Back office benchmarking

Dear Mr Farnet,

FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT 2000 (FOIA) - INFORMATION REQUEST

The City of London (CoL) acknowledges receipt of your request for
information of 2 April 2011.

Public authorities are required to respond to requests within the
statutory timescale of 20 working days beginning from the first working
day after they receive a request. The FOIA applies to the CoL as a local
authority, police authority and port health authority.

Yours sincerely,

Information Officer
City of London
Tel: 020-7332 1209
[1]www.cityoflondon.gov.uk

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Dear Brian Farnet

I refer to your request for information dated 2 April 2011.

The Cabinet Office report referenced in your request is a benchmarking
report and is descriptive of the results of a survey of central government
departments; it does not relate to local government.

This being the case and in order to assist us to respond, could you please
define the terms, or reference the precise pages and paragraphs, for each
of the listed items in the section headed IT Information. CoL IT
colleagues do not understand the terminology used in this section of your
request as currently expressed.

Yours sincerely,

Information Officer
City of London
Tel: 020-7332 1209
[1]www.cityoflondon.gov.uk

______________________________________________
From: COL - EB - Information Officer
Sent: 04 April 2011 16:11
To: 'Brian Farnet'
Subject: FOI RFI: Farnet, wef 4 April 2011 - Acknowledgement

Dear Mr Farnet,

FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT 2000 (FOIA) - INFORMATION REQUEST

The City of London (CoL) acknowledges receipt of your request for
information of 2 April 2011.

Public authorities are required to respond to requests within the
statutory timescale of 20 working days beginning from the first working
day after they receive a request. The FOIA applies to the CoL as a local
authority, police authority and port health authority.

Yours sincerely,

Information Officer
City of London
Tel: 020-7332 1209
[2]www.cityoflondon.gov.uk

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Dear Brian Farnet

Following your request for information of 2 April and our acknowledgement
of 4 April, the City of London (CoL) responds as follows.

Please note that the following assumptions apply to the response:-

1. Where information is known for 2011 this has been provided.

2. Financial information relates to City Fund services.

3. Latest financial information relates to financial year 2009/10.

4. Where %ge analysis has been used for central support cost this
is taken from the 2009/10 recharge apportionment for the department in
question.

ORGANISATION

What is your current headcount as of 1st April 2011? - 2289

What was your headcount as of the day before the General Election? - 2287

How much grant funding do you receive? - £147m (2010/11 estimate)

What was your income for the last financial year? - £303m (including
Government Formula Grant) (2010/11 estimate).

What was your expenditure on salaries for the last financial year? -
£142m (expenditure on employees including National Insurance and
pension, together with indirect employee costs such as training and
recruitment) (2010/11 estimate).

What was your 3rd party expenditure for the last financial year? -
£154,796,000

FINANCE INFORMATION

Organisational Running Costs - £325,200,000

Cost of the Finance Function - £5,296,000

% Cost of Finance Function - 1.63%

Cost of Finance per Head - £2,109

Report cycle time - 0 days

No. Finance Staff - 48

No. Professionally Qualified Finance Staff - 14

% Finance qualified - 29.2%

Cost of the HR Function % - 0.5%

HR INFORMATION

Cost of HR Function - £1,622,000

Cost of HR per Head - £861

No. Organisation Employees - 3,205

No. HR Staff - 59

Ratio of employees (FTE) to HR staff - 55

Average Working Days Lost to sickness (AWDL) - 7.4

Employee experience of Performance Management - Information not held.

Employee experience of Learning & Career Development - 68%

Employee experience of Positive Working Environment - Information not
held.

IT INFORMATION

"Run and Maintain" Resource (RDEL) IT Expenditure*

"Run and Maintain" Resource (RDEL) IT Expenditure ... of which

Depreciation*

"Run and Maintain" Capital (CDEL) IT Expenditure*

Total 'run & maintain'  IT Spend*

Total Project Costs*

% Cost of IT - 1.87%

Overall stakeholder perspective - 90%

*As has already been pointed out, the terminology in relation to these
items is not understood and definitions are not provided in the Cabinet
Office document. CoL is happy to provide the information if it can, but in
order to do so further clarification (ie. beyond that set out in your
message of 8 April 2011 which did not address the IT question) is
required.

PROCUREMENT INFORMATION

Cost of the Procurement Function - Information not held; the function is
currently distributed across all departments.

% Cost of Procurement Function - Information not held; the function is
currently distributed across all departments.

Total third party spend - £154,796,000

Third party spend on SMEs (direct) }

Third party spend on SMEs (indirect) } £51,416,485 (CoL does not
split these costs)

Procurement function costs as a percentage of total Procured Spend -
Information not held; the function is currently distributed across all
departments.

% third party spend channelled to SMEs - 33.2%

No. Procurement Staff - Information not held; the function is currently
distributed across all departments.

No. Professionally Qualified Procurement Staff - 8

% Procurement qualified - Information not held; the function is currently
distributed across all departments.

You may find the following links to the CoL website useful; one on the
CoL's working with SME's and the other in respect of CoL expenditure.

[1]http://www.cityoflondon.gov.uk/Corporati...

[2]http://www.cityoflondon.gov.uk/scripts/h...

ESTATES & PROPERTY INFORMATION

Cost per FTE - £4,176

Area per office based FTE - 38.3 sq m

Cost per square metre - £109

Property: Corporate Governance

Member Arrangements:

The Policy & Resources Committee is responsible for considering matters of
policy and strategic importance, including making recommendations to the
Court of Common Council in respect of the Corporate Plan, Community
Strategy and other corporate strategies, statements or resolutions. The
following Sub Committees report to this Committee:

The Corporate Assets Sub Committee is the Member group responsible for the
effective and sustainable management of the City of London's operational
assets to help deliver strategic priorities and service needs.

The Resource Allocation Sub Committee is the Member group for determining
resource allocation in accordance with the City of London's strategic
policies.

The Projects Sub Committee is the Member group responsible for scrutiny
and oversight of the management of major projects and programmes of work,
including considering all proposals for capital and supplementary revenue
projects and determining whether projects should be included in the
capital and supplementary revenue programme as well as phasing of any
expenditure.

The Sustainability Sub Committee is Member group for strategies and
initiatives in relation to sustainability, energy/water efficiency and
carbon emissions.

The Investment Property Board is the Member group for strategic oversight
and monitoring of the performance of all City of London property
investments, in accordance with the Investment Strategy determined by the
Policy and Resources Committee

Officer Arrangements:

The Corporate Property Strategy Board is the Officer lead group which
coordinates the Asset Management of Corporate Property Portfolio, the
group includes representation from across the organisation including
Property, Finance, Chief Executive, and Occupier representation. The
Board focuses on setting strategic direction, setting standards for Estate
and Property Management, promoting partnership opportunities and joined up
working, challenging influencing and developing the Asset Management Plan
and property considerations in department business plans. The Board meets
on a quarterly basis.

The Corporate Projects Board is responsible for:-

i. Providing a strategic overview of all programmes and projects within
the corporate portfolio and interdependencies between them;

ii. Considering all proposals for capital and supplementary revenue
projects to be funded by City Corporation resources and any external funds
recommending the projects which merit further consideration to the
Projects Sub-Committee; and

iii. Reviewing the outcome of capital and supplementary revenue projects,
encouraging continuous improvement in project management based on the
lessons learnt.

The City of London's Business Planning framework requires all service
departments to consult with the Corporate Property Officer on the property
considerations to be taken into account in the business planning process,
together with workforce planning and resource requirements including IT.

The Property Review Exercise which is nearing completion has challenged
the use and occupation of Corporate Assets against the following core
aims:

* Establish whether assets are fit for purpose or require any major
investments.
* Challenge whether assets are being utilised effectively and
efficiently.
* Ensuring workspace use is maximised.

Identifying whether there is potential for rationalising the corporate
estate.

Property: Capacity & Capability

The City Surveyor's Department provides strategic advice and guidance to
service departments in respect of property and asset management, building
repairs and maintenance, FM services and Construction projects. The City
Surveyor's Department are actively engaged on and consulted with the
Officer and Member groups detailed above in terms of professional and
technical expertise in property and asset management. The Corporate
Property Officer is responsible for delivering the Property Review
exercise detailed above and regularly reviewing the strategic Asset
Management Planning for the operational estate.

The Property and Estate Workforce planning is managed through the City's
Performance Development Framework process for the staff appraisals and
Departmental Business Planning both of which promotes learning and
development opportunities to ensure staff are appropriately trained with
the skill sets required and knowledge is up to date. A number of in house
training events and activities are undertaken to promote learning
opportunities across the Board. The City also has an active engagement on
the Association of Chief Estate Surveyors which brings together property
professionals across the Public Sector to share knowledge learning and
best practice.

Accenture have been engaged in a Procurement and Procure to Pay Review
Project. The aims of which are to co-ordinate all procurement through one
centralised team. A procurement category management approach will be used,
i.e. a procurement will be managed by a manager/team that have expertise
in that particular type of expenditure. The Corporate Property Group
presently provides a Contracts Service through the Strategic Services
Team. However, not all property relates services are procured through
this channel.

External consultants are appointed where specialist advice of technical
expertise is required beyond existing capabilities and capacity.

Property: Policies & Standards

Please refer to the following documents:-

Corporate Plan 2011-2015

[3]http://www.cityoflondon.gov.uk/scripts/h...

City Together Strategy
[4]http://www.cityoflondon.gov.uk/corporati...

Departmental Business Plans, the majority of which are available on the
City of London Internet site:

[5]http://www.cityoflondon.gov.uk/Corporati...

Corporate Asset Management Plan 2010 (Copy Attached)

<<Corp Asset Mgmt Plan 2010.pdf>>

Sustainability Policy

[6]http://www.cityoflondon.gov.uk/Corporati...

Climate Change Mitigation Strategy and the Climate Change Adaptation
Strategy

[7]http://www.cityoflondon.gov.uk/scripts/h...

Currently the organisation is reviewing Corporate space standards to
ensure better utilisation of assets. This is currently in development
under the management of a Project Board, and will be reported through the
Governance Structure in due course.

The Corporate Property Officers involvement in the Business Planning
Framework promotes the above Policy documents and provides strategic
direction to Departments in delivering against these objectives.

Property: Data & Management Information Systems

The Corporate Asset Register is primarily held on a Manhattan software
system with Computer Aided Facilities Management data held on Archibus
software system. A number of supporting systems are also in operation such
as Condeco Room booking facilities and the Corporate Business Information
System.

The following property data for the office and other operational asset
portfolios is accessible to key officers and is routinely used for
strategic planning and performance review:-

* floor areas
* tenure and lease break information
* valuations
* planned maintenance programmes
* number of workstations and cellular offices
* number of FTEs
* vacant space
* core occupancy costs

The City Surveyor's Department Quality Management System and the Data
Quality Policy govern the management, maintenance, monitoring and
reporting of property data and information.

The City Surveyor's Helpdesk service is utilised to manage breakdown
maintenance and fault reporting, across the operational portfolio. The
activities recorded through the helpdesk service are used to monitor
performance and delivery standards.

Property: Performance Management Review & Audit

The Asset Management Plan, which is updated on an annual basis set out the
strategic direction for management of the City's operational portfolio.

The Property Review challenged the use and occupation of the operational
estate and will inform the annual Asset Management Plan together with the
property considerations arising from departmental business plans.

CIPFA Value For Money Indicators for Estates Management are provided in
respect of CoL core office accommodation.

CoL Investment Portfolio performance is managed under the IPD Benchmarks.

Quarterly updates are provided on performance against the Business Plan
Objectives.

Outturn reports are produced in respect of completed projects (over
£400,000) to monitor performance against cost estimates and objectives.

COMMUNICATIONS INFORMATION

Total Cost of Communications - £1.5m

% Cost of communications - 1%

Number of communications staff - 43

Proportion of all staff working on communications - 1.3%

Number of Professional communicators - 34

Proportion of Professional communicators - 84%

Comms alignment to business objectives - The Public Relations Office has a
comms strategy that is aligned to CoL business objectives.

LEGAL INFORMATION

Total cost of legal services - £2,507,588

Legal costs: of which for 'technical' legal work - £2,259,093

Legal costs: of which for legal admin and support work - £248,495

% Cost of Legal Services - 1.92%

Legal % spend on technical work (not admin) - 88%

KNOWLEDGE AND INFORMATION MANAGEMENT (KIM)

Total cost of KIM - Information not held.

% Cost of KIM - Information not held.

Quality: % FOI/EIR requests addressed "in time" 93% (2010/11)

Quality: No. of datasets made available on data.gov.uk - Information not
held.

KIM Survey: % measure of how well staff can access information to allow
them to function effectively - Information not held.

We hope that this is of assistance.

The FOIA applies to the CoL only as a local authority, police authority
and port health authority.

Should you wish to make a complaint about the way the CoL has handled your
enquiry, please make your complaint in writing to email address:
[email address]. For a link to the CoL's FOI complaints
procedure, please visit the following page:
[8]www.cityoflondon.gov.uk/Feedback, at the end of which is located the
FOI complaints procedure. If, having used the CoL's FOI Complaints
Procedure, you are still dissatisfied, you may request the Information
Commissioner to investigate. Please contact: Information Commissioner,
Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow, Cheshire, SK9 5AF. Telephone:
(01625) 545700. Website: [9]http://www.ico.gov.uk/.

The CoL holds the copyright in this communication. The supply of these
does not give a right to re-use in a way that would infringe that
copyright, for example, by making copies, publishing and issuing copies to
the public or to any other person. Brief extracts of any of the material
may be reproduced under the fair dealing provisions of the Copyright,
Designs and Patents Act 1988 (sections 29 and 30) for the purposes of
research for non-commercial purposes, private study, criticism, review and
news reporting, subject to an acknowledgement of the copyright owner.

Yours sincerely,

Information Officer
City of London
Tel: 020-7332 1209
[10]www.cityoflondon.gov.uk

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