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Municipal Bond Agency

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Dear City of York Council,

I understand that City of York is a member of this ‘agency’ which has yet to deliver a single loan after I think 5 years.

Please can you provide the following
1. All recorded information on the decision to join the agency including links to all committee reports, reports to Exec and Leaders’ group and internal memos from S151. Also correspondence with the agency.

2. For each year of membership please provide all contributions to this agency, by year.

3. Please provide the legal agreement and legal status of York’s relationship with the ‘agency’

4. Please provide a copy of every communication from this agency to the council and indicate if any of these were shared with members.

5. Please provide a link to all reports on the progress of this agency as given to Committee. If none please say so.

Yours faithfully,

Gwen Swinburn

foi@york.gov.uk, City of York Council

Thank you for your email. Please note this is an automatically generated receipt to let you know we have received your email.

For information:

* The timescale for responding to Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) and Environmental Information Regulation (EIR) requests is up to 20 working days. We will contact you promptly if we need you to clarify your request or an extension to complete a public interest test.

o The timescale for responding to requests for a review, for FOIA or EIR responses, is up to 20 working days. You are also able to contact the Information Commissioner, contact details below:

* The timescale for responding to your rights in relation to personal data eg: subject access to records (SAR) request, is up to 1 month. We will contact you promptly if we require further information from you, or an extension.

o The timescale for responding to requests for a review, of responses to your rights regarding personal data, is up to 1 month. You are also able to contact the Information Commissioner, contact details below:

Information Commissioner's Office
Wycliffe House Water Lane
Wilmslow
Cheshire
SK9 5AF
Tel: 0303 123 1113 (local rate) or 01625 545 745 if you prefer to use a national rate number
Fax: 01625 524 510
Or email: [email address]<mailto:[email address]> (please include your telephone number in your email)

Regards
Customer Feedback Team

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foiresponses_NO-REPLY@york.gov.uk, City of York Council

13 Attachments

Hello Ms Swinburn,
 
Please see below the response to your enquiry under the Freedom of
Information Act received on 9^th August 2019.
 
1. All recorded information on the decision to join the agency including
links to all committee reports, reports to Exec and Leaders’ group and
internal memos from S151. Also correspondence with the agency.
Initial decision to join
 
[1]http://modgov.york.gov.uk/ieDecisionDeta...
 
2. For each year of membership please provide all contributions to this
agency, by year.
2014/15 £40k
No other payments made
 
3. Please provide the legal agreement and legal status of York’s
relationship with the ‘agency’
 
 
4. Please provide a copy of every communication from this agency to the
council and indicate if any of these were shared with members.
Also see response to Q3 above.  No information formally shared with
members, although Executive Member for Finance given regular verbal
update.  Any issues would have been reported through the regular
monitoring reports to both A&G and Executive.
 
5. Please provide a link to all reports on the progress of this agency as
given to Committee. If none please say so.
No formal reports, however the relevant Executive Member was kept informed
through officer Steward.
 
If you are dissatisfied with our response you have the right to ask for a
review of how your enquiry was handled and responded to.   This can be
done by contacting us through [2][City of York Council request email] stating your reason(s)
why you are dissatisfied, and we will pass this to the information
governance adviser who deals with all reviews of how we have dealt with
FOI enquiries.  If after they complete their investigation and reply to
you with their findings, you still remain dissatisfied you can contact the
Information Commissioner, contact details below:
Information Commissioner's Office
Wycliffe House Water Lane
Wilmslow
Cheshire
SK9 5AF
Tel: 0303 123 1113 (local rate) or 01625 545 745 if you prefer to use a
national rate number
Fax: 01625 524 510
Or email: [3][email address] (please include your telephone number)
 
Regards
 
Contact Point
t: 01904 554556 | e: [4][email address]
 
City of York Council  |  Customer Complaints & Feedback Team, Customer &
Corporate Services
West Offices | Station Rise | York YO1 6GA
[5]www.york.gov.uk | [6]facebook.com/cityofyork | [7]@CityofYork
 
 
 
 
Please note the email address you sent your email to, is used only for
sending purposes and not monitored. This means all emails sent to this
address will not be seen by any council officers and will also be deleted.
Please resend your email to [City of York Council request email]
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Dear City of York Council,

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

I am writing to request an internal review of City of York Council's handling of my FOI request 'Municipal Bond Agency'.

You have failed to answer any element of my question regarding member and democratic oversight of the decision to join this agency or any reporting meanwhile, including risk assessments.

Please therefore review your answers as follows

1. Entire question except last sentence
4. You did not answer if Members had been included in any of this correspondence
5. You did not answer item 5

This response has provided zero assurance that members have been involved at all in any way on the decision to become a shareholder in this endeavour, , nor been briefed publicly or privately at any point. As we appear to be a shareholder of this body, are there also obligations to be met by the Shareholder Committee and related party disclosures in the accounts?

As Councils have Joint and several liability for any loans given, and as no loan has been given in 5 years, and it appears the agency is now outsourcing its work, it seems to me this could all be going very wrong. Hence to understand what if any democratic oversight there has been.

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

Yours faithfully,

Gwen Swinburn

foi@york.gov.uk, City of York Council

Thank you for your email. Please note this is an automatically generated receipt to let you know we have received your email.

For information:

* The timescale for responding to Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) and Environmental Information Regulation (EIR) requests is up to 20 working days. We will contact you promptly if we need you to clarify your request or an extension to complete a public interest test.

o The timescale for responding to requests for a review, for FOIA or EIR responses, is up to 20 working days. You are also able to contact the Information Commissioner, contact details below:

* The timescale for responding to your rights in relation to personal data eg: subject access to records (SAR) request, is up to 1 month. We will contact you promptly if we require further information from you, or an extension.

o The timescale for responding to requests for a review, of responses to your rights regarding personal data, is up to 1 month. You are also able to contact the Information Commissioner, contact details below:

Information Commissioner's Office
Wycliffe House Water Lane
Wilmslow
Cheshire
SK9 5AF
Tel: 0303 123 1113 (local rate) or 01625 545 745 if you prefer to use a national rate number
Fax: 01625 524 510
Or email: [email address]<mailto:[email address]> (please include your telephone number in your email)

Regards
Customer Feedback Team

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
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foi@york.gov.uk, City of York Council

1 Attachment

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Dear Ms Swinburn,
 
Following your request dated the 9^th August 2019, I have now completed a
review of the response to your request for recorded information under the
Freedom of Information Act (FOIA).
 
My understanding of your concerns about your response is:
 
1. Entire question except last sentence.
4. You did not answer if Members had been included in any of this
correspondence.
5. You did not answer item 5.
 
Review
 
I shall review your concerns in turn:
 
1. Entire question except last sentence.
Question 1 was for ‘All recorded information on the decision to join the
agency including links to all committee reports, reports to Exec and
Leaders’ group and internal memos from S151. Also correspondence with the
agency.’ The council has responded with a link to ‘Initial decision to
join, which I can see has provided the recorded information requested. I
can also confirm that this is the only recorded information that the
council holds for question 1.
 
However, the council has not appropriately applied section 21 of the FOIA
or confirmed what information is not held.
 
I can confirm that the council holds details on initial decisions to join,
see link provided in response, but there is no further recorded
information as per details listed in the original request.
 
Therefore, this part of the review is partly upheld.
 
4. You did not answer if Members had been included in any of this
correspondence.
The council response to ‘indicate if any of these were shared with
members’ was to advise ‘No information formally shared with members,
although Executive Member for Finance given regular verbal update.  Any
issues would have been reported through the regular monitoring reports to
both A&G and Executive’. The recorded information held by the council has
been provided under Questions 3 and 4 as attachments.
 
The council considers this question answered in full, including advice and
guidance, under section 16(1) of the FOIA. The council as a public
authority should provide advice and assistance, ‘so far as it would be
reasonable to expect the public authority to do so’.
 
Therefore, this part of the review is not upheld.
 
5. You did not answer item 5.
Your request was ‘Please provide a link to all reports on the progress of
this agency as given to Committee. If none please say so.’ and the
councils response was ‘No formal reports, however the relevant Executive
Member was kept informed through officer Steward.’
 
The council has clearly stated that there is no formal reports, and has
again gone on to offer advice and assistance by means of advising that the
members where kept informed.
 
Therefore, this part of your review is not upheld.
 
Recommendations/Conclusions
 
Please accept the council apologies for not being clear in our response to
question 1.
 
If you remain dissatisfied you can now contact the Information
Commissioner, contact details below:
Information Commissioner's Office
Wycliffe House Water Lane
Wilmslow
Cheshire
SK9 5AF
Tel: 0303 123 1113 (local rate) or 01625 545 745 if you prefer to use a
national rate number
Fax: 01625 524 510
Or email: [1][email address] (please include your telephone number)
 
Yours sincerely
 
City of York Council  | Information Governance, Complaints and Feedback
Team
West Offices | Station Rise | York YO1 6GA
[2]www.york.gov.uk | [3]facebook.com/cityofyork | [4]@CityofYork
 
 
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Help protect the environment! - please don't print this email unless you
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We don't know whether the most recent response to this request contains information or not – if you are Gwen Swinburn please sign in and let everyone know.