Common Good Fund Accounts

The request was partially successful.

Dear Angus Council,

Please treat this email as a Freedom of Information request.

It is now ten years since accounting guidance setting out how councils should account for Common Good assets was published.

https://www.cipfa.org/policy-and-guidanc...

In this context, I would be grateful if you could supply the following information from the council:

1. Common Good accounts for the council from 2007/08, 2012/13, and 2017/18. This should be supplied in Microsoft excel format, or another machine readable, open format. It should not be supplied in pdf format files.

2. The online location of all Common Good accounts for the council from 07/08 - 17/18.

3. An itemised breakdown of all debits from the Common Good account for the last three financial years, showing the recipient, and summary purpose of each debit. This should be supplied in Microsoft excel format, or another machine readable, open format. It should not be supplied in pdf format files.

4. An itemised list of any Common Good assets that have been sold or otherwise removed from the accounts in the last three financial years. This should show the revenue raised by the sale. In the case of assets that were otherwise removed from the Common Good fund, please provide a short summary explanation of why they were removed. This should be supplied in Microsoft excel format, or another machine readable, open format. It should not be supplied in pdf format files.

5. An itemised list of any Common Good assets that have been added to the register in the last three financial years. This should include the value of the asset and a description or location of the asset, and the date it was added. This should be supplied in Microsoft excel format, or another machine readable, open format. It should not be supplied in pdf format files.

6. An itemised list of any Common Good assets that are currently leased to other organisations, including other council departments or public sector bodies. This list should include summary details of the start and end date of the lease, the lease holder, and the annual revenue that is raised from the lease. This should be supplied in Microsoft excel format, or another machine readable, open format. It should not be supplied in pdf format files.

I look forward to hearing from you in due course.

Yours faithfully,

Ally Tibbitt

InformationGovernance, Angus Council

Dear Ms Tibbitt

Thank you for your information request dated 4 March 2019 (received by Angus Council on that same day).

If we are unable to provide you with a response within 20 working days, we will advise you of this in writing.

Please refer to the information below which explains your right to complain if you are unhappy with how the Council is dealing with your request.

If you have any queries, please ask for me on 01307 491808 or email [Angus Council request email]

Yours sincerely
Cath Bowman

Cath Bowman | Admin Assistant (Info Gov)| Place |Legal and Democratic| Angus Council | Angus House | Orchardbank |Forfar| DD8 1AN |Tel 01307 491808 | [email address] | [email address]

Could we have used Skype instead

FREEDOM OF INFORMATION (SCOTLAND) ACT 2002
ENVIRONMENTAL INFORMATION (SCOTLAND) REGULATIONS 2004
INSPIRE (SCOTLAND) REGULATIONS 2009

Your Right to Request a Review by the Council

If you are dissatisfied with the way in which Angus Council has dealt with your request for information under any of the above statutory instruments, you have a right to ask the council to review its actions and/or decisions regarding your request. If you wish to do this, you should make your request to the Service Leader – Legal & Democratic, Place Directorate, Angus Council, Angus House, Orchardbank Business Park, Forfar DD8 1AN or e-mail [Angus Council request email] within 40 working days.

Your request must:
be in writing (or recordable format);
give your name and address for correspondence;
give details of the information which you originally requested from the council; and
give the reasons why you are dissatisfied with the way in which your application for information has been dealt with.

Your application for review will then be considered by the council’s review panel. The review panel will write to you informing you of its decision not later than 20 working days after receipt of your request for a review. The review panel will also provide you with a statement of its reasons for arriving at the decision it has made.

Your Right to Appeal to the Scottish Information Commissioner

If you are dissatisfied with a decision of the council's review panel (or where the review panel has not provided you with a response), you have the right to apply to the Scottish Information Commissioner for a decision as to whether your request for information has been dealt with by the council in accordance with the above statutory instruments.

Your application to the Scottish Information Commissioner must:
be in a recordable format (letter, e-mail, audio tape etc);
give your name and address for correspondence.
give details of the request for information which you originally requested from the council;
give details of why you were dissatisfied with the council’s response to your original request;
give details of why you were dissatisfied with the decision of the council's review panel.

In the case of an EIR or FOI request your application to the Scottish Information Commissioner must be made within 6 months of receipt of the decision of the council’s review panel (or within 6 months of the date that the review panel should have responded). No such time limit applies under the 2009 Regulations.

Appeals to the Commissioner can be lodged online through the following hyperlink:
http://www.itspublicknowledge.info/YourR... or by contacting:

Scottish Information Commissioner, Kinburn Castle, Doubledykes Road, St Andrews, Fife, KY16 9BS; Telephone - 01334 464610; Fax - 01334 464611; Email - [email address]

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BlackT, Angus Council

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Dear Sir/Madam

Request for Information: Angus Council Ref: 271/19 – Common Good Fund
Accounts

Thank you for your information request dated 4^th March 2019 (received by
the Council on that same day)

I have listed your questions and answered underneath each one:

1. Common Good accounts for the council from 2007/08, 2012/13, and
2017/18. This should be supplied in Microsoft excel format, or another
machine readable, open format.  It should not be supplied in pdf format
files.

A. Please find attached 2 word documents showing extracts from Angus
Council’s Annual Report & Accounts for 2012/13 and 2017/18. 2007/08 are
outside Angus Council’s retention policy of 6 years + current and
therefore we no longer have copies of them.

2. The online location of all Common Good accounts for the council from
07/08 - 17/18.

A. Please find link to the accounts as requested
[1]https://www.angus.gov.uk/council_and_dem...

As above there are no copies of 2007/08, 2008/09, 2009/10 due to retention
policies

3. An itemised breakdown of all debits from the Common Good account for
the last three financial years, showing the recipient, and summary purpose
of each debit. This should be supplied in Microsoft excel format, or
another machine readable, open format. It should not be supplied in pdf
format files.

A. Please see attached excel file named "Common Good FOI 3 years prior"

4. An itemised list of any Common Good assets that have been sold or
otherwise removed from the accounts in the last three financial years.
This should show the revenue raised by the sale. In the case of assets
that were otherwise removed from the Common Good fund, please provide a
short summary explanation of why they were removed.  This should be
supplied in Microsoft excel format, or another machine readable, open
format. It should not be supplied in pdf format files.

A. Brechin Common Good - 5 land sales @ cattle raik totalling £41,400

     Forfar Common Good - Public Convenience sale Market Muir £2,500

5. An itemised list of any Common Good assets that have been added to the
register in the last three financial years. This should include the value
of the asset and a description or location of the asset, and the date it
was added. This should be supplied in Microsoft excel format, or another
machine readable, open format. It should not be supplied in pdf format
files.

A. None

6. An itemised list of any Common Good assets that are currently leased to
other organisations, including other council departments or public sector
bodies. This list should include summary details of the start and end date
of the lease, the lease holder, and the annual revenue that is raised from
the lease.  This should be supplied in Microsoft excel format, or another
machine readable, open format. It should not be supplied in pdf format
files.

A. Please see attached excel file showing 2017/18 internal rents between
Common Good funds and Angus Council directorates. All rental values are
independently reviewed/set every 5 years

           

We currently do not lease any Common Good Assets to other organisations,
however there are various rental agreements for individual parties for
Common Good land / properties, again leases reviewed regularly and
valuation independent set. Income generated from such external rentals in
2017/18 was:

                        Arbroath        £9,356

                        Brechin          £24,362

                        Forfar              £5,536

                        Montrose       £8,383

In compiling responses to information requests we invariably use
information which is routinely published on the Council’s website or
through its Publication Scheme which can be accessed at the following
link:
[2]http://www.angus,gov.uk/info/20300/freed...
If you require further information please first check that the information
you want is not routinely published as any such information is exempt from
release in terms of Section 25 of the Freedom of Information (Scotland)
Act 2002 or Regulation 6(1)(b) of the Environmental Information (Scotland)
Regulations 2004.

I hope that this information is of some help to you.  Please note that the
information contained in this reply is believed to be accurate as at
todays date (unless otherwise indicated) but no warranty is given. 
Further, Angus Council does not accept liability for any loss, injury or
damage which arises from the use of the information contained in this
reply either by you or by any other party.  Please refer to the
information set out in the Appendix which explains your right to complain
if you are unhappy with how the Council has dealt with your request.

Please refer to the information set out in the Appendix which explains
your right to complain if you are unhappy with how the Council has dealt
with your request.

If you have any queries, please ask for Rory Tosh on (01307) 492581 or
e-mail [3][email address].

Yours sincerely

Steven Mill

Service Lead (Finance)

APPENDIX

FREEDOM OF INFORMATION (SCOTLAND) ACT 2002

ENVIRONMENTAL INFORMATION (SCOTLAND) REGULATIONS 2004

INSPIRE (SCOTLAND) REGULATIONS 2009

Your Right to Complain to the Council

If you are dissatisfied with the way in which Angus Council has dealt with
your request for information under any of the above statutory instruments,
you have a right to ask the council to review its actions and/or decisions
regarding your request. If you wish to do this, you should make your
request to the Service Leader - Legal & Democratic, Place, Angus Council,
Angus House, Orchardbank Business Park, Forfar DD8 1AN or e-mail [4][Angus
Council request email] within 40 working days.

Your request must:

·         be in writing (or recordable format);

·         give your name and address for correspondence;

·         give details of the information which you originally requested
from the council;  and

·         give the reasons why you are dissatisfied with the way in which
your application for information has been dealt with.

Your application for review will then be considered by the council’s
review panel.  The review panel will write to you informing you of its
decision not later than 20 working days after receipt of your request for
a review. The review panel will also provide you with a statement of its
reasons for arriving at the decision it has made.

Your Right to Complain to the Scottish Information Commissioner:

If you are dissatisfied with a decision of the council's review panel (or
where the review panel has not provided you with a response), you have the
right to apply to the Scottish Information Commissioner for a decision as
to whether your request for information has been dealt with by the council
in accordance with the above statutory instruments.

Your application to the Scottish Information Commissioner must:

• be in a recordable format (letter, e-mail, audio tape etc);

• give your name and address for correspondence.
• give details of the request for information which you originally
requested from the council;
• give details of why you were dissatisfied with the council’s response
to your original request;
• give details of why you were dissatisfied with the decision of the
council's review panel.

In the case of an EIR or FOI request your application to the Scottish
Information Commissioner must be made within 6 months of receipt of the
decision of the council’s review panel (or within 6 months of the date
that the review panel should have responded).  No such time limit applies
under the 2009 Regulations.

The Scottish Information Commissioner can be contacted at:-

Scottish Information Commissioner, Kinburn Castle, Doubledykes Road, St
Andrews, Fife, KY16 9BS; Telephone - 01334 464610; Fax - 01334 464611;
Email - [5][email address])

 

This message is strictly confidential. If you have received this in error,
please inform the sender and remove it from your system. If received in
error you may not copy, print, forward or use it or any attachment in any
way. This message is not capable of creating a legal contract or a binding
representation and does not represent the views of Angus Council. Emails
may be monitored for security and network management reasons. Messages
containing inappropriate content may be intercepted. Angus Council does
not accept any liability for any harm that may be caused to the recipient
system or data on it by this message or any attachment.

References

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Dear Angus Council,

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

I am writing to request an internal review of Angus Council's handling of my FOI request 'Common Good Fund Accounts'.

The initial response did not include details of the Common Good fund accounts for 2007/08. Whilst these account may not be published online, it seems unlikely that the council does not have a record of this information.

I look forward to hearing from you in due course.

Yours faithfully,

Ally Tibbitt

FriedrichM, Angus Council

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Dear Mr Tibbitt

I refer to your undernoted request for information, your request for
review dated 19 April 2019 (received by the council on 22 April 2019) and
the council’s undernoted decision dated 2 April 2019.

Unfortunately, in terms of s 21(8)(a) FOISA we are not obliged to carry
out a review for the following reasons:

·         You have been advised that the council does not hold the
information for all the years for which this has been requested by you (s
17 FOISA) and we have provided you with information for all the years
which we hold.

·         In accordance with its records management policy the council
must destroy information that is no longer required in line with the
Public Records (Scotland) Act 2011, its Records Management Plan and its
Records Retention Schedule. 

·         The council’s Finance service retains common good accounting
records for six financial years plus the current financial year, which
exceeds the retention period suggested by the Scottish Council on
Archives. 

·         As such, we are not obliged to retain information beyond that
period and the outcome of a review you are requesting would not be able to
alter the council’s statutory obligations in this regard.  As such there
would be no serious value in conducting a review.

I am sorry that I cannot be more helpful to you on this occasion. Please
refer to the information set out below which explains your right to
complain to the Scottish Information Commissioner. If you have any
queries, please contact me on 01307 491992  or e-mail [1][Angus Council
request email]

Yours sincerely

Martin Friedrich

___________________________________________

Martin Friedrich | Paralegal-FOI | Legal & Democratic| Angus Council
|Angus House | Orchardbank Business Park | Forfar | DD8 1AN | DX 530678|
Tel: 01307 491992

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