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

Dear Mr Hardwicke Carruthers

Thank you for your request for information which I received on 23 August. Your request is now receiving attention and you should hear from the council within 20 working days of receipt.

Sometimes a fee is payable if it is estimated that a request will take a council officer more than 18 hours to locate and copy the information and to send it out. If that is the case, I will let you know and a fees notice will be sent to you. You will then have to pay before we can proceed to deal with your request.

Please contact me if you have any concerns.

Best wishes

Jackie Coulston
Information Coordinator
Legal, Democratic and Customer Services
020 8313 4316

show quoted sections

Dear Mr Hardwicke Carruthers,

Thank you for your request for various information relating to Bromley's complaints handling arrangements. I will do my best to respond to your questions in order, although we do not hold all the information that you have asked for in exactly the way that you have anticipated. The attached document (the text of the Council's annual "Getting it Right" report) includes most of the statistics about complaints that you request. Unlike some Boroughs, we do not count whether a complaint was upheld or not - we see all feedback as an opportunity to learn at some level, regardless of whether a complaint was upheld.

We do not hold any information about the amount of time that Councillors spend on their duties - either as a total or as percentages devoted to different aspects of their duties. Although they are paid an allowance for carrying out their duties, they are not like employees in that they do not work a fixed amount of hours. Bromley has 60 Councillors (this number has remained the same for the years that you ask about.) In 2007/08, £958,264 was paid in allowances. Figures for 2005/06 and 2006/07 were very similar.

Elected members are not involved in settling our complaints. Their role in the procedure is to represent members of the public in bringing a complaint to the Council and act as a liaison point. In certain circumstances they may need to approve a change in policy/procedure that has resulted from a complaint but we do not have Member panels to hear/resolve complaints.

As a matter of principle we never disclose personal information about staff to members of the public, including whether a complaint resulted in any disciplinary action. I am not aware of any such cases, but we are checking with our HR Division to see if there is any further information on this.

Compensation payments - both under Getting it Right and the Ombudsman, are set out in the Annual Report. Costs are met by the Council unless the service at fault was provided by a contractor, in which case they will meet the compensation costs. We have never formally rejected an Ombudsman's finding of maladministration or refused to follow his advice for settling a complaint.

The number of staff employed in administering complaints systems is 1 full time equivalent for corporate coordination. Although there are lead officers for complaints in all departments, complaints form a minor part of individuals' jobs, with the exception of Adult and Community Services Department, where there is at least 1 full time equivalent post. Coordination of Freedom of Information requests amounts to about .3 full time equivalent. I do not yet have a figure for Data Protection (I assume this is what you mean by DP).

The Council has been controlled by the Conservative Party since 2001. The Council's Chief Executive, who is the head of paid service and returning officer, is Mr Doug Patterson. His appointment was approved by the Council on 19th March 2007 and he took up his post on 30th July 2007.

I am aware that in responding to you I have not been able to provide all the information that you requested, but I hope that your main points have been answered. If there are particular issues that you want to pursue, or points that need further explanation, please let me know.

<<08-GP-2307-App1.doc>>

Graham Walton
Democratic Services Manager
London Borough of Bromley
Tel. 020 8461 7743
www.bromley.gov.uk

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