Barry Brown

01582 547212

[email address]

FOI236

Your ref

Stuart Hardwicke Carruthers

[FOI #2113 email]

23^rd December 2008

Dear Mr Hardwicke Carruthers

Freedom of Information Act 2000 - Request for Information

I am writing in respect of your recent enquiry for information held by the Council under the Freedom of Information Act.

s12 Freedom of Information Act provides that the Council is not required to comply with a request for information if it estimates that the cost of complying would exceed the "appropriate limit " i.e. £450.

The Council estimates that your the following items of your request will cost more than £450 and therefore decided to refuse the request.

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.

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.

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).

Responses to the remainder of your request are included in the attached response next to each section of your request.

If you are unhappy with our response, please write to Rosemary Stipta at Apex House, 30 - 34 Upper George Street Luton. If you are still unhappy with the response after the conclusion of the Council's internal complaints procedure you may apply to the Information Commissioner, Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow SK9 5AF.

Yours Faithfully

Barry Brown

FOI Coordinator

Chief Executive's Department