This work has been led by Professor William Webster – Director at the Centre for Research into Information, Surveillance and Privacy (CRISP) as well as Professor of Public Management and Policy at the University of Stirling – and signed off by the Commissioner’s strategy group.

The civil engagement strand of the strategy will engage citizens and civil society about the use of surveillance camera systems and associated technologies (such as automatic facial recognition). It will to raise awareness and encourage discussion about the use of such systems.

The civil engagement plan aims to ensure that:

• citizens have free access to information relating to the operation of surveillance cameras
• citizens have a better understanding of their rights in relation to the operation of surveillance cameras
• citizens have an understanding of how surveillance cameras function and are used, and
• organisations have an understanding of the information relating to the operation of surveillance cameras that they should make available to citizens

Surveillance Camera Commissioner, Tony Porter said:

A key objective of the strategy is to make information freely available to the public about the operation of surveillance camera systems. In the current climate, with a security threat level at ‘severe’, surveillance cameras can be a tool to keep people safe but that can’t be at the price of mass intrusion into an individual’s right to privacy.

The work William has done on the civil engagement plan will be crucial in ensuring that the use of surveillance cameras is debated and to encourage organisations to be transparent about why and how they are using surveillance cameras.

Read the civil engagement plan

CRISP Website

Professor William Webster: CRISP@stir.ac.uk

This month’s Price Paid Data includes details of more than 92,000 residential and commercial land and property sales in England and Wales lodged for registration in June 2017.

Of the 92,009 sales lodged for registration:

• 67,772 were freehold

• 9,595 were newly built

• 29,901 sales took place in June 2017

• 559 were residential sales in June 2017 in England and Wales for £1 million and over

• 356 were residential sales in June 2017 in London for £1 million and over

The most expensive residential sale in June 2017 was of a flat in the London Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, for £11,241,078. The cheapest residential sales in June 2017 were of terraced properties in Burnley, Lancashire and Hartlepool, County Durham, each for £18,000.

The most expensive commercial sale in June 2017 was in Newport, Wales for £83,500,000. The cheapest commercial sales in June 2017 were in Newcastle-upon-Tyne, Norwich and Trafford, Greater Manchester, each for £100.

Access the full dataset

Notes to editors

1. Price Paid Data (PPD) is published at 11am on the 20th working day of each month. The next dataset will be published on 29 August 2017.

2. Price Paid Data is property price data for all residential and commercial property sales in England and Wales that are lodged with HM Land Registry for registration in that month, subject to exclusions.

3. The following information is available for each property:
   • the full address
   • the price paid
   • the date of transfer
   • the property type
   • whether it is new build or not
   • whether it is freehold or leasehold

4. Price Paid Data can be downloaded in txt, csv format and in a machine readable format as linked data and is released under Open Government Licence (OGL). Under the OGL, HM Land Registry permits use of Price Paid Data for commercial or non-commercial purposes. However, the OGL does not cover the use of third party rights, which HM Land Registry is not authorised to license.

5. Price Paid Data includes Standard Price Paid Data (SPPD) for single residential property sales at full market value and Additional Price Paid Data (APPD) for transactions previously excluded from SPPD such as:
   • transfers to a non-private individual, for example a company, corporate body or business
   • transfers under a power of sale (repossessions)
   • buy-to-lets (where they can be identified by a mortgage). The information available for each property will indicate whether it is APPD or SPPD and the record’s status – addition/change/deletion (A/C/D).

6. The Price Paid Data report builder allows users to build bespoke reports using the data. Reports can be based on location, estate type, price paid or property type over a defined period of time.

7. As a government department established in 1862, executive agency and trading fund responsible to the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, HM Land Registry keeps and maintains the Land Register for England and Wales. The Land Register has been open to public inspection since 1990.

8. With the largest transactional property database of its kind detailing over 24 million titles, HM Land Registry underpins the economy by safeguarding ownership of many billions of pounds worth of property.

9. For further information about HM Land Registry visit www.gov.uk/land-registry.

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