Confirmation of UC number for KCC

Dear Mr Cooper

Thank you for your request for information which Kent County Council
received on 24th June. We were anticipating providing a quick response to
your request which is why we did not email you an acknowledgement as is
our usual practice. Unfortunately lack of resources meant that this was
not possible and I appreciate that our failure to acknowledge your initial
communication (our acknowledgement sets out the latest date in accordance
with statute that you can expect a reply by which would have been 22nd
July) may have prompted your second email reminder as you may not have
been aware of 20-working day statutory timescales under the Freedom of
Information Act 2000.

Unfortunately you are being mislead by these websites. The fact that a
commercial business includes Kent County Council on their listings does
not make KCC a company, because it is not. KCC is a local authority.
Please see KCC's Constitution for the Council's role and how it operates.
[1]https://shareweb.kent.gov.uk/Documents/p...

There are dozens of businesses around willing to provide copies or
summaries of company financial reports for a fee, even though the same
reports can usually be obtained free of charge directly from the named
organisation. They also list non-companies on their websites, sometimes
identifying their non-company status and sometimes not. If you search some
of the sites with "Kent County Council" they come up with dozens of
irrelevent entries including addresses of individual schools, for which we
are only the Local Education Authority.

We note that reference UC2092047 is not recognised by the official
Companies House
[2]http://www.companieshouse.gov.uk//about/... website's
companies search, and we have no idea what this reference purports to be.

KCC does have a few trading companies for the purpose of providing
services to other local authorities and public bodies. Active companies
are listed in our 2008-2009 Statement of Accounts on page 31. Our
Statement of Accounts since 2005-06 are available free of charge from our
website at
[3]http://www.kent.gov.uk/your_council/how_.... aspx

If you are unhappy with this response, and believe KCC has not complied
with legislation, please ask for a review by following our complaints
process; details can be found at this link
[4]http://www.kent.gov.uk/your_council/have...
on our website. Please quote reference FOI/10/0758.

If you still remain dissatisfied following an internal review, you can
appeal to the Information Commissioner, who oversees compliance with the
Freedom of Information Act 2000. Details of what you need to do, should
you wish to pursue this course of action, are available from the
Information Commissioner*s website
[5]http://www.ico.gov.uk/complaints/freedom...

Best regards

Caroline Dodge
Corporate Access to Information Coordinator, Chief Executive's Department
Kent County Council, Legal & Democratic Services, Room B.48, Sessions
House, County Hall, Maidstone. ME14 1XQ.
Tel: 01622 221652 - Fax: 01622 696075
[6]http://www.kent.gov.uk/your_council/have...

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Dear Mr Cooper

Thank you for your email.

I am afraid no-one at Kent County Council knows what this number means
either, or how it is generated, or by whom.

However, having "google searched" the definition of an "unincorporated
company", it does not seem to apply to KCC anyway. KCC is by definition a
Public Body, specifically a Local Authority. As a County Council, KCC
receives funding from central government and also from council tax
collected by district and borough councils which is then used to provide
public services.
[1]http://www.kent.gov.uk/your_council/how_....
Obviously, if no-one paid council tax, then the provision of public
services (for example education, social services, highways) would be
greatly hindered. Please see DirectGov website.
[2]http://www.direct.gov.uk/en/Governmentci...

KCC's accounts are routinely published and are available free of charge
from our website so I'm not sure why anyone would want to pay money to a
commercial business for information that can be obtained from its source
for free. I assume that you have not approached Duport and/or
Snoop4Companies and asked them where these numbers have come from or where
they are getting their reports from or indeed what reports you will get if
you purchase one?

With regard to Chaucer Technology School in Canterbury, it is a
state-funded foundation school.
[3]http://www.direct.gov.uk/en/Parents/Scho...

I hope this information is of assistance. If you remain unhappy

Best regards

Caroline Dodge
Corporate Access to Information Coordinator, Chief Executive's Department
Kent County Council, Legal & Democratic Services, Room B.48, Sessions
House, County Hall, Maidstone. ME14 1XQ.
Tel: 01622 221652 - Fax: 01622 696075
[4]http://www.kent.gov.uk/your_council/have...

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