Dear Sir or Madam, All boards/committees all Sandewell cllrs sit on
outside of council, in what capacity,voting rights,and
money/allowance received.All boards/committees on a voluntary
basis.

Yours faithfully, Mrs D K Elwell

Dear Sir or Madam,Further to my request could i also ask in what
capacity all cllrs undertake on all boards/committees all Sandwell
cllrs have a place on outside of the council

Yours sincerely,

D K Elwell

Dear Sir or Madam, I would be grateful if you can tell me the time
frame i have to wait before my request regarding the
boards/committees all Sandwell cllrs sit on and in what capacity
outside of the council will be forwarded to me.

Yours sincerely, D K Elwell

Dear Sir or Madam, Further to my former request regarging the
boards/committees all Sandwell cllrs sit on and in what capacity
outside of the council, will you also submit any payments/expences
for the said committees/boards.

Yours sincerely, D K Elwe;;

Dear Sir or Madam, Could you please inform me when you will be
answering my former request under the freedom of information act.

Yours sincerely, Debbie Elwell

Dear Sir or Madam, Further to my former requests regarding all
boards/committees all cllrs sit on outside of the council, in what
capacity, money/expenses etc received for these. I would like to
know when you will be answering my request, has under the Freedom
of Information Act you should have replied by now.

Yours sincerely, D K Elwell

Dear Sir/Madam,

I recently received an email from a colleague bringing my attention to the website www.whatdotheyknow.com<http://www.whatdotheyknow.com> , which assists members of the public to make Freedom of Information requests. The email was sent to me, given my responsibility for Freedom Of Information within the Council.

I was concerned to note that one of the requests that you made through this website appeared not to have been answered. I have made some enquiries with colleagues and it does appear that a response has not been sent. Please accept my apologies for this.

The outstanding request was made on 4th April 2008 and was for the following information:

"All boards/committees all Sandwell cllrs sit on outside of council, in what capacity, voting rights, and money/allowance received. All boards/committees on a voluntary basis".

On the same day, you submitted the following further email:

"Further to my request could I also ask in what capacity all cllrs undertake on all boards/committees all Sandwell cllrs have a place on outside of the council".

On 3rd May 2008, you submitted the following email:

"Further to my former request regarding the boards/committees all Sandwell cllrs sit on and in what capacity outside of the council, will you also submit any payments/expences for the said committees/boards".

Having looked at the emails above, I have taken your request to be for the following information:

* Details of the external Boards/Committees that Elected Members sit on, details of their involvement on these boards and also what expenses or payments they have received in respect of sitting on these Boards and Committees.

Please find attached a table, containing details of the organisations that our elected members have been appointed to. This table specifically refers to appointments in their roles as elected members; it does not contain details of organisations or public bodies that they might belong to as an individual member of the community.

However, such information is made publicly available, in accordance with both the Council's Code of Conduct for Members and the mandatory provisions contained in the Schedule to the Local Authorities (Model Code of Conduct) (England) Order 2007. This information is available from http://cmis.sandwell.gov.uk/CMISWebPubli... which leads to a list of Sandwell's seventy-two elected members. The name of each member contains a link to a page detailing relevant information about them. Their current entries in the Register of Members' Interests, containing details of the outside organisations that they are involved with, can be found from a link at the bottom of each page.

Sandwell Metropolitan Borough Council administers the West Midlands Fire and Rescue Authority. This body consists of twenty-seven elected members from all local authorities across the West Midlands region.

The three elected members who represent Sandwell on the Fire and Rescue Authority are Councillor Tony Ward (Vice-Chairman), Councillor David Hinton (Leader of the Principal Opposition Group) and Councillor Mohinder Singh Tagger (Member).

Details of the Members' Allowances Scheme in respect of the Fire and Rescue Authority can be found from the following link:

http://82.109.175.27/CMISWebpu/PublicDoc...<http://82.109.175.27/CMISWebpublic/Publi...>

From this link, you will be able to access the amounts received by members of the Fire Authority during the financial year 2007/08 and also details of the Members' Allowance scheme.

With the exception of the Fire and Rescue Authority, Sandwell Council does not record members' attendance at meetings held by outside organisations, or their involvement with these bodies, nor does it keep a record of payments made to them in respect of their involvement with these bodies. Therefore, the Council does not hold information relating to any payments made or expenses claimed in respect of any involvement with the bodies listed.

Some of the bodies listed are publicly funded bodies subject to the provisions of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 and you are entitled to make the same request directly to them.

If you have any further enquiries, or require further clarification, please do not hesitate to contact me directly. Once again, please accept my apologies for the delay in sending this response to you.

Yours faithfully,
Nigel Parr
Data Protection/Freedom of Information Officer
Democratic Services
Sandwell Metropolitan Borough Council
Sandwell Council House
0121 569 3248

Dear Nigel Parr, Thank you for the information received, could you
please inform me where and how i can receive the other information
i requested. Thank you also for the apology and your time spent on
this request.

Yours sincerely,

D K Elwell

Dear D K Elwell,

I've had another look on the whatdotheyknow site today, to check that my response was received and noticed that you have sent a reply. However, I have not received anything in my mailbox.

Did you send this directly to my email address? If not, please let me know where you sent it to.

In terms of the other information you requested, I presume you mean details of members' involvement with the other bodies (not those internal Council bodies or the Fire Authority) that our elected members sit on. In some cases, the bodies appear not to be subject to FOI laws, so I'm not quite sure how best you would acquire this information. However, in some case (such as the Police Authority) this should be available directly from them, as they are subject to FOI in their own right. I am not in the office on Monday, but will look at this for you next week. If you want to speak to me directly, my number is 0121 569 3248.

Yours sincerely,
Nigel Parr
Data Protection/Freedom of Information Officer
Democratic Services
Sandwell Metropolitan Borough Council
Sandwell Council House
0121 569 3248

Dear D K Elwell,

Further to my recent correspondence, I have since been sent a copy of your most recent email to the Council.

To some extent, I can only really repeat what I've said previously, which is that we do not monitor members' attendance or involvement with outside bodies and therefore do not hold the information requested.

I've looked through the list and can advise you to a degree. Sandwell Leisure Trust is a Registered Charity and is not subject to the Freedom of Information Act 2000. The Black Country Consortium is a private and public partnership and is not subject to Freedom of Information legislation either. However, you can approach the Consortium to ask them questions directly via the following link:

http://www.blackcountryconsortium.co.uk/...

However, some of the bodies listed are public authorities and are subject to the provisions of the Freedom of Information Act. Police Authorities are subject to the FOI Act and you can request information from them. The following link may be of use to you:

http://www.west-midlands-pa.gov.uk/index...

One of the bodies referred to is the Sandwell Mental Health NHS and Social Care Trust. You can request information under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 from the following link:

http://www.smhsct.nhs.uk/index.php?optio...

With regard to the West Midlands Passenger Transport Authority (Centro) , the link below will take you to a section of the website containing details of how to make an FOI request and also information about Councillors and allowances:

http://www.centro.org.uk/corporateinform...

To some extent, the best way to obtain information would be to type the name of the body into Google or similar search engine and see if this highlights any means of contacting the bodies concerned. I appreciate that this could be a significant task, but the Council does not hold the details you have requested in terms of elected members' involvement with outside bodies.

If I can be of further assistance please do not hesitate to contact me.

Yours sincerely,
Nigel Parr

Data Protection/Freedom of Information Officer
Democratic Services
Sandwell Metropolitan Borough Council
Sandwell Council House
0121 569 3248

Dear Nigel Parr,

Thank you for your correspondance and courtsey on this matter. I
now have all the information that i require.

Yours sincerely,

D.K.Elwell