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 Carruthers

I am emailing to confirm receipt of your FOI request to Wigan Council.

We will respond as soon as possible, and in any case, no later than September 23 2008, which is 20 working days after receipt of your request. If you have any comments or questions in the meantime, please do not hesitate to contact me.

Regards

Tim Turner
Data Protection / FOI Officer, Business Support Services
Wigan Council

External Tel: 01942 488354
External Fax: 01942 827093
Email address: [email address]
Postal address: Town Hall, Library Street, Wigan, WN1 IYN

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Dear Mr Carruthers

I am emailing to respond to your FOI request to Wigan Council. I have taken the liberty of numbering the questions in your request for the purposes of clarity.

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);

I am not aware where this definition of an elected member's duties comes from. However, we do not hold the information. Elected members are not under any duty to record the amount of time they spend on any particular activity, and the Council is not under any duty to monitor their time, or to ask them to do so themselves.

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.

2005/06 = £817,141 (75 elected members)
2006/07 = £950,061 (75 elected members)
2007/08 = £1,064,977 (75 elected members)

The increase over the three years is largely due to the introduction of the new Members Allowances scheme part way through 2006/07

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

2005/6: 510
2006/7: 591
2007/8: 587

We do not hold figures for whether any complaints were considered "formally" by elected members - this question appears to imply that there is a statutory mechanism for members to consider complaints from the public. If you can define what this process is, it might be possible to identify whether any complaints were considered by members - I am not aware of any such process.

4 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.

The main role for elected members in determining complaints against council staff is when they act as the Appeals Committee in disciplinary cases. Minutes of the Appeals Committee can be found on the Council's website at www.wigan.gov.uk. There is a link on the left-hand side to "Council and Democracy". Under Section 21 of the FOI Act, I am therefore refusing to provide this information to you on the basis that it is reasonably accessible to you by other means.

5 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.

We do not hold any relevant information.

5 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)

We do not hold any relevant information.

6 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.

We do not hold the cost of administering all complaints. The cost of administering all complaints includes a variety of different tangible and intangible factors, including staff time, software and equipment. Any member of staff may become involved in dealing with a complaint, depending on the nature of that complaint. Their cost would be part of the cost of operating our complaints system

The same is true of the costs of administration - most staff will be involved in administration tasks at some point, and the costs of their time, materials and equipment would have to be factored in to answer your request. This effectively involves the creation of new information, rather than the collation of existing information. The true cost of administration or complaints would need to include staff time, and many staff would have to calculate or estimate the time they had spent on any complaint they had dealt with. If you can provide a specific definition of what you think should and should not be included in the definition of administration costs, it might be possible for us to provide you with this information.

The number of staff employed by the Council fluctuates on a daily basis. On this basis, we do not hold a single figure for the number of staff employed. If you could provide a specific date on which you would like us to provide a snapshot, it may be possible to give you that figure if the information is still held.

The Chief Executive's salary has increased in line with the NJC rates.

2005/6 2.95% wef 1/4/2005
2006/7 2.95% wef 1/4/2006
2007/8 2.475% wef 1/4/2007

The Chief Executive's salary is available via the Council's accounts which are available on the Council's website as described above. I note that the Information Commissioner refused earlier this year to disclose his own exact salary and that of his most senior officers, and so although the accounts only show the salary within certain bands, our response is in line with the Commissioner's own standards. The Chief Executive's expectations will clearly be shaped by the Commissioner's judgement about his own salary, and so under Section 40 (2) of the Freedom of Information Act, I am refusing to provide the exact salary as it is personal data.

The final part of your request is ambiguous, as it appears to make the request for information contingent on the Council's own judgement of whether our complaints system is fit for purpose. In my opinion, the Council's complaints system is fit for purpose so we do not need to answer the final part of your request. This seems to be the premise on which your request is made. If you would like to make any further requests for information having come to a different conclusion, please let me know.

If you are unhappy with any aspect of this response, an independent senior officer will review this decision. Please let me know if you would like to arrange this.

You can also complain to the Information Commissioner, who is the regulator for Freedom of Information. His website is www.informationcommissioner.gov.uk, and his helpline number is 01625 545745. His staff may ask you to exhaust our internal complaints procedure if you choose to complain to his office now.

Tim Turner
Data Protection / FOI Officer
Business Support Services
Wigan Council

External Tel: 01942 488354
External Fax: 01942 827093
Email address: [email address]
Postal address: Town Hall, Library Street, Wigan, WN1 IYN

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Dear Sir or Madam,

many thanks for your reply. The functions of elected
representatives is actually identified by the Audit Commission..
and I'm pleased to see that you don't record their activities.

The only issue not answered are the person's appointed as Electoral
Registration Officer and Returning Officer(s) by the Council's and
the dates of their appointment(s).

Yours sincerely,

Stuart Hardwicke Carruthers

Dear Mr Hardwicke Carruthers

I am responding further to your email shown below on behalf of my
colleague Mr Tim Turner, the Council's Data Protection/Freedom of
Information Officer, who is now on annual leave.

Before answering your question please accept my apologies for Mr
Turner's oversight in not responding to the initial request for the
information shown below in his previous response.

The current Electoral Registration Officer and Returning Officer is the
Council's Chief Executive, Mrs Joyce Redfearn. Mrs Redfearn was
appointed to these roles upon taking up the job of Chief Executive on 16
May 2005.

It is my understanding that this is normal practice for many authorities
although some choose to appoint other officers to these roles.

I trust that this has answered this final question however, if you are
unhappy with any aspect of this response, an independent senior officer
will review this decision. Please let me know if you would like to
arrange this.

You can also complain to the Information Commissioner, who is the
regulator for Freedom of Information. His website is
www.informationcommissioner.gov.uk, and his helpline number is 01625
545745. His staff may ask you to exhaust our internal complaints
procedure if you choose to complain to his office now.

Yours faithfully,

Lee Gardiner
Corporate Records Manager
Business Support Services
Legal & Democratic Division
Wigan Council

Tel: 8427 (01942 488427)
Fax: 2093 (01942 827093)
Email: [email address]

Town Hall, Library Street, Wigan, WN1 1YN

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