To ask the Secretary of State for International Development how many properties owned by his Department were liable for payment of (a) business rates and (b) empty property rates in each of the last five years; and what the liability in respect of each was in each such year. (290556)

The Department for International Development (DFID) has only one freehold property in the United Kingdom, Abercrombie House office in East Kilbride.

The business rates bill for the last five years for this office was as follows:

DFID has had no liability for empty property rates over this period.