FOI request: Governance and Funding for Climate Action

Climate Emergency UK made this Freedom of Information request to Argyll and Bute Council as part of a batch sent to 15 authorities Automatic anti-spam measures are in place for this older request. Please let us know if a further response is expected or if you are having trouble responding.

The request was successful.

Climate Emergency UK

Dear Argyll and Bute Council,

Please treat this as a Freedom of Information request.

I would like information about your Council's Planning policy in relation to climate action.

In particular, please supply me with information regarding:
1. What is the total number of directly employed staff and councillors in this council and 1a. How many have received carbon literacy training in the last 3 years (from 1st January 2019 until today)?
Please provide the number of staff that have received carbon literacy project training and separately, the number of staff that have received other carbon literacy training (if relevant).

2. How many Climate Change Officers (or similar) does the Council currently employ?
2b. What is the total number of staff that are employed by the Council to advise on climate change matters and/or implement the Councils’ climate action plan?
Please list all these job titles for both these questions.

3. How much budget has been given to the Climate Action Plan (in terms of writing and managing, not the specific projects) for the Council budget 2022/23?
3b. How much has been spent on projects to reduce Council only emissions since 1st January 2019 up until 1st June 2022?
3c. How much has been spent on projects to reduce emissions across the whole of the authority area since 1st January 2019 up until 1st June 2022?

This may include, but should not be limited to, meeting minutes and other materials such as power point presentations considered by meeting participants, reports, spreadsheets, and relevant messages sent via tools such as WhatsApp, Slack, Yammer, or Signal.

I am interested in all relevant recorded information dated from 1st January 2019 to 1st June 2022.

I would prefer to receive information in a machine readable format, such as CSV files for data. I would prefer not to receive information in pdf format files.

I look forward to hearing from you in due course.

Yours faithfully,
Annie, Climate Emergency UK

foi, Argyll and Bute Council

Thank you for your email to Argyll and Bute Council in relation to Freedom
of Information Requests. We will endeavour to respond to your email as
soon as possible.  
Many Thanks
FOI team 

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foi, Argyll and Bute Council

Classification: OFFICIAL

Good morning,

Thank you for your e-mail, in order for us to log your request could we have your full name for correspondence in line with Section 8(1(b)) of FOISA

Regards,

David Sinclair
Compliance and Regulatory Assistant
Legal and Regulatory Services
01546 604352

show quoted sections

Climate Emergency UK

Dear David,

My full name is Annie Pickering. Please let me know if you need any further information.

Thanks

Yours sincerely,

Climate Emergency UK

Administrator,

Dear Annie Pickering

Request for information: Governance and Funding for Climate Action

Thank you for your information request which we have logged as reference
argyllbuteir:14281.

It has been passed to the relevant service(s) for attention and you should
receive a response under either the Freedom of Information (Scot) Act 2002
or the Environmental Information (Scotland) Regulations 2004 by 2022-07-05
00:00:00. We hope to respond within this timescale but, due to the
staffing/capacity issues with COVID-19, some requests may take little
longer.

Please quote the reference number above in any correspondence you may have
with the Council in regard to this request.

Regards

FOI Officer

Privacy information: Any personal information you have provided in
relation to this request will be used only for the intended purpose -
please read the full privacy notice to find out more about how your
personal information will be handled, and your rights under data
protection legislation.

Sinclair, David, Argyll and Bute Council

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Classification: OFFICIAL

Dear Ms Pickering,

Request for information: Governance and Funding for Climate Action

Reference: argyllbuteir:14281.

I refer to your request for information which was dealt with in terms of
the Environmental Information (Scotland) Regulations 2004.

1. What is the total number of directly employed staff and councillors in
this council and 1a. How many have received carbon literacy training in
the last 3 years (from 1st January 2019 until today)?

Employees 4473
Councillors 36

Corporate Climate Change training is currently being developed by HR and
the Climate Change Board.  This is due to be rolled out later in 2022

Please provide the number of staff that have received carbon literacy
project training and separately, the number of staff that have received
other carbon literacy training (if relevant).

Head of
Commercial
Services
Property
Services
Manager
Senior
Procurement
Officer
Performance
Manager
Development
Policy and
Housing
Strategy
Manager
Hermitage Park
Manager
Communications
Officer
Head Teacher
Building
Services and
Climate Change
Manager
Head of
Development
and Economic
Growth
Projects and
Regeneration
Manager
Senior
Planning
Development
Officer
Rural Growth
Development
Project
Officer
Social
Enterprise
Development
Officer
Fleet, Waste
and Transport
Manager
Senior
transportation
delivery
Officer
All officers
of the Council
have a
responsibility
for
implementing
climate change
requirements.

2. How many Climate Change Officers (or similar) does the Council
currently employ?

Please see Q1 above

2b. What is the total number of staff that are employed by the Council to
advise on climate change matters and/or implement the Councils’ climate
action plan?

Please list all these job titles for both these questions.

As per Q1

3. How much budget has been given to the Climate Action Plan (in terms of
writing and managing, not the specific projects) for the Council budget
2022/23?

this information is not held at present as the writing and managing of the
Climate Action Plan is undertaken by Services involved in Climate Change
but there are no separately identified Council budgets

3b. How much has been spent on projects to reduce Council only emissions
since 1st January 2019 up until 1st June 2022?

Please refer to attached MS Excel file for specific emissions reducing
projects implemented on properties within the stated timeline. Argyll and
Bute Council has been utilising the Scottish Government Non Domestic
Energy Efficiency Framework (NDEEF):

[1]Non-domestic energy efficiency framework over £1m projects 2020-2024 -
gov.scot (www.gov.scot)

There are other service delivery projects being implemented across the
Council and components of these will have emissions reduction content – it
is not however possible to isolate the information requested.

3c. How much has been spent on projects to reduce emissions across the
whole of the authority area since 1st January 2019 up until 1st June 2022?

I have to advise that the information you requested is information not
held by the Council and as such I must refuse your request in terms of
Regulation 10(4)(a) of the EIRs.

However, in line with the duty placed on the Council in terms of
Regulation 9 of the EIR’s, I can advise project planning is still in
progress and at present we are unable to determine figures, however please
find attached the expenditure on electric case which have been leased
using funding received from the Scottish Office.

If you are dissatisfied with the way in which your request for information
has been dealt with you are entitled to request a review by writing to the
Executive Director Customer Services, Argyll and Bute Council, Kilmory,
Lochgilphead, Argyll PA31 8RT, or by email to [2][Argyll and Bute Council
request email].

Your request for review must state your name and address for
correspondence, specify the request for information to which your request
for review relates and why you are dissatisfied with the response.

You must make your request for review not later than 40 working days after
the expiry of the 20 working day period for response to your initial
request by the Council, or not later than 40 working days after the
receipt by you of the information provided, any fees notice issued or any
notification of refusal or partial refusal.

If you make an application for review and remain dissatisfied with the way
in which the review has been dealt with you are entitled to make an
application to the Scottish Information Commissioner, Kinburn Castle,
Doubledykes Road, St Andrews, Fife KY16 9DS (Tel: 01334 464610) for a
further review. You can now do this online here -
[3]www.itspublicknowledge.info/Appeal.

You must make representation to the Scottish Information Commissioner no
later than 6 months after the date of receipt by you of the notice or
decision you are dissatisfied with or within 6 months of the expiry of the
period of 20 working days from receipt by the Council of your request for
review.

Yours sincerely

David Sinclair

Compliance and Regulatory Assistant

Legal and Regulatory Services

01546 604352

show quoted sections

Climate Emergency UK

Dear Sinclair, David,

Thank you so much for responding to our FOI. I have some follow-up questions if you would be so kind to answer, to help me fully understand your answer.

The figure of 4473 staff, how did you calculate this?
In order to better clarify how we are calculating the number of staff a council employ, could you answer the question: How many staff does the Council directly employ (that are not contractors or sub-contractors, excluding teachers), that work directly for the Council as opposed to a school, leisure centre or other venture ?

The list (copied below) of staff you provided that work directly on implementing the councils' climate action, How many of these staff spend 50% or more of their time on implementing the climate action plan and other climate action?
Or are there other staff that spent 50% or more of their time on implementing the councils' climate action plan and other climate action? And if so, please list them.

Head of Commercial Services
Property Services Manager
Senior Procurement Officer
Performance Manager
Development Policy and Housing Strategy Manager
Hermitage Park Manager
Communications Officer
Head Teacher
Building Services and Climate Change Manager
Head of Development and Economic Growth
Projects and Regeneration Manager
Senior Planning Development Officer
Rural Growth Development Project Officer
Social Enterprise Development Officer
Fleet, Waste and Transport Manager
Senior transportation delivery Officer
All officers of the Council have a responsibility for implementing climate change requirements.

As you can tell, we would like to more clearly define which staff work directly on climate action compared to the whole council staff body. If you have further comments or advice on how we might wish to define this, or what data here might be useful, please let us know.

Yours sincerely,

Annie Pickering
Climate Emergency UK

Administrator,

Dear Annie Pickering

Request for information: Climate Action follow up request

Thank you for your information request which we have logged as reference
argyllbuteir:14540.

It has been passed to the relevant service(s) for attention and you should
receive a response under either the Freedom of Information (Scot) Act 2002
or the Environmental Information (Scotland) Regulations 2004 by 2022-09-01
00:00:00. We hope to respond within this timescale but, due to the
staffing/capacity issues with COVID-19, some requests may take little
longer.

Please quote the reference number above in any correspondence you may have
with the Council in regard to this request.

Regards

FOI Officer

Privacy information: Any personal information you have provided in
relation to this request will be used only for the intended purpose -
please read the full privacy notice to find out more about how your
personal information will be handled, and your rights under data
protection legislation.

Sinclair, David, Argyll and Bute Council

Classification: OFFICIAL

Dear Ms Pickering

Request for information: Climate Action follow up request

Reference: argyllbuteir:14540.

I refer to your request for information which was dealt with in terms of
the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002 (FOISA).

I have provided the following information in fulfilment of your request:

The figure of 4473 staff, how did you calculate this? This is calculated
on the number of employee’s that the Council has, some may be employed in
multiple roles. For example a part time cleaner may also be employees
elsewhere in the Council in another part time role.

How many staff does the Council directly employ (that are not contractors
or sub-contractors, excluding teachers), that work directly for the
Council as opposed to a school, leisure centre or other venture ?Excluding
education staff number of employee is 2439 sub-contractors are not
included in figures as they are not directly employed by the Council  

At present none of the staff listed would spend 50% or more of their time
on implementing the climate action plan and other climate action.

If you are dissatisfied with the way in which your request for information
has been dealt with you are entitled to request a review by writing to the
Executive Director Customer Services, Argyll and Bute Council, Kilmory,
Lochgilphead, Argyll PA31 8RT, or by email to [Argyll and Bute Council
request email].

Your request for review must state your name and address for
correspondence, specify the request for information to which your request
for review relates and why you are dissatisfied with the response.

You must make your request for review not later than 40 working days after
the expiry of the 20 working day period for response to your initial
request by the Council, or not later than 40 working days after the
receipt by you of the information provided, any fees notice issued or any
notification of refusal or partial refusal.

If you make an application for review and remain dissatisfied with the way
in which the review has been dealt with you are entitled to make an
application to the Scottish Information Commissioner, Kinburn Castle,
Doubledykes Road, St Andrews, Fife KY16 9DS (Tel: 01334 464610) for a
further review. You can now do this online here -
www.itspublicknowledge.info/Appeal.

You must make representation to the Scottish Information Commissioner no
later than 6 months after the date of receipt by you of the notice or
decision you are dissatisfied with or within 6 months of the expiry of the
period of 20 working days from receipt by the Council of your request for
review.

Yours sincerely

David Sinclair

Compliance and Regulatory Assistant

Legal and Regulatory Services

01546 604352

show quoted sections