functions council

Dear Mr Carruthers,

This letter is to confirm that we have received your request. It will be forwarded to the appropriate department(s) and a response will follow.

Yours sincerely,
Richard Roscoe.

Richard Roscoe.
Data Protection and Information Security Officer.
Sefton Council.
1st Floor, Balliol House,
Balliol Road,
Bootle, Merseyside.
L20 3FF

Tel: 0151 934 4416
Fax: 0151 934 4157
e-mail: [email address]

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Dear Sir or Madam,

Sirs

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
otal 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

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Dear Sir,

I apologise for our delay in responding to your request(s). I have contacted the department(s), who are having difficulty sourcing the information you need, and a response will be sent out forthwith.

Yours sincerely.
Richard Roscoe.

Richard Roscoe.
Data Protection and Information Security Officer.
Sefton Council,
1st Floor, Balliol House,
Balliol Road,
Bootle, Merseyside.
L20 3FF
Tel: 0151 934 4416
Fax: 0151 934 4157
e: [email address]

Please don't print this e-mail unless you have to. It wastes paper and it can create a security risk.

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Dear Mr. Carruthers

FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT 2000 - FOI539 - Details of members and complaints.

My apologies for the delay in responding to your request. Your request for information has now been considered and the information requested is below. You ask:

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.

Response: The Council does not hold this information.

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.

Response: See attached documents for costs. 66 members have represented the Authority over this time.

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.

Response: 2006/364, 2007/826, 2008 874.

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

Response: None

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,

Response: None.

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

Response: None.

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.

Response: None.

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.

Response: The Council does not hold this information in this format and to create it would exceed the appropriate limit of 18 man-hours (£450).

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)

Response: The Council does not hold this information. The reason for this has already been supplied to you in one of your simultaneous requests on the same subject.

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).

Response: We have 3 staff in Chief Executives business support unit working roughly 0.5 fte supporting the Corporate Complaints system. FOI/DPA Section 7 complaints are dealt with informally by the owner/department handling the request. Where deadlock is reached they are referred to the Corporate Complaints system. We have no figures for the resources expended by the departments themselves.

Please also provide details of your total administrative costs for 2005/2006, 2006/2007 and 2007/2008

Response:

2006 - £24.882M
2007 - £25.689M
2008 - £27.767M

and the total number of staff employed by your authority,

Response:

1.4.05 - 31.3.06 12,737
1.4.06 - 31.3.07 12,454
1.4.07 - 31.3.08 11,748

And any pay increase (including increments) made to the Council's Chief Executive (Head of Paid Service) in pounds sterling for each of these years.

Response.

1.4.05 - 31.3.06 £8,881
1.4.06 - 31.3.07 £9,852
1.4.07 - 31.3.08 £4,266

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

Response. There are no performance related payments. However it should be noted that the Chief Executive is subject to performance appraisal as are all employees.

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.

Response. The Council is of the opinion that our complaints system is fit for purpose. However, should you still wish to access this information it is all available via the Sefton website at http://www.sefton.gov.uk/Default.aspx?pa... .

If you are dissatisfied with the handling of your request please do contact us.

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

Richard Roscoe.
Data Protection and
Information Security Officer.
Sefton Council ICT Client.
4th Floor, Merton House,
Stanley Rd, Bootle. L20 3JA.

Tel: 0151 934 4416
Please don't print this e-mail unless you have to. It wastes paper and it can create a security risk.

<>This message is intended for named addressees only and may contain confidential,
privileged or commercially sensitive information. If you are not a named addressee
and this message has come to you in error you must not copy, distribute or take any action
on its content. Please return the message to the sender by replying to it immediately
and then delete it from your computer and destroy any copies of it.

All e-mail communications sent to or from Sefton Metropolitan Borough Council
may be subject to recording and / or monitoring in accordance with current legislation.

This message does not create or vary any contractual relationship between Sefton
Metropolitan Borough Council and you.

Internet e-mail is not a 100% secure communication medium and Sefton Metropolitan
Borough Council does not accept responsibility for changes made to this message
after it was sent.

Whilst all reasonable care has been taken to ensure that this message is virus-free,
it is the recipient's responsibility to carry out virus checks as appropriate and ensure
that the onward transmission, opening or use of this message and any attachments will not
adversely affect their systems or data. Sefton Metropolitan Borough Council does not
accept any responsibility in this regard."

Dear Mr Carruthers.

You have now submitted 4 requests to us around the same subject and
have asked for reviews or raised complaints against all 4 responses. We
are unclear from your responses which individual items of information
have not been provided.

For your information the 4 requests were:

Freedom of Information request 539 - functions council (26/8/2008)
Freedom of Information request 551 - Rejection of Ombudsmans
Recommendation (3/9/2008)
Freedom of Information request 562 - Sefton Council (5/9/2008)
Freedom of Information request 561 - January 2008 (5/9/2008)

We would appreciate a single, simple list of the items that you feel we
have not provided and we shall commence our review as soon as we have
it. For your information I have spoken to the Information Commissioner
and they do not feel that asking you for combined clarification in these
circumstances is unreasonable.

We look forward to your response.

Richard Roscoe.
Data Protection and
Information Security Officer.
Sefton Council ICT Client.
4th Floor, Merton House,
Stanley Rd, Bootle. L20 3JA.

Tel: 0151 934 4416
Please don't print this e-mail unless you have to. It wastes paper and
it can create a security risk.

<>This message is intended for named addressees only and may contain
confidential,
privileged or commercially sensitive information. If you are not a named
addressee
and this message has come to you in error you must not copy, distribute
or take any action
on its content. Please return the message to the sender by replying to
it immediately
and then delete it from your computer and destroy any copies of it.

All e-mail communications sent to or from Sefton Metropolitan Borough
Council
may be subject to recording and / or monitoring in accordance with
current legislation.

This message does not create or vary any contractual relationship
between Sefton
Metropolitan Borough Council and you.

Internet e-mail is not a 100% secure communication medium and Sefton
Metropolitan
Borough Council does not accept responsibility for changes made to this
message
after it was sent.

Whilst all reasonable care has been taken to ensure that this message is
virus-free,
it is the recipient's responsibility to carry out virus checks as
appropriate and ensure
that the onward transmission, opening or use of this message and any
attachments will not
adversely affect their systems or data. Sefton Metropolitan Borough
Council does not
accept any responsibility in this regard."

Dear Mr Hardwicke-Carruthers

We have reviewed the response we sent to you. We still feel that we
have answered your questions to the best of our ability, and have
explained why we do not hold certain of the information you asked for.

If you feel that our handling of your FOI request is unsatisfactory you
can complain to the Information Commissioner at:

Information Commissioner's Office
Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow
Cheshire. SK9 5AF

Telephone: 01625 545 700

Richard Roscoe.
Data Protection and
Information Security Officer.
Sefton Council ICT Client.
4th Floor, Merton House,
Stanley Rd, Bootle. L20 3JA.

Tel: 0151 934 4416
Please don't print this e-mail unless you have to. It wastes paper and
it can create a security risk.

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