Funding to 'Be-Birmingham' Transparency, Accountability and Equality

Dear Sir or Madam,

This Freedom of Information request is made in public interest for
reasons of Transparency, Accountability, Equality and Best Value
for Money.

The Department of Communities and Local Government has given over
£100 million of public money to 'Be-Birmingham', the strategic
partnership in Birmingham.

On 3 November 2009 Birmingham Post Newspaper said - Minister
attacks Birmingham for not spending more on employment projects.
Communities Secretary John Denham said failure to spend a £115
million fund to combat worklessness quickly enough risked
“undermining” the partnership between local and national government
and he ordered civil servants to keep track of the council’s future
progress.

As the Communities and Local Government is aware 'Be-Birmingham' is
not a public body and is not covered by the Freedom of Information
Act. And also because 'Be-Birmingham' is not a public body it is
also not covered by the statutory public duty in the Race Relations
Act. Below is the extract of the text from page 13 of the statutory
Code of Practice on the Duty to Promote Race Equality.

Statutory - CODE OF PRACTICE ON THE DUTY TO PROMOTE RACE EQUALITY

Private or voluntary organisations carrying out a public
authority's functions - on page 13

2.9 When a public authority has a contract or other agreement with
a private company or voluntary organisation to carry out any of its
functions (see the glossary), and the duty to promote race equality
applies to those functions, the public authority remains
responsible for meeting the general duty and any specific duties
that apply to those functions. The authority should therefore
consider the arrangements it will need. If the authority’s race
equality duties are relevant to the functions it is contracting
out, it may be appropriate to incorporate those duties among the
performance requirements for delivery of the service. For example,
a contractor could be required to monitor service users by their
racial group, to make sure the authority is meeting its duties.
This would not involve requirements concerning the contractor’s
internal practices. Whatever action the authority takes, it must be
consistent with the policy and legal framework for public
procurement.

According the Statutory code of practice on the duty to promote
race equality the Communities and Local Government Department is
responsible for the Transparency, Accountability and Best Value for
Money and race equality of 'Be-Birmingham' expenditure of the over
£100 million public money which the Communities and Local
Government Department has given to them.

1 Please provide the total amount of money the Communities and
Local Government Department has given to Be-Birmingham and give the
number of years Be-Birmingham has to spend that money.

2 Please provide the criteria the Communities and Local Government
Department issued to Be-Birmingham regarding on what this money is
to be used for.

3 Please provide the amount of the money that Be-Birmingham has
already spent in each financial year on each thematic function such
as unemployment, education and so on.

4 Please provide evidence (in percentages) of the race equality
impacts assessment showing the total population of the different
racial groups such as Pakistanis, who could be potential customers
for each thematic function such as unemployment, education and so
on, which should have been done by Be-Birmingham and which are
statutorily required by the public duty in the Race Relations Act.

5 Please provide evidence (in percentages) the inequality gaps
between different racial groups such as Pakistanis Be-Birmingham
identified from the impact assessments of each thematic function
such as unemployment, education and so on in each financial year.

6 Please provide evidence of the actions that have been taken and
the amount of funding proportionately allocated for each financial
year by Be-Birmingham to reduce inequality gaps between the
different racial groups such Pakistanis and so on identified by the
impact assessments of each thematic function such as unemployment,
education and so on.

7 Please provide evidence (in percentages) the different racial
groups such as Pakistanis assisted so far in each financial year
and in each thematic function such as unemployment, education and
so on by the funding given to Be-Birmingham by the Communities and
Local Government Department.

8 Please provide evidence in percentages of the different racial
groups such as Pakistanis directly employed by the organisations
(please name the organisations) to whom Be-Birmingham have given
the money to deliver services with the money from the Communities
and Local Government Department.

9 Provide details of the sanctions the Communities and Local
Government Department can use when statutory law is broken by a
partner organisation or any other organisation receiving funding
from the Communities and Local Government Department.

Yours faithfully,

Luqman Khan

Dear Department for Communities and Local Government,

Please pass this on to the person who conducts Freedom of
Information reviews.

I am writing to request an internal review of Department for
Communities and Local Government's handling of my FOI request
'Funding to 'Be-Birmingham' Transparency, Accountability and
Equality'.

I am not happy with your response to my FOI and I request an
internal review.

For the record the Department of Communities and Local Government
(CLG) should not be washing its hand of the Value for money and
Equality concerns about £100 million of public money (WNF) given
away by the Government to Birmingham.

In an speech on 7 December 2009 the Prime Minister, Gordon Brown
said - "At the same time there will be no hiding place for
Ministers or civil servants who fail to drive increasing
efficiencies from their departments. We will link more explicitly
than ever before the performance of departments to rewards".

Clearly the CLG Ministers and the Civil Servants are hiding because
your response has failed to deal with my complaint about the over
£100 million Working Neighbourhood Funding CLG has given to
Birmingham.

The Government Office West Midlands Civil Servants attend the
Partnership meetings with Birmingham City Council regularly. Why do
they do that and get paid public money if they have no role in the
way the WNF funding is used.

I have now submitted FOI request to Birmingham City Council about
WNF. I am confident that the end result of my FOI request to
Birmingham City Council will show that Birmingham City Council has
failed to comply with Statutory Public Duty of the Race Relations
Act in connection with WNF from the start of the WNF to the present
date. What will the Government do then. Will the Government help to
prosecute Birmingham City Council senior managers and senior
politicians.

The WNF money in Birmingham has been used for nearly two years and
during this time the Council failure to comply with the race
equality statutory public duty has caused enormous damage to the
poor communities and the failure to comply with the race equality
law has also damaged community cohesion. And yet at the same time
the government is spending billions of pound on security measure to
prevent violent extremism. Quite rightly so the Governmentr want
people to comply with the law. But at the same time the government
is allowing Birmingham City Council to get away with not to comply
with the law to do with WNF. Is this double standards?

At the end of my FOI request to Birmingham City Council I shall be
asking the CLG to help prosecute Birmingham City Council for
breaking the law to do with WNF.

A full history of my FOI request and all correspondence is
available on the Internet at this address:
http://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/fu...

Yours faithfully,

Luqman Khan