Council Expenditure or Payment to Suppliers from 1st January 2019 to 30th June 2019

The request was successful.

Dear Gwynedd Council,

I'd like to make a request under the Freedom of Information act for all transactions over £500 from 1st January 2019 to 30th June 2019. Please provide the data in a machine readable format (preferably CSV). As a minimum, please be sure to include the date, value, recipient and the procurement category of each transaction.

For avoidance of doubt, I am making this request under the Freedom of Information Act. I await your response within 20 working days.

Yours faithfully,
Nikhil Prabhu

Gwynedd Council

Rhyddid Gwybodaeth / Freedom of Information

Dear Nikhil Prabhu,

Freedom of Information (ref 347)

Thank you for your recent request under the Freedom of Information Act
2000.

Your request has been passed to me to process and I can confirm that it
has been logged under the reference number 347.

The Council may take up to 20 working days, from the date of receipt, to
respond to your request. You should therefore receive the information you
have requested, subject to the application of any exemptions permitted
under the Act, by 05/09/2019. If you require further information please
contact me by phone on 01286 679468 or by emailing [1][email
address].cymru by quoting the reference number above.

Yours sincerely,
Gwawr Owen

References

Visible links
1. mailto:[email%20address].cymru

Dear Gwynedd Council,

May I now request an update?

Yours faithfully,
nikhil prabhu

Rhyddid Gwybodaeth, Gwynedd Council

Rhyddid Gwybodaeth / Freedom of Information

Dear Nikhil Prabhu,

Freedom of Information (ref 347)

Thank you for your recent request.

The Local Government Transparency Code 2015 requires Local Authorities in
England to publish information on expenditure over £500 on their websites,
however this is not a requirement for Wales. 

Unfortunately, we cannot provide the information requested as we estimate
that the cost of complying with your request would exceed the appropriate
time threshold. The time it would take to filter out the information that
we cannot disclose (e.g. payments to individuals) from the data extracted
from our financial system, would take more than 2.5 days.

Please note that where information is subject to copyright belonging to
the Council, you will need to obtain the permission of the Council to
re-use it for purposes other than private study or non-commercial
research. The Council may charge for re-use. Where third party copyright
material is disclosed, you must obtain permission to re-use from the
copyright holders concerned.

Complaints

If you are unhappy with the way the Council has handled your request, you
may ask for an internal review. Please contact me if you require an
internal review of your case. An internal review will be conducted by the
Monitoring Officer or Head of Service and we will aim to respond within 20
working days. However, if we are unable to complete the review by this
date, we will advise you accordingly.

If you are not content with the outcome of the internal review, you have
the right to apply directly to the Information Commissioner for a
decision. Please see below for the contact details:

Information Commissioner’s Office

2^nd Floor

Churchill House

Churchill Way

Cardiff

CF102HH

Telephone: 02920 678400

Email: [1][email address]

Fax: 02920 678399

Yours sincerely,
Gwawr Owen

References

Visible links
1. blocked::mailto:[email address] mailto:[email address]
mailto:[email%20address]

Dear Rhyddid Gwybodaeth Gwynedd Council,

I would like to appeal against the council’s decision to refuse information as they feel the cost would exceed the appropriate time threshold.

All councils now have a sophisticated accounting system which enables information to be downloaded using the in-built software. This software should have filters to enable data without compromising any sensitive information. As an accountant myself I use this facility extensively.

PLEASE NOTE: Most of the other Councils in Wales have fulfilled my request adequately (similar in nature, scope & time-period to this FOI request)

We feel the cost in downloading and assessing the data should not exceed £500 as much of the work would be done by the machine itself. We therefore would like to appeal against the council’s refusal to provide information as they feel the cost will exceed the appropriate time/cost threshold.

In particular I am looking for itemized transactions for all suppliers from 1st January 2019 to 30th June 2019 - preferably in a CSV format. We are looking for payments to suppliers who provide a service in Health and
Social Care. This would include all suppliers falling under the following categories :-

1. Payments to suppliers who provide fostering and adoption services to the Council
2. Payments to suppliers who provide care services to the council. This would include suppliers who provide care under each of the categories below :-
a. Children's Residential/ Nursing Care Providers
b. Adult Residential/ Nursing Care Providers
c. Elderly Residential/ Nursing Care Providers
d. Domiciliary Care Home Providers
e. Supported Living Care Home Providers
f. Care at Home Providers
g. Providers who carry out Homeless Services
3. Payments to suppliers who provide Special Education Services

To narrow my scope -- We are looking for payments to suppliers who provide a service in Health and Social Care ONLY.

I sincerely hope the Council may now accommodate my request.

Thank you very much & Kind Regards,
Yours Faithfully,
Nikhil Prabhu

Rhyddid Gwybodaeth, Gwynedd Council

Dear Nikhil Prabhu,

Further to your email dated 6/9/19 in which you appeal against our decision to refuse information as the cost would exceed the appropriate time threshold, we have considered your request and once again, the time to complete the work will exceed 18 hours. Therefore, the cost threshold set out in Section 12 of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 will be exceeded.

Whilst our financial system does allow us to download information for specific categories of expenditure according to our coding structure. However, as a Local Authority in Wales, unlike England, we are not required to publish information on expenditure over £500 on our website. Because of this we have not installed the software that would be able to filter out commercially sensitive information or ensure that all information has been extracted to account for General Data Protection Regulation. This would have to be done manually and even though your request has now been reduced to Health and Social Care only, we are still looking at hundreds of transactions for which we would have to turn out the actual invoices to ensure the correctness of the information and compliance with Data Protection Act 2018.

Under The Local Government Transparency Code 2015, LA’s in England are required to publish information on expenditure over £500 on their website so have probably invested in software with filters that enables them to carry out this work.

Many Thanks
Gwawr Owen
Ysgrifenyddes i’r Cyfarwyddwr Corfforaethol/
Secretary to Corporate Director
Caernarfon
Gwynedd
LL551SH
01286 679468
Est./Ext: 32468

-----Neges Wreiddiol/Original Message-----
Oddi wrth: nikhil prabhu <[FOI #595343 email]>
Anfonwyd: Dydd Gwener, 6 Medi 2019 10:37
At: Rhyddid Gwybodaeth <[Gwynedd Council request email]>
Pwnc: Re: Freedom of Information (ref 347)

Dear Rhyddid Gwybodaeth Gwynedd Council,

I would like to appeal against the council’s decision to refuse information as they feel the cost would exceed the appropriate time threshold.

All councils now have a sophisticated accounting system which enables information to be downloaded using the in-built software. This software should have filters to enable data without compromising any sensitive information. As an accountant myself I use this facility extensively.

PLEASE NOTE: Most of the other Councils in Wales have fulfilled my request adequately (similar in nature, scope & time-period to this FOI request)

We feel the cost in downloading and assessing the data should not exceed £500 as much of the work would be done by the machine itself. We therefore would like to appeal against the council’s refusal to provide information as they feel the cost will exceed the appropriate time/cost threshold.

In particular I am looking for itemized transactions for all suppliers from 1st January 2019 to 30th June 2019 - preferably in a CSV format. We are looking for payments to suppliers who provide a service in Health and Social Care. This would include all suppliers falling under the following categories :-

1. Payments to suppliers who provide fostering and adoption services to the Council 2. Payments to suppliers who provide care services to the council. This would include suppliers who provide care under each of the categories below :- a. Children's Residential/ Nursing Care Providers b. Adult Residential/ Nursing Care Providers c. Elderly Residential/ Nursing Care Providers d. Domiciliary Care Home Providers e. Supported Living Care Home Providers f. Care at Home Providers g. Providers who carry out Homeless Services 3. Payments to suppliers who provide Special Education Services

To narrow my scope -- We are looking for payments to suppliers who provide a service in Health and Social Care ONLY.

I sincerely hope the Council may now accommodate my request.

Thank you very much & Kind Regards,
Yours Faithfully,
Nikhil Prabhu

show quoted sections

Rhyddid Gwybodaeth, Gwynedd Council

1 Attachment

Dear Nikhil Prabhu,

Freedom of Information (Ref T347 )

Thank you for your recent request. Please see below and attached for the information requested:

I attach a file that includes a transaction list of payments under the Health and Social Care category which includes from your request Fostering and Adoption Services and Care Services. The information is for the period 1st January 2019 to the end of the 2018/19 financial year. Any sensitive information have been anonymised however, the transactions are still shown but the column ‘Transaction Description’ has been changed to CHIL 1, CHIL 2 or SocServ1, SocServ 2, etc. for different suppliers.

Please note that where information is subject to copyright belonging to the Council, you will need to obtain the permission of the Council to re-use it for purposes other than private study or non-commercial research. The Council may charge for re-use. Where third party copyright material is disclosed, you must obtain permission to re-use from the copyright holders concerned.

Complaints

If you are unhappy with the way the Council has handled your request, you may ask for an internal review. Please contact me if you require an internal review of your case. An internal review will be conducted by the Monitoring Officer or Head of Service and we will aim to respond within 20 working days. However, if we are unable to complete the review by this date, we will advise you accordingly.

If you are not content with the outcome of the internal review, you have the right to apply directly to the Information Commissioner for a decision. Please see below for the contact details:

Information Commissioner’s Office
2nd Floor
Churchill House
Churchill Way
Cardiff
CF102HH

Telephone: 02920 678400
Email: [email address]
Fax: 02920 678399

Yours sincerely,

Gwawr Owen

-----Neges Wreiddiol/Original Message-----
Oddi wrth: nikhil prabhu <[FOI #595343 email]>
Anfonwyd: Dydd Gwener, 6 Medi 2019 10:37
At: Rhyddid Gwybodaeth <[Gwynedd Council request email]>
Pwnc: Re: Freedom of Information (ref 347)

Dear Rhyddid Gwybodaeth Gwynedd Council,

I would like to appeal against the council’s decision to refuse information as they feel the cost would exceed the appropriate time threshold.

All councils now have a sophisticated accounting system which enables information to be downloaded using the in-built software. This software should have filters to enable data without compromising any sensitive information. As an accountant myself I use this facility extensively.

PLEASE NOTE: Most of the other Councils in Wales have fulfilled my request adequately (similar in nature, scope & time-period to this FOI request)

We feel the cost in downloading and assessing the data should not exceed £500 as much of the work would be done by the machine itself. We therefore would like to appeal against the council’s refusal to provide information as they feel the cost will exceed the appropriate time/cost threshold.

In particular I am looking for itemized transactions for all suppliers from 1st January 2019 to 30th June 2019 - preferably in a CSV format. We are looking for payments to suppliers who provide a service in Health and Social Care. This would include all suppliers falling under the following categories :-

1. Payments to suppliers who provide fostering and adoption services to the Council 2. Payments to suppliers who provide care services to the council. This would include suppliers who provide care under each of the categories below :- a. Children's Residential/ Nursing Care Providers b. Adult Residential/ Nursing Care Providers c. Elderly Residential/ Nursing Care Providers d. Domiciliary Care Home Providers e. Supported Living Care Home Providers f. Care at Home Providers g. Providers who carry out Homeless Services 3. Payments to suppliers who provide Special Education Services

To narrow my scope -- We are looking for payments to suppliers who provide a service in Health and Social Care ONLY.

I sincerely hope the Council may now accommodate my request.

Thank you very much & Kind Regards,
Yours Faithfully,
Nikhil Prabhu

show quoted sections

Dear Rhyddid Gwybodaeth,

Thank you for your response.

Whilst our original request was for data from Jan-Jun 2019, only 4 months Jan-Apr 2019 have been provided. Is there any reason to withhold the 2 months of data (if you do indeed hold it)? We would be very grateful if you could please also include the months of May 2019 & June 2019 in this tranche.

Thank you so much,
Yours sincerely,
nikhil prabhu

Rhyddid Gwybodaeth, Gwynedd Council

1 Attachment

Dear Nikhil Prabhu,

Further to your recent email and our email dated 9/01/2019, I attach a further file that includes a transaction list of payments under the Health and Social Care category for the first three months of the financial year 2019/20. Any sensitive information have been anonymised however, the transactions are still shown but the column ‘Transaction Description’ has been changed to CHIL 1, CHIL 2 or SocS1, SocS2, etc. for different suppliers. Furthermore you will see some Debits and Credits for the same amount and to the same supplier which are Creditor Reserves made in 2018/19 that are being cleared in 2019/20.

Many Thanks

Gwawr Owen

-----Neges Wreiddiol/Original Message-----
Oddi wrth: nikhil prabhu <[FOI #595343 email]>
Anfonwyd: Dydd Mawrth, 14 Ionawr 2020 08:55
At: Rhyddid Gwybodaeth <[Gwynedd Council request email]>
Pwnc: Re: Freedom of Information (ref 347)

Dear Rhyddid Gwybodaeth,

Thank you for your response.

Whilst our original request was for data from Jan-Jun 2019, only 4 months Jan-Apr 2019 have been provided. Is there any reason to withhold the 2 months of data (if you do indeed hold it)? We would be very grateful if you could please also include the months of May 2019 & June 2019 in this tranche.

Thank you so much,
Yours sincerely,
nikhil prabhu

show quoted sections

Dear Rhyddid Gwybodaeth, Gwawr Owen,

Thank you for your response, however the file you have supplied "Cais T347 Health and Social Care mth 1 3 2019 20 ateb FOI.xlsx" seems to be corrupted. I am unable to open it in my system.

Could you please try sending it again or perhaps send it CSV format?

Thank you,
Yours sincerely,
nikhil prabhu

Rhyddid Gwybodaeth, Gwynedd Council

1 Attachment

Dear Nikhil Prabhu,

I'm very sorry about that. Please try and open the attached document.

Many Thanks

Gwawr Owen

-----Neges Wreiddiol/Original Message-----
Oddi wrth: nikhil prabhu <[FOI #595343 email]>
Anfonwyd: Dydd Gwener, 24 Ionawr 2020 10:18
At: Rhyddid Gwybodaeth <[Gwynedd Council request email]>
Pwnc: Re: ATB/RE: Freedom of Information (ref 347)

Dear Rhyddid Gwybodaeth, Gwawr Owen,

Thank you for your response, however the file you have supplied "Cais T347 Health and Social Care mth 1 3 2019 20 ateb FOI.xlsx" seems to be corrupted. I am unable to open it in my system.

Could you please try sending it again or perhaps send it CSV format?

Thank you,
Yours sincerely,
nikhil prabhu

show quoted sections

Dear Rhyddid Gwybodaeth, Gwawr Owen,

Thank you for your prompt response.

In your previous message, you wrote -- "Any sensitive information have been anonymised however, the transactions are still shown but the column ‘Transaction Description’ has been changed to CHIL 1, CHIL 2 or SocS1, SocS2, etc. for different suppliers. "

May we atleast understand which services these transactions fall under? For eg. Children's Fostering or Adoption, Residential Care, SEN, et al.? And if they refer to Agency names, we kindly request you to please un-redact them as they do not constitute "Personal Sensitive information" for the purposes of FOI.

Thank you so much,
With Regards,
Nikhil Prabhu

Rhyddid Gwybodaeth, Gwynedd Council

Thank you for your email. I will pass it on to the relevant officer and get back to you as soon as possible.

Many Thanks

Gwawr Owen

-----Neges Wreiddiol/Original Message-----
Oddi wrth: nikhil prabhu <[FOI #595343 email]>
Anfonwyd: Dydd Gwener, 24 Ionawr 2020 12:11
At: Rhyddid Gwybodaeth <[Gwynedd Council request email]>
Pwnc: Re: ATB/RE: ATB/RE: Freedom of Information (ref 347)

Dear Rhyddid Gwybodaeth, Gwawr Owen,

Thank you for your prompt response.

In your previous message, you wrote -- "Any sensitive information have been anonymised however, the transactions are still shown but the column ‘Transaction Description’ has been changed to CHIL 1, CHIL 2 or SocS1, SocS2, etc. for different suppliers. "

May we atleast understand which services these transactions fall under? For eg. Children's Fostering or Adoption, Residential Care, SEN, et al.? And if they refer to Agency names, we kindly request you to please un-redact them as they do not constitute "Personal Sensitive information" for the purposes of FOI.

Thank you so much,
With Regards,
Nikhil Prabhu

show quoted sections

Dear Rhyddid Gwybodaeth,

Ok, Thank you Ms. Gwawr Owen, I look forward to hearing back from you soon.

Yours sincerely,
nikhil prabhu

Dear Rhyddid Gwybodaeth,

May I please request an update?

Thank you,
Yours sincerely,
nikhil prabhu

Rhyddid Gwybodaeth, Gwynedd Council

1 Attachment

  • Attachment

    Cais T347 Health and Social Care mth 10 2018 19 i mis 3 2019 20 hefo categoriau ateb FOI.xlsx

    1.0M Download View as HTML

Dear Nikhil Prabhu,

Further to your recent email I attach the file that was sent to you previously having added the column ‘Category’ (column T) to it. Under this column all the transactions have now been categorised according to the list in your original request. We are not able however to show the supplier name for the transactions that we have anonymised as they include names of individuals.

Furthermore in your original request you asked for expenditure for “Providers who carry out Homeless Services”. To enable us to gather such information could you please refine your request and give more details as to what expenditure you are after e.g. is the provision of temporary accommodation within your definition?

Many Thanks

Gwawr Owen

-----Neges Wreiddiol/Original Message-----
Oddi wrth: nikhil prabhu <[FOI #595343 email]>
Anfonwyd: Dydd Iau, 6 Chwefror 2020 12:32
At: Rhyddid Gwybodaeth <[Gwynedd Council request email]>
Pwnc: Re: ATB/RE: ATB/RE: ATB/RE: Freedom of Information (ref 347)

Dear Rhyddid Gwybodaeth,

May I please request an update?

Thank you,
Yours sincerely,
nikhil prabhu

show quoted sections

Dear Rhyddid Gwybodaeth,

Thank you so much for your response.

To answer your question "Providers who carry out Homeless Services" ; we are referring to :-

Services such as finding temporary/affordable social housing or short-life leasing schemes for the homeless, providing informal move on support. Providing free legal advice and court attendance to help people who’ve lost their homes or are facing eviction. Specialist support like for substance abuse.

Additionally, the payment transactions involved would generally fall under 3 types :-

1. Accommodation Expenses - these would include for eg payments to Bed and Breakfast type accommodations - hostels, etc to give homeless people a roof over their head, a meal and other basic amenities
2. Support Services type transactions - these could include help to enable homeless people to turn their lives around and other support services like transport, assistance with interviews, etc &
3. S17 type transactions - which we understand might be redacted - it gives us an idea of the problem - the support systems required. It gives us an understanding so when we apply economic and other matrices we can understand the outcomes in the future

Yours sincerely,
nikhil prabhu

Rhyddid Gwybodaeth, Gwynedd Council

1 Attachment

  • This attachment has been hidden. There are various reasons why we might have done this, sorry we can't be more specific here. Please contact us if you have any questions.

Further to your recent email please find attached a file that shows Gwynedd Council’s expenditure under the category ‘Providers who carry out Homeless Services’. There are 3 tabs to the file; the first shows the expenditure on Accommodation (total of £507,140.94) and the second shows ‘other costs’ (total of £74,852.63). Names of individuals have been anonymised as well as names of Bed & Breakfast establishments as these could identify the locations of homeless people.

In addition to the above expenditure (shown in the third tab on the file) Gwynedd Council pay a grant to Providers for services they provide on our behalf. The total paid in the period requested is £33,265; this amount can be spilt into a payment of £12,450 to North Wales Housing Association who provide ‘outreach intensive support for rough sleepers’ and £20,815 paid to Cais Ltd who provide ‘supported accommodation for prison leavers’. A further payment of £12,210 is made annually to North Wales Housing Association for providing hostel facilities (the actual payment was not processed in the period that you have asked for).

I hope we can now bring this matter to a close as we have exceeded the appropriate time limit of 18 hours in supplying the information from your original request to date, which is a provision under Section 12 of the FOIA. Any further requests for information would be subject to charge.

Many Thanks

Gwawr Owen

-----Neges Wreiddiol/Original Message-----
Oddi wrth: nikhil prabhu <[FOI #595343 email]>
Anfonwyd: Dydd Gwener, 7 Chwefror 2020 12:48
At: Rhyddid Gwybodaeth <[Gwynedd Council request email]>
Pwnc: Re: Freedom of Information (ref 347)

Dear Rhyddid Gwybodaeth,

Thank you so much for your response.

To answer your question "Providers who carry out Homeless Services" ; we are referring to :-

Services such as finding temporary/affordable social housing or short-life leasing schemes for the homeless, providing informal move on support. Providing free legal advice and court attendance to help people who’ve lost their homes or are facing eviction. Specialist support like for substance abuse.

Additionally, the payment transactions involved would generally fall under 3 types :-

1. Accommodation Expenses - these would include for eg payments to Bed and Breakfast type accommodations - hostels, etc to give homeless people a roof over their head, a meal and other basic amenities 2. Support Services type transactions - these could include help to enable homeless people to turn their lives around and other support services like transport, assistance with interviews, etc & 3. S17 type transactions - which we understand might be redacted - it gives us an idea of the problem - the support systems required. It gives us an understanding so when we apply economic and other matrices we can understand the outcomes in the future

Yours sincerely,
nikhil prabhu

show quoted sections