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

The Council does not hold the requested information in an easily
extractable format. To try and extract all the data you are requesting
would see the cost of compliance exceeding the appropriate limit (Sect.
12 of the Freedom of Information Act) and a fees notice would need to be
issued. Pease contact me if you wish to pursue this information with
the Council to see if the request can be refined to bring it to below
the limit.

Your request is on hold until I hear from you.

Alec Stevens
Leicester City Council
Resources Department
B6, New Walk Centre
Leicester
LE1 6ZG

Tel. (0116 252) 7114

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Dear Alec Stevens,

Which components of the request does the Council not hold in an
easily 'extractable' format. The information requested all relates
to basic management data that should be easily available.. unless
Leicester City Council's systems are still based on vellum and
quills.

I am unable to rephrase my request unless you identify which
components of the information requested is not subject to
management control systems.. and dare I say it accountability to
the elected representatives.

Yours sincerely,

Stuart HARDWICKE CARRUTHERS

Dear Alec Stevens,

Please identify the domains that cause problems

Yours sincerely,

Stuart Hardwicke CARRUTHERS

My apologies for the delay in responding to your request. I have arranged your original request into the separate questions that are asked and these are currently being considered. Please find the list of these attached.

I envisage that it will take us an extra 15 working days over the statutory timescale of 20 working days as defined by the Freedom of Information Act. This is due to officers who may hold the information having left their current posts and I can only apologise once more for the delay.

Yours sincerely

Mrs Rhona Kingett

Mrs Rhona Kingett
Resources Policy Unit
B6 New Walk Centre
Leicester

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Dear Mr Hardwicke Curruthers

FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT 2000 - INFORMATION REQUEST

Your request for information has now been considered. As I explained
in my email to you of 9th October, I have split your original email into
a number of questions that I believe it covers. The answers to a number
of these questions follow. The remaining ones will be answered
shortly.

1. The average proportion of time the elected representatives of
your authority spend on directly resolving complaints against the
executive (Council Staff) of the Council by residents for 2005/06,
2006/07 and 2007/08.

2. The average proportion of time the elected representatives of
your authority spend sitting on committee’s for 2005/06, 2006/07 and
2007/08.

3. The average proportion of time the elected representatives of
your authority spend acting for the political parties that they
represent and/or ceremonial duties (i.e. all time not spent sitting on a
Committee or resolving a complaint against the executive)for 2005/06,
2006/07 and 2007/08.

The information to answer the questions 1, 2 and 3 is not held by
Leicester City Council and therefore cannot be passed on to you.

4. How much in total was paid to local councillors to meet all
their duties (including expenses) for 2005/06, 2006/07 and 2007/08 by
your authority.

The answer to question 4 will follow shortly.

5. How many elected representatives are (and were) represented on
your authority for these years.

54 elected representatives for each of the years mentioned.

6. How many Complaints in total were submitted to your Council in
2005/06, 2006/07 and 2007/08 for each year.

Data was recorded each year from October - September

Complaints Received:

October 2006 - March 2007 - 1034
April 2007 - September 2007 - 1235
October 2007 - March 2008 - 1314

7. How many of these complaints were formally considered by an
elected representative for each of these years.

The complaints procedure does not involve elected members. Anyone who
has exhausted the council's procedures and is still dissatisfied with
officer responses are encouraged to go to the ombudsman.

8. How many complaints against the executive (Council staff) led to
the elected representatives formally identifying that the Executive had
acted wrongly for the years 2005/06, 2006/07 and 2007/08.

If this is asking how many of the complaints were upheld then:
Oct 06 - March 07 - 35% upheld
April 07 - Sept 07 - 65% upheld
Oct 07 - Mar 08 - 34%

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

As previously stated, elected members are not involved in the
complaints procedure.

10. How many staff employed by your authority in 2005/06, 2006/07
and 2007/08 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.

As previously stated, elected members are not involved in the
complaints procedure.

11. 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 2005/06, 2006/07 and 2007/08.

The answer to question 11 will follow shortly.

12. 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
2005/06, 2006/07 and 2007/08 (for each year)

13. Whether the Local Government Ombudsman’s recommendations have
been met in full (including any non-financial recommendations for each
year).

14. Please detail any recommendation that has not been met in full
and provide a copy of the Elected representatives decision.

The answers to questions 12, 13 and 14 can be found on the Local
Government Ombudsman’s website at www.lgo.org.uk . For your
information this part of the letter constitutes a refusal notice under
Section 17 of the Freedom of Information Act because an exemption under
Section 21 of the Act is being applied, namely the information is
accessible by other means, e.g. the Local Government Ombudsman’s
website.

15. Please additionally identify if these costs were met directly by
Council Tax Payers or the Council’s insurers (excluding self insurance
by a Council).

£1,851 was paid from the Council’s Internal Insurance Fund for
2007-08. Otherwise all other payments have been met from in-year
budgetary provision.

16. Please provide details of the financial cost of administering
all your complaints systems (including F0I and DP) by the Executive for
2005/06, 2006/07 and 2007/08 and the number of staff employed in
administering complaints and resolving these (Full time equivalent
staffing levels).

All complaints are routed through our Customer Services function. There
are no staff solely dedicated to complaints work in the Customer
Services function - it forms part of the general workload of the unit as
it arises. These complaints are directed to departmental complaints
officers to initiate investigation. Two of these departmental officers
(i.e. for Childrens and Young People’s Services and Adult and Housing)
are dedicated complaints (2 Full Time Equivalents) posts (statutorily
required) but otherwise complaints are investigated and administered by
the appropriate staff. The costs of non-dedicated staff time in
administering complaints are not known. A one - off sum of £50k was
included in the 2008-09 budget to fund improvements in the overall
quality and efficiency of the Council’s responses to complaints.

17. Please provide details of your total administrative costs for
2005/06, 2006/07 and 2007/08.

The term “total administrative costs” is very broad.

For 2007-08 the gross expenditure costs of administering and providing
all Council services was £845.8m.

If the question is asked more specifically we may be able to provide a
more specific answer.

18. Please provide the total number of staff employed by your
authority.

19. Please provide details of any pay increase (including
increments) made to the Council’s Chief Executive (Head of Paid
Service) in pounds sterling for each of these years.

20. Please identify if the Chief Executives wages included
performance related payments.

The answer to questions 18, 19 and 20 will follow shortly.

The legislation allows you to use the information supplied for your own
personal use. Please be aware that any commercial or other use, for
example publication, sale, or redistribution may be a breach of
copyright under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 as amended
unless you obtain the copyright holder's prior permission.

Not all the information that is supplied which is covered by copyright
will be the Council's copyright, for example it may be the copyright of
a government department or another Council. You should seek either the
Council’s consent or their consent as appropriate. The Council is
willing to advise you of any such potential issues on request. In order
to make a request to re-use the information please contact the Head of
Information Governance at the address detailed below.

If you are dissatisfied with the handling of your request please
contact:
Head of Information Governance
Resources Department
Leicester City Council, FREEPOST (LE985/33)
New Walk Centre
LEICESTER LE1 6ZG

You can also complain to the Information Commissioner at:
Information Commissioner's Office
Wycliffe House
Water Lane
Wilmslow
Cheshire
SK9 5AF

Telephone: 01625 545 700
www.informationcommissioner.gov.uk

Yours sincerely,

Rhona Kingett
Information Co-ordinator

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