Senior Council Officer declaration of interests

The request was refused by Barnet Borough Council.

Barnet Bugle Limited

Dear Barnet Borough Council,

We write following this ICO decision http://www.ico.gov.uk/~/media/documents/...

Our request for information is for, redacted if absolutely necessary, copies of any declaration of interests, or similar, for all / any senior Council Officers / consultants.

Yours faithfully,

Barnet Bugle Limited

Freedom of Information Act, Barnet Borough Council

Dear Barnet Bugle Limited,

I am writing to acknowledge receipt of your below request under the
Freedom of Information Act 2000 (the FOIA), received by the London
Borough of Barnet (the Council) on 13 June 2011.

Under the FOIA you are entitled to a prompt response which in any event
should be sent within 20 working days from the date the Council received
your request.

Please do not hesitate to contact me if you wish to discuss your
request.

Kind Regards,

Catherine Wilson Pointer
Governance Officer

Corporate Governance Directorate
London Borough of Barnet, North London Business Park, Oakleigh Road
South, London N11 1NP
Tel: 020 8359 7757
Barnet Online: www.barnet.gov.uk
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Wilson Pointer, Catherine, Barnet Borough Council

Dear Barnet Bugle Limited,

I am writing regarding your request to the London Borough of Barnet (the Council) under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 (the FOIA) for access to the following:

...copies of any declaration of interests, or similar, for all / any senior Council Officers/consultants.

My response to your request is below.

Response
I understand 'senior Council Officers/consultants' to mean those Officers/consultants earning £70,000.00 or more per annum and my response is based on this understanding.

Employees are required, as part of the recruitment process, to declare any interests that could conflict with the interests of the Council as well as membership of any organisation not open to the public without formal membership and commitment of allegiance and which has secrecy about rules or membership or conduct.

If a declaration is made the form is sent to the relevant Director of Service who makes an assessment of whether recruitment should continue. I note that there have been no instances where such an assessment has resulted in cessation of recruitment.

Following the decision a copy of the declaration is placed on the individuals personnel file.

Refusal Notice
From our preliminary assessment we estimate that identifying, locating, retrieving and extracting the information required to respond to your request would exceed the appropriate costs limit under section 12 of the FOIA. This is currently £450.

Identifying, locating, retrieving and extracting the information required to respond to your request would require a search of 137 personnel files as there are 137 Council Officers/consultants earning £70,000.00 or more per annum. Each file would need to be searched for approximately 15 minutes in order to identify, locate retrieve and extract the information requested resulting in a total of approximately 34.25 hours. At a cost of £25 per hour, the estimated cost would be £856.25.

Your Rights
If you are unhappy with the way your request for information has been handled, you can request a review by writing to the FOI Officer at: The London Borough of Barnet, North London Business Park, Oakleigh Road South, London, N11 1NP (email [Barnet Borough Council request email]).

If you remain dissatisfied with the handling of your request or complaint, you have a right to appeal to the Information Commissioner at: The Information Commissioner's Office, Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow, Cheshire, SK9 5AF (telephone: 08456 30 60 60 or 01625 54 57 45; website: www.ico.gov.uk).

There is no charge for making an appeal.

Yours sincerely,

Catherine Wilson Pointer
Governance Officer

Corporate Governance Directorate
London Borough of Barnet, North London Business Park, Oakleigh Road South, London N11 1NP
Tel: 020 8359 7757
Barnet Online: www.barnet.gov.uk
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Barnet Bugle Limited

Dear Barnet Borough Council,

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

I am writing to request an internal review of Barnet Borough Council's handling of my FOI request 'Senior Council Officer declaration of interests'.

Firstly the Council has not handled this request promptly, in accordance with the legislation. For what was required a few days would have sufficed.

We are livid at the way that the way this request has been handled. Firstly the you, the Council, have decided to add criteria / clarify our request without consulting us. A simple email would have sufficed.

This is further compounded in that, conveniently, the alteration to the request to make it so broad that it was summarily refused on grounds of time.

How can this be the behaviour of a Council committed to transparency? Some may view this as wilful obstruction made worse given the stated view of the ICO in the decision that was attached.

Please review this decision and provide the information on as many Officers / Consultants that your scoping has established you could under the legislation.

It is now becoming common place for the Council to refuse FoI initially only to supply the information on appeal, surely not an acceptable practice.

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

Yours faithfully,

Barnet Bugle Limited

Humphreys, Louise, Barnet Borough Council

Dear Barnet Bugle Limited

I am writing to acknowledge receipt of your request for internal review
dated 01 July 2011 regarding your request to the Council under the Freedom
of Information Act 2000 (the `FOIA') for access to the following:

`We write following this ICO decision

[1]http://www.ico.gov.uk/~/media/documents/...

Our request for information is for, redacted if absolutely necessary,
copies of any declaration of interests, or similar, for all / any senior
Council Officers / consultants'.

I understand that you are requesting an internal review as you are not
satisfied with the response provided by the Council on 01 July 2011.

The Council will now conduct an independent and impartial internal review
in accordance with the FOIA that will reconsider the merits of the case
and identify any errors in the handling of your request.

In line with guidance issued by the Information Commissioner, the Council
aims to complete internal reviews promptly and in any event within 20
working days from receipt of the request. In exceptional cases further
time may be required, but the Council will not exceed 40 working days.

If, following our review, you are still unhappy with the way we have
applied the Act, you can appeal directly to the Information Commissioner
at: The Information Commissioner's Office, Wycliffe House, Water Lane,
Wilmslow, Cheshire, SK9 5AF (telephone: 08456 30 60 60 or 01625 54 57 45;
website: [2]www.ico.gov.uk). There is no charge for making an appeal.

Yours sincerely,

Standards and Information Rights Team

Corporate Governance Directorate

London Borough of Barnet, North London Business Park, Oakleigh Road South,
London N11 1NP
Tel: 020 8359 7072
Barnet Online: [3]www.barnet.gov.uk

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email?

The information in this e-mail is confidential and may also be the subject
of legal privilege. It is intended solely for the addressee. If you are
not the intended recipient please reply to the sender.

Information contained in this e-mail may be subject to public disclosure
under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 or the Environmental Information
Regulations 2004. Unless the information is legally exempt from
disclosure, the confidentiality of this e-mail and your reply cannot be
guaranteed.

You are hereby placed on notice that any copying, publication or any other
form of dissemination of this e-mail or its contents is prohibited. Whilst
every endeavour is taken to ensure that e-mails are free from viruses, no
liability can be accepted, the recipient must use their own virus checking
software.
_______________________________________________

References

Visible links
1. http://www.ico.gov.uk/~/media/documents/...
http://www.ico.gov.uk/~/media/documents/...
2. http://www.ico.gov.uk/
http://www.ico.gov.uk/
3. http://www.barnet.gov.uk/
http://www.barnet.gov.uk/

Humphreys, Louise, Barnet Borough Council

Dear Barnet Bugle Limited

I am writing in relation to your email to the London Borough of Barnet
(the Council), received on 1 July 2011, requesting an internal review of
the Council's handling of your request under the Freedom of Information
Act 2000 (the FOIA) for access to the following:

...copies of any declaration of interests, or similar, for all / any
senior Council Officers/consultants.

You have indicated that you are unsatisfied with the council's response to
the request. Your main areas of complaint can be summarised as follows:

1.         The council did not handle the request
promptly.

2.         The council added criteria to the request
without consulting you.

3.         An alteration to the request made it so
broad that it was refused.

I have reviewed the way in which your request was dealt with in order to
determine whether there was any failure to comply with the FOIA.

Firstly, it was stated in your request for a review that the Council's
response may be viewed `...as wilful obstruction...'. For the avoidance of
doubt I can confirm that I have found no evidence of any wilful
obstruction in the handling of your request. I will consider the other
points you have raised in turn.

1.         Promptness

You have complained that the request was not handled promptly. The
response to your request was sent 14 working days after it was received by
us, which is within the 20 day statutory timeframe.  The Council is
currently dealing with a high volume of Freedom of Information Act
requests. In this context, I consider that your request was dealt with
promptly and there was no breach of the FOIA in this regard.

2. Request criteria

You have complained that the council sought to `add criteria / clarify our
request without consulting us'.

Your request referred to 'senior officers / consultants' without further
definition of the word `senior'. Your request was handled on the basis
that senior officers and consultants were those earning £70,000 or
more. Guidance from the Chartered Institute of Public Finance and
Accounting (CIPFA) says that senior employees are typically an authority's
Chief Executive (or equivalent), their direct reports (other than
administration staff), statutory chief officers and potentially any
employee that the authority considers having responsibility for the
management of the relevant body, to the extent that the person has power
to direct or control the major activities of the body, in particular
activities involving the expenditure of money, whether solely or
collectively with other persons. The council uses a £70,000 threshold
when publishing its senior officer salary information and considers that
this figure will include the vast majority of officers that would be
classed as `senior' under the relevant guidance. In the absence of a
request for information about particular officers or consultants in this
instance, I consider it was reasonable to conduct a preliminary assessment
of the request on that basis.

I have looked at whether the council complied with its duty to provide
advice and assistance under section 16 of the FOIA in this case. I am
satisfied that the council provided such assistance as it was reasonable
to expect by conducting a preliminary assessment of your request based on
officers and consultants earning above £70,000. I note that the council
also provided you with information on how declarations of interest form
part of the council's recruitment process and confirmed that there had
been no instances where the assessment of a candidate's declarations of
interest has resulted in cessation of recruitment.

My view is that it would have been good practice in this case to include
in the response an invitation to submit a request for a narrower class of
information. However, I do not consider that, in failing to do so, there
was any failure to comply with the FOIA.

3.         Refusal

I have reviewed the basis on which the request was refused, and the
figures used to conclude that identifying, locating, retrieving and
extracting the information required to respond to your request would
exceed the appropriate costs limit under section 12 of the FOIA of
£450. I am satisfied that this conclusion was appropriate and that the
refusal was in accordance with the FOIA. 

I have considered whether there is evidence of any breach of the FOIA
aside from the specific points you have raised and I have concluded that
there is not.  

Your new request

In your review request you asked for `the information on as many officers
/ consultants that your scoping has established you could under the
legislation'. This is not at present a valid request as it does not
sufficiently describe the information requested. We will therefore require
further information in order to deal with this request. Please specify
which officers and/or consultants you require information about.  You
can, if you wish, identify certain groups of officers / consultants (such
as directors) that you are interested in, and list those groups in order
of priority. We may then provide information relating to as many of the
groups as can be achieved within the statutory cost limit.

Your right of appeal to the Information Commissioner

We consider we have complied with our obligations under the FOIA. However,
if you remain dissatisfied with the handling of your request or complaint,
you have a right to appeal to the Information Commissioner at: The
Information Commissioner's Office, Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow,
Cheshire, SK9 5AF (telephone: 084 56 30 60 60 or 016 25 54 57 45; email
[1][email address]; website [2]www.ico.gov.uk). There is no charge for
making an appeal.

Yours sincerely

Information Governance Officer

Standards and Information Rights Team

Corporate Governance Directorate

London Borough of Barnet, North London Business Park, Oakleigh Road
South, London N11 1NP
Tel: 020 8359 7072
Barnet Online: [3]www.barnet.gov.uk

P please consider the environment - do you really need to print this
email?

The information in this e-mail is confidential and may also be the subject
of legal privilege. It is intended solely for the addressee. If you are
not the intended recipient please reply to the sender.

Information contained in this e-mail may be subject to public disclosure
under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 or the Environmental Information
Regulations 2004. Unless the information is legally exempt from
disclosure, the confidentiality of this e-mail and your reply cannot be
guaranteed.

You are hereby placed on notice that any copying, publication or any other
form of dissemination of this e-mail or its contents is prohibited. Whilst
every endeavour is taken to ensure that e-mails are free from viruses, no
liability can be accepted, the recipient must use their own virus checking
software.
_______________________________________________

References

Visible links
1. mailto:[email address]
2. http://www.ico.gov.uk/
3. http://www.barnet.gov.uk/
http://www.barnet.gov.uk/

Barnet Bugle Limited

Dear Humphreys, Louise,

We stand by our comments in our email requesting an internal review.

It is our strongly held position that you have seriously misdirected yourself in interpreting s16, please avail yourself of this view from the ICO http://www.ico.gov.uk/foikb/PolicyLines/...

It also remains our view that in choosing a definition that, coincidentally we are sure, enables you to refuse this request on grounds of time / cost without coming back to seek guidance and clarification you have sought to frustrate the will of Parliament and the of the ICO in relation to the important matters of public interest we are seeking.

As you have blocked us from receiving information the the ICO regards as being public domain we have submitted another request. Will you now block that with a s14 refusal?

Yours sincerely,

Barnet Bugle Limited