Dear Mr Hardwicke Carruthers

Freedom of Information Request - Council functions

Further to our e-mail to you dated 24 September 2008, your request for information about various matters has now been considered and the information is set out below.

`I would like to know the average proportion of time the elected

     representatives of your authority spend as part of their duties for

     2005/2006, 2006/2007 and 2007/2008 on their main activities. The

     activities that form their duties (employment) as an elected

     representative are:

     1 directly resolving complaints against the executive (Council

     Staff) of the Council by residents; 2 sitting on committee's; 3

     acting for the political parties that they represent and/or

     ceremonial duties (i.e. all time not spent on sitting on a

     Committee or resolving a complaint against the executive);

     The total time spent by an elected representative for a Council on

     these three activities should be 100 per cent of the time they

     spend 'working for a Council' as an elected representative'.

We do not monitor the breakdown of councillors' and as such do not hold this information. Elected councillors do not deal with complaints.

     `I would additionally like to know how much in total was paid to

     local councillors to meet all their duties (including expenses) for

     2005/2006, 2006/2007 and 2007/2008 by your authority, and how many

     elected representatives are (and were) represented on your

     authority for these years'.

We have 51 councillors who are paid an allowance in accordance with an annually approved scheme. The current version of this is available on the council's web site :

http://www.barking-dagenham.gov.uk/9-council/constitution/constitution-menu.html

The Members allowance for the previous years was:

2005/06 - £745,521

2006/07 - £801,289

     `I would also like to know how many Complaints in total were

     submitted to your Council in 2005/2006, 2006/2007 and 2007/2008 for

     each year. I would further like to know how many of these

     complaints were formally considered by an elected representative

     for each of these years'.

We received the following number of Corporate Complaints in

2005/2006 - 4091

2006/2007 - 4333

2007/2008 - 2461

We also received the following number of Social Care Complaints in

2005/2006 - 83

2006/2007 - 262

2007/2008 - 272

As previously stated councillors do not deal with complaints.

     `I would further like to know how many complaints against the

     Executive (Council staff) led to the elected representatives

     formally identifying that the Executive had acted wrongly for the

     years 2005/2006, 2006/2007 and 2007/2008, and how many of these

     formal determinations by the elected representatives identify that

     there was no wrong-doing by the Executive'

As above

    `How many staff employed

     by your authority in 2005/2006, 2006/2007 and 2007/2008 ceased to

     be employed by your authority as a direct result of a complaint

     against the Executive, and the Councillors identifying this to be

     the case'

As above

     `I would further like to know how much money the Council has paid to

     a complainant (i.e. victim of a Council's wrongdoing) through its

     own complaints system (i.e. excluding any intervention by the Local

     Government Ombudsman, Valuation Tribunal or similar body) in

     2005/2006, 2006/2007 and 2007/2008'.

The following amounts have been paid out to complainants for Corporate Complaints

2005/2006 - £13,996

2006/2007 - £21,758

2007/2008 - £13,791

The following amounts have been paid out to complainants for Social Care Complaints

2005/2006 - Nil

2006/2007 - £3,000

2007/2008 - £6,500

     `I would like to know how much money either in the form of local

     settlement or additional formal finding of maladministration

     causing injustice the Local Government Ombudsman has recommended

     that your Council pay in 2005/2006, 2006/2007 and 2007/2008 (for

     each year) and if the Local Government Ombudsman's recommendations

     have been met in full (including any non-financial recommendations

     for each year)). Please detail any recommendation that has not been

     met in full and provide a copy of the Elected representatives

     decision. Please additionally identify if these costs were met

     directly by Council Tax Payers or the Council's insurers (excluding

     self insurance by a Council)'.

The following amounts have been in the form of local settlement

2005/06 - £1,660

2006/07 - £20, 000

2007/08 - £8,113

There have been no findings of maladministration

     `Finally, please provide details of the financial cost of

     administering all your complaints systems (including FoI and DP) by

     the Executive for 2005/2006, 2006/2007 and 2007/2008 and the number

     of staff employed in administering complaints and resolving these

     (Full time equivalent staffing levels). Please also provide details

     of your total administrative costs for 2005/2006, 2006/2007 and

     2007/2008 and the total number of staff employed by your authority,

     as well as any pay increase (including increments) made to the

     Council's Chief Executive (Head of Paid Service) in pounds sterling

     for each of these years. Please additionally identify if the Chief

     Executives wages included performance related payments.

     If you do not have this reasonably basic management information

     related to complaints and/or identify that the costs of accessing

     the information requested will be more than £450 please state this

     and identify that your Authority does not have either a functioning

     or accountable complaints system, and does not maintain any basic

     management information related to this issue'.

Total Number of Staff working for the Council is:

4,776

The Chief Executive's salary's details are as follows:

2005/2006 - £8,739

2006/2007 - £30,287

2007/2008 - £ 4,533

The salary for the Chief Executive is reviewed independently every four years as was the case in 2006/07. Performance Related Pay and incremental scales do not apply.

We have a Corporate Complaints team which consists of twelve full time officers. This team does not administrate Data Protection or Freedom of Information requests. There are numerous officers throughout the council who investigate and respond to complaints. They do not work solely on complaints, so I'm unable to provide you with administration costs in this area.

     `If you have a complaints system not fit for purpose please identify

     which political party currently controls your Council, and if this

     political party has appointed the current Electoral Registration

     and Returning Officer through its control of the Council (with date

     of their formal appointment). Please name the current Electoral

     Registration and Returning Officer, and identify if they are also

     Head of Paid Service, and Clerk to your Authority. Please

     additionally provide any documentation maintained by your Local

     Authorities Head of Paid Service identifying that they personally

     do not believe it to be appropriate for your Council to have a

     complaints system that is fit for purpose. This documentation

     should be in existence due to the provisions of s4 of the Local

     Government Act 1989'.

Not applicable as we have a fit for purpose system and indeed we are compliant with ISO 10002 -2004.

If you are not satisfied with the way that I have dealt with your request you can make a complaint by writing to the Corporate Complaints Team, Room 259, Civic Centre, Dagenham RM10 7BN. Alternatively you can make your complaint on-line at www.barking-dagenham.gov.uk or you can e-mail your complaint to [email address].

If you are still not satisfied, after following our Corporate Complaints procedure, you can take your complaint to the Information Commissioner. Full details of how to do this will be made available on request.

Yours sincerely

Angie Martin

Acting Group Manager Complaints