Dear Sir or Madam,

As South Norfolk District Council have again admitted that they
have failed to appoint either an Electoral Registration Officer and
an Electoral Returning Officer would you please forward any
documents that you might hold from the Council (as identified by s2
of the Local Government Act 1972) identifying this.

In particular have any of the Councillors who identify themselves
as both Norfolk District Councillors and South Norfolk District
Councillors informed you of the District Council's admissions to
having again failed to appoint an Electoral Registration Officer or
Returning Officer in their declarations of interest, despite being
personally responsible according to the Representation of the
People Act 1983 for this omission. Copies of their declarations of
interest would be appreciated.

Would you further provide any documentation made available by
yourselves to the Boundary Committee identifying that in the
interests of democracy that South Norfolk District Council should
not be abolished and incorporated into a unitary structure
including Timbuktu.

Finally, would you please identify the total expenses and
honorariums claimed by members of the County Council and paid
accordingly from the County Council to all members claiming to have
been returned from the District of South Norfolk to the County
Council for the last six years.

Yours faithfully,

Stuart Hardwicke Carruthers

Dear Mr Hardwicke Carruthers,

FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT 2000 - INFORMATION REQUEST

Thank you for your Freedom of Information request, received by us yesterday, September 9th.

Before we can begin to deal with this request, we need some clarification, as we cannot seek out information unless we have some idea of what we are supposed to be looking for.

After each of the paragraphs in your request below, I have indicated the clarification we need.

Processing your request won't start until we hear back from you.

Yours sincerely,

Deirdre Sharp

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Dear FOI,

In response to your request for clarification.

I am merely seeking to determine if the South Norfolk District
Council has provided you with documents informing you that they
have failed to appoint an Electoral Registration Officer or a
Returning Officer (ever) well at least for the last ten years.. as
they published the fact in their minutes in December 2002.. and at
least two current County Cllrs debated the issue..

In relation to the County Councilors that also serve as District
Councilors and who are personally responsible for appointing the
ERO and RO for South Norfolk I am seeking a copy of their register
of interests to determine if they have made the County Council and
their electors aware of their problems of being returned. I would
anticipate that they will be required to declare their interest.

I specifically requested clarification if the County Council had
made a witten recommendation to the boundary committee that the
South Norfolk District Council should be incorporated into a
unitary Council with Timbuktu. I understand that it forms part of a
country known as Mali... Personally, I find it rather amazing that
a Council that has not been elected or returned is able to make a
claim for Judicial Review.. and identify so I understand that it is
in the interest of democracy..

I only want details of the honarariums and expenses claimed by the
elected members of the County Council that will not have been
returned from the District of South Norfolk to the County Council.
It is understood that both they and their colleagues are all
members of the same local political associations.

Obviously it is anticipated that the Leader of the Norfolk County
Council (used to be an SNDC Cllr I understand) shall also in all
probability identified in his register of interests that he had not
been returned.

hopefuly, that provides the required clarification.. doubtless we
shall be returning to the issue.. when other less advanced
Council's than south norfolk make similar admissions.

Yours sincerely,

Stuart Hardwicke Carruthers

Dear Mr Hardwicke Carruthers

Thank you for clarifying your request so quickly. I don't have any problems now with understanding what you want. Obviously if any of my colleagues have difficulties I will be in touch again. Meanwhile here is the formal acknowledgement of your request, with effect from today:

Your request will be considered within the statutory timescale of twenty working days as defined by the Freedom of Information Act 2000. For clarification, our deadline for your request is therefore October 8th.

For your information, the Act defines a number of exemptions that may prevent release of the information you have requested. You will be informed if this is the case.

If the information you request contains reference to a third party then they may be consulted prior to a decision being taken on whether or not to release the information to you. You will be informed if this is the case.

There may be a charge payable to cover the cost of providing this information. This will be assessed and you will be informed of the charge payable if this is the case.

Should you have any queries regarding your request, please feel free to contact us at [Norfolk County Council request email] .

Yours sincerely,

Deirdre Sharp

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Dear FOI,

Just to ensure that there is no confusion it is the expenses and
honorariums claimed by the members with South Norfolk County
Council Constituences.

The current leader of the County Council was it appears a member of
the District when it first identified that it had failed to appoint
an ERO or an RO.. [in 2002] as was it is understood the father of
their Chief Executive designate (currently employed by the County),
as well as a number of others. The Council have already identified
that they have not appointed one (for at least two Council's]

They have no excuse for not ensuring that the County were made
aware of the problems.

Yours sincerely,

Stuart Hardwicke Carruthers

Dear Mr Hardwicke Carruthers,

I am now able to respond fully to your request of September 9th, as clarified in your subsequent e-mail below.

Question 1:
Norfolk County Council does not hold any documents from South Norfolk District Council identifying that they have failed to appoint either an Electoral Registration Officer and/or a Returning Officer for at least the last 10 years.

Question 2:
The Register of Members Interests has been examined. No councillors who serve as members both of Norfolk County Council and South District Council have informed the County Council in their registration of interests to the effect that the District Council has admitted to failure again to appoint either an Electoral Registration Officer and/or a Returning Officer.

The Register of Members Interests is available for scrutiny at County Hall during normal office hours. Applications for photocopies of entries should be made to:

The Member Support Services Officer
Norfolk County Council
County Hall
Martineau Lane
Norwich
NR1 2DH

A charge may be made.

Question:
The County Council has not submitted any documentation to the Boundary Committee identifying that in the interests of democracy South Norfolk District should not be abolished and incorporated into a unitary structure that might, or might not, include Timbuktu.

The County Council's submission in the first round of consultations can be seen at:
http://www.norfolk.gov.uk/consumption/gr...

The Council's submission in the second round of consultation, i.e. in response to the options published by the Committee, can be seen at:
http://www.electoralcommission.org.uk/__...

Question 4:
Allowances and expenses paid to members representing South Norfolk Divisions for the last 5 full years are set out in the attached spreadsheet. We do not have earlier records, so we are unable to meet your request for data for the last 6 years.

Yours sincerely,

Deirdre Sharp

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Dear Sharp, Deirdre,

The information retained by the Norfolk County Council is
defective, and appears to be a clear breech of s46 of the Lord
Chancellor's Code of Practice.

The South Norfolk Council has admitted that they have no records of
appointing either an electoral registration officer and/or a
returning officer for the last two Council's, and were very aware
of the issues.

Cllrs: CALDWELL, COX, EAST, SPRATT and POND have all failed to meet
the Norfolk County Council Code of Conduct. Cllrs COX, EAST, SPRATT
and POND have all breached the Norfolk County Council Code of
conduct by failing to ensure that a record has been kept of their
failure to ensure that Norfolk County Councillors were properly
returned and elected from a valid list of electors. This is a clear
failure in the Norfolk County Council's record management system -
as it should be impossible to return a County Councillor if there
is no Returning Officer or Electoral Registration Officer.
Obviously the SNDC members probably have issues to raise with the
staff of the SNDC that have placed them in this situation again. It
is a clear statutory breach. The SNDC are with the Information
Commissioner on this issue following their various admissions.

Review of the County Council records is requested, as without
properly elected representatives there can as you will understand
be no County Council. Complaint has been raised with the County
Council in relation to the breach of the member's code of conduct
by the members of the County Council who are also members of the
SNDC.

There additionally appears to have been a failure to maintain
records and clear breaches of record retention guidance by the
Record Society of GB.

Review under FoI is requested. The records should be in existence.

Yours sincerely,

Stuart Hardwicke CARRUTHERS

Dear Mr Hardwicke Carruthers,

Thank you for your message.

As the County Council's Corporate Records Manager, as well as its FOI Officer, I will examine your appeal closely and determine if the Section 46 Code has been breached by us and, if this proves to be the case, what steps I need to take to address it.

My deadline for dealing with your appeal is November 3rd. If I find it necessary to take more time to complete my investigation you will be advised of a new deadline by that date.

Yours sincerely,

Deirdre Sharp

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Dear Mr Hardwicke Carruthers,

I attach a report of the review of your complaint concerning the keeping of records by this Council.

You will see that, in respect of recordkeeping, your complaint is not withheld.

I have, however, identified that it was reported to you in error that we could not supply details of expenses and honoraria paid to members for 200/3. We apologise for this failure on our part, and the information will be provided to you within 20 working days of despatch of this message.

Our internal complaints procedure having now been exhausted, you may apply to the Information Commissioner under Section 50 of the Act for a decision whether your request for information has been dealt with in accordance with the requirements of Part I of the Act. Contact details as follows:-

Information Commissioner's Office
Wycliffe House
Water Lane
Wilmslow
Cheshire SK9 5AF
Telephone 01625 545 700
www.informationcommissioner.gov.uk

Yours sincerely,

Deirdre Sharp

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Dear Sharp, Deirdre,

Many thanks for your report. The issue can now go to the
Information Commissioner. The SNDC failure with respect to this
issue is already with them.

It is as you will be aware impossible to raise an election petition
unless the Council with responsibility for elections actually makes
this information available (i.e. its failure to appoint either an
electoral registration officer or returning officer). There is
nothing as you will be aware stopping a new Council from rejecting
the constitution of a previous Council.. the issues are of more
than a little importance as rules related to public records are
encoded in statute for national govermment, whilst local government
is able to do as it wishes.

Yours sincerely,

Stuart Hardwicke CARRUTHERS

Dear Mr Hardwicke Carruthers,

As promised in my message of the 3rd November, I am now supplying the full data on expenses and allowances claimed by members of Norfolk County Council representing S. Norfolk divisions which you had requested. It is in the form of an updated version of the spreadsheet previously supplied with the figures for 2002/3 included, and is attached.

Yours sincerely,

Deirdre Sharp

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