Freedom of Information Act 2000 request
I am writing to request information held by you about enforcement actions taken in relation to private landlords and privately rented homes.
1. Information requested
Please provide, for the period 1 January 2020 to 31 December 2025 inclusive, a month-by-month dataset showing the number of enforcement actions undertaken against private landlords and/or in respect of privately rented dwellings.
For each month, please provide the following fields (as held in your records):
A. Month (YYYY-MM)
B. Enforcement action type (using your own internal categories or statutory power labels)
C. Reason/category for the action (using whatever category/issue code you use for tracking)
D. Outcome/status of the action (using your tracking outcomes, e.g. complied, appealed, revoked, conviction, civil penalty issued, penalty paid/unpaid, works in default completed, etc.)
E. Count of actions (integer)
If your system records an action at property-level or case-level, please count each recorded enforcement action instance. If multiple notices/orders are recorded under a single case, please count each distinct action as recorded in your system.
2. Scope and definitions (to reduce ambiguity)
For avoidance of doubt, by “enforcement actions” I mean any formal action taken under housing, public health, licensing, planning, or related statutory powers that you record as enforcement against a private landlord or a privately rented property. This includes (where held) but is not limited to:
• Housing Act 2004 actions such as Improvement Notices, Prohibition Orders, Hazard Awareness Notices, Emergency Remedial Action, Emergency Prohibition Orders, and related notices/orders.
• HMO licensing enforcement actions (mandatory/additional/selective licensing), including licence refusal/revocation, civil penalties, prosecutions, and any recorded enforcement notices relating to licensing breaches.
• Works in default, rent repayment order applications initiated by the authority, and any other formal PRS enforcement powers you record.
If you use a narrower operational definition of “enforcement action” for reporting, please apply your standard definition and explain it briefly.
3. Format requested
Please provide the information in a machine-readable format, preferably CSV or Excel, with one row per (month, action type, reason/category, outcome/status). If you hold the information in a database, I am content to receive an export.
4. Advice and assistance
If compliance with this request is likely to exceed the appropriate cost limit under section 12 of the Act, please provide advice and assistance under section 16. In particular, please indicate which part of the request would trigger section 12 and propose a refinement that would allow disclosure, for example by:
• providing the dataset for a shorter period first (e.g. Jan 2022 to Dec 2025), or
• providing a higher-level reason/outcome grouping that you already report, or
• providing totals by action type only.
If any fields are not held in the form requested, please supply the closest equivalent data you do hold (for example, if “reason” is recorded as free text, please provide your standard categories or codes, or a count by action type and outcome only).
5. Exemptions and redaction
This request is for aggregated statistical information only. I am not requesting personal data or property addresses. If any disclosure risk arises, please redact any personal data under section 40 and still provide the aggregated counts.
If you consider any other exemption applies, please:
• specify the exemption(s) relied upon,
• explain why it applies, and
• provide any information that can be disclosed with redactions or in a more aggregated form.
6. Clarifications about “held” information
Please interpret this request as seeking information “held” by the authority at the time you process this request, including information held on your behalf by contractors.
If you do not hold the information, please confirm this. If another public authority is more likely to hold it, please advise accordingly.
7. Public interest and internal review
If you refuse any part of this request, please provide the refusal notice required by the Act, including details of the internal review process and my right to complain to the Information Commissioner’s Office.
