Compromise agreements and confidentiality clauses

Waiting for an internal review by Oxford City Council of their handling of this request.

Dear Oxford City Council,

How many Compromise Agreements have you entered into over each of the last 5 years (to 30/04/2013)?

How many of these contain confidentiality (gagging) clauses:
(i) about cash payments
(ii) about any other matters

Yours faithfully,

S Fisher

Oxford City Council

Dear S Fisher

Thank you for your FOI request below, which was received on 15th March 2013. You will be sent a response within 20 working days, as required under the Freedom of Information Act.

Yours sincerely

Laura Pearce

Oxford City Council
Town Hall
Oxford
OX1 1BX

Tel: 01865 252313

On behalf of:
Michael Newman
Corporate Secretariat Manager

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Oxford City Council

Dear Sir/Madam

 

Further to the acknowledgement below, I can respond to your FOI request of
15^th March as follows:

 

                                           2009/10       
  2010/11         2011/12          2012/13

Compromise agreements*            38                  23            
     26                 10

 

* Agreements related to redundancy

 

Information from before 2009/10 is not readily available.  In order to try
to obtain the figures, staff would have to examine manually individual
files (if they still exist) and it is likely that the appropriate time
limit as defined by Section 12 of the Freedom of Information Act (which
equates to about 18.5 hours per request) will be exceeded.

 

The agreements have not contained confidentiality clauses about payments
or any other matters.

 

 

Yours faithfully

 

Michael Newman

Corporate Secretariat Manager

 

Michael Newman

Corporate Secretariat Manager

Chief Executive’s Office

Town Hall

St Aldate’s

Oxford

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Dear Oxford City Council,

Thank-you for responding to the request. Unfortunately the layout has not translated well and the figures are unclear. Can you also clarify what you mean by "agreements related to redundancy"? Do your figures exclude some compromise agreements? If so, please can you provide the full data requested?

Yours faithfully,

SJ Fisher

Oxford City Council

Dear Sir/Madam

Thank you for your email below.

Please see below the figures that were not clear previously.

Compromise Agreements (relating to redundancy):
2009/10 - 38
2010/11 - 23
2011/12 - 26
2012/13 - 10

The Council does enter into compromise agreements for reasons other than redundancy, but the information is not readily available. In order to try to obtain the figures, staff would have to examine manually individual files (if they exist) and it is likely that the appropriate time limit as defined by Section 12 of the Freedom of Information Act (which equates to about 18.5 hours per request) will be exceeded.

If you disagree with any part of this response, you are entitled to ask the Council for an internal review of the decision(s) made. You may do this by writing to the Monitoring Officer, by either email - [email address] - or by post to Monitoring Officer, Oxford City Council, Town Hall, Oxford, OX1 1BX. After the result of the internal review, if you remain dissatisfied, you may ask the Information Commissioner to intervene on your behalf. You may do this by writing to the Information Commissioner's Office, Wycliffe Lane, Wilmslow, Cheshire, SK9 5AF.

Yours faithfully

Michael Newman
Corporate Secretariat Manager

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Dear Oxford City Council,

Thank-you for your response, and the clearer layout. In order to narrow the request and make less demand on your time, please would you simply report the number of Compromise Agreements which you class as 'non-redundancy' for

2010/11
2011/12
2012/13

From an earlier FOI request, I can see that the total number of Compromise Agreements for 2009/2010 was 51, and I can therefore deduce that the number of non-redundancy Compromise Agreements was 13.

Thank-you for your assistance in this matter

Yours faithfully,

SJ Fisher

Dear Oxford City Council,

On 4th April I wrote to you narrowing the scope of my original enquiry, as you had stated that it would be too time-consuming in its original form. To date I have not received any response.

Please could you therefore provide the information requested in the amended enquiry (dated 4th April 2013) at your earliest convenience?

Yours faithfully,

SJ Fisher

Dear Oxford City Council,

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

I am writing to request an internal review of Oxford City Council's handling of my FOI request 'Compromise Agreements and Confidentiality Clauses.

You declined to answer fully my initial request, stating that it would take too long to retrieve the information. I therefore requested a more limited response, which was a subset of the information requested originally. I do not consider this to be a new request. To date I have not even received an acknowledgment.

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

Yours faithfully,

SJ Fisher

Oxford City Council

Dear S J Fisher

I refer to your email below.  I apologize for the delay in responding to
your refined request dated 4^th April 2013.  Unfortunately, I am having
difficulty reconciling the figures to which you refer or relating the
matter to an earlier FOI request – are you able to provide the FOI
reference number, please? 

As I explained in my response of 3^rd April 2013, details in respect of
non-redundancy compromise agreements is not readily available.  There is
no central record that contains this information and staff would have to
examine manually individual files, if indeed they still exist, to try to
obtain the figures, an exercise that is likely to exceed the FOI time
limit. 

Finally, I will forward your request for an internal review to the
Council’s Monitoring Officer.

Yours sincerely

Michael Newman

Corporate Secretariat Manager

Michael Newman

Corporate Secretariat Manager

Chief Executive’s Office

Town Hall

St Aldate’s

Oxford

  

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Dear Oxford City Council,

The FOI request I referred to is: https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/t...

which states:

"1. Annual figures for individuals who have signed compromise agreement:
2009/10 -51
2010/11 - 23 to date (these figures do not include COT3 agreements of which there have been 10 to date in 2010/11

Please note that:
a. The Council does not hold records before 2009 and so I am unable to provide figures before 2009/10.
b. These figures include a majority of ex-employees who opted for voluntary redundancy. The Council does not hold figures on the reason(s) for leaving."

This does appear to contradict your statement that you cannot obtain the total number of compromise agreements by financial year, which is the subject of my narrowed down request.

I look forward to receiving the information requested.

Yours faithfully,

SJ Fisher

Oxford City Council

Dear S J Fisher

 

Thank you for your email below and the helpful information that it
contains.  I will look into the matter and reply as soon as soon as
possible.

 

Yours sincerely

 

Michael Newman

Corporate Secretariat Manager

 

Michael Newman

Corporate Secretariat Manager

Chief Executive’s Office

Town Hall

St Aldate’s

Oxford

 

 

 

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