Bob Heaton C

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Geoff Connell

Chief Information Officer

Ian Gibbs

Head of Information Governance

Resources Directorate

Information Governance

MR NATHAN LEE.

Ask for: Information Governance

Your ref :

Our ref: FOI/E4347.

Date: 22/07/09.

Information Governance

Newham Dockside

1000 Dockside Road

London

E16 2QU

Tel: 020 8430 3737

Fax: 020 8430 1504

Email: [Newham Borough Council request email]

Web: www.newham.gov.uk

Dear Sir,

Freedom of Information Act 2000

Request for Information: Information Supplied

Please quote our reference: E4347.

Subject: Members Workloads.

We write with regard to your recent enquiry for information held by the Council under the provisions of the Freedom of Information Act 2000.

The information requested is:

The Council has in place a Protocol as guidance for officers to use when responding to casework received by Members. To assist the Protocol there is an electronic system which officers are encouraged to use to record cases received by Members. The Protocol does not insist that Members use this tool to notify the Council of all cases they receive. Members raise cases on behalf of their constituents in various ways and, therefore, the information contained in this response is not complete for the following reasons:

Members work collectively to resolve local issues affecting their community. It is not possible to provide individual numbers of cases that are raised in this way.

Some Members share their surgery commitments. The casework system is not able to distinguish what involvement the individual Member has had in dealing with the case.

Not all cases are referred to the Council. Members are directly elected to represent their community and are often having to support residents with other local needs which are not the responsibility of the Council. Councillors are often required to interface with other bodies to address local issues such as:

Dealing with issues of local concern to the Police and Health
Interfacing with the third sector and other partnership organisations
Supporting residents on Private accommodation issues
Providing guidance on pension matters
Offering support on Passport, immigration and other legal matters
Responding to requests for references
Dealing with cases directly with local MPs
Attending home and site visits

Members do not always inform the Council when they are communicating with other organisations and therefore these figures are not included in the figures presented below.

Members conduct surgeries in various ways to meet the needs of their constituents. This includes holding telephone surgeries, workshops, email communication and whilst undertaking their local community visits. In those cases Members are often able to respond instantly and without necessarily having to record the activity or involve the Council directly. In such cases figures to support their actual involvement in dealing with a case would not be available.

There are some Members that have been appointed to other council strategic roles such as an Executive, Civic or Scrutiny function which can sometimes restrict Members from holding regular surgeries. In these cases Members have negotiated with the other ward colleagues to ensure their surgery takes place as published. However, the figures to confirm an individual's actual surgery workload would not be available.

Please also note that it is not possible to provide the number of surgeries that individual Councillors hold. This information is not recorded by the Council although Mayoral and ward surgery timings are readily available in the public domain. Surgery details are located at: http://mayor.newham.gov.uk/MayorSurgeries and http://mgov.newham.gov.uk/YourCouncillor.

Taking the above into consideration the following is provided. The response covers the period from the last local Election, 4^th May 2006 to 17^th July 2009:

MEMBER	Number of Cases in respect of Newham Enquiries recorded through the Casework System
Sir Robin Wales, Mayor	6494
Abdul Karim Sheikh BEM	119
Abdul Shakoor	102
Akbar Chaudhary	204
Alan Craig	253
Alec Kellaway	168
Amarjit Singh	135
Andrew Baikie	215
Anthony McAlmont	90
Asif Karim	310
Ayesha Chowdhury	263
Ayub Korom Ali	168
Christine Bowden	168
Clive Furness	219
Conor McAuley	51
David Griffin	297
Denise Stafford	259
Freda Bourne	156
Graham Lane	177
Hanif Abdulmuhit	371
Ian Corbett	59
James Butler	155
Jo Corbett	150
Jonathan Knott	714
Joy Laguda	152
Judith Garfield	45
June Leitch	102
Kay Diane Scoresby	501
Kevin Jenkins OBE	2180
Khalil Kazi OBE	76
Lakmini Sewwandi Shah	140
Lester Hudson	9
Marie Collier	154
Mary Skyers	76
Maureen Jones	278
Megan Harris Mitchell	51
Michael Arthur Nicholas	46
Neil Wilson	117
Omana Gangadharan	219
Pat Sheekey	51
Patrick Murphy	174
Patricia Holland	461
Paul Brickell	255
Paul Sathianesan	7
Paul Schafer	193
Pearson Shillingford	15
Regina Williams	64
Rev. Quintin Peppiatt	223
Riaz Ahmed Mirza	42
Richard Crawford	149
Rohima Rahman	207
Ron Manley	298
Shama Ahmad MBE	210
Sharaf Mahmood	125
Simeon Adewole Ademolake	37
Steve Brayshaw	12
Sukhdev Singh Marway	23
Ted Sparrowhawk	111
Unmesh Desai	111
Winston Vaughan	142
Zulfiqar Ali	299

If you require any further information or are not happy with our response please do not hesitate to contact a member of our team on (020) 8430 3737 or email us at [Newham Borough Council request email].

If you are not satisfied with the decision, you may ask for an internal review via Newham Council Complaints Procedure. I enclose a copy of the procedure.

Yours Faithfully

Information Governance

Newham Council

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