AYLESBURY VALE DISTRICT COUNCIL

www.aylesburyvaledc.gov.uk

OFFICIAL RESPONSE TO FREEDOM OF INFORMATION REQUEST

This request was answered under the legislation indicated below:-

Statutory Deadline

DP □ Data Protection Act 1998 (£10 fee payable) +40 elapsed days after date of receipt*

FOI √ Freedom of Information Act 2000 (usually free) +20 working days after date of receipt*

EIR □ Environmental Information Regulations 2004 +20 working days after date of receipt*

□ EIR exceptionally extended +40 working days after date of receipt*

RPSI □ Reuse of Public Sector Information Regulations +20 working days after date of receipt*

Date Received on 24^th Aug 2008 Reply Due by 23^rd Sept 2008

Request Reference

FOI 517­

Date Reply Sent

29^th September 2008

Question asked (as phrased by customer)

Dear Sir or Madam,

(1)

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:

(2)

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);

(3)

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.

(4)

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.

(5)

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.

(6)

I would further like to know how many of these complaints were formally considered by an elected representative for each of these years.

(7)

(Part 1)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.

(8)

(Part 2) 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.

(9)

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.

(10)

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)).

(11)

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)

(12)

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).

(13)

Please also provide details of your total administrative costs for 2005/2006, 2006/2007 and

2007/2008

(14)

and the total number of staff employed by your authority,

(15)

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.

(16)

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.

(17)

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.

Yours faithfully

Stuart HARDWICKE CARRUTHERS

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AVDC response

Dear Mr Hardwicke Carruthers

To ensure that all your requests for information are dealt with I have inserted paragraph numbers into your text opposite and use these below to provide the Councils response.

(1)

The elected representatives at Aylesbury Vale District Council (AVDC) do not record their time spent on council duties. Therefore we have no recorded information from which to calculate the average proportions that you request. However, in accordance with our general duty to advise and assist we have been able to use recorded information about committee meetings to give an indication below of the average time spent at meetings.

(2)

1. No information as councillors do not record time spent on this activity

2. Average time spent in formal committee meetings:-

05/06 - 77 hours

06/07 - 66 hours

07/08 - 79 hours

3. No information as councillors do not record time spent on such activities

(3)

Noted, but as stated above, councillors do not record their time spent.

(4)

We have 59 councillors and expenditure on allowances for these years was:

05/06 - £416,027

06/07 - £421,112

07/08 - £439,149

(5)

05/06 - 317 complaints received

06/07 - 474 complaints received

07/08 - 410 complaints received

(6)

None of the complaints needed to be formally considered by an elected representative. AVDC Councillors have responsibility for approving the overall policy and approach to dealing with complaints, which are then resolved in accordance with the agreed corporate complaints, compliments and comments policy. For your information, a copy of our agreed procedure is attached. You will note that councillors are not directly involved in dealing with individual complaints.

The Cabinet member for Community Matters has responsibility for the complaints handling service and receives regular reports from the Complaints Co-ordinator. These reports provide information relating to complaints received, trends and any lessons that have been learnt from mistakes that may have been made.

(7)

None

(8)

None

(9)

We estimate that it will take in excess of 18 hours to retrieve this information from council records for the last 3 financial years. Also, housing maintenance and repairs responsibility and records, transferred to the Vale of Aylesbury Housing Trust on 16^th July 2006 as a result of housing stock transfer and information for the period 1^st April to 15^th July 2006 would have to be obtained form them. Therefore, the cost of providing this information will exceed the appropriate limit of £450 and is exempt from disclosure under section 12 of the Act.

(10)

Local Settlements only (not as a result of maladministration causing injustice):

05/06 - 3 local settlements (LS):

£95,135 in total and one non financial involving revised fencing to property.

06/07 - None.

07/08 - 3 local settlements (LS): £900.

(11)

There are no recommendations that have not been met in full. These were paid from the Council's general fund.

(12)

A Complaints Co-ordinator is employed by the Council for 25 hours per week. A breakdown in cost for this resource is shown below excluding internal recharges:

05/06

£21,320

06/07

£24,380

07/08

£22,880

Total

£68,580

In addition, each Service has a Service Liaison Officer (SLO). These officers are responsible for co-ordinating any complaints that are received relating to their service, to ensure that they are investigated and responded to. There are 25 SLO's in total. This is not a full or part time role. The function of the SLO is dependent on the number of complaints received, and is only one element of the officer's main job.

(13)

05/06 - £92,727,951

06/07 - £75,174,376

07/08 - £74,906,040

(14)

05/06 - 735

06/07 - 611

07/08 - 622

(15)

Chief Executive salary Scale SG12 and increments:-

05/06 - £96,420, £98,148, £99,924, £101,712, £103,548

06/07- £99,312,£101,100,£102,924, £104,772,£106,656

07/08- £105,684,£107,580,£109,524, £111,492,£113,496

plus performance related pay.

(16)

Not applicable

(17)

Not applicable

Yours sincerely

Jonathan MacKenzie

Computer Services Manager

Aylesbury Vale District Council

INFORMATIVES

1. The legislation gives a right of access to information contained within records which is not necessarily the same as access to records themselves. Sometimes this can be most efficiently achieved by providing copies of the original documents. On other occasions the raw documents could be difficult to interpret - due to the use of jargon, or because the information sought is only a small part of a much larger document covering also other matters beyond the scope of the request, or we may have reason to withhold some or all of the information under a statutory FOI exemption or EIR exception. This form offers a means of summarising and/or providing interpretation in these circumstances so as to reduce costs and improve clarity.

2. If you are dissatisfied with our response or wish to seek further explanation or make a comment please contact us again - see our publication scheme on website www.aylesburyvaledc.gov.uk or our Corporate Complaints leaflet “If we've got it right or wrong” for details of the procedure.

3.Please note that you do have a right to make a complaint direct to the Information Commissioner and details on how to do this are set out on the Information Commissioner's website www.informationcommissioner.gov.uk under the heading “How to make a complaint”