Transactions over £500 from August 2021

The request was successful.

Dear Colchester Borough Council,

Thank you for publishing your spend data here: https://www.colchester.gov.uk/council-da... . However, I notice that you haven't published any spending data since July 2021.

We understand that due to the COVID-19 pandemic it may not have been a priority to publish your spending data. However, we strongly believe that the spending data is critical to understanding how Government functions and this data is vital for our work. We would be extremely grateful if you could update this information as soon as reasonably possible.

We’ve decided to continue to use the FOI process to request data as this gives us both a formal structure for making and responding to requests. So, I'd like to make a request under the Freedom of Information Act for all transactions over £500 from August 2021 to at most a quarter in arrears from the date at which you publish in response to this request.

Please provide the data in a machine readable format (preferably csv). As a minimum, please make sure to include the date, value and recipient of each transaction. Please also provide details on the procurement category of each transaction if you have it.

Your team may also be interested in the guidance on producing spending data:
https://www.gov.uk/government/publicatio....

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

Yours Faithfully,

Anna Pongracz

Spend Network

Dear Colchester Borough Council,

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

On 4 November 2021, I sent you a FOI request for your expenditure over £500 from August 2021 to present.

I have got no response from you since then.

However, the local government transparency code states:
Part 2.1: Information to be published quarterly
26. Data covered by this section includes expenditure exceeding £500 (see paragraphs 28 and 29) Government Procurement Card transactions (paragraph 30), and procurement information (see paragraphs 31 and 32).
27. The data and information referred to in this Part (2.1) must be:
first published within a period of three months from the date on which the local authority last published that data under the Local Government Transparency Code 201413 and not later than one month after the quarter to which the data and information is applicable
published quarterly thereafter and on each occasion not later than one month after the quarter to which the data and information is applicable.

Please see here for more details: https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/sy....

This means that the data should already be published. For this reason, I would like to request an Internal Review of the initial response to my Freedom of Information request.

Please also take note of this decision notice from the ICO on the use of Section 22 of the FOI Act in these circumstances: https://ico.org.uk/media/action-weve-tak...

I await your response within 20 working days.

Yours Faithfully,

Anna Pongracz

Spend Network

Info, Colchester Borough Council

Dear Anna

Apologies that the data is not currently showing on our website. We are currently working to rectify this and once that is done, I will contact you again to provide the link to the data.

Kind regards,

Gemma Cadd
Customer Information Officer
Colchester Borough Council
www.colchester.gov.uk

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Info, Colchester Borough Council

Dear Anna - Apologies for the length of time it has taken but our spending data to December 2021 is now available on our website here: https://www.colchester.gov.uk/council-da...

Kind regards,

Gemma Cadd
Customer Information Officer
Colchester Borough Council
Tel: 01206 282538
www.colchester.gov.uk

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