Sheila Wheeler Severance

The request was partially successful.

Dear Somerset County Council,

Further to my FOI: https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/c... where you kindly specifically confirmed that the Somerset CEo Sheila Wheeler would be subject to the same multipliers in respect of Voluntary and Compulsory redundancy as any ordinary member of staff, can you confirm to me if:

Somerset County Council has received a request from Sheila Wheeler, or any party representing her for a severance or similar payment which is based on terms other than the multipliers in force for voluntary and compulsory redundancy at any time from her commencement of employment with Somerset County Council to the date of your response.

If so, what has been requested, and on what grounds has it been requested?

Yours faithfully,

Tony Morris

Somerset Direct - FOI, Somerset Council

Thank you for contacting Somerset County Council. A member of our
Freedom of Information Team will deal with your enquiry.

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Somerset Direct - FOI, Somerset Council

Dear Mr Morris

Thank you for contacting Somerset County Council. I have logged your FOI
request with the relevant department. Your reference number is 2692872.
If you require any further assistance please do not hesitate to contact
us again.

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Robert Taylor

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The Deane House
Belvedere Road
Taunton
TA1 1HE

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Southwest One - working in partnership with
Somerset County Council, Taunton Deane
Borough Council & Avon and Somerset
Police.

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6373780

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Information Request, Somerset Council

Somerset Direct Reference: 2692872

Internal Reference: 130113

Date request received: 13/12/2013

Date response due: 15/01/2014

 

Dear Mr Morris

 

Thank you for your request for information of which we are dealing with
under the Freedom of Information Act 2000.  We are currently dealing with
your request and will be in touch shortly concerning disclosure of the
information you have requested.

 

The legislation obliges us to provide you with this information within 20
working days, so we will endeavour to send our response to you by

 

In the meantime if you have any further queries please contact the
Information Request team quoting the reference numbers above.

 

Yours sincerely

 

Information Request Administrator

Communications Team

Tel: 01823 355584,

Email: [1][email address

Somerset County Council, Post Point: PP B3E 2, County Hall, Taunton, TA1
4DY

URL: [2]www.somerset.gov.uk

 

FOI Disclosure Log URL: [3]http://www.somerset.gov.uk/disclosurelog

This email, and any attachments is intended solely for the individual to
whom it is addressed. It may contain personal and / or sensitive material
and should be handled according to the principles of the Data Protection
Act 1998. If this email carries a protective marking of PROTECT or
RESTRICTED in the header it should be handled according to HMG guidelines,
if not protectively marked it can be regarded as UNCLASSIFIED.

If this Email has been misdirected, please notify the author immediately.
If you are not the intended recipient you must not disclose, distribute,
copy, print or rely on any of the information contained in it or attached,
and all copies must be deleted immediately. 

Whilst we take reasonable steps to try to identify any software viruses,
any attachments to this email may nevertheless contain viruses which our
anti-virus software has failed to identify.  You should therefore carry
out your own anti-virus checks before opening any documents.  Somerset
County Council will not accept any liability for damage caused by computer
viruses emanating from any attachment or other document supplied with this
email.

All GCSx traffic may be subject to recording and / or monitoring in
accordance with relevant legislation.

References

Visible links
1. mailto:[email address]
2. file:///tmp/www.somerset.gov.uk
3. http://www.somerset.gov.uk/disclosurelog

Information Request, Somerset Council

Somerset Direct Reference: 2692872

Internal Reference: 130113

Date request received: 13/12/2013

Date response due: 15/01/2014

 

Dear Mr Morris

 

Our apologies we omitted the due date for your Freedom of Information
request.

 

Thank you for your request for information of which we are dealing with
under the Freedom of Information Act 2000.  We are currently dealing with
your request and will be in touch shortly concerning disclosure of the
information you have requested.

 

The legislation obliges us to provide you with this information within 20
working days, so we will endeavour to send our response to you by 15^th
January 2014

 

In the meantime if you have any further queries please contact the
Information Request team quoting the reference numbers above.

 

Yours sincerely

 

Information Request Administrator

Communications Team

Tel: 01823 355584,

Email: [1][email address

Somerset County Council, Post Point: PP B3E 2, County Hall, Taunton, TA1
4DY

URL: [2]www.somerset.gov.uk

 

FOI Disclosure Log URL: [3]http://www.somerset.gov.uk/disclosurelog

This email, and any attachments is intended solely for the individual to
whom it is addressed. It may contain personal and / or sensitive material
and should be handled according to the principles of the Data Protection
Act 1998. If this email carries a protective marking of PROTECT or
RESTRICTED in the header it should be handled according to HMG guidelines,
if not protectively marked it can be regarded as UNCLASSIFIED.

If this Email has been misdirected, please notify the author immediately.
If you are not the intended recipient you must not disclose, distribute,
copy, print or rely on any of the information contained in it or attached,
and all copies must be deleted immediately. 

Whilst we take reasonable steps to try to identify any software viruses,
any attachments to this email may nevertheless contain viruses which our
anti-virus software has failed to identify.  You should therefore carry
out your own anti-virus checks before opening any documents.  Somerset
County Council will not accept any liability for damage caused by computer
viruses emanating from any attachment or other document supplied with this
email.

All GCSx traffic may be subject to recording and / or monitoring in
accordance with relevant legislation.

References

Visible links
1. mailto:[email address]
2. file:///tmp/www.somerset.gov.uk
3. http://www.somerset.gov.uk/disclosurelog

Information Request, Somerset Council

Somerset Direct Reference: 2692872

Internal Reference: 130113

Date request received: 13/12/2013

Date response due: 15/01/2014

Date of response: 30/12/2013

 

Dear Mr Morris

 

I am writing in respect of your recent request for information from
Somerset County Council, which has been dealt with under the provisions of
the Freedom of Information Act 2000.

 

Our response is detailed in bold format underneath your request as
follows.

 

Your Request

 

Further to my FOI:
[1]https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/c...
where you kindly specifically confirmed that the Somerset CEo Sheila
Wheeler would be subject to the same multipliers in respect of Voluntary
and Compulsory redundancy as any ordinary member of staff, can you confirm
to me if:

 

Somerset County Council has received a request from Sheila Wheeler, or any
party representing her for a severance or similar payment which is based
on terms other than the multipliers in force for voluntary and compulsory
redundancy at any time from her commencement of employment with Somerset
County Council to the date of your response.

 

If so, what has been requested, and on what grounds has it been requested?

 

Our reply

 

Somerset County Council neither confirms nor denies that it holds
information falling within the description specified in your request.  The
duty in Section 1(1)(a) of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 does not
apply, by virtue of Section 40(5) of that Act. This should not be taken as
an indication that the information you requested is or is not held by
Somerset County Council.

 

Section 40 (5) states

 

The duty to confirm or deny

 

(a)does not arise in relation to information which is (or if it were held
by the public authority would be) exempt information by virtue of
subsection (1), and

 

(b)does not arise in relation to other information if or to the extent
that either—

 

(i)the giving to a member of the public of the confirmation or denial that
would have to be given to comply with section 1(1)(a) would (apart from
this Act) contravene any of the data protection principles or section 10
of the Data Protection Act 1998 or would do so if the exemptions in
section 33A(1) of that Act were disregarded, or

 

(ii)by virtue of any provision of Part IV of the Data Protection Act 1998
the information is exempt from section 7(1)(a) of that Act (data subject’s
right to be informed whether personal data being processed).

 

If you feel your request has not been answered in sufficient detail or if
you wish to clarify the information given, please contact me and I will be
happy to address the issues you raise.

 

If you are not satisfied with the way in which your request has been dealt
with, or the information you have received, you can ask for an internal
review of our decision.

 

Please send your request to:

 

Peter Grogan, Information Governance Team, Client Services

Somerset County Council, County Hall, Taunton, Somerset, TA1 4DY or email
[2][email address]

 

Please quote the reference number 2692872 in any future communications.

 

An internal review will then be carried out and we will write to you with
the results of our investigation. If you are not content with the outcome
of our review, you may then apply directly to the Information
Commissioner’s Office ([3]www.ico.gov.uk) for an appeal.  The Information
commissioner can be contacted at: Information Commissioner's Office,
Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow, Cheshire, SK9 5AF

Tel: 0303 123 1113

 

Finally, please be aware that your response will appear, without your
contact details, on the Council’s website at:

 

[4]http://www.somerset.gov.uk/disclosurelog

 

Yours sincerely,

 

Information Request Administrator

Communications Team

Tel: 01823 355584,

Email: [5][email address

Somerset County Council, Post Point: PP B3E 2, County Hall, Taunton, TA1
4DY

URL: [6]www.somerset.gov.uk

 

FOI Disclosure Log URL: [7]http://www.somerset.gov.uk/disclosurelog

This email, and any attachments is intended solely for the individual to
whom it is addressed. It may contain personal and / or sensitive material
and should be handled according to the principles of the Data Protection
Act 1998. If this email carries a protective marking of PROTECT or
RESTRICTED in the header it should be handled according to HMG guidelines,
if not protectively marked it can be regarded as UNCLASSIFIED.

If this Email has been misdirected, please notify the author immediately.
If you are not the intended recipient you must not disclose, distribute,
copy, print or rely on any of the information contained in it or attached,
and all copies must be deleted immediately. 

Whilst we take reasonable steps to try to identify any software viruses,
any attachments to this email may nevertheless contain viruses which our
anti-virus software has failed to identify.  You should therefore carry
out your own anti-virus checks before opening any documents.  Somerset
County Council will not accept any liability for damage caused by computer
viruses emanating from any attachment or other document supplied with this
email.

All GCSx traffic may be subject to recording and / or monitoring in
accordance with relevant legislation.

References

Visible links
1. https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/c...
2. mailto:[email address]
3. file:///tmp/www.ico.gov.uk
4. http://www.somerset.gov.uk/disclosurelog
5. mailto:[email address]
6. file:///tmp/www.somerset.gov.uk
7. http://www.somerset.gov.uk/disclosurelog

Dear Information Request,

You neither 'confirm, nor deny'. Hmmm.

I think your answer is a little difficult to understand, it's quite technical language. If the exemption you cite is because to respond would personally identify the CEo, why didn't that exemption apply here: https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/c... which you happily answered even though it's the same person? I don't understand. Can you plain English a response as to why you can't answer?

Yours sincerely,

Tony Morris

Information Request, Somerset Council

Dear Mr Morris

 

Thank you for your email.

 

The exemption we cite has nothing to do with identifying a third party but
the fact that all personal data is exempt under section 40 of the Act.  As
your request is for purely personal data, we are not in a position to
confirm or deny whether we do or do not hold the information.

 

The Information Commissioner's Office guidelines explain this as below.  

 

There may be occasions when complying with the duty to confirm or deny
under section 1(1)(a) would in itself disclose sensitive or potentially
damaging information that falls under an exemption. In these
circumstances, the Act allows a public authority to respond by refusing to
confirm or deny whether it holds the requested information. This is called
a ‘neither confirm nor deny’ (NCND) response.

 

Yours sincerely

 

Information Request Administrator

Communications Team

Tel: 01823 355584

Email: [email address]

 

 

 

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