Was the 2018 £500K increase for RBC 'new' posts, paid in the form of a 'one-off' bonus?

Dudley Jones made this Freedom of Information request to Reading Borough Council This request has been closed to new correspondence. Contact us if you think it should be reopened.

The request was successful.

Dear Reading Borough Council,
1. A RBC FOI Response posted 18 September 2019 states 'The additional cost to which you refer, [£500K] entirely represents the cost of new posts'. Does 'new posts' refer to re-structured senior management posts? E.g. Chris Brooks, formerly Head of Legal Services, is now Ass. Director of Legal Services?
2. And was that salary increase paid in the form of a 'one-off' bonus payment or a percentage salary increase?
3. How many 'new' (i.e. re-structured) senior managers are there in RBC?

Background:
My FOI Request was made 5 Aug 2019. RBC's Response was on 18 September. By law, RBC is required to provide an FOI Response within 20 working days. A Response should therefore have been posted by 2 September. Why was this very easily available information delayed by 16 days? Once again, RBC has acted illegally in making an FOI Response. Last year, Chris Brooks (Ass. Director of Legal Services - recently 'promoted') breached the FOI Act on 6 occasions in 3 FOI Responses to me. This Response by Fuh Ngha at least provided honest and accurate information. Mr Brooks did not provide this FOI Response.

A note on this Background statement: The ICO has officially ruled that a Background statement accompanying a Request is permissible in the case of an FOI Response. This is because, they say, there's nothing in the wording of the FOI Act that specifically excludes the inclusion of a Background statement, which might, for example, be a contextualisation of the Request in the light of the Response. Since it gets the official approval of the ICO, the assumption must be that the Requestor can also include a Background statement.
Clearly, however, the ICO didn't feel it was essential the Background statement had any connection at all with the information requested in the FOI Request. I say this because the Background statement by Chris Brooks (Head of Legal Services at Reading Borough Council at that time) that accompanied the FOI Responses of 29/06/2018 and 02/08/2018 bore no relation whatsoever to the Requests I had made. It's also worth pointing out that they comprised solely of a totally biased malicious attack on me. These attacks were simply repeating verbatim the attacks made against me in emails sent to me months before the FOI Responses. I'd replied to these emails demonstrating they were unfair, ignored the written evidence provided by me & were totally biased.
Furthermore, in 843 FOI Requests by RBC, only three [those 3 made by the Head of Legal Services to me] include either a home address, or a Background statement. Mr Brooks published my home address in full on each of his 3 Responses to me which led to me receiving an anonymous abusive letter delivered to my house. Brooks was ordered by the ICO to 1) provide me with the SAR he'd illegally rejected my request for on 4 occasions and 2) delete my home address on his 2 Aug 2018 FOI Response. Unfortunately the ICO investigator forgot it was still there on Brooks' 29 June Response. It remained there for a year despite frequent requests from me to delete. It took the threat of legal action for the Ass. Director of Legal Services at RBC to finally agree to delete it.

Yours faithfully,

Dudley Jones

Roddy, Susan, Reading Borough Council

1 Attachment

Dear Mr Jones

 

Please take this e-mail as an acknowledgement that your recent FOI request
has been received by Reading Borough Council.  This has now been passed to
the appropriate officer for a response.  You can expect to receive a
response within 20 working days from the date we received your request, as
specified in the Act.

 

Many thanks.

 

 

Sue Roddy

Assistant Information Officer and Legal Administrator/Secretary

Legal Services | Directorate of Resources

 

Reading Borough Council

Legal Services, Floor 2 South, Civic Offices, Bridge Street, Reading RG1
2LU

DX40124 Reading (Castle Street)

 

Website | Facebook | Twitter | YouTube

Email: [1][email address]

 

[2]Website | [3]Facebook | [4]Twitter | [5]YouTube

 

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The information in this e-mail is confidential to the intended recipient to whom it has been addressed and may be covered by legal professional privilege and protected by law. Reading Borough Council does not accept responsibility for any unauthorised amendment made to the contents of this e-mail following its dispatch. If received in error, you must not retain the message or disclose its contents to anyone. Please notify us immediately quoting the name of the sender and the addressee and then delete the e-mail. Reading Borough Council has scanned for viruses. However, it is your responsibility to scan the e-mail and attachments (if any) for viruses. Reading Borough Council also operates to the Protective Document Marking Standard as defined for the Public Sector. Recipients should ensure protectively marked emails and documents are handled in accordance with this standard (Re: Cabinet Office - Government Security Classification).

References

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Roddy, Susan, Reading Borough Council

1 Attachment

Dear Mr Jones

 

Thank you for your recent Freedom of Information request received on 22
September.  Please see our response to your questions as follows:-

 

1. A  RBC FOI Response posted 18 September 2019 states 'The additional
cost to which you refer, [£500K] entirely represents the cost of new
posts'. Does 'new posts' refer to re-structured senior management posts?
E.g. Chris Brooks, formerly Head of Legal Services, is now Ass. Director
of Legal Services? 

 

No

 

2. And was that salary increase paid in the form of a 'one-off' bonus
payment or a percentage salary increase? 

 

Not applicable

 

3. How many 'new' (i.e. re-structured) senior managers are there in RBC? 

 

The following posts existed in the former structure but the job titles
were changed in the new structure as follows (there were no other changes
to these posts in terms or salary or other financial or non-financial
benefits):

 

Former job title New job title
Corporate Directors (x3) Executive Directors (x 3)
Head of HR and Organisational AD for HR and Organisational
Development Development
Head of Legal and Democratic Services AD for Legal and Democratic Services
Head of Finance AD for Finance
Head of Procurement and Contracts AD for Procurement and Contracts

 

You are free to use any information supplied to you for your own personal
purposes or for non-commercial research, private study or news reporting.
However, you do not have the right to re-use the information in a way
which infringes copyright, for example, by distributing, making copies of
or publishing the information, without the permission of the copyright
holder, which in most cases will be Reading Borough Council. If you wish
to obtain permission for such use, please contact Mr C Brooks, Assistant
Director of Legal and Democratic Services, at Reading Borough Council.

 

Please note that your request may itself be the subject of a FOI request
and will be disclosed in that event.

 

If you are unhappy with this response to your request for information
under the Freedom of Information Act then you may ask for an internal
review.  Please make a request in writing to Mr C Brooks, Assistant
Director of Legal and Democratic Services, at Reading Borough Council.  If
you request such a review and are not content with its outcome, then you
have a right to apply directly to the Information Commissioner for a
decision.  The Information Commissioner can be contacted at:

 

Information Commissioner’s Office

Wycliffe House

Water Lane

Wilmslow

Cheshire

SK9 5AF

 

Yours sincerely

 

 

Sue Roddy

Assistant Information Officer and Legal Administrator/Secretary

Legal Services | Corporate Support Services

 

Reading Borough Council

Legal Services, Floor 2 South, Civic Offices, Bridge Street, Reading RG1
2LU

DX40124 Reading (Castle Street)

 

Website | Facebook | Twitter | YouTube

Email: [1][email address]

 

[2]Website | [3]Facebook | [4]Twitter | [5]YouTube

 

[6]cid:image002.jpg@01D3A742.E600AB40

 

The information in this e-mail is confidential to the intended recipient to whom it has been addressed and may be covered by legal professional privilege and protected by law. Reading Borough Council does not accept responsibility for any unauthorised amendment made to the contents of this e-mail following its dispatch. If received in error, you must not retain the message or disclose its contents to anyone. Please notify us immediately quoting the name of the sender and the addressee and then delete the e-mail. Reading Borough Council has scanned for viruses. However, it is your responsibility to scan the e-mail and attachments (if any) for viruses. Reading Borough Council also operates to the Protective Document Marking Standard as defined for the Public Sector. Recipients should ensure protectively marked emails and documents are handled in accordance with this standard (Re: Cabinet Office – Government Security Classifications).

References

Visible links
1. mailto:[email address]
2. http://www.reading.gov.uk/
3. http://www.facebook.com/readingcouncil
4. http://www.twitter.com/readingcouncil
5. http://www.youtube.com/readingbc