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________________________________________________________________________

Dear Mr Hardwicke Carruthers

I refer to your request for certain information and our answers are set
out below after each of your questions:-

Q.1. 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.

A. The Council does not keep the information you have requested. In
addition to the items you have listed councillors are regularly involved
in giving information and advice to local constituents and representing
the council on local and national organisations.

Q.2. 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.

A. The expenses and allowances paid to members are as follows:

2005/2006 - £257,307.82

2006/2007 - £258,799.21

2007/2008 - £269,635.28

There are 48 elected members and the figures stated above are for 48
elected members for each of these years.

Q.3.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.

A: The Council's complaints system provides two internal stages for
customers to seek an investigation into the detail of their complaint and
offer the Council the opportunity to resolve the matter to the customer's
satisfaction. The first stage is managed and investigated by a senior
manager within the service area concerned who is a designated Complaints
Officer for that particular service area. Should the customer remain
dissatisfied following this investigation, they are offered the
opportunity to escalate their complaint to be investigated by the Chief
Executive's office. At the conclusion of this second stage, if the
customer remains dissatisfied, they are offered the opportunity to seek
independent investigation by the Local Government Ombudsman.

The total number of complaints has not been kept centrally for the
years you have requested but a central record has been introduced
this year. For the years 2005-2008, the following number of
complaints that the Council were unable to resolve to the customers
satisfaction and were considered by the ombudsman were:-

2005-6 - 25
2006-7 - 11
2007-8 - 23

Q.4. I would further like to know how many of these complaints were
formally considered by an elected representative for each of these years.

A: As outlined above, the Council's complaints system, as agreed by
elected members, provides for investigation and resolution by senior
officers within the Council. Formal complaints referred to the Local
Government Ombudsman are reported to the Council's Standards Committee on
an annual basis.

Q.5. 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,

A. As outlined above, the elected representatives do not consider
individual formal complaints.

Q.6.How many of these formal determinations by the elected representatives
identify that there was no wrong-doing by the Executive.

A. As outlined above, the elected representatives do not consider
individual formal complaints.

Q.7.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,

A. Nil

Q.8.The Councillors identifying this to be the case.

A. Not applicable

Q.9.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.

A. This information is not collected centrally but from memory the number
of these occasions and the amounts are relatively small. Further enquiries
are being made of the various departments to provide the answer to your
question.

Q.10.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)

A: No local settlements or findings of maladministration have been
made against the Council for the years 2005-2008.

Q.11. 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).

A: The financial cost of administering the complaints system is
dispersed across the organisation, forming a proportion of officer time as
and when formal complaints are received and require investigation.
Consequently these marginal costs are not recorded.

Q.12. Please also provide details of your total administrative costs for
2005/2006, 2006/2007 and 2007/2008

A. Unfortunately it is not clear from the question which costs are to be
included e.g. staff only, which types of staff, buildings and other
overheads.

Q.13 The total number of staff employed by your authority,

A: 650 staff are employed by Chichester District Council, excluding casual
staff.

Q.14. Any pay increase (including increments) made to the
Council's Chief Executive (Head of Paid Service) in pounds
sterling
for each of these years.

A. In view of the provisions of the Data Protection Act 1998 it is not
considered appropriate for this question to be answered in specific terms.
The Chief Executive is paid according to the NJC for Chief Executives and
he receives the nationally negotiated pay award on a single point salary.

Q.15. Please additionally identify if the Chief Executives wages included
performance related payments.

A. He is paid on a spot salary and does not receive performance related
pay.

Q.16. 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.

A. Not applicable.

Q.17.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.

A. Not applicable.

M J Kelley
District Solicitor
01243 534656
For the latest news and information from Chichester District Council
click:
[1]http://www.chichester.gov.uk

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References

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1. http://www.chichester.gov.uk/