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 on expenditure and
complaints. Your request was received on the 26th August and I am
dealing with it under the terms of the Freedom of Information Act 2000.

In some circumstances a fee may be payable and if that is the case, I
will let you know the likely charges before proceeding.

If you have any queries about this matter please contact me. Please
remember to quote the reference number above in any future
communications.

Regards,
Natasha Marshall
Corporate Performance Team
Chief Executive's Directorate
Northumberland County Council
County Hall
Morpeth NE61 2EF
Telephone: 01670 534182
E-mail: [email address]

Northumberland made the following annotations

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Dear Sir

I refer to your recent request for information about Members' duties and associated matters.

With regard to your questions about how Councillors spend their time, we do not keep records of this nature so I am afraid that I cannot answer all of your questions with any guaranteed accuracy and some cannot be answered at all. I am able to tell you that in November 2005, the County Council's Remuneration Panel estimated that non-executive members needed to devote a minimum of 20 hours a week to their non-executive role. This is supported by the National Census of Local Authority Councillors 2006 which suggests an average of 21.6 hours a week. Several members have participated in a further review recently and all state that their current workload is in excess of this minimum.

We have 67 members on the Council at present and have had this number for several years.. For clarification, we have had no complaints against the Executive itself. I will send you details of expenses paid over the last three years in a separate e mail later today.

The County Council is not presently the Electoral Registration Authority within the County. This responsibilty falls to the six District Councils within Northumberland. The County Council's Chief Executive is the Council's Returning Officer for the purposes of County Council elections only. He appoints the six District Council Chief Executives as Deputy Returning Officers and they conduct the elections on his behalf.

The Council presently has no overall political control. 26 members of the Liberal Democrats Group have taken over the Administration, leaving 41 members from other parties in Opposition.

The Finance Directorate is responsible for Data Protection issues. This is part of the duties of the Data and Network Security Officer.

We do not have a dedicated Complaints section. We run a two stage process. First formal complaints are dealt with by a member of staff in the Directorate concerned. If still dissatisfied, complainants may then seek review at the second stage, where we have approximately 0.5 FTE staffing working on this area of business.

Details of formal local complaints against the Council are as follows - 2005/06 - 66; 2006/07 - 90; 2007/08 - 115. Three local settlements [one of £500 and two of £250] were made during the period of time mentioned in your e mail. One settlement [£575] was made in 2006/07 as a result of an investigation by the Local Government Ombudsman.

Members do not consider individual complaints as part of the complaints procedure.

Quoting overall staffing numbers can often led to misinterpretation. Please note that the following figures relate to the number of people paid through Payroll, rather than Full Time Equivalent numbers, which I do not have.

2005/06 - 13142; 2006/07 - 13037; 2007/08 - 12785. The Chief Executive will have received the cost of living increase in 2005/06 and 2006/07. A temporary payment, a monthly honorarium of 20%, was paid to the former Chief Executive during the latter part of 2007/08 to reflect Local Government Re-organisation issues. That is not paid to his successor.

Budgets are not categorised in the way you have requested so I am unable to answer your question about "administrative costs". We do not have specific budgets for Complaints and Data Protection either. Both are volume driven. The more we receive, the longer they take to deal with so the cost rises proportionately. Staff have to prioritise this area of work against others within their overall duties.

Yours faithfully

Bob Biggs
Support Services Manager
Legal & Administrative Services
Personnel and Administration Directorate
Northumberland County Council
County Hall
Morpeth NE61 2EF
Telephone: 01670 533209
Fax: 01670 533238
E-mail: [email address]
Website: http://www.northumberland.gov.uk

Northumberland made the following annotations

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Earlier e mail refers

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Northumberland made the following annotations

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Earlier e mail refers

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Northumberland made the following annotations

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