Number of people signed off work with depression

It is bad practice for authorities to reply using proprietary formats, especially rare ones, and especially when the message could have been conveyed in plain text. Sending the file with one extension after another just exasperates things. The text from the attachment is reproduced below:

"

Lin Webb
Administrative Assistant
Corporate Human Resources

County Hall
Spetchley Road
Worcester
WR5 2NP
Document3
S James
Via email [request address]

13 Aug. 09

Dear S James
Freedom of information act 2000 - information request concerning the number of people signed off work with depression.
Thank you for contacting Worcestershire County Council. I acknowledge your request for information received on 12 August 2009.

Your request is being considered and we will contact you within the 20 working day timescale as defined by the Freedom of Information Act 2000.

The Act defines a number of exemptions, which may prevent release of the information you have asked for. If this is the case we will write to you and also inform you of your rights of appeal.

In some circumstances Worcestershire County Council (WCC) may make a charge for this information. This will be considered and we will tell you if a fee is payable. In this event the fee must be paid before the information is processed and released. The 20 working day time limit for responses will be suspended until receipt of the payment and payment must be made within three months.

In some circumstances WCC may need to consult with third parties (people not employed by WCC) about the release of information relating to them or their organisation. Please let me know if you do not wish your name to be released to any third parties we may need to contact in order to fulfil this request.

If you have any queries or concerns then please contact me on 01905 766204.

Yours sincerely

Lin Webb
Administrative Assistant
"

Dear Richard Tayor,
Thanks for your comments, I agree it was very bad practice! And thank you for copying what was written.

Many thanls.

The latest response, also in an odd format, states:

"Lin Webb
Administrative Assistant
Corporate Human Resources

County Hall
Spetchley Road
Worcester
WR5 2NP
Document3
S James
Via email request-16805-df2e3add@whatdotheyknow.com

21 September 2009

Dear S James
FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT 2000 - information request concerning the number of people signed off work with depression
Dear S James,

Thank you for your further enquiry, please accept my apologies for the delay in responding to you.

Although I understand your opening question and have responded to this, unfortunately I do not understand the rest of your email referring to when you were in primary school.

I can only confirm that WCC does not hold the number of employees who have retired as a 'people' figure, however we do hold this information as a percentage of the Workforce and so I have provided you with this figure for each of the years that we have produced it, and to assist you in calculating the figure you have requested I have provided you with the total workforce figure for the same years.

Please note when you do your calculation the resultant answer figure may not be a whole number as the percentage figure would have been rounded up or down accordingly in the first instance.

Kind Regards,

Bridget Clark
Recruitment and Reward Manager

If you have a complaint about the handling of this enquiry then in the first instance please contact:
Consumer Relations Department
Worcestershire County Council
County Hall
Spetchley Road
Worcester
WR5 2NP
01905 766364

You can then also contact the Information Commissioner at:
Information Commissioner's Office
Wycliffe House
Water Lane
Wilmslow
Cheshire 
SK9 5AF 
Telephone: 01625 54 57 45
www.informationcommissioner.gov.uk

"