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Response to Freedom of Information Request (1319)
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:
Directly resolving complaints against the executive (Council Staff) of the Council by residents;
The Council's formal complaints procedure does not require councillors to be involved in the investigation or resolution of complaints. The amount of time councillors spend in dealing with constituents' enquiries is not recorded by the Council as each councillor manages their own constituency work.
Sitting on committees;
The Council's website includes details of all council committees, the membership of each committee and the minutes and agendas for each committee. The minutes normally indicate the time the meeting started and finished. The Council does not otherwise record the amount of time spend by councillors at committees.
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 Council does not record the amount of time spent by a councillor as political party members. The only councillors who have duties that could be described as ceremonial are the Chairman and Vice-Chairman of the Council. The Council does not record the amount of time spent on these duties.
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 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.
Suffolk County Council is made up of 75 councillors. The total amount of expenses and allowances paid to each councillor is published annually as part of the Council's Statement of Accounts. The Statements of Accounts for the years 2005/2006, 2006/2007 and 2007/2008 are published on the Council's website.
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.
A paper is presented to Standards Committee on an annual basis, detailing complaints received. The last paper was presented on the 9th July 2007 and covers the period 2002 to 2007. Please follow the attached link which will provide details of the agenda, papers and minutes from that meeting.
At present, the figures for 2007/2008 are being collated and will be presented to the Standards Committee on the 8th December 2008 and will be available on our public website following the attached link.
No complaints were considered by a councillor as this is not required by the Council's complaints procedure.
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. 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 stated above, councillors are not involved in determining complaints.
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.
Please accept our apologises as we are currently in the process of collating the response to this question.
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.
This information is available in the Ombudsman's Annual Letter sent to Council's, which is reported to the Council's Standards Committee on an annual basis. All recommendations from the Local Government Ombudsman have been met in full. Cases of maladministration are also reported to the Council's Standards Committee.
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 Council's funding comes from various sources, including Government grants, fees and charges and council tax. The Council does not earmark this funding to discrete parts of the budget. The cost of Ombudsman's recommendations are not met from insurers.
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).
Suffolk County Council does not have a central system for collating the amount of money spent on administering complaints and are therefore unable to provide the information that you have requested.
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.
This information can be located within the Statement of Accounts and Annual Budget Reports, please follow the attached link:-
Statement of Accounts
Annual Budget Reports
Outturn for the period 010407 to 310308
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.
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).
The Council's complaints system is fit for purpose. No officer of the Council has been appointed by a political party.
Please name the current Electoral Registration and Returning Officer, and identify if they are also Head of Paid Service, and Clerk to your Authority.
The Council's Returning Officer is Eric Whitfield, the Council's Monitoring Officer. In two-tier counties such as Suffolk, electoral registration is the responsibility of the district and borough councils in the county.
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.
No such documentation exists.