Reading list

Dear Mr Carruthers

Thank you for your request for information. I have attempted to interpret
your request to ask for recorded data. If my interpretation is incorrect
please contact me clarifying your request.

Request:

1. Identify the District Auditor of Lambeth Council,
2. Are they a member of The Chartered Institute of Public Finance
and Accountancy (CIPFA),
3. What does the Audit Commission expect from CIPFA members
appointed as auditors,
4. Details of any books that the Audit Commission and/or any member
of its staff has borrowed from Lambeth Council over the last 12
months,
5. Details of any fines resulting from 4.
6. Details of all meetings and associated documents of the Audit
Commission and/or the appointed Auditor with Lambeth related to
its disappearing libraries,
7. The top 10 (25 if possible) books that the Audit Commission
suggests appointed auditors read to determine if Libraries exist
within Lambeth,
8. Identify by Council which other district auditors have
discovered that libraries and the books they hold have
disappeared.

Your request has been assigned and referenced RFI 958, for efficiency
please note this reference number on all correspondence.

The Audit Commission is committed to the principles of the Freedom of
Information Act (FoIA) and will wherever possible provide all the
information requested unless constrained by another statute or by an
exemption within the FoIA. Please note that some information you have
requested may not be provided to you; this will only be information that
can be withheld by law. In which case the reasons will be explained to you
along with your copy of any information that can be released to you.

Your request was received by the Audit Commission on 12/12/2008, it is
being considered and you will receive a response within the statutory
timescale of 20 working days from receipt of the request, as defined by
the FoIA. That date is 14/01/2009.

The Audit Commission may need to contact you if the request needs to be
clarified; this is to ensure that we provide you with the information you
require

In some circumstances a fee may be payable and if that is the case, we
will let you know. A fees notice will be issued to you, and you will be
required to pay before we will proceed to deal with your request.

Yours Sincerely

Shaun Kavanagh
Information Compliance Advisor
+44 (0)844 798 7961
[email address]

The Audit Commission
Nicholson House
Lime Kiln Close
Stoke Gifford
Bristol
BS34 8SU

Any Freedom of Information requests please send these directly to
[1][Audit Commission request email]

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Dear Hardwicke Carruthers
Further to my email to you on 17/12/2008, I am writing respond to your
request for information received by the Audit Commission on 10/12/2008.

1. Identify the District Auditor of Lambeth Council?

Kash Pandya (from 2003/04 up to and including 2007/08).

2. Are they a member of The Chartered Institute of Public Finance and
Accountancy (CIPFA)?

Yes.

3. What does the Audit Commission expect from CIPFA members appointed as
auditors?

This information is already reasonably publicly available via the link
below. Questions 9 and 10 are particularly relevant.

[1]http://www.audit-commission.gov.uk/about...

This information provides what the Audit Commission expects from all
Auditors regardless of qualification.

4. Details of any books that the Audit Commission and/or any member of its
staff has borrowed from Lambeth Council over the last 12 months.

The Audit Commission has not borrowed any books from Lambeth Council.

Information concerning any members of staff who have borrowed books from
Lambeth Council is not held by AC.

5. Details of any fines resulting from 4.

See answer to Q4.

6. Details of all meetings and associated documents of the Audit
Commission and/or the appointed Auditor with Lambeth related to its
disappearing libraries.

We are currently still processing this part of your request. It is
important that we ascertain whether information is held by the Audit
Commission - this information is subject to the Freedom of Information Act
(FoIA) - or by the Appointed Audit - this information would not be subject
to the FoIA.

An investigation is currently ongoing. We are therefore considering
Section 33 of the FoIA - i.e. whether disclosure of information held by
the Audit Commission at this time may prejudice the audit function.

I apologise for the delay in responding to this part of your request and
will respond to you on or before Monday 19th January 2009.

7. The top 10 (25 if possible) books that the Audit Commission suggests
appointed auditors read to determine if Libraries exist within Lambeth.

None. Auditors conduct their work in accordance with relevant professional
standards and guidance.
8. Identify by Council which other district auditors have discovered that
libraries and the books they hold have disappeared.

Information that would enable someone to identify Councils where concerns
have been raised about nature of libraries and/or books may be created by
the Appointed Audit during the performance of their audit/inspection. This
information would be held by the Appointed Auditor and would not therefore
be subject to the FoIA.

Such information may have been provided to the Audit Commission. However,
the scope of this part of your request would require the information held
in relation to nearly 400 Audited and inspected bodies to be reviewed in
order to ascertain whether information relating to such concerns had ever
been provided to the Commission, for example as part of the Comprehensive
performance assessment process. The Audit Commission estimates that
locating and extracting this information would exceed the appropriate cost
limit. I am therefore refusing this part of your request under Section 12
of the FoIA.

If you are unhappy with what has been provided, or the way your request
has been handled, you can raise a complaint under the Audit Commission's
Access to Information Complaints Procedure, please find via this link:

[2]http://www.audit-commission.gov.uk/about...
Information supplied under the Freedom of Information Act and/or
Environmental Information Regulations will be subject to copyright
protection under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. Information
can be re-used for the purposes of research for non-commercial purposes,
for private study, or for news reporting and reviews, without requiring
formal consent. However, if you wish to re-use the information for
commercial purposes, including publishing, you are required to seek the
permission of the Audit Commission. Permission to re-use copyright
information is granted in the form of a licence.

Yours sincerely

Shaun Kavanagh
Information Compliance Advisor
+44 (0)844 798 7961
[email address]

The Audit Commission
Nicholson House
Lime Kiln Close
Stoke Gifford
Bristol
BS34 8SU

Any Freedom of Information requests please send these directly to
[3][Audit Commission request email]

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Dear Mr Hardwicke Carruthers

Following my email to you on 12/01/2009, I am writing to respond to the
outstanding part of your request received by the Audit Commission on
10/12/2008.

The outstanding part of the request is for:

"6. Details of all meetings and associated documents of the Audit
Commission and/or the appointed Auditor with Lambeth related to its
disappearing libraries."

I can now confirm that the Audit Commission holds no records of any
meetings between the Audit Commission and Lambeth or the appointed Auditor
and Lambeth relating to its 'disappearing libraries'. Therefore there are
no associated documents.

As a result the requested information is not held by the Audit Commission.

I appologise for the delay in the response.

If you are unhappy with what has been provided, or the way your request
has been handled, you can raise a complaint under the Audit Commission's
Access to Information Complaints Procedure, please find via this link:

[1]http://www.audit-commission.gov.uk/about...

Information supplied under the Freedom of Information Act and/or
Environmental Information Regulations will be subject to copyright
protection under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. Information
can be re-used for the purposes of research for non-commercial purposes,
for private study, or for news reporting and reviews, without requiring
formal consent. However, if you wish to re-use the information for
commercial purposes, including publishing, you are required to seek the
permission of the Audit Commission. Permission to re-use copyright
information is granted in the form of a licence.

Yours sincerely

Shaun Kavanagh
Information Compliance Advisor
+44 (0)844 798 7961
[email address]

The Audit Commission
Nicholson House
Lime Kiln Close
Stoke Gifford
Bristol
BS34 8SU

Any Freedom of Information requests please send these directly to
[2][Audit Commission request email]

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