19.7.16 Camden to PC including the text of his to Camden
[PC]
From Peter Cuming
Please provide me with details of and the current status for all cases in the last 12 years where the Council has sold land to a private developer and included an Overage agreement under which the Council would share in any profit made by the developer....
17.8.16 Camden to PC
Date: 17 August 2016
Your reference:
Our reference: 20664717
Enquiries to: foi@camden.gov.uk
Information and Records Management
London Borough of Camden
5th Floor, 5 Pancras Square
For written correspondence:
Town Hall, Judd Street, London WC1H 9JE
Dear [PC]
FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT 2000 – INFORMATION REQUEST
Thank you for your request for information, received on 21 July 2016. This has now been considered.
You requested the following:-
What do you want to know?: Please provide me with details of and the current status for all cases in the last 12 years where the Council has sold land to a private developer and included an Overage agreement under which the Council would share in any profit made by the developer.
Our Response:
Unfortunately, we do not hold a digital record of the information you requested relating to cases of Council land sold to developers in the last 12 years. We consider that to collate, extract, examine and produce this information (i.e. possibly paper-based), would exceed the appropriate staff time limit and cost under the Freedom of Information Act 2000. Please find below a summary of the exemption applicable and the reason/s why it has been applied.
Exemption
Information has been withheld because we consider it to be exempt information under Section 12 of the Act.
Section 17(1) of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 requires us, when refusing to provide such information; to provide the applicant with a notice which: (a) states that fact, (b) specifies the exemption in question and (c) states (if it would not otherwise be apparent) why the exemption applies.2
Section 12: Where cost of compliance exceed appropriate limit
A public authority is not obliged to comply with a request for information if the authority estimates that the cost of complying with the request would exceed the appropriate limit. Staff time based upon a rate of £25 per hour is limited to £450 (18 hours) for public authorities
We consider that, to determine we hold the information, locating the data/documents, retrieving and extracting (i.e. editing or redacting) the volume of information requested for the last 12 years, would exceed the appropriate staff time and cost under the Act (i.e. Section 12). It would take us more than 18 hours of staff time for us to search all of our information manually to identify all the information requested.
It is estimated that the cost of providing you with the information above is the amount to which we are legally required to respond, as stated in the Freedom of Information (Fees and Appropriate Limit) Regulations 2004. In the case of the London Borough of Camden, the appropriate limit is £450 which has been calculated to equate to a total of 18 hours of staff time at a rate of £25ph.
Section 16 also places a duty on a public authority to provide advice and assistance to someone making an information request, including helping an applicant refine a request so that it can be answered within the appropriate costs limit. Considering how the data is stored, if you so wish, please clarify the nature of your request taking into account our information about the storage of data and the difficulties of its retrieval.
Note
You have the right of appeal against the decision. If you wish to appeal please set out in writing your grounds of appeal (within 2 months of this letter) and send it to: Information and Records Management Team Appeals Panel, London Borough of Camden, Town Hall, Judd Street, London WC1H 9JE or email foi@camden.gov.uk and your complaint will be dealt with through our Internal Review procedure.
Please remember to quote the reference number above in any future communications.
If you are not content with the outcome of the internal review, you have the right to apply directly to the Information Commissioner for a decision. You can write to Information Commissioner at: Information Commissioner’s Office, Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow, Cheshire, SK9 5AF; either call their helpline on 0303 123 1113 or alternatively email: casework@ico.org.uk.
Yours sincerely
Cynthia Coleman
Information & Records Management Officer
E-mail: foi@camden.gov.uk
Phone: 020 7974 3669