Council functions

Dear Mr Hardwicke

Subject: Freedom of Information - Legal and Corporate Services - Litigation

I refer to the request, which you have made under the Freedom of Information
Act 2000 for records held by this department/office.

Acknowledgement

Your request dated 23/08/08 was received by this department on 26/08/08. The
officer handling your request is Tanya Rossington. She may be contacted by
telephone on number 0191 433 2192 should you have any questions or concerns
about your request.

A final decision on your request would normally be sent to you within 20
working days of receipt of your request. This means that you can expect to
receive your decision by 23/09/08.

There are some limited situations under the Freedom of Information Act,
which could mean that the period for a final decision may be longer than the
normal 20 working days. If this occurs in your request, we will promptly
advise you in writing.

Should our final decision not reach you on time, please feel free to call
the contact officer named above to discuss any problems that may have
arisen.

Non reply by us deemed to be a refusal

If you have not heard from us once the allotted time has expired, you are
automatically entitled to appeal to this department for a review of the
matter. This review is a full and new examination of the matter , and is
carried out by a more senior member of staff of this department/office.

In the event that you need to make such an appeal, you can do so by writing
to Tanya Rossington of this department/office at the address given below.
You should state that you are appealing because an initial decision was not
sent to you within the time permitted. In that event, you would normally
have 40 days (after the original decision should have been sent to you) in
which time to make the appeal.

Yours sincerely,

Julia Lumley
Enforcement Officer / Information Rights Officer
Litigation
Legal & Corporate Services
Gateshead Council
Civic Centre, Regent Street, Gateshead, Tyne & Wear, NE8 1HH

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[Gateshead Borough Council request email]

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In the interests of the environment, only print this email if absolutely
necessary.

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[Subject only] RE: Freedom of Information request - Council functions

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Dear Mr Hardwicke Carruthers

Subject: Freedom of Information - Legal and Corporate Services - Litigation

I refer to the Freedom of Information Act 2000 and to your e-mail to this
department/office dated 23.08.08.

I apologise as I am unable to forward a response to you as yet.

The information you required is being collated at present and it is
anticipated that the information will be sent to you by 01 October 2008.

Yours faithfully,

Information Rights Officer

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Dear Sir

You requested the following information:-

1. The average proportion of time the elected representatives of our
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:

a) directly resolving complaints against the executive (Council
Staff) of the Council by residents;
b) sitting on committee's;
c)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);

2. 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.

3. How many Complaints in total were submitted to your Council in
2005/2006, 2006/2007 and 2007/2008 for each year.

3a.I would further like to know how many of these complaints were
formally considered by an elected representative for each of
these years.

4. 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. 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.

5 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.

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)). 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)

6. 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).
7. .Please also provide details of your total administrative costs
for 2005/2006, 2006/2007 and 2007/2008 and the total number of
staff employed by your authority,

8. What 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.

9. 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.

In accordance with the Act we have decided to grant access to the
information requested in so far as we hold that information.

1.a)
Councillors are not involved in resolving complaints this function is
delegated to officers. Councillors may assist residents to formulate and
submit a complaint but are not involved in resolving complaints.
Complaints are not usually about members of staff, they are normally about
quality of service provision.

1.b)&c)
Councillors spend 100% of their time either at meetings of Council ,
Cabinet or meetings with external organisations with whom the Council
works, or acting for their political parties . However we do not record
time that time separately. Information about which Councillors attend
which Council or Committee meetings is freely available on our website
under
[1]http://www.gateshead.gov.uk/Council%20an....

2.
We have 66 elected members at any one time.

2005/6 2006/7 2007/8
Basic Allowance 574,398 607,088 620,324
Special Responsibility Allowance 319,936 339,022 345,777

Other Allowances 223,947 250,528 249,092 Includes
Travel & Subsistence, Conference & Courses, NI & Pensions
Total 1,118,281 1,196,638 1,215,193

3.
This information is available on our website , and is therefore exempt
from disclosure pursuant to S21 of the Act information freely accessible
by other means. The Council's Cabinet receive an annual report on the
operation of the Council's Corporate Complaints and Compliments procedure
usually in September of each year. The reports for 2005/6, 2006/7 and
2007/8 are under Council papers online - Cabinet papers.

3a.
Elected members are not involved in handling complaints.

4.
None, as council members do not handle complaints. Most complaints are not
about staff but about quality of service provision. No staff have ceased
to be employed by the authority as result of a complaint.

5.
In relation to how much money the council paid to a complainant in
2005/6,2006/7 and 2007/8.We have not retained records relating to 2005/6.
In 2006/7 one payment of £50 was made and in another an amount of
£190.25 was not recovered from the complainant. In 2007/8 Two cases
resulted in payments, one of £250 and one of £48.

The Local Government ombudsman has only made one finding of
maladministration causing injustice, against Gateshead Council in 10
years. In response the council resolved :

* That the findings of the Local Government Ombudsman, following an
investigation completed against the council have been noted but not
accepted.
* That nevertheless , in order to settle the matter, the complainants
legal fees be reimbursed and compensation in the sum of £1000 be
paid.
* That the Ombudsman be advised that as all requests for the
reinstatement of school transport were considered on their own merits
the Council sees no reason to reconsider any of the cases.

The local settlements recommended by the Local Government Ombudsman
included a number that did not involve a direct payment to the complainant
but included the reprovision of a service, or the external provision of a
service, the offer of a place at a school , the replacement of fixtures,
fittings and structures and the award of rent credits. The total cash
payments made in the years identified below are best estimates based on
the information available in archived files .

* 2005/6 £2,590.
* 2006/7 £1,736.70
* 2007/8 £1,150

6.
You requested information relating to the financial cost of administering
all of our complaints systems including Foi and DP. We do not consider FOI
and DP to be complaints systems.

1 FTE is employed to deal with corporate complaints. 1FTE is employed to
deal with FOI and DP. However other officers who have substantive roles in
the Council, assist in investigating complaints as and when needed or in
collating information to provide responses to FOI or DP requests. We do
not record the time these officers spend handling complaints or providing
information for FOI and DP requests. We do not record the time spent by
ICT in administering the Complaints and FOI tracking systems. The only
financial cost therefore would be the salaries of the 2 FTE's. This
information is exempt from disclosure under S40 of the Act where it would
breach any of the data protection principles.

7.
Please can you clarify what you mean by administrative costs, we do not
record expenditure in this way. You will need to specify what you consider
to be administrative costs so that we can see whether we hold this
information.

Staffing levels are shown below:-
2005/06 8,141.03
2006/07 7,995.87
2007/08 7,975.98

8.
Pay increases made to the Council's Chief executive are as follows:- this
post does not attract PRP.
2005/06 - £4191
2006/07 - £4320
2007/08 - £3732

9.
We consider our complaints system is fit for our internal purposes and
therefore have no further information to provide to you.

Right to a review

You may apply to the Strategic Director of Legal and Corporate Services,
Civic Centre, Regent Street, Gateshead,NE8 1HH, for an internal review of
the decision. This will be a fresh consideration of your request by a more
senior officer. If you wish to request a review must do this in writing
within 40 days of receipt of this letter.

Following the internal review if you are still unhappy you have a right
of appeal to the Information Commissioner as specified below.

Rights of appeal

You may apply under Section 50 of the Act to the Information Commissioner
at the address given below

Information Commissioner, Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow, Cheshire
SK9 5AF

For a decision whether, in any specified respect, a request for
information made by you to the Department/office has been dealt with in
accordance with the requirements of Part 1 of the Act.

Yours faithfully

Information Rights

Phone 0191 4332192
Fax 0191 4332103
or [Gateshead Borough Council request email]

.

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References

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