Expenses LGO J White - Disappearance of £13,979 from the figures

Hi mark

What answer did the LGO send youon this, did they send it direct ?

11 January 2009

Mr M Price

Via email ([FOI #21221 email])

Our ref: CS/09/0138/HJP

(Please quote our reference when contacting us)

If telephoning contact Hilary Pook on 020 7217 4734

or if using email send to: [email address]

Dear Mr Price

Request for information

In your email of 8 December, you raised a number of queries about the details of travel expenses claimed by Jerry White, which I had sent you in response to your request CS/09/119.

The information provided to you so far has been held in our computerised accounting system. In order to respond to the new questions you raise, we would have to retrieve archived hard copy expense claims and associated invoices, as the computerised system does not hold sufficient details to provide the answers. The amount of time required in identifying the correct archive boxes to retrieve and to go through the files they contain would be longer than the 18 hours allowed by the current fees limit. I am therefore not responding to your request on the grounds set out in Section 12(1) of the Freedom of Information Act; that the cost of compliance exceeds the current fees limit (£450).

You also sent an email on 10 December, asking further questions. I will deal with these here as well. You asked who paid the differences in the figures I provided in my initial response to your first request about Mr White's expenses and the corrected response. In both cases, as I tried to explain in my letter of 25 November, the figures were wrong, so there is no question of these amounts being paid in some other way - the expenditure was not incurred on the items asked about.

On your final question, the question as it was put in your email of 29 October was not answered because the figures were incorrect - therefore the question did not apply. As you have rephrased it in your email of 10 December, your calculations are incorrect. On your assumption of an LGO working 219 days a year, the 1995/96 figure would be over £4.50 a day, and therefore nearly £23 per week (assuming you are calculating working days). Also, you ask why Mr White claimed 200 times as much in 2008/09 as he did in 1995/96. The difference between the £1,000 claimed in 1995/96 and the £10,667 claimed in 2008/09 is 10.7 times, not 200 times. To provide any more detail on the reasons for the differences would again take the time spent over the cost limit - as above.

That concludes my response. If you feel I have not dealt properly with your request, you have the right to appeal and, should you wish to do so, I can supply a copy our internal complaints procedure. If you do request an internal review - can you please indicate why you are unhappy with my response. You also have the right to apply to the Information Commissioner to determine whether your request has been properly dealt with. You should note however that the Commissioner will not consider any complaint where you have not first exhausted our internal complaints process or where there has been undue delay in contacting him. You will be able to obtain further details of the Information Commissioner's role from the website on www.ico.gov.uk.

Yours sincerely

Hilary Pook

Hilary Pook (Ms)

Communications and Records Manager