Capital receipts and redundancies

The request was successful.

To the information officer,

I am emailing to request information from the council under the Freedom of Information Act 2000.

For each of the following financial years: 2014/15, 2015/16, 2016/17, 2017/18, 2018/19 (up to the date on which you received this request) I request the following information:

A) The total amount of capital receipts (in £) received by the council following the disposal of any type of asset

B) A breakdown of the use of capital receipts within each financial year by the following three categories:
i)To help meet the cost of borrowing related to capital expenditure
ii)To invest in new capital expenditure
iii) To finance the revenue costs of service reform (as introduced in March 2016 - https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk...)
iv) Other

C) A list of service reforms financed through capital receipts since flexible use of capital receipts was introduced in March 2016, including:
i) The date the reform began
ii) The amount (in £) of capital receipts used
iii) The savings target at the time
iv) The % of that savings target which has been met to-date

D) The amount of capital receipts (in £) used to meet the cost of redundancies made (or in the process of being made) by the council during each financial year

E) The number of redundancies made by the local authority in each financial year broken down by the service they relate to

I would like to receive this information electronically a spreadsheet, with the points above as the column headers if possible

If the decision is made to withhold some of this information using exemptions in the Act, please inform me of that fact and cite the exemptions used.

If you need clarification please contact me. Under your section 16 duty to provide advice and assistance I would expect you to contact me if you find this request unmanageable in any way before the 20th working day.

I would be grateful if you could confirm in writing that you have received this request, and I look forward to hearing from you in the near future.

Yours faithfully,

Gareth Davies

COL-EB-InformationOfficer, City of London Corporation

Dear Mr Davies,

Thank you for your email, below, of 27 July 2018, to the City of London (CoL).

Please note that section 8 of the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) states as follows:

"8.—(1) In this Act any reference to a 'request for information' is a Request for reference to such a request which— … (b) states the name of the applicant …"

Before we progress your request, please would you confirm the name of any organisation on whose behalf your request is made. In considering this, please note the guidance “Recognising a request made under the Freedom of Information Act (Section 8)” (version 1.2, 2 Nov 2016), published on the website of the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) at:

http://ico.org.uk/for_organisations/guid...

At paragraphs 42 and 43, the guidance states that, to be a valid request, “the request must state the real name of the party on whose behalf the agent is acting … A request which only includes the real name of the agent will be invalid”.

Incidentally, in such circumstances paragraph 19 would also seem to apply. In other words, if someone were acting as an 'agent', and not disclosing this to the public authority receiving the request, then the ICO would not consider the request a valid request and therefore could not mange any complaint about the response to it.

We look forward to receiving the name of any organisation on whose behalf you may be acting. We assume that this information is not of purely personal interest. Your request will be valid once we have received your reply.

Please would you also clarify if the second part of your request relates to any permanent and contract roles in the CoL, or just to those relating to the planning authority function. With regard to the first part of your request, please note that we do not have a 'planning department' as such, and so we understand this part of your request to relate to the planning authority function.

Yours sincerely,

Information Officer
Comptroller & City Solicitor’s Department
City of London
Tel: 020-7332 1243
www.cityoflondon.gov.uk

show quoted sections

Dear FOI team,

I have not yet received a response to my FOI request dated 27 July 2018.
By law the council should have responded promptly and by 28 August 2018.
Could you provide an update as soon as possible.

Yours sincerely,

Gareth Davies

COL-EB-InformationOfficer, City of London Corporation

Dear Mr Davies,

Thank you for your email.

The City of London was awaiting a reply to our email, below, ie as to whether or not you are acting on behalf of any person or organisation in making the request.

With thanks.

Yours sincerely,

Information Officer
Comptroller & City Solicitor’s Department
City of London
Tel: 020-7332 1209
www.cityoflondon.gov.uk

show quoted sections

Dear COL-EB-InformationOfficer,

Sorry but what difference does that make as to how you handle my request?

Yours sincerely,

Gareth Davies

COL-EB-InformationOfficer, City of London Corporation

Dear Mr Davies,

Thank you for your email.

The difference is between whether a request is valid or not. In accordance with the ICO guidance, a request is not a valid request if the applicant is making the request on behalf of someone else, including an organisation, and not declaring it.

We hope that this assists.

With thanks.

Yours sincerely,

Information Officer
Comptroller & City Solicitor’s Department City of London
Tel: 020-7332 1209
www.cityoflondon.gov.uk

show quoted sections

Dear COL-EB-InformationOfficer,

Strange that I have recently made a successful FOI response to this council without having to supply this information.

I am asking for myself, not on behalf of any organisation.

Yours sincerely,

Gareth Davies

COL-EB-InformationOfficer, City of London Corporation

Dear Mr Davies,
 
FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT 2000 (FOIA) – REQUEST FOR INFORMATION
 
The City of London (CoL) acknowledges receipt of your request for
information of 27 July 2018 and clarification of 31 August that you are
not acting on behalf of any other person or an organisation in making the
request.
 
We will take it in future that you are not acting on behalf of any other
person or an organisation in making a request, unless you specify
otherwise.
 
Public authorities are required to respond to requests within the
statutory timescale of 20 working days beginning from the first working
day after they receive a request, or any subsequent clarification. The Act
does not always require public authorities to disclose the information
which they hold.
 
The FOIA applies to the CoL as a local authority, police authority and
port health authority. The CoL is the local and police authority for the
“Square Mile”, ie the historic City of London, and not for London as a
whole. Please see the following page containing a link to a map (Explore
the City), which shows the local authority area covered by the CoL:
[1]https://www.cityoflondon.gov.uk/maps/Pag....
The CoL does have some functions, including Port Health Authority
functions, which extend beyond the City boundary. For further information
please see: [2]www.cityoflondon.gov.uk.
 
Yours sincerely,
 
Information Officer
Comptroller & City Solicitor’s Department
City of London
Tel: 020-7332 1209
[3]www.cityoflondon.gov.uk
 
 
 

show quoted sections

CHB - FOI, City of London Corporation

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.

Dear Mr Davies,

 

FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT 2000 (FOIA) - INFORMATION REQUEST

 

Following your request for information of 27 July 2018, clarification of
31 August, and our acknowledgment also of 31 August, the City of London
(CoL) responds as follows.

In  respect of your questions A, B, C, D, and E please refer to the
attached excel spreadsheet.

Please note that the CoL understands “council” to refer to the CoL’s local
authority functions (including police authority and port health authority
functions).

If you have any queries or concerns, please contact me.

 

If you wish to make a complaint about the way the CoL has managed your
enquiry, please make your complaint in writing to email address:
[1]mailto:[email address]. For a link to the CoL’s FOI complaints
procedure, please visit the following page:
[2]http://www.cityoflondon.gov.uk/Feedback, at the end of which is located
the FOI complaints procedure. If, having used the CoL’s FOI Complaints
Procedure, you are still dissatisfied, you may request the Information
Commissioner to investigate. Please contact: Information Commissioner,
Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow, Cheshire, SK9 5AF. Telephone:
(01625) 545700.  Website: [3]http://www.ico.org.uk/.

 

The FOIA applies to the CoL as a local authority, police authority and
port health authority, and to the Guildhall School of Music & Drama (GSMD)
which it manages.

 

The CoL holds the copyright in this communication. Its supply does not
give a right to re-use in a way that would infringe that copyright, for
example, by making copies, publishing and issuing copies to the public or
to any other person. Brief extracts of any of the material may be
reproduced under the fair dealing provisions of the Copyright, Designs and
Patents Act 1988 (sections 29 and 30) for the purposes of research for
non-commercial purposes, private study, criticism, review and news
reporting, subject to an acknowledgement of the copyright owner.

 

Yours sincerely

 

Access to Information Network Representative

Chamberlain's Department

City of London

Tel: 020 7332 1384

Website: [4]http://www.cityoflondon.gov.uk

show quoted sections