council functions

Dear Mr Hardwicke-Carruthers

Thank you for your e-mail FOI request please see the following responses
from Hart District Council:

The Authority does not hold records of the proportion of time spent by
members on committee work, dealing with complaints or campaigning.

Information on members allowances and the number of members who were in
receipt of such payments is already published by the authority on its web
site

http://www.hart.gov.uk/index/your_counci...

Complaints received by the Council (Stages 1, 2 & 3):
2005/06 - 509
2006/07 - 137
2007/08 - 832

Complaints against the Executive (Council Staff) leading to elected
representatives fomally identifying that Executive had acted wrongly:
2005/06 - 0
2006/07 - 0
2007/08 - 0

Money the Council has paid to a complainant through it's own complaints
system.
2005/06 - 0
2006/07 - 0
2007/08 - 0

Money Council has paid in form of local settlement or additional formal
finding of maladminstration causing injustice.
2005/06 - £2,572
2006/07 - £1,250
2007/08 - £3,250

All settlements were funded from our budget and not from insurers.

As for the recommendations from the Ombudsman, this is a bit more difficult
to pick up, but our track record is good and we can give reasonable
assurance that any recommendations that the Ombudsman has made have been
met.

There are no formal figures for the financial cost of administering the
authority's complaints system, all staff are involved in the resolution of
complaints at some stage and this makes it very difficult to put an
accurate figure against. Working on the basis that the average time take
to resolve a complaint (but some will take longer than others) is 30
minutes then the total time taken to resolve complaints over the past three
years is 20 weeks (0.13FTE).

The total number of staff employed in the years average as follows:
2005/06 - 568
2006/07 - 561
2007/08 - 548

The chief executive had total salary increases (including Superannuation
and National Insurance) of
2005/06 - £6,871
2006/07 - £3,499
2007/08 - £5,779

Increases just on basic pay (as it is not clear whether Super and NI are
included in this request)
2005/06 - £4,353
2006/07 - £2,778
2007/08 - £2,423

There was no performance related pay in any of the financial years.

The name of the Electoral Registration Officer, the Returning Officer and
the date of his appointment is already published by the authority on its
web site.

http://www.hart.gov.uk/index/your_counci...

Neither of the posts are combined with the Head of the Paid Service.

Regards

Ruth Webster
H&CS Support Mgr
Hart District Council
Harlington Way
Fleet
Hants
GU51 4AE
Tel: 01252 774454
www.hart.gov.uk

Stuart Hardwicke
CARRUTHERS
<request-2070-9b0 To
09f56@whatdotheyk FOI requests at Hart District
now.com> Council <[Hart District Council request email]>
cc
23/08/2008 17:49
Subject
Freedom of Information request -
council functions

Dear Sir or Madam,

I would like to know the average proportion of time the elected
representatives of your 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:

1 directly resolving complaints against the executive (Council
Staff) of the Council by residents; 2 sitting on committee's; 3
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);

The total time spent by an elected representative for a Council on
these three activities should be 100 per cent of the time they
spend 'working for a Council' as an elected representative.

I would additionally like to know 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.

I would also like to know how many Complaints in total were
submitted to your Council in 2005/2006, 2006/2007 and 2007/2008 for
each year. I would further like to know how many of these
complaints were formally considered by an elected representative
for each of these years.

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.

I would further like to know 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)

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). 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,
as well as any 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.

If you do not have this reasonably basic management information
related to complaints and/or identify that the costs of accessing
the information requested will be more than £450 please state this
and identify that your Authority does not have either a functioning
or accountable complaints system, and does not maintain any basic
management information related to this issue.

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.

Yours faithfully

Stuart HARDWICKE CARRUTHERS

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Dear Mr Hardwicke-Carruthers

Further to your email requesting clarification about your original
request. The details of the ERO and RO are on our web site at the web
address given in our previous email. The text, which is at the bottom of
the web page provided, reads:

The Electoral Registration Officer and Returning Officer for Hart District Council as of 26 October 2006 is Mr Viv Evans,
his contact details are available on the right hand side of this page.

The monitoring officer has been asked to clarify your other point.

Yours sincerely

Andrew Tiffin
Democratic Services Manager
Committees, Elections, Voter Registration
Hart District Council
01252 774158 Direct Line
01252 622122 Switchboard

show quoted sections

Dear Mr Carruthers,

As I am the Council's Monitoring officer, I have been asked to respond to
your enquiry concerning :

"... there should be a monitoring officer report (i.e. Local
Government and Housing Act, 1989 s6) associated with each local
settlement ?"

I would be pleased to respond to your enquiry , but would first ask for
clarification of what information you are seeking. You have made
reference to s.6 of the 1989 Local Government and Housing Act, which of
course relates to the officer having responsibility for the administration
of the Council's financial affairs. (Such officer is usually referred to
as the "S.151 Officer," and sometimes as the "Chief Finance Officer", but
in any case such officer can not be the Monitoring officer. . I can find
no reference to "each local settlement", and it would be helpful if you
would confirm to what this expression refers by placing it in context.
Yours sincerely,
Roderick Hursthouse
Chief Solicitor and Monitoring Officer
Hart District Council
Civic Offices, Harlington Way, Fleet. GU51 4AE

Dear Mr Carruthers,

Thank you for your further email confirming the correct reference is to
S.5 of the 1989 Act, which sets out my duties as the Council's appointed
Monitoring Officer.

I have referred further to the statutory provisions and am unclear as to
what you are referring to in your earlier email , in relation to "each
local settlement".

It would be helpful if you would place your enquiry in context when I will
endeavour to answer it.

Yours sincerely,

Roderick Hursthouse
Chief Solicitor and Monitoring Officer
Hart District Council
Civic Offices, Harlington Way, Fleet. GU51 4AE