Dear Sir or Madam,

Agency worker: Agreements, Contracts, pay scales

Please send me an electronic copy, (see accessibility notes below)
via http://www.whatdotheyknow.com, of the following information:

FOI Act: (Freedom of Information Act 2000)

:- Contracts or equivalent information/documents

1.1) Copies of any contracts you have for the provision of
temporary worker agency staff, with regards agency/temporary social
care/social worker staff/workers. Contracts you may have with
individual agency staff recruitment businesses/services, hereafter
called 'Vendors'. Or contracts you may have with organisations
like, Comensura, Manpower, Reed, hereafter called 'Managed Service
Provider' who provide Master/Vendor Neutral framework to managed
all vendors on behalf of Public Authorities like yourselves. A
sample FOI disclosed Managed Service Provider agreement can be
downloaded via:
http://www.filedropper.com/mastervendorc...

:- Hourly Pay scales/rates with regards agency/temporary social
care/social worker staff.

1.2) A list of each Vendor you use and copies of hourly
pay-scales/rates you hold for each Vendor. Whether or not you use
each Vendor via Managed Service Provider framework. Please ensure
any provided pay-scale information provided explains how many years
of experience is required to be applicable to any specific hourly
rate. Sample FOI disclosed pay scale/rates information can be
downloaded via:
http://www.filedropper.com/agencypayscal...

:- Panel Vendor Agreement or equivalent information/documents

1.3 A copy of any contract/agreement used by yourself or any
Managed Service Provider to manage individual Vendors through any
Master/Vendor Neutral framework you operate or participate in, this
is sometimes called a Panel Vendor Agreement. A sample FOI
disclosed Panel Vendor Agreement can be downloaded via:
http://www.filedropper.com/panelvendorag...

To help clarify these requests 1.1, 1.2, 1.3, you can download:

A sample FOI disclosed Panel Vendor Agreement can be downloaded
via:
http://www.filedropper.com/panelvendorag...

and

Sample FOI disclosed pay scale/rates information can be downloaded
via:
http://www.filedropper.com/agencypayscal...

A sample FOI disclosed Managed Service Provider agreement can be
downloaded via:
http://www.filedropper.com/mastervendorc...

Please also indicate whether any of the information requested 1.1,
1.2, 1.3 has ever been disclosed before under the FOI Act.

Acessibility notes: Information accessibility

To be able to use a computer Screen Reader
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Screen_reader) with any information
you provide please provide the information in Microsoft Office Word
Document format (.Doc) or equivalents like WordPerfect and Open
Office Writer Please state explicitly if this format is not
available, if this format is not available please provide it in an
accessible Portable Document Format (PDF). Accessibility
information can be found at:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Screen_reader and with regards PDF's
http://www.adobe.com/enterprise/accessib... -
http://www.adobe.com/products/acrobat/so...

Yours faithfully,

Eric Blair

Dear Sir or Madam,

I am writing to clarify/amend a part of my information
request,Section 1.2, with regards payscale information.

This part of my original request stated:

":- Hourly Pay scales/rates with regards agency/temporary social
care/social worker staff.

1.2) A list of each Vendor you use and copies of hourly
pay-scales/rates you hold for each Vendor. Whether or not you use
each Vendor via a Managed Service Provider framework. Please ensure
any provided pay-scale information provided explains how many years
of experience is required to be applicable to any specific hourly
rate."

Please also add after the word 'framework':

If you do you use a Managed Service Provider please also provide a
copy of the pay-scales/rates that are used by the Managed Service
Provider to manage all these Vendors.

Therefore section 1.2 should now read thus:

1.2)A list of each Vendor you use and copies of hourly
pay-scales/rates you hold for each Vendor. Whether or not you use
each Vendor via a Managed Service Provider framework. If you do you
use a Managed Service Provider please also provide a copy of the
pay-scales/rates that are used by the Managed Service Provider to
manage all these Vendors. Please ensure any provided pay-scale
information provided explains how many years of experience is
required to be applicable to any specific hourly rate.

Yours sincerely,

Eric Blair

Brent Council - INFORMATION REQUEST

Our Reference: 472001
====================================================

Dear applicant

I acknowledge your request for information received on 9 February 2009.

The Council is refusing to answer your request because it has a reasonable
suspicion that the name being used on the application (Eric Blair) may not
be your real name. The Council is concerned that the use of pseudonyms on
sites such as 'what do they know' could facilitate the making of requests
which might otherwise be refused, for example on the grounds that it is
vexatious, is repeated or forms part of a campaign.

If you wish your request to be answered you will need to provide proof of
your identity. You can do this by sending a photocopy of the relevant page
of your passport. If you do not have a passport you can provide a recent
copy of a utility bill addressed to you at your home.

Below is a hyperlink to the Information Commissioner's guidance on this
issue.

http://www.ico.gov.uk/upload/documents/l...
ed_specialist_guides/name_of_applicant_fop083_v1.pdf

Yours sincerely

Stephen F Williams
[email address]
--
The use of Brent Council's e-mail system may be monitored and communications read in order to secure effective operation of the system and other lawful purposes.

Dear Mr Williams,

FYI

-----Original Message-----
From: XXXXXXXXXXX.XXXXXXXXX.XXX.XX
To: [email address]
Sent: Mon, 9 Feb 2009 2:21 pm
Subject: FOI passport bill request?

Dear ICO,

Can you advise me on the various issues raised in the FOI response
shown at: (copy below)
http://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/ag...

It is clear that I cannot send a copy of any Passport or Bill via
http://www.whatdotheyknow.com and it does seem to me that this
response is seeking to obstruct my FOI request, more as an attack
on the What do they Know service than dealing with the FOI of my
request.

Brent Council seem to assume they can ask for a Passport and Bill,
purely on the basis of using http://www.whatdotheyknow.com

I find Brent Council's response quite strange.

Thanks
Eric Blair

Copy of the response:

Brent Council - INFORMATION REQUEST

Our Reference: 472001
====================================================

Dear applicant

I acknowledge your request for information received on 9 February
2009.

The Council is refusing to answer your request because it has a
reasonable
suspicion that the name being used on the application (Eric Blair)
may not
be your real name. The Council is concerned that the use of
pseudonyms on
sites such as 'what do they know' could facilitate the making of
requests
which might otherwise be refused, for example on the grounds that
it is
vexatious, is repeated or forms part of a campaign.

If you wish your request to be answered you will need to provide
proof of
your identity. You can do this by sending a photocopy of the
relevant page
of your passport. If you do not have a passport you can provide a
recent
copy of a utility bill addressed to you at your home.

Below is a hyperlink to the Information Commissioner's guidance on
this
issue.

http://www.ico.gov.uk/upload/documents/l...
ed_specialist_guides/name_of_applicant_fop083_v1.pdf

Yours sincerely

Stephen F Williams

Dear Sir or Madam,

Dear Stephen F Williams,

Whilst I await the ICO's help on this matter, for the benefit of
all whatdotheyknow.com users can you explain what you mean by
saying a FOI request can be invalid if it "...forms part of a
campaign"? as I find this a worrying aspect of your response.

as I cannot find any reference in the guidance you have interpreted
and or the Freedom of Information Act, concerning "...forms part of
a campaign".

The whatdotheyknow.com website also shows that you are acting as
Brent Council's Freedom of Information and Data Protection Act
(DPA) consultant*. In light of this and Brent Council's DPA duties
please advise what guidance you are relying upon to suggest that
you can define a FOI request as invalid if an applicant does do not
wish to breach their own Data Protection rights by sending Brent
Council,

1) A utility bill with their home address
2) A passport

"If you wish your request to be answered you will need to provide
proof of your identity. You can do this by sending a photocopy of
the relevant page of your passport. If you do not have a passport
you can provide a recent copy of a utility bill addressed to you at
your home."

I believe any reasonable person would consider Brent Council's
request for items 1 and 2 unreasonable and possibly unlawful,
particularly as the the request made does not,

a. Constitute a request for any information under the DPA and
therefore this request is not exempt under 40(1) of the FOIA.

you have not made available any evidence that cannot

b. be shown to be shield my identity in order to avoid the
possibility of the request being considered as vexatious or
repeated

with regard b Brent Council would have gotten this request before,
I consider any reasonable person would consider this highly
unlikely. If in the future Brent Council did get a vexatious or
repeated request, it could just refer to the one I would hope could
be disclosed at: whatdotheyknow.com

and would not be trying to defeat aggregate costs of the FOIA

c. Fees Regulations for one of more requests, as all information
and requests are shown on whatdotheyknow.com

You presume many users of whatdotheyknow.com and similar services
are using pseudonyms and therefore that is an adequate reason
define sucu FOI requests as invalid, this I am sure would be
considered as an unlawful stance and not in the spirit of the FOIA.

The whatdotheyknow.com service makes the FOIA process very
transparent and the whether or not anyone uses a pseudonym, it only
seems to be a relevant question when the identity of the applicant
can be known to make a difference, in this case, I do not consider
it in anyway relevant.

I suggest Brent Council engage in good practice by following the
guidance you yourself have sent/interpreted, more specifically:

"Even when an obvious pseudonym has been used, as good practice a
public authority should still consider the request even though
technically it can be regarded as invalid. This approach could be
adopted in cases where identity is not relevant to the request and,
in view of the general principle within the FOIA of disclosure to
the world at large, where the authority is content to disclose the
information"
Page 2 ICO guidance

I look forward to your response to the ICO good practice guidance
directly quoted above.

Yours sincerely,

Eric Blair

*
Stephen Williams
FOIA & Data Protection Consultant
Brent ITU

Room 103 Town Hall
Forty Lane
Wembley HA9 9AD

020 8937 1426
http://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/br...