FOI release: Ownership of land in Scotland by sanctioned Russian individuals or companies

Freedom of Information (FOI) reference: CW-2022-096
Date received:17 March 2022
Date responded: 29 March 2022

Information requested

Information on Scottish property and land owned by Russian firms and sanctioned Russian individuals.

1. How many Russian individuals who are currently sanctioned by the U.K, USA or EU own property and/or land in Scotland? Can you please provide me with a list of names and location of these properties?
2. How many Russian companies own property and/or land in Scotland? Can you please provide me with a list of names and location of these properties?

Response

How many Russian individuals who are currently sanctioned by the U.K, USA or EU own property and/or land in Scotland?

RoS has carried out a search of our registers against the names of Russian individuals sanctioned by the UK. This search returned 5 possible matches. While we can carry out a search for owners of land and property in the land register, we do not collect or record data, such as date of birth or nationality, that would allow us to identify a specific individual or decipher between individuals where they have the same name. Therefore, while we have identified 5 matches which carry the same name as a sanctioned individual from the UK list we cannot confirm they are actually the individuals on the sanction list.

As regards your request in relation to individuals sanctioned by other jurisdictions, RoS has not carried out a search in relation to the individuals on a sanctions list out with the UK jurisdiction.

Can you please provide me with a list of names and location of these properties?

While our aim is to provide information whenever possible, in this instance we are unable to provide the information you have requested because an exemption(s) under section(s) s.38(1)(b) (personal information) of FOISA applies to that information. The reason this exemption applies is to protect the rights of data subjects. We acknowledge your interest in obtaining this information but as we are unable to confirm the identity of the matches identified we consider the interests and fundamental rights and freedoms of the individuals outweigh any legitimate interest in obtaining this information.

How many Russian companies own property and/or land in Scotland? Can you please provide me with a list of names and location of these properties?

While our aim is to provide information whenever possible, in this case we consider the information you have requested to be exempt information under FOISA as it is available from our Land and Property Data team as one of our data and statistics reports. Under section 25(1) of FOISA, we do not have to give you information which is already reasonably accessible to you.

Further information about the report containing the information you have requested is available in our Land and property titles by country of origin report. We have passed your request to our Land and Property Data team so they can action your request. They will be in touch to confirm the fee that would be payable for the information you have requested. If you are content to proceed once you are aware of the fee, you can confirm this to them and the information will be provided to you.

Guidance from the Scottish Information Commissioner (OSIC) confirms that ‘information may be reasonably obtainable even if a requester needs to pay for it’. Information which is ‘also commercially available is generally covered by this exemption’, and ‘the market price for information which is commercially available is generally taken as “reasonable”’.

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Contact

Information Governance Team: FOI.Requests@ros.gov.uk