- Title or Description
- Politicians on the landlord register
- FOI Number
- 2024542
- Date Received
- 21/05/2024
- Type of Request
- FOI
- Request or Question
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1. How many elected councillors are registered landlords?2. If there are any elected councillors who are registered landlords, please name them and confirm the number and location of the properties they let out. This may be possible by cross referencing with the councillors registers of interest.
3. How many other elected councillors have declared an interest in property but are not on the landlord register?
4. If there are any councillors with a declared interest in property but are not on the landlord register please name them and confirm the nature of the interest in the property they have.
5. If there are any other elected politicians on the landlord register, please confirm the number and name them, if possible.
6. If there are any companies or charities, as opposed to private individuals on the landlord register, please could you name them and provide a spreadsheet listing all the properties they let out, with their addresses? - Response
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The Landlord Register does not include information on occupation . Therefore, we give notice under s17 of the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002 that this information is not held. However, in the interest of being open and transparent, where possible, an assumption can be made:
There are two instances on the Landlord Register where names match those of the 34 Scottish Borders Council elected councillors.
Part 8 of the Antisocial Behaviour etc Act 2004 (the 2004 Act ) as amended by the Housing (Scotland) Act 2006 sets out the way in which information should be provided on the register. Explanatory notes to the Housing (Scotland) Act 2006 state that the landlords register is controlled so as not to support purposes such as trawling the register.
The landlord registration site provides a privacy notice to landlords advising how their information will be used. That advises that the information they provide will be displayed, as required, on the public register. The privacy notice includes a section on personal information available to the public and makes it clear to landlords that:
Part 8 of the Antisocial Behaviour etc Act 2004 (the 2004 Act ) as amended by the Housing (Scotland) Act 2006 sets out the way in which information should be provided on the register. Explanatory notes to the Housing (Scotland) Act 2006 state that the landlords register is controlled so as not to support purposes such as trawling the register.
The landlord registration site provides a privacy notice to landlords advising how their information will be used. That advises that the information they provide will be displayed, as required, on the public register. The privacy notice includes a section on personal information available to the public and makes it clear to landlords that:
- The local authority may give out additional information, such as the owner or agent's home or office address, and addresses of other properties the owner lets, if they are satisfied it is appropriate to do so;
- To prevent the mining of landlord s contact details, the online public search only permits targeted searches using a specific property or landlord registration number.
The Council holds the landlord register for specific statutory purposes which limit the ways in which the register can be accessed. Given the specific purpose behind the legislation, we are of the view that disclosure of the requested information would result in the Council failing to meet its responsibilities under the 2004 Act (as amended) given that the purpose behind the amendment was introduced to prevent information being released in this way.
The disclosure of this information to you (and therefore into the public domain) would make information on the register considerably more widely available than was intended and would allow general trawling of the information that the provisions in the 2004 Act were expressly designed to avoid.
Consequently, we will not be releasing the names of the Councillors potentially registered as Landlords as requested. The Council is withholding this information under s38(1)(b) of the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002 on the grounds that it constitutes personal data, and its release would contravene the principles contained in S.86-91 of the Data Protection Act 2018.
3 properties in total, located in Galashiels, Oxton and Selkirk.
The register of Interests for elected Councillors can be found at:
That will provide a steer for those with an interest relating to HOUSES, LAND AND BUILDINGS . Two of which are potentially Registered Landlords. As this information is partly already publicly available, s25 of the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002 applies.
The Register of Interests for elected Councillors can be found at: (Link to Be Supplied)
That will provide a steer for those with an interest relating to HOUSES, LAND AND BUILDINGS . However, the registers do not require the nature of interest to be disclosed, for example a landlord.
As this information is partly already publicly available, s25 of the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002 applies.
As described the Landlord Register does not contain information relating to occupation . There is no way for us to accurately check the Register in relation to elected politicians. Therefore, we give notice under s17 of the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002 that this information is not held.
As described the disclosure of this information to you (and therefore into the public domain) would make information on the register considerably more widely available than was intended and would allow general trawling of the information that the provisions in the 2004 Act were expressly designed to avoid.
Consequently, we cannot provide the information requested. As such, the same exemption applied to question 2 applies to this question. - Related links
- Search Results - Registers of Interest (scotborders.gov.uk)
