Dear Sir or Madam,

I would like to know how much the council gave elected
representatives and staff by way of expenses over the last two
financial years. Totals if possible, by name for elected
representatives and by departments for staff.

I would also like a list of allowable expenses by category.

I would also like to know what the highest allowed and disallowed
claims were for and who made them.

Yours faithfully,

Trevor R Nunn

Dear Sir/Madam,

Thank you for your request for information regarding expenses, which was
received on 3rd June, 2009 and is being dealt with under the Freedom of
Information Act 2000. We are therefore required to provide you with a
response within 20 working days, which will be on or before 1st July,
2009.

If we require any clarification or further details, we will contact you
as soon as possible.

In the meantime, if you have any queries, please do not hesitate to
contact me, remembering to quote the reference number above in any
communications.

Yours faithfully

John Tillman
Swyddog Gwybodaeth a Diogelu Data
Adran y Prif Weithredwr
Cyngor Sir Gaerfyrddin

Information & Data Protection Officer
Chief Executive's Department
Carmarthenshire County Council

show quoted sections

Dear Mr Nunn,

I refer to your request for information regarding expenses, which was
received on 3rd June, 2009 and has been dealt with under the Freedom of
Information Act 2000.

The specific information you requested was as follows:

1. The amount the Council gave elected representatives and staff by way of
expenses over the last two financial years (2007/08 and 2008/09) in totals
figures, by name for Elected Mepresentatives and by departments for staff.

2. A list of allowable expenses by category.

3. What the highest allowed and disallowed claims were for, and who made
them.

In response, please find below tables which provide the total amount of
expenses reimbursed to staff per department.

2007/08

Department Total reimbursed - travel Total reimbursed -
subsistence
Chief Executives £146,899.53 £8,435.62
Education & Children's Services £1,170,806.90 £15,341.80
Regeneration & Leisure £267,813.49 £11,504.70
Resources £124,303.55 £19,839.79
Social Care, Health & Housing £920,765.85 £13,730.16
Technical Services £371,876.02 £18,876.21

2008/09

Department Total reimbursed - travel Total reimbursed -
subsistence
Chief Executives £159,923.72 £8,724.09
Education & Children's Services £1,302,448.60 £22,500.40
Regeneration & Leisure £243,006.87 £10,140.04
Resources £126,111.57 £26,120.00
Social Care, Health & Housing £936,782.41 £15,070.77
Technical Services £451,167.26 £21,224.76

Figures for Elected Members have been published by the Council for some
time and are accessible on our website via the following link:

[1]http://www.carmarthenshire.gov.uk/Englis...

With regard to the categories of allowable expenses, this information is
also published on the Council's website as follows:

Members allowances:

[2]http://www.carmarthenshire.gov.uk/Englis...

Staff allowances and expenses:

[3]http://www.carmarthenshire.gov.uk/Englis...

Under Section 21 of the Act, a public authority is not obliged to provide
information which is already reasonably accessible to the applicant, which
in this case is via our website as detailed above.

In response to the final part of your request, I am unable to provide this
information for reasons I will explain below.

Details of individual claims, including the amounts claimed, during the
last two financial years will be recorded on manual claim forms submitted
by Elected Members and staff, for reimbursement of expenses incurred in
the course of their duties. However, in the region of 40 to 50,000 claim
forms are held for the two years and are held as hard copies in monthly
batches. To retrieve the information you have requested would represent a
huge amount of work, and would involve manually sifting through the claims
for each month, checking the amounts claimed, noting the largest amount
and then establishing whether it was paid.

Based on a conservative estimate of one minute to check each of around
40,000 claim forms, it would take in excess of 600 hours to undertake this
work.

Under Section 12 of the Act, a public authority is not obliged to comply
with a request if it considers that to do so would exceed the appropriate
limit.  This limit is defined in The Freedom of Information and Data
Protection (Appropriate Limit and Fees) Regulations 2004 as £450, which
equates to 18 hours of work at the standard rate specified in the
Regulations of £25.00 per hour.

As explained above, we have calculated that to retrieve and extracting
the information you have asked for far exceed the above limit.

 

Please therefore consider this email to be a formal notice under Section
17 and 17 (5) of the Act that I am refusing to provide information
already published and am unable to comply with another part of your
request as it would exceed the appropriate limit.

We would normally invite the requester to refine their request or reduce
its scope where the limit is exceeded, although given the specific nature
of this part of your request, it is difficult in this case to see how this
would be possible. Nonetheless, please do not hesitate to contact me
should you wish to discuss this further.

If you are unhappy with the way in which your request has been dealt
with, you are entitled to complain in the first instance to:

The Head of Administration & Law

Carmarthenshire County Council

County Hall

Carmarthen

SA31 1JP

If you remain unhappy with any subsequent decision, you have the right to
appeal to the Information Commissioner to rule on your complaint.  You
may contact him at:

Information Commissioner

Information Commissioner's Office

Wycliffe House

Water Lane

Wilmslow

Cheshire

SK9 5AF

If I can be of any further assistance, please do not hesitate to contact
me.

 

Yours sincerely

John Tillman
Swyddog Gwybodaeth a Diogelu Data
Adran y Prif Weithredwr
Cyngor Sir Gaerfyrddin

Information & Data Protection Officer
Chief Executive's Department
Carmarthenshire County Council

Tel: (01267) 246108
Mewnol/Internal: 6108
Ffacs/Fax: (01267) 246134

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