All The Information Herts CC Hold On Audit No M 4110/12/003

The request was refused by Hertfordshire County Council.

Dear Hertfordshire County Council,

May I Under FOI Legislation have the following

All the information that you hold on audit no M 4110/12/003

Yours faithfully,

tomcullen

Herts Direct,

Dear Enquirer

Your message has been received by Hertfordshire County Council
and will be dealt with as soon as possible. Our customer service
standard is to reply to you within ten working days. When we
contact you we will give you a reference number so you can track
your enquiry in case any followup is required.

Please note that if your enquiry is urgent and relates to:
• safeguarding or concerns for an adult - please call us on
0300 123 4042
• child protection or social care concerns for a child -
please call us on 0300 123 4043

This is an auto-acknowledgement message in response to the email
you have sent to Hertfordshire County Council
([email address]).

Regards

HertsDirect
Hertfordshire County Council

****Disclaimer****

The information in this message should be regarded as confidential and is
intended for the addressee only unless explicitly stated. If you have
received this message in error it must be deleted and the sender notified.
The views expressed in this message are personal and not necessarily those
of Hertfordshire County Council unless explicitly stated. Please be aware
that emails sent to or received from Hertfordshire County Council may be
intercepted and read by the council. Interception will only occur to
ensure compliance with council policies or procedures or regulatory
obligations, to prevent or deter crime, or for the purposes of essential
maintenance or support of the email system.

Herts Direct,

6 Attachments

Dear Tom Cullen

Thank you for your email.
Your message has been sent to the relevant department and will be dealt
with as soon as possible. Should you need to make contact with us again on
this matter, please quote reference number: 33541

How do you rate the service we provided in this email? Please click on one
of the faces and tell us why the service was Good, Average or Poor.

[1]cid:40__=[email address][2]cid:50__=[email address][3]cid:60__=[email address]
Kind Regards
Kayleigh at HertsDirect
Hertfordshire County Council
Access information and online services and follow Hertfordshire County
Council on Twitter and Facebook:
[4]herts-county-council logo  [5]twitter icon  [6]facebook icon

show quoted sections

Herts Direct,

Dear Enquirer

Your message has been received by Hertfordshire County Council
and will be dealt with as soon as possible. Our customer service
standard is to reply to you within ten working days. When we
contact you we will give you a reference number so you can track
your enquiry in case any followup is required.

Please note that if your enquiry is urgent and relates to:
• safeguarding or concerns for an adult - please call us on
0300 123 4042
• child protection or social care concerns for a child -
please call us on 0300 123 4043

This is an auto-acknowledgement message in response to the email
you have sent to Hertfordshire County Council
([email address]).

Regards

HertsDirect
Hertfordshire County Council

****Disclaimer****

The information in this message should be regarded as confidential and is
intended for the addressee only unless explicitly stated. If you have
received this message in error it must be deleted and the sender notified.
The views expressed in this message are personal and not necessarily those
of Hertfordshire County Council unless explicitly stated. Please be aware
that emails sent to or received from Hertfordshire County Council may be
intercepted and read by the council. Interception will only occur to
ensure compliance with council policies or procedures or regulatory
obligations, to prevent or deter crime, or for the purposes of essential
maintenance or support of the email system.

Information Governance, Hertfordshire County Council

Dear Mr. Cullen,

                       

Reference number: FOI/ENV/10/13/6225

 

Thank you for your correspondence of the 15th October 2013 requesting the
following information:

 

All the information that you hold on audit no M 4110/12/003

 

Your request for information is being considered under the Freedom of
Information Act 2000.  We will respond to your request as quickly as
possible, and by 12th November 2013 at the latest. This replaces any
deadline previously given.

 

If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact me, quoting
the reference number on this email.

 

Yours sincerely,

 

Elaine Dunnicliffe

 

 

Information Access Manager

Information Governance Unit

Hertfordshire County Council

Postal Point CHN 305

County Hall,

Hertford, SG13 8DQ

Telephone: 01992 555848

Email: [email address]

show quoted sections

Dear Information Governance,
further to your reply
Can you assure me that Mr Smiths independent report where he disagrees with Herts CC audit conclusions particularly page 10 of the audit are on this file and also the e-mail that I sent to your auditor which included Mr Smiths report and your auditors e-mail to me where he acknowledges receiving Mr Smiths report prior to the audit been sent to my home on the 30.12.2012

Yours sincerely,

tomcullen

Information Governance, Hertfordshire County Council

Dear Mr. Cullen,
Thank you for your email.

I will provide a full response to your request as soon as possible, and by 12th November at the latest as previously advised.

Yours sincerely,

Elaine Dunnicliffe

Information Access Manager
Information Governance Unit
Hertfordshire County Council
Postal Point CHN 305
County Hall,
Hertford, SG13 8DQ
Telephone: 01992 555848
Email: [email address]
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
The Information Governance Unit supports Hertfordshire County Council's Data Protection, Freedom of Information and Records Management activity.
hertsdirect / twitter / facebook
      
Hertfordshire - County of Opportunity

show quoted sections

Dear Information Governance,
Madam thank you for the reply and now I am trying to be helpful you have informed me previously by phone that you have read the file and that it consists of approx 500 a4 size pages can you please assure me that the following information is in this file
[a] My correspondence with your CEO regarding the audit and hes replies
[B] My Correspondence with your Head of Audit regarding this audit and her replies
[c] Hertsmere Borough Council reply to my FOI request in which they inform me that they did not keep a record and were unable to identify who filled out the register [see page 10 of audit ]

All the above should form part of the file and if not under section 16 of the FOI regulation could you please assist me so that this information may be made available to me

Yours sincerely,

tom cullen

Information Governance, Hertfordshire County Council

Dear Mr. Cullen,
Thank you for your email.
I will provide a full response to your request as soon as possible, and by 12th November at the latest as previously advised.

Yours sincerely,

Elaine Dunnicliffe

Information Access Manager
Information Governance Unit
Hertfordshire County Council
Postal Point CHN 305
County Hall,
Hertford, SG13 8DQ
Telephone: 01992 555848
Email: [email address]
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
The Information Governance Unit supports Hertfordshire County Council's Data Protection, Freedom of Information and Records Management activity.
hertsdirect / twitter / facebook
      
Hertfordshire - County of Opportunity

show quoted sections

Information Governance, Hertfordshire County Council

13 Attachments

Dear Mr. Cullen,

 

Reference number:  FOI/ENV/10/13/6225

                                        

On 15th October  2013 we received the following request for information
from you:

 

May I Under FOI Legislation have the following

 

All the information that you hold on audit no M 4110/12/003

 

Your request for information has been considered under the Freedom of
Information Act 2000. I can confirm that Hertfordshire County Council does
hold the information you have requested, and can respond as follows:

 

Please see the attached documents. These constitute the material in the
file for which electronic copies exist. There is a small amount of email
correspondence which will be sent in an additional response due to the
number of attachments here.

 

The terms of reference provide the remit under which the audit was
undertaken. Whilst some of the issues raised by you were incorporated into
the wider remit, the purpose of the audit was not  to address your
individual concerns.

 

A small amount of redaction has been carried out on these documents to
remove the names and job titles of members of staff at both Hertsmere
Borough Council and Hertfordshire County Council who are not considered to
be senior officers or decision makers in this matter. After consideration
the County Council has decided that this information should be withheld
under the exemption contained in Section 40(2) of the Freedom of
Information Act 2000, relating to third party personal data.  The
disclosure of this information would contravene the first Data Protection
principle as none of the individuals have provided their consent for the
information to be disclosed.

 

In addition to the documentation provided here please note:

 

1. A significant amount of the file is  your own email correspondence,
both with Hertsmere Borough Council where you have forwarded this to the
Audit manager, and Hertfordshire County Council. A small amount of data is
addressed to as the owner/occupier of a property affected by a Tree
Preservation Order (TPO) relating to a neighbouring property.

We believe this is information to which you already have access and for
this reason the Council considers that the information in question is
exempt from disclosure under section 21(1) of the Freedom of Information
Act 2000, relating to information accessible by other means.  If you no
longer hold your own correspondence with Hertsmere or the letters sent to
you in connection with the TPO please let us know.

 

2. There is a small further amount of information relating to yourself
which we consider to be your personal data, you are entitled to have
access to this under the Data Protection Act 1998, but it is exempt from
release here under the exemption contained in Section 40(1) of the Freedom
of Information Act 2000.  Please contact me if you wish to have access to
this information.

 

3. Some of the content of the file is the personal data of third parties
this consists of email correspondence, both with Hertsmere Borough Council
and Hertfordshire County Council and personal applications for Tree
Preservation Orders.

After consideration the County Council has decided that this information
should be withheld under the exemption contained in Section 40(2) of the
Freedom of Information Act 2000, relating to third party personal data. 
The disclosure of this information would contravene the first Data
Protection principle as none of the individuals have provided their
consent for the information to be disclosed.

 

Information we have received from Hertsmere for the audit is only held as
hard copy, with the exception of minutes of the Planning Committee for
19^th April 2012, which are available on the Council’s website at:

[1]http://www5.hertsmere.gov.uk/democracy/i...

If you wish to have a paper copy there will be an additional 6 sides of A4
to be added to the figures below.

 

The file contains a chapter extracted from

 Tree Preservation Orders: A Guide to the Law and Good Practice

Chapter 3 Making and Confirming Tree Preservation Orders

which is published by the Department for Communities and Local Government

This publication is crown copyright and can be found at the website below.

[2]https://www.gov.uk/government/publicatio...

Ref: ISBN 9781851123612 PDF, 569KB, 103 pages - whole document

Because of the copyright restriction, if you are unable to access the
electronic version I would recommend you contact the Department for
Communities and Local Government.

Eland House

Bressendon Place
London
SW1E 5DU

Email [3][email address]

General enquiries 0303 444 0000

The information we hold in hard copy only excluding the two items referred
to above amounts to 247 sides of A4,

We cannot therefore provide this electronically. We estimate the cost of
printing at £29.00 and the cost of postage to be £1.87.

We are considering whether it would be possible to allow you to view the
documents at County Hall.

 

 

If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact me, quoting
the reference above. To find out more about Freedom of Information, please
visit [4]www.hertsdirect.org/foi

 

If you are unhappy with the way the County Council has handled your
request for information you may request an internal review of the request.
This will be carried out by a member of the County Council Legal Services
Team, who has had no prior involvement with the request. Requests for an
internal review should be sent to the Information Governance Unit at the
address above.

 

If you are unhappy with the outcome of the internal review you are
entitled to ask the Information Commissioner to investigate your
complaint. You should write to: FOI/EIR Complaints Resolution, Information
Commissioner's Office, Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow, Cheshire, SK9
5AF.

 

Yours sincerely

 

Elaine Dunnicliffe

 

 

Information Access Manager

Information Governance Unit

Hertfordshire County Council

Postal Point CHN 305

County Hall,

Hertford, SG13 8DQ

Telephone: 01992 555848

Email: [5][email address]

show quoted sections

Information Governance, Hertfordshire County Council

Dear Mr. Cullen,

 

Reference number:  FOI/ENV/10/13/6225

 

Further to my email of 12th November. I can confirm that the following are
not part of the audit file.

Your correspondence with:

[a] the Chief Executive of Hertfordshire County Council

[b]the Head of Internal Audit

and their replies.

[c] the response to your FOI request made to Hertsmere Borough Council

 

The correspondence with HCC would have taken place after the audit was
completed.

 

I can confirm that a copy of the email from you containing the report and
dated Fri 16/11/12 12:06 is held within the file but a printed copy of the
report is not.

 

If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact me, quoting
the reference above. To find out more about Freedom of Information, please
visit [1]www.hertsdirect.org/foi

 

If you are unhappy with the way the County Council has handled your
request for information you may request an internal review of the request.
This will be carried out by a member of the County Council Legal Services
Team, who has had no prior involvement with the request. Requests for an
internal review should be sent to the Information Governance Unit at the
address above.

 

If you are unhappy with the outcome of the internal review you are
entitled to ask the Information Commissioner to investigate your
complaint. You should write to: FOI/EIR Complaints Resolution, Information
Commissioner's Office, Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow, Cheshire, SK9
5AF.

 

Yours sincerely

 

Elaine Dunnicliffe

 

 

Information Access Manager

Information Governance Unit

Hertfordshire County Council

Postal Point CHN 305

County Hall,

Hertford, SG13 8DQ

Telephone: 01992 555848

Email: [email address]

show quoted sections

Information Governance, Hertfordshire County Council

6 Attachments

Dear Mr. Cullen,

 

Reference number:  FOI/ENV/10/13/6225

                                        

On 15th October  2013 we received the following request for information
from you:

 

May I Under FOI Legislation have the following

 

All the information that you hold on audit no M 4110/12/003

 

Your request for information has been considered under the Freedom of
Information Act 2000. I can confirm that Hertfordshire County Council does
hold the information you have requested. Further to my response of 12th
November please find attached the emails referred to.

 

A small amount of redaction has been carried out on these documents to
remove personal data of third parties including the names and job titles
of members of staff at both Hertsmere Borough Council and Hertfordshire
County Council who are not considered to be senior officers or decision
makers in this matter, also in one instance third party personal . After
consideration the County Council has decided that this information should
be withheld under the exemption contained in Section 40(2) of the Freedom
of Information Act 2000, relating to third party personal data.  The
disclosure of this information would contravene the first Data Protection
principle as none of the individuals have provided their consent for the
information to be disclosed.

 

This completes your request. I apologise for the delay in providing these
final documents.

 

If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact me, quoting
the reference above. To find out more about Freedom of Information, please
visit [1]www.hertsdirect.org/foi

 

If you are unhappy with the way the County Council has handled your
request for information you may request an internal review of the request.
This will be carried out by a member of the County Council Legal Services
Team, who has had no prior involvement with the request. Requests for an
internal review should be sent to the Information Governance Unit at the
address above.

 

If you are unhappy with the outcome of the internal review you are
entitled to ask the Information Commissioner to investigate your
complaint. You should write to: FOI/EIR Complaints Resolution, Information
Commissioner's Office, Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow, Cheshire, SK9
5AF.

 

Yours sincerely

 

Elaine Dunnicliffe

 

 

Information Access Manager

Information Governance Unit

Hertfordshire County Council

Postal Point CHN 305

County Hall,

Hertford, SG13 8DQ

Telephone: 01992 555848

Email: [2][email address]

show quoted sections

Dear Information Governance,
Madam thank you for the information
In a previous response you informed me that you had no information as to why two copies of the register existed On the information supplied now I see that Hertsmere informed the auditor that a page went missing You had this information all the time

As we are not at home please send the reply requested below via this web site. What I require is the e-mail with attachment that I sent to your auditor on 16.11.2012 the attachment from the handwriting analyst that identified who filled in the register from 2010 to 2012 and according to him [ex head of a large Scottish Police force ] it was not the planning officer as per your audit according to him it was the tree officer ,who as your auditor was aware had informed me on the 5.3.2012 that Hertsmere did not keep a register???. [see page 10 of your audit ]The Email states something like now please tell the truth I am unable to access it as I seem to have problems with my e-mails but am able to access it through this web page

Madam as you did not give me all the information previously would you please recheck and ensure that your auditor made no contact with Hertmere between 16.11.2012 when he was informed by me who had filled in the register and the 30.11.2012 when he published the audit as it seems strange to me that when he received my report that he did not question the information provided by Hertsmere especially since he was aware that Hertsmere had informed me through an FOI request that they were unable to identify who filled in the register Yet the informed the auditor ????

Yours sincerely,

tomcullen

Information Governance, Hertfordshire County Council

Dear Mr. Cullen,

Thank you for your email. I cannot comment on an FOI request made to another authority.

With regard to your request for a copy of an email you sent to HCC. It is not the purpose of the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) to provide you with information you already hold, this was made clear in our initial response. There is an exemption under section 21 to ensure that there is no right of access to information via FOIA if it is available to you through another route. This is an absolute exemption which means there is no requirement to carry out a public interest test if the requested information is exempt.

I have rechecked the file, and can confirm that the only correspondence held for these dates is from yourself, it is therefore considered to be information to which you already have access.

Please understand that an FOI request relates to information held and not to opinion. Where the opinion was expressed within the audit it becomes held at that stage but isn't information held prior to that point.

You received a copy of the audit and therefore this was also information you had access to, I apologise if our earlier response was misleading. We hold no other information than that to which you already have access.

This now brings this matter to a close. If you are unhappy with the way the County Council has handled your request for information you may request an internal review of the request. This will be carried out by a member of the County Council Legal Services Team, who has had no prior involvement with the request. Requests for an internal review should be sent to the Information Governance Unit.

If you wish to formally complain details of the complaints procedure can be found at http://www.hertsdirect.org/your-communit...

Yours sincerely,

Elaine Dunnicliffe

Information Access Manager
Information Governance Unit
Hertfordshire County Council
Postal Point CHN 305
County Hall,
Hertford, SG13 8DQ
Telephone: 01992 555848
Email: [email address]
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
The Information Governance Unit supports Hertfordshire County Council's Data Protection, Freedom of Information and Records Management activity.
hertsdirect / twitter / facebook
      
Hertfordshire - County of Opportunity

show quoted sections

Dear Information Governance,

Thank you for the reply your failure to identify through a previous FOI request that Hertsmere had informed the auditor that they lost a page of the register and that this was the reason why they had a dublicate copy of the register was in my opinion a very serious mistake on your behalf and really led me to believe that the handwriting expert was wrong when he said that the tree officer, who had informed me on the 5.3.2012 that Hertsmere did not keep a register was incorrect when he said the dublicate copy was filled in by that tree officer when he was not working for Hertsmere The information that the handwriting expert gave to me was correct and your previous reply was incorrect and that is the reason I feel that it is necessary to ask you again to recheck all the information you have on this file

At no point did I ask you to comment on other councils attitude to FOI What I clearly asked you is are you sure that on a file has still has 247 A4 size pages I have not seen is their any record of how your auditor could depend on Hertsmere council staff to inform them of who filled in the register when I had previously informed him that they had replied to my FOI request stating that they did not keep a record of who filled in the register This is not asking you to comment this is asking you to ensure that you have forwarded me all the information that is on file After all you did give me wrong information on a previous request

Now we come to the report by the ex-police officer the hand writing expert he informed me who had filled out the register and its not who your auditor says it is see page 10 of the audit report the report which I am unable to access I have informed you I have a problem with viruses on my e-mail you have in your possession the report by the hand writing expert I would like this report and am prepared to pay you the cost of sending it to me via this web site I also sent this hand writing experts report to your Head Of Audit and your CEO via e-mail You maybe under the impression that I have the report but the virus has wiped it off my computer If you so wish I will go through the internal review but without the report I may get my facts wrong this is just clarifying my requests

Yours sincerely,

tomcullen

Dear Information Governance,
On the information provided so far I will be asking you for an internal review That is without seeing the 247 A4 pages which you assure me are in hard copy

I will wait until I receive all the information before we issue the reasons for the review

I am prepared to pay the price of £29.00 to see the rest of the information you hold on this audit

I understand that even though you hold the information in hard copy we have the right to request that you send us this information via electronic mail if this is so may I have this information via e-mail to this site

Please let me know how you wish to be paid I can pay by credit card or cheque ?

Yours sincerely,

tomcullen

Information Governance, Hertfordshire County Council

Dear Mr. Cullen,
As previously explained we do not hold it electronically therefore we cannot supply it electronically.

The information we hold in hard copy only excluding the two items referred to above amounts to 247 sides of A4,
We cannot therefore provide this electronically.
You may make arrangements to view this at County Hall at a mutually convenient time.

We estimate the cost of printing at £29.00 and the cost of postage to be £1.87. If you wish to receive hard copy I will send a pro-forma invoice which will include postage and will have payment details.

When we have received payment we will provide the material by post.

Yours sincerely,

Elaine Dunnicliffe

Information Access Manager
Information Governance Unit
Hertfordshire County Council
Postal Point CHN 305
County Hall,
Hertford, SG13 8DQ
Telephone: 01992 555848
Email: [email address]
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
The Information Governance Unit supports Hertfordshire County Council's Data Protection, Freedom of Information and Records Management activity.
hertsdirect / twitter / facebook
      
Hertfordshire - County of Opportunity

show quoted sections

Dear Information Governance,
Thank you for the reply I am aware that I contacted your auditor on numerous occassions via e-mail about this audit so for you to say that you only have 2 electronic mails leaves me wondering

I do feel that I should not be paying for e-mails and that you should send me all the e-mails via this web site and that yes we will pay for information that you have in hard copy that seems reasonable to me

As I have informed you that my e-mail files have been damaged by a virus I will now contact the ICO and take their advice

Yours sincerely,

tomcullen

Information Governance, Hertfordshire County Council

Dear Mr. Cullen,

I refer you to my response of 12th November. Since then I have made several responses to assist you in understanding the nature of the documentation.
The estimated charge for hard copy is not for emails it is for other documentation provided to us by Hertsmere in hard copy.

The County Council believe that your emails are information to which you already have access, we will not be providing this information to this website.
I will not be entering into further correspondence with you on the subject of your email correspondence.

You have been advised of your rights of access to the hard copy material and to an internal review.

Yours sincerely,
Elaine Dunnicliffe

Information Access Manager
Information Governance Unit
Hertfordshire County Council
Postal Point CHN 305
County Hall,
Hertford, SG13 8DQ
Telephone: 01992 555848
Email: [email address]

show quoted sections

The Information Governance Unit supports Hertfordshire County Council's Data Protection, Freedom of Information and Records Management activity.
hertsdirect / twitter / facebook
      
Hertfordshire - County of Opportunity

-------------------------------------------------------------------
Please use this email address for all replies to this request:
[FOI #181062 email]

Disclaimer: This message and any reply that you make will be published on the internet. Our privacy and copyright policies:
https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/help/offi...

If you find this service useful as an FOI officer, please ask your web manager to link to us from your organisation's FOI page.

-------------------------------------------------------------------

****Disclaimer****
The information in this message should be regarded as confidential and is intended for the addressee only unless explicitly stated. If you have received this message in error it must be deleted and the sender notified. The views expressed in this message are personal and not necessarily those of Hertfordshire County Council unless explicitly stated. Please be aware that emails sent to or received from Hertfordshire County Council may be intercepted and read by the council. Interception will only occur to ensure compliance with council policies or procedures or regulatory obligations, to prevent or deter crime, or for the purposes of essential maintenance or support of the email system.

Dear Information Governance,
I am in the process of getting the virus that has damaged my e-mails removed and hopefully it will restore the hand writing experts communications with me where he proved that the information that your auditor supplied to me was incorrect

I will visit your office on 27.11.2013 pm if that is acceptable to you

I will expect to see all the information that Hertsmere supplied to your auditor regarding this audit including the letter that your auditor was aware of where Hertsmere informed me through an FOI request that they did not know who filled out the register Yet if you look at page 10 of the audit the auditor advises us that hertsmere staff indicated who had filled out the register and this is at odds with who the hand writing expert says filled it out and also at odds with their FOI reply

May I also go on record to inform you that should anyone else ask for any information on this audit I am giving you the council permission to furnish them all the correspondence be it by electronic mail or post I have had with Herts CC As far as I am concerned they can see All the correspondence do not use the Data Protection law with my correspondence with the council
as an excuse for not giving out information

Please let me know if its acceptable to see all the information that you hold on this audit this Wednesday pm 27.11.2013

Yours sincerely,

tomcullen

Information Governance, Hertfordshire County Council

Dear Mr. Cullen,
Thank you for your email. My apologies but Wednesday isn't possible. Would Friday 29th be acceptable? morning or afternoon, please provide an approximate arrival time and ask for me at the main reception (front of building).
Directions and a map can be found on our website at:
http://www.hertsdirect.org/atozofservice...

Yours sincerely,

Elaine Dunnicliffe

Information Access Manager
Information Governance Unit
Hertfordshire County Council
Postal Point CHN 305
County Hall,
Hertford, SG13 8DQ
Telephone: 01992 555848
Email: [email address]

show quoted sections

Please use this email address for all replies to this request:
[FOI #181062 email]

Disclaimer: This message and any reply that you make will be published on the internet. Our privacy and copyright policies:
https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/help/offi...

If you find this service useful as an FOI officer, please ask your web manager to link to us from your organisation's FOI page.

-------------------------------------------------------------------

****Disclaimer****
The information in this message should be regarded as confidential and is intended for the addressee only unless explicitly stated. If you have received this message in error it must be deleted and the sender notified. The views expressed in this message are personal and not necessarily those of Hertfordshire County Council unless explicitly stated. Please be aware that emails sent to or received from Hertfordshire County Council may be intercepted and read by the council. Interception will only occur to ensure compliance with council policies or procedures or regulatory obligations, to prevent or deter crime, or for the purposes of essential maintenance or support of the email system.

-------------------------------------------------------------------
Please use this email address for all replies to this request:
[FOI #181062 email]

Disclaimer: This message and any reply that you make will be published on the internet. Our privacy and copyright policies:
https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/help/offi...

If you find this service useful as an FOI officer, please ask your web manager to link to us from your organisation's FOI page.

-------------------------------------------------------------------

Dear Information Governance,
Madam Friday is fine will I be able to see all the information that you hold on this file? I would have thought where I informed your CEO and the Head of Audit that this was a flawed audit would form part of the information you hold on file as assuming in time to come someone carries out an investigation they would not be aware that this audit was considered seriously flawed
Of course if the FOI request from Hertsmere was not part of the information that you held then I will once again have to make an official complaint to your CEO and Head of Audit regarding page 10 as when they informed me they had found nothing wrong with the audit they were not aware that Hertsmere had said that they were unable to identify who filled out the register in their FOI reply to me see page 10 of 19 right in the middle of the audit

I will arrive in or around 13.30hrs and hope that I will be able to inspect the file and maybe just copy the pages that are relevant to me

Yours sincerely,

tomcullen

Information Governance, Hertfordshire County Council

Dear Mr. Cullen,
I look forward to seeing you on Friday.

Yours sincerely,

Elaine Dunnicliffe

Information Access Manager
Information Governance Unit
Hertfordshire County Council
Postal Point CHN 305
County Hall,
Hertford, SG13 8DQ
Telephone: 01992 555848
Email: [email address]
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
The Information Governance Unit supports Hertfordshire County Council's Data Protection, Freedom of Information and Records Management activity.
hertsdirect / twitter / facebook
      
Hertfordshire - County of Opportunity

show quoted sections

Dear Information Governance,
Madam

Thank You
I am also looking forward to meeting you but hope you do not apply the data protection clause to our conversation as others maybe following our meeting and I get the impression from dealing with you that you do not like giving away information in fact miserly with information comes to mind but then I note you work for information governance at least its a dept well named

Please may I also see my personal data file at the same time

Yours sincerely,

tomcullen

Information Governance, Hertfordshire County Council

Dear Mr. Cullen,
Can I ask you to clarify whether you are referring to those sections of the audit file which we have advised you are your personal data or something else?
If the latter please can you define what information you are seeking?

Yours sincerely,

Elaine Dunnicliffe

Information Access Manager
Information Governance Unit
Hertfordshire County Council
Postal Point CHN 305
County Hall,
Hertford, SG13 8DQ
Telephone: 01992 555848
Email: [email address]
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
The Information Governance Unit supports Hertfordshire County Council's Data Protection, Freedom of Information and Records Management activity.
hertsdirect / twitter / facebook
      
Hertfordshire - County of Opportunity

show quoted sections

Dear Information Governance,
Madam

The information I required was all the information that you hold on my correspondence with your CEO and your head of Audit where I identified the following

That this was a rogue audit
That the information contained in page 10 in which you have blotted out the job titles is at odds with the handwriting experts opinion of who filled out the register
That the handwriting expert identified that the person who filled out the register was in fact the person who informed me on the 5.3.2012 that Hertsmere BC did not keep a register
That in the audit report it quite clearly states the last time tippex was used in a register was 2007 yet the handwriting expert identified the last time tippex was used was 2010 and then they crossed out a job that did not exist at that time ie this is supposed to be an up to date register where the anticipated that they would receive a job a month before they received it
Madam imagine going to see your birth certificate only to see the entry tippexed out and another entry filled in over it ,.Would you believe your birth cert was genuine ?? Do I believe this audit No

The reason why Hertsmere informed me through an FOI request that they did not keep a record of who filled in the register Then they go and tell the auditor who filled in the register

That type of information is what I will be expecting to see on Friday

Should you need further clarification please do not hesitate to contact me

Thats the type of data

Yours sincerely,

tomcullen

Information Governance, Hertfordshire County Council

Dear Mr. Cullen,

Your correspondence with the CEO and Head of Audit will be available.

Please note if you require copies these will be identified during the visit and provided at cost after your visit. You may if you prefer bring a digital camera with you.

You will not be entitled to see those parts of the correspondence which have been withheld as the personal data of third parties.

Yours sincerely,

Elaine Dunnicliffe

Information Access Manager
Information Governance Unit
Hertfordshire County Council
Postal Point CHN 305
County Hall,
Hertford, SG13 8DQ
Telephone: 01992 555848
Email: [email address]
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
The Information Governance Unit supports Hertfordshire County Council's Data Protection, Freedom of Information and Records Management activity.
hertsdirect / twitter / facebook
      
Hertfordshire - County of Opportunity

show quoted sections

Dear Information Governance,
Madam how public money is wasted its just disgraceful

All I required from your CEO and your Head of Audit was when I sent in a report from an independent source which identified that the information contained in the middle of the audit page 10 of 19 was incorrect and that Hertsmere had informed me through an FOI request that they did not know who filled out the register yet the auditor ,who was aware of this still depended on Hertsmere to identify who filled out the register and completely ignored my independent report ,which identified that a person employed by Hertsmere and who had informed me on the 5.3.2012 that Hertsmere did not hold a register had in fact filled out the register

Not only that but my report by the hand writing specialist informed us that he filled out the register in 2010 when he was not even employed by Hetsmere ?????

The obvious thing for your CEO or Head of Audit to do was to just phone the CEO Hertsmere and ask him if the information that three members of hes staff gave to the auditor with regards page 10 of the audit was correct or incorrect Simple

Oh no what your CEO decides to do following a stage one complaint that he was charging the residents of Hertsmere £4335.00 for an audit that was not correct was to inform me that the complaint was closed and that the councillors etc would not adjudicate on the issue

Your Head of Audit advised me that the audit was a legal document and had nothing to do with me

You informed me that you had no evidence to say whether the audit was correct or incorrect

But Madam I will play the game who cares if the lights go out at 24.00 and we shut down libraries its only taxpayers money and we can always get an increase in the household charges to pay for this

Madam I repeat Herts C C have charged the residents of Hertsmere for a flawed audit and you the CEO ,The Head Of your Audit dept and your two auditors involved in this audit know it and so does the CEO of Hertsmere
That is why you would not send my report or my correspondence with your CEO or Head Of Audit via this web page

See you Friday

Yours sincerely,

tomcullen

Dear Information Governance,
Madam
When I call on Friday is it possible for me to see the auditor that carried out this audit

I understand that although the manager of the audit section for Hertsmere is no longer employed by Herts SIAS
[is this correct?]the actual auditor that carried out the work is still employed by Herts CC

Should the actual auditor not be available then anyone from the audit section will do preferably in a managerial position

My interest in this audit is page 10

That is why I assume the audit was sent to me and not any other resident of Hertsmere

As far as I am concerned the information contained in page 10 of the audit is incorrect and Herts CC have an independent report stating this You have obliterated some of this information but not all for instance you left in that the register was filled in by the planning officer from 2011 This is exactly what the hand writing expert said was incorrect and that the register was filled in by the tree officer who had also filled in the register for 2010 even though he was not working for Hertsmere at the time and had also informed me on the 5.3.2012 that Hertsmere did not hold a register

Your auditor was aware that the independent report stated this yet hes choice was to believe another source that had previously said in an FOI reply that they did not know who filled in the register

That is why I would like this auditor to explain hes decision and also explain why Herts CC are charging the residents of Hertsmere £4335.00 knowing that the information contained within this audit is intentionally incorrect

I did ask your CEO to get the police fraud squad involved But he refused this request

I would much prefer if this issue was dealt with by Hertsmere Borough Council but the CEO is refusing the following question to go forward at the next full meeting of the council "Is page 10 of the audit report correct ? According to our constitution all residents are allowed to ask two questions but the CEO of Hertsmere considers the question above as both frivolous and defamatory that is why its important to see someone from your audit section

Thank you for placing all the correspondence that I have had with your CEO and Head of Audit in the file and I could not understand why it was not their in the first place

Yours sincerely,

tomcullen

Information Governance, Hertfordshire County Council

Dear Mr. Cullen,
The Freedom of Information Act gives a right of access to information the authority holds. You have asked to see this information and we are making it available.

It does not give you a right of access to Council staff. No staff from Shared Internal Audit Service will be present.

I have not placed anything within the audit file. I have looked at the wording of your request and accept that it includes items of correspondence which relate to the audit file but are not part of it which will be made available.

If the intention of your visit is to dispute the information rather than to view it we will not be able to help, I would remind you that the correct way to do this is through the Local Government Ombudsman.

Yours sincerely,

Elaine Dunnicliffe

Information Access Manager
Information Governance Unit
Hertfordshire County Council
Postal Point CHN 305
County Hall,
Hertford, SG13 8DQ
Telephone: 01992 555848
Email: [email address]
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
The Information Governance Unit supports Hertfordshire County Council's Data Protection, Freedom of Information and Records Management activity.
hertsdirect / twitter / facebook
      
Hertfordshire - County of Opportunity

show quoted sections

Dear Information Governance,
Madam I am making the journey to your office to see the file
It would have been convenient for me when their to see the auditor as this would kill two birds with the one stone I really require to know the reason why he choose to print information in an audit knowing it is misleading this is not disputing any thing just asking a simple question He may have a genuine reason

You inform me that the FOI gives me a right to access information that the council holds you then go on to say it does not give me a right to access council staff I never thought it did what I asked you Is it possible to see someone from audit at the same time when I visit as I would like the audit section to explain why page 10 of the audit came to different conclusions than the report I sent in

That to me seems simple and saves all this talk about ombudsman etc I can assure you that I will not be going to the ombudsman I will instead be asking First to see someone from audit to explain and then if they refuse taking my case to a full meeting of the council and then on to the audit scrutiny committee

You did inform me that I would not be able to see my correspondence with the CEO and Head of Audit now you say on rereading my request that I will be able to see the correspondence You also informed me previously that you had no records of why dublicate sheets of a register existed and now I find out you had this information all the time Hertsmere allegedly lost a sheet of the register So madam like the rest of us you get things wrong sometimes too

Thank you for the help so far

Yours sincerely,

tomcullen

Dear Information Governance,
Madam
Thank you for the assistance you gave me yesterday at the Town Hall and I do apologise for any disruption to your working day

On reflection this is the way I now intend to proceed with this request

[] You are presently dealing with a similar request from Mrs Cullen of the same address

She now informs me that in your replies to her you have indicated that the file consists of approx 500 pages and she is going to write to you with permission for both our requests to be considered as one and that we will now forward you a cheque to the amount of £50.00 as going through the file yesterday I noted that a lot of the file is just dublicate copies

The ICO have advised that 10p per copy is a reasonable sum so say 500 pages at 10p =£50.00 if its any less then just give the extra to any charity of your choice

What we require is All the information that Herts hold on Audit no 4110/12/003

Yesterday for instance I did not see any information from the Director of Resources for Hertsmere requesting an audit yet we are informed on the first page of the audit that The Director requested this audit

Where is this request ??

Would you please once again check your filing system to ensure that where Hertsmere informed me through an FOI request [where its a criminal offence to conceal information ]that they did not keep a record of who filled in the register that you have not got this reply as I had brought this to your auditors attention in an e-mail prior to the audit been published

When going through the file yesterday I noted that when I informed your auditor on the 16.11.2012 through my independent report that the person who filled in the register was the same person who informed me on the 5.3.2012 that Hertsmere did not keep a register

Yet the independent report informed us that he had filled in the register and not only that put that he had filled in the register for a period of time when he was not working for Hertsmere

This is a mandatory register that should be kept up to date and yet he first informs me that Hertsmere Borough Council do not hold such a register then he goes and fills it in for a period when he was not working for Hertsmere

That is if my independent report is correct

This is fraud

You should not fill in a register when you were not working for the company and if he did fill it in how come he informed me on the 5.3.2012 that no register existed so not only is this employee a fraud he is also dishonest

I will now write to your CEO and your head of audit requesting a meeting We will attend this meeting at any time that is convenient for them and should we not hear from them then when I collect all the information that you hold on this audit from the Town Hall I will wait for 4 Hrs in the reception area hoping that some one will meet me to explain the difference between page 10 of the audit and my independent report

Would you also please once again check your files as any auditor worth hes salt would when given an independent report which contradicts what he has been in formed by staff of Hertsmere Borough Council would surely place it in writing that he has received information that disagrees with what they told him
That is unless the auditor was involved in placing information in an audit knowing it to be untrue

If that is so then Herts CC should not be charging Hertsmere residents £4335.00 knowing that the information contained in the audit is dishonest

If we are unable to trust an audit then what else maybe going on with taxpayers money

Yours sincerely,

tomcullen