Senior Officers' - Requirement to Declare and Register Personal Interests

Waiting for an internal review by Wirral Metropolitan Borough Council of their handling of this request.

Dear Wirral Borough Council,

Upon checking the wirral.gov.uk website I was pleased to find a page detailing the registered interests of our serving Councillors. Thank you for addressing transparency requirements in this area.

However, I cannot locate a webpage, or find information anywhere else, detailing the registered interests of senior council officers. These senior officers make important decisions on the public's behalf on a daily basis. I feel it is very much in the public interest to know precisely the extent of undeclared associations these officers possess. These may be ties to people, businesses, charities, organisations, et al. who may stand to gain from favourable council decisions. This may have been in the past, is happening now or may occur in the future.

Please forward a full and comprehensive list of the names and interests of council officers as follows:

The Chief Executive, his direct reports and the direct reports of these senior officers. Please include the heads of department and those such as senior planning officer. Anyone who has delegated authority from members should also be declared.

Please provide any and all personal interests they have, such as ownership of property, family associations, business interests, shareholdings and membership of organisations that may conflict with their decision-making role. Such a list would run along similar lines to the one you currently display for Wirral's councillors, and would I suggest be available for inspection on the website, and personally at the Town Hall in the near future.

Please make the list retrospective for the last 5 years, in order that the public can examine the decisions made, the officers involved and check against the list of interests at that particular time. Any conflict can then be highlighted and acted upon as required, in the public interest,

Yours faithfully,

Paul Cardin

Dear Wirral Borough Council,

By law, you should have responded to this request within 20 working days.

It is an important request, but I have received no acknowledgment, nor any proposal to address it.

If no response is received this week, I will request an internal review,

Yours faithfully,

Paul Cardin

InfoMgr, FinDMT, Wirral Metropolitan Borough Council

Good Afternoon,
Thank you for your further enquiry. All FOI requests are important to
the Council however, because we do not have the automatic functionality
to produce acknowledgement emails; we only acknowledge on specific
request.

If you did request an acknowledgement then please accept my apologies
for the oversight.

I have made enquiries as to the status of your query and will get back
to you shortly.
Kind regards
Jane Corrin

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InfoMgr, FinDMT, Wirral Metropolitan Borough Council

Good Afternoon,
The Council does not have a central register similar to that of Members.
However Officers do complete a Conflict of Interest form as either a nil
return or with relevant details, which are reviewed by their line
manager in line with our Conflicts of Interest procedure.
I have spoken to the Departments within the Council to ascertain how the
paper conflict of Interest forms are held, once completed. The forms
are completed and held within the Personal file of each employee. I
have asked each Department to review the conflict of interest forms that
relate to senior officers a detailed below and to extract any
information which falls into the categories you have listed below.

I do apologise that this request has taken longer than the Council would
have liked and I will get back to you as soon as possible.
Kind Regards
Jane Corrin
Information Manager
Wirral Council

From: Paul Cardin [mailto:[FOI #76622 email]]
Sent: 20 June 2011 13:32
To: InfoMgr, FinDMT
Subject: Freedom of Information request - Senior Officers' - Requirement
to Declare and Register Personal Interests

Dear Wirral Borough Council,

Upon checking the wirral.gov.uk website I was pleased to find a
page detailing the registered interests of our serving Councillors.
Thank you for addressing transparency requirements in this area.

However, I cannot locate a webpage, or find information anywhere
else, detailing the registered interests of senior council
officers. These senior officers make important decisions on the
public's behalf on a daily basis. I feel it is very much in the
public interest to know precisely the extent of undeclared
associations these officers possess. These may be ties to people,
businesses, charities, organisations, et al. who may stand to gain
from favourable council decisions. This may have been in the past,
is happening now or may occur in the future.

Please forward a full and comprehensive list of the names and
interests of council officers as follows:

The Chief Executive, his direct reports and the direct reports of
these senior officers. Please include the heads of department and
those such as senior planning officer. Anyone who has delegated
authority from members should also be declared.

Please provide any and all personal interests they have, such as
ownership of property, family associations, business interests,
shareholdings and membership of organisations that may conflict
with their decision-making role. Such a list would run along
similar lines to the one you currently display for Wirral's
councillors, and would I suggest be available for inspection on the
website, and personally at the Town Hall in the near future.

Please make the list retrospective for the last 5 years, in order
that the public can examine the decisions made, the officers
involved and check against the list of interests at that particular
time. Any conflict can then be highlighted and acted upon as
required, in the public interest,

Yours faithfully,

Paul Cardin

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Dear InfoMgr, FinDMT,

Thanks for your response.

When you state "Officers do complete a Conflict of Interest form as either a nil return or with relevant details, which are reviewed by their line manager in line with our Conflicts of Interest procedure", are you referring to ALL officers or to the Senior Officers I specified in my request?

In the event of any confusion, I am asking you to declare these Senior Officers' interests publicly as part of this request.

The following may assist:

May I refer you to a similar request, made via the WhatDoTheyKnow service, and with reference to Bolton Borough Council?

http://www.ico.gov.uk/~/media/documents/...

For guidance, the following areas and categories seem to be the ones the ICO will want councils to focus on - although I have personally included "Work title / Role", which may have been an important omission:

1. Name
2. Work title / Role
3. Section
4. Department
5. Name and Address of additional business or other employment
6. Nature of additional business or other employment
7. Name and Address of Company, Firm or other body or individual
of whom consultancy is undertaken
8. Nature of the consultancy with an indication of frequency or
volume of such work
9. Name and address and nature of business of each company, Firm
or other body of which you are a Director, with an indication of
whether it is in a paid or unpaid capacity
10. Name and address and nature of business of each company in
which you hold shares
11. Address or description of land or property in which you have
an interest, the nature of the interest and the use to which the
land is put
12. Name and address of organisations to whom you are engaged on a
retainer basis and nature of the retainer
13. List any organisations with which you have membership or
association, including clubs and societies
14. List any voluntary bodies of which you have membership or
association
15. Please give any further information you may wish to record
about your business or financial interests

The above list is for guidance and is by no means exhaustive.

I believe the "Paper Conflicts of Interest Forms" you refer to, intended to be completed by ALL / or all Senior employees will be entirely relevant to this request. Please forward a copy of the form (as a .pdf or .doc attachment) to accompany the information you have already kindly sent.

Can you also state whether your progress in this area has been informed previously by the ICO, or has it been actioned independently?

In order for any forthcoming exemption to apply, I need to be satisfied that the information, when it appears, is adequate for the purpose intended, that of public disclosure, and will satisfy the public's requirements.

I realise that my original request has been modified and added to. I will not ask for an internal review if there is a timely (within 20 working days) and satisfactory response to these additional points,

Yours sincerely,

Paul Cardin

InfoMgr, FinDMT, Wirral Metropolitan Borough Council

Good Afternoon,
I have asked departments to retrieve forms which relate to the
categories of officers you have stipulated in your request, senior
officers.
Kind Regards
Jane Corrin

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InfoMgr, FinDMT, Wirral Metropolitan Borough Council

2 Attachments

Good Afternoon,
Please see the conflicts of interest form attached. The form has been
in existence for several years and works in conjunction with our
Conflicts of Interest Procedure also attached.
Kind Regards
Jane Corrin

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Dear InfoMgr, FinDMT,

Thanks for providing the two forms. Your co-operation is much appreciated.

In the event that any confusion or misunderstanding should arise, the provision of these two forms does not mean the request has been satisfied.

On the contrary, please read through the entire FOI request and carefully scrutinise the information I've sent to date. Please note the remaining unaddressed questions, the partial responses that you have provided so far, and attempt to address the outstanding points, and gather the required information before making it public.

As stated, please make the closer detail, referring to Senior Officers' interests, retrospective for the last 5 years,

Yours sincerely,

Paul Cardin

InfoMgr, FinDMT, Wirral Metropolitan Borough Council

Good Morning,
Thank you for your email, I am aware that your request remains
outstanding and hence my email in relation to contacting the departments
to retrieve the relevant files and extract the information. I do
appreciate your patience in this matter.
Kind Regards
Jane Corrin

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Corrin, Jane, Wirral Metropolitan Borough Council

Good Morning,

Thank you for your request for information which is shown below. At the
beginning of each Committee meeting the people on the Committee are asked
to consider whether they have personal or prejudicial interests in
connection with any item(s) on the agenda in front of them and, if so, to
declare them and state what they are. In addition to this, Officers of
the Council are asked to complete a yearly conflicts of interest form,
these are reviewed by their senior manager. Consideration is then given,
if there is any action which needs to be taken with regard to any
declarations made.

Application for employment forms for the Council also ask the applicant to
declare if they have any relationship to any existing employee or elected
member of the Council, and state what that relationship is.

The list of Senior Officers and Personal recorded Interests is shown
below:-

Steve Maddox - Ex Chief Executive - Clerk to Merseyside Passenger
Transport Authority; Governor of Wirral Metropolitan College; Governor of
Black Horse Hill Junior School.

Jim Wilkie - Chief Executive - Governor of Wirral Metropolitan College;
Wife is employed by Wirral Community NHS Trust

David Taylor Smith - Deputy Director of Finance - Board member of Leasowe
Community Homes

I trust you find the information useful.

Kind Regards

Jane Corrin

Information Manager

Wirral Council

This information supplied to you is copyrighted to Wirral Council and
continues to be protected by the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
You are free to use it for your own purposes, including any non commercial
research you are doing and for the purposes of news reporting. Any other
reuse, for example commercial publication, would require our specific
permission, may involve licensing and the application of a charge.

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Dear Wirral Borough Council,

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

I am writing to request an internal review of Wirral Borough Council's handling of my FOI request 'Senior Officers' - Requirement to Declare and Register Personal Interests'.

I'm afraid your response is completely inadequate and doesn't address the points I listed and added to on 26th July. Nor does it fulfil the promises you made in your initial responses.

When the internal review is carried out by a senior officer, I will hope for a much more detailed and comprehensive approach, and for a positive outcome.

Please follow the link I provide on 26th July 2011 and look at the list of categories I provided.

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,

Paul Cardin

Dear Wirral Borough Council,

Please acknowledge and provide some reassurance that you are in fact dealing with my request for an internal review, sent in the middle of August,

Yours faithfully,

Paul Cardin

InfoMgr, FinDMT, Wirral Metropolitan Borough Council

Good Morning,
Thank you for your email below. Your request for an internal review was
passed to our Legal Department, who are considering the Councils
response to your request.
Kind Regards
Jane Corrin

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Dear InfoMgr, FinDMT,

Please advise who is dealing with this request for an internal review and who is actioning the review as follows:

Name
Role
Department
Contact number
Contact email address

Also provide a date when this person envisages that the internal review will be completed.

The reason I ask for these details is that in the past, similar requests for internal review have dragged on for several months e.g.

http://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/st...

Yours sincerely,

Paul Cardin

Dear Wirral Borough Council,

You have failed to respond to the request I sent on 5th September.

Please respond with some answers to the points raised and provide an update on the internal review process. I would appreciate this very much,

Yours faithfully,

Paul Cardin

Dear Wirral Borough Council,

Please disregard the last reminder, although I still require a response to the points I raised in the previous email.

It's become apparent that your response to my request for an internal review has run overdue.

I will now appeal to the Information Commissioner,

Yours faithfully,

Paul Cardin

Corrin, Jane, Wirral Metropolitan Borough Council

Good Afternoon,
Thank you for your request for information shown below. Please see
Council's responses below and I hope you find the information useful.
Kind Regards
Jane Corrin
Information Manager
Wirral Council


Please advise who is dealing with this request for an internal
review and who is actioning the review as follows:

Name Surjit Tour
Role Head of Legal and Democratic Services
Department Law, HR and Asset Management - Legal and Member Services
Contact number 0151 691 8569
Contact email address [email address]

Also provide a date when this person envisages that the internal
review will be completed.

The internal review will be carried out as soon as is possible and
practical, in relation to the work load currently being undertaken by
Surjit.

The reason I ask for these details is that in the past, similar
requests for internal review have dragged on for several months
e.g.


http://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/st...

Yours sincerely,

Paul Cardin

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Dear Corrin, Jane,

As you should be fully aware, "workload", "practical" or "possible" considerations are no justification for missing the deadlines specified within the Act.

Once again, this council is late, and accordingly, I will approach the Information Commissioner to appeal this request, (Internal Review now 10 working days overdue and no sign of it appearing any time soon),

Yours sincerely,

Paul Cardin

Dear Corrin, Jane,

I would appreciate an update on the progress you've on this request, lodged almost a whole year ago.

It all seems to have ground to a halt. I have recently made the relevant councillors aware of this request in the hope that they will be able to put a rocket under your department,

kind regards as always,

Paul Cardin

Pete Sheffield left an annotation ()

Often the ICO is the only way to get progress. Slow progress at best but still progress.

Dear Corrin, Jane,

It is now over a year since I lodged this Freedom of Information request with your department.

It is also over two months since I reminded you you had not carried out the internal review. But I have received no response whatsoever.

This morning, I have lodged an appeal with the Information Commissioner's Office. I will also update LGA troubleshooter Mr Michael Frater, who is being sent separate updates which list the unaddressed requests and describe the extremely poor performance of your department,

Yours sincerely,

Paul Cardin

Corrin, Jane, Wirral Metropolitan Borough Council

I am out of the office on leave until Monday 16 July 2012, I am picking up
my emails so will respond if the matter is urgent.
Jane Corrin
Information Manager
0151 666 3536
mobile - 07768926323

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Corrin, Jane, Wirral Metropolitan Borough Council

Good Afternoon,
Thank you for your email below. I have passed on your email to Surjit
Tour in Legal Services, for his attention.
Kind regards
Jane Corrin
Information Manager

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Paul Cardin left an annotation ()

The ICO have issued a Decision Notice dated 13th August 2012, fourteen months after the original request was made. Wirral Council have been found to have breached the Act, and have been given 35 calendar days to give a proper response. Link here:

http://easyvirtualassistance.wordpress.c...

Corrin, Jane, Wirral Metropolitan Borough Council

1 Attachment

Good Morning,

 

Wirral Council is able to provide further recorded information that we
hold, please see attached information which contain the declarations of
senior officers with regard any conflict of interests in response to your
query.   Please note some personal information has been redacted where the
Council considers that this information is exempt from disclosure under
Section 40(2) of the FOIA as it contains personal data.  The council
considers that it would be unfair on the individual concerned to disclose
this personal data and therefore would be in breach of the 1^st principle
of the DPA 1998.

 

You have the right under Section 17 of the Freedom of Information Act 2000
to ask for an internal review of the refusal to some of the information
requested.  Please would you direct any request for an internal review to
Mr Michael Rowan, Legal and Member Services, Department of Law, HR and
Asset Management, Town Hall, Brighton Street, Wallasey, CH44 8ED

 

You do also have the right to complain to the information Commissioner, if
you are dissatisfied with the outcome of any internal review, whose office
is situated at:  Information Commissioner's Office

Wycliffe House

Water Lane

Wilmslow

Cheshire SK9 5AF

Tel: 08456 30 60 60 or 01625 54 57 45

Fax: 01625 524510  [1]www.ico.gov.uk <[2]http://www.ico.gov.uk/>

 

 

 

Thank you for your enquiry, I hope you find this information of use.  

 

Kind regards and sent on behalf of

 

Tracy O'Hare

Information Management

Wirral Council

 

This information supplied to you is copyrighted and continues to be
protected by the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.   You are free
to use it for your own purposes, including any non commercial research you
are doing and for the purposes of news reporting. Any other reuse, for
example commercial publication, would require our specific permission, may
involve licensing and the application of a charge

 

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References

Visible links
1. http://www.ico.gov.uk/
blocked::http://www.ico.gov.uk/
http://www.ico.gov.uk/
2. http://www.ico.gov.uk/
blocked::http://www.ico.gov.uk/
http://www.ico.gov.uk/
http://www.ico.gov.uk/

Dear Corrin, Jane,

You have provided information for 26 officers.

Before I consider this information more fully, please confirm that ALL Wirral (Chief and Senior) officers working for and / or employed by the council and on a pay level above £58,200, whether suspended or not, are included in the information you have supplied, as stipulated by:

http://www.google.co.uk/url?sa=t&rct...

As this request relates directly to the original one, and will assist with understanding the content, please do not treat it as a new request,

Yours sincerely,

Paul Cardin

john hardaker left an annotation ()

Paul, i admire your dogged determination in trying to uncover the truth but like everything else with our beloved council the word truth & honesty have a different connotation when dealing with a public body.
We as the paymasters surely must be entitled to the truth & as you rightly point out only 26 sets of details have been published, obviously the ones with nothing to hide, what about the rest of them.As a retired company director I had to declare all my interests of a commercial nature & they were available for all to see on the I.O.D website,however despite these people who have the word director after their name do not seem to be governed by the same rules.
I agree the chosen 26 have nothing to declare but by the silence of others what do we deduce that they have & are afraid of letting the cat out of the bag.
As I have said before i will not hold my breath on an early response from the council but someone,somewhere will out these people hopefully a whistle blower as in the past, I live in hope.

Corrin, Jane, Wirral Metropolitan Borough Council

Good Afternoon,
I have spoken to each department of the Council regarding your email below.
It has now become clear that some Officers returns have not been supplied to me and this is being rectified. I have asked for the details to be supplied to me as a matter of urgency. I will send the additional information to you tomorrow and apologise for this discrepancy and delay to your enquiry.
Kind Regards
Jane Corrin
Information Manager
Wirral Council

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Corrin, Jane, Wirral Metropolitan Borough Council

1 Attachment

Good Afternoon,
With regard your further email below, please see attached document with additional details. I am awaiting details from one more member of staff and I will supply this as soon as I have it, but did not want to delay my response to you.
Kind Regards
Jane Corrin
Information Manager
Wirral Council

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Paul Cardin left an annotation ()

After 16 long, drawn out months spent clinging onto the information, quote.....

"I did not want to delay..."

Dear Corrin, Jane,

Thank you but was garbled and I couldn't bring anything readable into my software. Please supply a document that is not split into columns, nice and simple with the information clearly laid out,

Yours sincerely,

Paul Cardin

john hardaker left an annotation ()

paul i downloaded the last doc attachment into microsoft word & the following officers filed nil returns,
Ian Platt
Paul Grey
David Ball
Surjit Tour
Paul Ashcroft
Chriss Hyams
However Dave Green was the following annotation
"Disclosable conflict is a contractual conflict with an employee of Colas Ltd Rest of it exempt under section 40(2) of the FOIA which contains personel information

Hope this may be some of the information you may be missing Cheera john hardaker
P.S make of it what you will

ScarletPimpernel left an annotation ()

There's a spelling mistake in the last annotation the last name that filed a nil return is Chris Hyams, not Chriss Hyams.

Basically the one you're interested in re David Green is as follows:-

"Disclosable conflict is a contractural conflict with an employee of Colas Ltd"

Some further information (on David Green) not disclosed, using an exemption under s.40(2) of the FOIA (it's basically to do with the Data Protection Act 1998). You can ask for an internal review of this. If so, you want to contact Michael Rowan, Legal and Member Services, Department of Law, Human Resources and Asset Management, Town Hall, Brighton Street, Wallasey, CH44 8ED. You can also complain to ICO if you so wish.

Paul Cardin left an annotation ()

Thanks for your help peeps. This is really appreciated. You'll note that I've asked Ms Corrin to confirm that ALL officers above £58,200 salary have been included.

She's failed to do this so far. It may still have some way to run due to this.... and because it appears to be full of gaps e.g. the recently appended officers numbered 1 to 6 haven't made full declarations.

I could go on... but I'll spare you the details.

The ICO have asked me to supply evidence to show that the council have not complied. I'll do that when this unnecessary to'ing and fro'ing has ceased. The ICO may then be minded to issue an enforcement notice against the council.

ScarletPimpernel left an annotation ()

Ok, here's your evidence that they haven't complied.

Number of officers:
Initially three (Steve Maddox, Jim Wilkie and David Taylor-Smith) on the 16/8/11
Following ICO Decision notice
Mrs Sue Talbot, Stuart Bellerby, Andrew Roberts, Tracy ???, Julia Hassall, Simon Garner, Steve Pimblett, Fiona Johnstone, Graham Hodkinson, Ian Brand, Jim Lester, Mark Smith, Mary Bagley, Rob Clifford, Caroline McKenna, David Armstrong, Chris Begya, Kevin Adderley, Graham Burgess, Peter Timmins, Malcolm Flanagan, Peter Wallach, Geoff Paterson, Emma Degg and Tom Sault (a further 25).

So 25+3 = 28

Just by looking at it they've missed off Bill Norman and Ian Coleman as these two hadn't retired before the ICO request + 35 days. Their salaries based on 2011/2012 see http://democracy.wirral.gov.uk/documents... (including pension contributions) for April 1st to September (5 months) of 2012 were approximately as follows:-

Bill Norman (Director of Law) £47620 (salary) + £NIL (allowances) + pension contribution (£5426) + redundancy (£28,568) + termination payment (£112,848) + legal costs (£6,000) = ~£200,462

Ian Coleman (Director of Finance) £45844 (salary) + £791.25 (allowances) + pension contribution (£5714) + pension costs for FY 2012/13 for early retirement (£11,388.92) = ~£63,738.17

Those are the two I can think of off the top of my head.

Salary bands £60,000+

Source http://democracy.wirral.gov.uk/documents...

2010/11 218 employees (teaching) + 102 (general) = 320
2011/12 143 employees (teaching) + 60 (general) = 203
2012/13 Unknown at present, estimates below
Lowest estimate 84 (68 teaching, 18 general)
High estimate 203 (143 teaching, 60 general).

So basically they've left off all the highly paid teachers paid above £60,000 (for example headteachers) and 28 seems too low for general staff as two of the ones supplied previously don't count for 2012/2013 as they retired early in previous financial years making it only 26. So ask for the approximately 70-140 teachers covered by this!

ScarletPimpernel left an annotation ()

Basically the evidence is in the Statement of Accounts for 2011/12, however if you want to know the figures for this for 2012/13 you'll either have to submit an FOI request or wait till they're published in the 2012/2013 Statement of Accounts sometime around 1st July 2013...

Corrin, Jane, Wirral Metropolitan Borough Council

1 Attachment

Good Afternoon,
Thank you for your email below. I have attached the information
requested in a word document; please let me know if you have any
problems?
I am awaiting one more person's details.
Kind Regards
Jane Corrin
Information Manager
Wirral Council

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john hardaker left an annotation ()

Paul & Pimpernel thursday 1st november tranmere rovers belmont suite 6.30 prenton & oxton forum meeting as i do not have you email take this as an invitation . Keep up the good work I dont think teachers really come into the limelight only the council officers.

Dear Corrin, Jane,

Thank you for this.

When you come back with details for the final person...

Please answer the following, which you failed to do last time:

Before I consider this information more fully, please confirm that ALL Wirral (Chief and Senior) officers working for and / or employed by the council [thank you for including Bill Norman, but Ian Coleman is missing] and on a pay level above £58,200, whether suspended or not, are included in the information you have supplied, as stipulated by:

http://www.google.co.uk/url?sa=t&rct...

Once you have provided this confirmation (which as I'm sure you're aware is extremely important), I will then examine the quality / integrity of the information supplied and form a view on whether to appeal.

Please do not delay,

Yours sincerely,

Paul Cardin

ScarletPimpernel left an annotation ()

Maybe it would be simpler for Wirral Council if we sent them a list of all their staff (by department) who are paid over £58,200 as it would save them a lot of time? *sarcasm mode detected*

Corrin, Jane, Wirral Metropolitan Borough Council

Good Afternoon,
Thank you for your further email below. Details with regard Ian Coleman are below.

Ian Coleman
Director of Finance (ex employee)
A conflict of interest exists as declared by Ian Coleman, when he was Director of Finance. The Council considers that this information is exempt from disclosure under Section 40(2) of the FOIA as it contains Personal Data. The council considers that it would be unfair on the individual concerned to disclose this personal data and therefore would be in breach of the 1st principle of the DPA 1998.

You have the right under Section 17 of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 to ask for an internal review of the refusal to some of the information requested. Please would you direct any request for an internal review to Mr Michael Rowan, Legal and Member Services, Department of Law, HR and Asset Management, Town Hall, Brighton Street, Wallasey, CH44 8ED

You do also have the right to complain to the information Commissioner, if you are dissatisfied with the outcome of any internal review, whose office is situated at: Information Commissioner's Office

Wycliffe House
Water Lane
Wilmslow
Cheshire SK9 5AF
Tel: 08456 30 60 60 or 01625 54 57 45
Fax: 01625 524510 www.ico.gov.uk <http://www.ico.gov.uk/>

In response to your question, the details which have been disclosed to you do not include:-
1. Some individuals who are employed through an agency and are not directly employed by the Council.
2. School/Teaching staff.

I hope this answers your enquiry.
Kind Regards
Jane Corrin
Information Manager
Wirral Council

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Dear Wirral Metropolitan Borough Council,

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

16 months since I first lodged this request, I am writing (for the second time) to request an internal review of Wirral Metropolitan Borough Council's handling of my FOI request 'Senior Officers' - Requirement to Declare and Register Personal Interests'.

I have asked you twice to confirm that all the officer details provided thus far comprise ALL public servants working for the council (which incidentally includes those working for agencies) on a salary scale of greater than £58,200, in accordance with the Bolton V John Greenwood Tribunal judgment. You have failed to give a direct YES or NO answer to this. This is the first reason I give for requesting an internal review. Please provide a yes or no answer.

The second reason I give is as follows.
The piecemeal nature of your response is not just broken up across a period of time, but also inconsistent with regard to the rigour and quality of the information. Some of the officers have correctly made clear, detailed, line by line declarations, but the overwhelming majority have NOT.

The third reason I give is as follows.
Stating "N/A" is loose and ill-defined and not an adequate declaration - because it leaves room for uncertainty. The declaration should state clearly "NO" or "NONE" or "YES" as applicable and go on to give the necessary details, if required.

The fourth reason I give is as follows.
Filing a "Nil return" is not acceptable. Presumably, many of these officers will have a property interest, this being the home they live in. Some have declared this. The overwhelming majority have not. This scattergun approach is not good enough.

The fifth reason I give is as follows.
I believe you are wrong to class these "conflicts of interest", held by very senior officers (including a man serving as interim Chief Executive) as personal information. By definition, any conflict of interest declared by a public servant requires immediate publication in the legitimate and compelling public interest, which is of greater importance than the desire for "personal" privacy.

The sixth reason I give is as follows.
The mode of delivery of this information has been slapdash in the extreme. I have not been able to download the information in a legible condition and much of it has gone "off the screen" due to it being served up in columns of data. For this reason, despite my best efforts, I may have missed important details.

I am currently corresponding with the Information Commissioner's Office regarding the quality of your response to this request. I believe you have fallen short of the standards required at every stage of this request. Moreover, a Decision Notice, which is a legal document, has already been issued containing the ICO's conclusions. For this reason, I'm not sure that jumping back in time to do an "internal review" at your behest will achieve anything. However, I will comply with your advice regardless.

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,

Paul Cardin

ScarletPimpernel left an annotation ()

After a decision notice is issued, calling for an internal review is the wrong thing to do.

If an organisation doesn't comply with a decision notice you:-

a) issue them a letter giving a deadline to comply etc.

Then they either comply or the deadline passes.

If the deadline passes, you proceed to the next stage, which is one of two steps. Either:-

a) you ask ICO for an enforcement notice (assuming Wirral Council hasn't appealed the decision notice)

or

b) ask the courts to enforce the original decision notice and issue a court order.

Timescales for either are usually months. :) Good luck.

Paul Cardin left an annotation ()

I've already done that SP. I requested an enforcement notice this morning. I was just 'showing willing' to the council and the ICO:

http://easyvirtualassistance.wordpress.c...

ScarletPimpernel left an annotation ()

It seems to be muddying the waters though, now I know why I deal with courts over data protection/information matters as weirdly they deal with things quicker and with less "bureaucratic machinations"!

Paul Cardin left an annotation ()

The 40 day maximum for internal reviews in exceptional circumstances ran out today.

Now it's back to the ICO - who still haven't responded to my request for enforcement of a DN - sent back in October.

Paul Cardin left an annotation ()

From: Paul C
Sent: 20 December 2012 09:18
To: 'casework@ico.gsi.gov.uk'
Subject: FW: re your freedom of information complaint against Wirral Council. [Ref. FS50416628]

Dear [senior officer name redacted],

Please respond.

The council (assuming an internal review was called for in the first place) have now had 40 working days (the time allowed in exceptional circumstances) but haven’t responded.

http://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/se...

Please now acknowledge these messages and enforce the Decision Notice that was issued earlier this year. Please DO NOT allow this council to ride roughshod again over the Act and the council tax payers of Wirral. Currently, they are succeeding in making not just themselves but the ICO look rather foolish. The public interest demands some action.

Today is an important day because there is every chance that suspended director David Green – mentioned as having a conflict of interest (withheld under a section 40(2) claim to ‘personal data’) within this request - may receive a Christmas bonus in the form of a gag and a large pay off at a ‘special’ meeting:

http://democracy.wirral.gov.uk/ieListDoc...

Rewards for abuse of disabled people and failure are now approaching £1 million on Wirral, whilst “regulatory bodies” sit stranded on the sidelines,

Best regards and have a good Christmas,

Paul Cardin

Paul Cardin left an annotation ()

Received from ICO

PROTECT

21st December 2012

Case Reference Number FS50416628

Dear Mr Cardin

I am writing concerning your further complaint about Wirral Councils response to your FOI request. You have argued that the council has failed to comply with decision notice FS50416628.

The first thing to say is that the Commissioner can take action for non- compliance with a decision notice at his own discretion. The Commissioner does not act on behalf of complainants. He is an independent regulator of the Freedom of Information Act. Therefore if he notes that non-compliance with a notice has occurred it will not always be the case that he will consider that further regulatory action is necessary for that particular case. Although a complainant may disagree with the Commissioner's decision on enforcement, enforcing against non-compliance with a decision notice is a power of the Commissioner rather than a duty.

Following on from this, the Commissioner’s enforcement action is not taken directly ‘on behalf’ of complainants. Enforcement notices are issued as a result of the Commissioner, in his role as the regulator of the Act finding that a particular authority has not complied with the requirements of the Act and he considers that his best recourse to achieve compliance is via the formal enforcement action. Alternatively he may approach an authority and resolve a compliance issue with it on an informal basis.

If formal enforcement action is taken the Commissioner publicises the fact that he has taken action against an authority. This may not always be through the issue of an enforcement notice.

The above being said, I can inform you that the Commissioner has today named Wirral Council as an authority which is to be monitored over aspects of its compliance with the Act. Further details of this are available at http://www.ico.gov.uk/news/latest_news/2....

I understand your concerns regarding Wirral Councils response to decision notice FS50416628. In summary, although your individual complaint does not warrant enforcement action being taken individually, factors such as lateness in complying with a notice have been noted, and this may be referred to as evidence should it become necessary to take further formal action at some point in the future.

Turning now to your specific concerns regarding the decision notice, I will address these in turn.

1. An unknown number of missing declarations. See Council reference to Agency and school staff
The council has confirmed that it does not hold information relating to school staff. It states that this information would be maintained by the schools themselves. Schools are separate authorities for the purposes of the Act.

As regards agency staff, you asked for information relating to the registered interests of ‘senior council officersl’. Agency staff are not council employees and will therefore fall outside the scope of your request.

The Commissioner therefore considers that there are no grounds for questioning this aspect of your complaint further.
2. Inadequate declarations. Uncertainty introduced in the minds of the public by stating “N/A” in place of “No”; “None”
The council has confirmed that the information it has provided to you is an accurate reflection of the recorded information which it holds. If an individual officer has made a declaration stating ‘N/A’ then this is the response which the council should provide to you under the Act. The Commissioner cannot require the council to check with individual officers what the officer meant by stating N/A on their form as the Act does not require it to do so. Although you may consider that this leaves the council in a position where its records are unclear this is not a matter which the Commissioner has the powers to investigate. This is also applicable to information where the council has confirmed ‘nil’ or ‘no return’.

The Commissioner therefore considers that there are no grounds for questioning this aspect of your complaint further.
3. A failure by the information governance officer dealing with the request to give a positive or negative response to my question [asked twice] as to whether ALL officers working for the council had been included
I assume that in this question you are referring to senior officers only as the request which you made was limited to senior officers. The Council has confirmed to the Commissioner that all information which it holds which falls within the scope of your request and which the decision notice required to be disclosed has now been provided to you.

In complying with the notice the council simply needs to provide you with the forms of officers if they are held at the time that it received your request. If it does not hold forms of particular officers there is no duty on the council to obtain that information purely in response to your request.
The Commissioner therefore finds no grounds to issue an enforcement notice as the council has complied with the requirements of the decision notice in this respect.
4. The piecemeal response, coupled with the poor methods used to supply the data, have caused omissions and problems with correctly interpreting, understanding and realising the extent of the information
I appreciate that this may have caused you concerns. The decision notice stipulates that a disclosure of relevant information should be made to you within 35 days. The council did not provide all of the information to you within this timescale. It has however subsequently disclosed the information it holds to you and so an enforcement notice at this point, requiring a disclosure of information which has already been provided to you would seem to serve no purpose. You already have the information which an enforcement notice would require the council to disclose to you.

We have written to the council and passed on your concern in respect of the delay however, and do appreciate that the council should have provided the information to you in a more timely manner. The fact that it delayed its response beyond the timescales required by the decision notice has been noted and could be used in enforcement action against the council if it becomes apparent that this is a regular occurrence.
5. An unrealistic and unlikely number of officers appear to have no interest in any property. Only a very small number have admitted to living in a house / home and therefore holding such an interest
I understand your concerns over this however the Commissioner has no powers to require the authority to re-approach its officers and confirm that they have filled their forms in accurately. The Commissioner has questioned whether the information which was disclosed to you is an accurate reflection of the information it actually holds and it has confirmed that that is the case. Under the Act he does not have the legal powers to require the council to provide you with information which it does not already hold in recorded form. The council has not specified to the Commissioner that any information has been exempted regarding the property holdings of individual officers.

The Commissioner therefore considers that there are no grounds for questioning this aspect of your complaint further. In this respect I would add however that a home addresses would be likely to be excluded under section 40(2) of the Act in any event. There would therefore be no reason for the council to deny the existence of this information given that it would be likely to be exempt information.

Again you may question whether the council should be collecting information of this sort in order to assure itself that there conflicts of interest are known about. That is not however a question which the Commissioner has the powers to consider.

Finally, you also questioned the general application of section 40(2) to the information. I can confirm that the withheld information is personal data and that following the guidance provided in the Bolton tribunal the redactions are appropriate. The information relates to family relationships with individuals who do not work for the council. There is 1 other redaction relating to a contractual conflict of interest however I understand that the fact that this exists and the company which it relates to has already been disclosed to you.

The Commissioner has considered the withheld information and is satisfied that the council would breach the provisions of the first data protection principle if it disclosed this information. The individuals concerned are not council employees, and may have no knowledge that information about them was held by the council on conflict of interest forms. A disclosure of this personal information to the whole world due to its inclusion on a conflict of interest form would not lie within their expectations and would therefore be unfair. It would also be an unwarranted intrusion into their private lives for the purposes of schedule 2 of the first data protection principle. Section 40(2) is therefore applicable to the information.

In conclusion therefore the Commissioner considers that there are no grounds for him to take formal enforcement action against the council as a result of your complaint regarding non-compliance with this decision notice. Whilst this is the case, individual factors may be taken into account should it become necessary to take formal action against the council in the future. Again I would highlight that Wirral Council is currently on a list of authorities which is currently being monitored by the Commissioner.

I hope that this has satisfied your concerns as regards the council’s response to the decision notice.

Yours sincerely

[name redacted]
Senior Case Officer

Paul Cardin left an annotation ()

Response, sent today.

From: Paul C
Sent: 28 December 2012 22:12
To: 'casework@ico.gsi.gov.uk'
Subject: FW: re your complaint about Wirral Council's compliance with Decision Notice FS50416628 [Ref. FS50416628]

Dear [Senior officer name redacted],
Thanks for your email.
I’m afraid there is an error in your email regarding ‘conflicts of interest’. There are actually TWO declared. One of these you correctly identified as having provided the name of the firm to me (David Green / COLAS).

However your email omitted to mention the conflict declared by the Acting Chief Executive Ian Coleman. The following email (which can be seen reproduced at the following WhatDoTheyKnow.com link), received from Jane Corrin on 24th October 2012, clearly states that Section 40(2) is being used to treat this conflict of interest as personal data:

From: Corrin, Jane
Wirral Metropolitan Borough Council
24 October 2012

"Good Afternoon,
Thank you for your further email below. Details with regard Ian Coleman are below.
Ian ColemanDirector of Finance (ex employee)
A conflict of interest exists as declared by Ian Coleman, when he was Director of Finance. The Council considers that this information is exempt from disclosure under Section 40(2) of the FOIA as it contains Personal Data.
The council considers that it would be unfair on the individual concerned to disclose this personal data and therefore would be in breach of the 1st principle of the DPA 1998."

You have either made a mistake OR you are content for the council to describe this conflict as personal data. I believe this to be wrong and I challenge it. Please get back in touch with me as soon as possible to explain the situation.

I don’t believe that a conflict of interest held by somebody who later became Acting Chief Executive, demanding greater public scrutiny, can be exempt from disclosure under Section 40(2),

best regards,

Paul Cardin

Paul Cardin left an annotation ()

Here is a link to an article, setting out what I feel is the background and true motivation behind Wirral Council's very poor response times.

Notably, there are just 2 people dedicated to Freedom of Information and Data at this council (one professional and one admin assistant) - which says it all really.

http://easyvirtualassistance.wordpress.c...