Cost of Answering Phone Calls

Dear Mr Stein

Thank you for your email requesting information as above.

From our preliminary assessment, it is clear that we will not be able to answer your request without further clarification. Under section 1(3) of the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), a public authority need not comply with a request unless any further information reasonably required to locate the information is supplied. If a request is too broad or general in nature, then public authorities have a duty to provide advice and assistance to the applicant in order to focus the request.

In order to provide you with the information on the scale that you have requested would require us to undertake an in depth exercise across the authority to determine the percentage of time that individual officers spend answering telephone calls, as there are a direct dials into each department and individual officers are responsible for answering these calls. In addition to this, over the last 5 years, there have been different teams in different sections responsible for receiving calls into services such as Council Tax, Housing and Council Tax Benefits, Home Care Link and Customer Services. Staff within Customer services who answer calls that are received in the Council’s Contact Centre are generic and deal with face to face enquiries as well as web/email enquiries in addition to telephone enquiries. It is therefore, not possible to provide a breakdown of the cost for specific telephone enquiries.

Costs regarding hardware and software involved are currently part of the One Connect Limited Contract to provide ICT services and is not broken down.

Section 12 of the Act makes provision for public authorities to refuse requests for information where the cost of dealing with them would exceed the appropriate limit, which for local government is set at £450. This represents the estimated cost of one person spending 18 hours determining whether the department holds the information, locating, retrieving and extracting the information.

We estimate that it will take us in excess of 18 hours to determine appropriate material and locate, retrieve and extract the information in reference to your request. Therefore, your request will not be processed further.

You may wish to refine your request by narrowing its scope by being more specific about what information you particularly wish to obtain, such as staffing costs within Customer Services to provide telephony, web/email and face to face services including any dates or period of time relevant to the information required.

If you are dissatisfied with the handling of your request, you have the right to ask for an internal review. Internal review requests should be submitted within two months of the date of receipt of the response to your original email and should be addressed to Mr Shaun Walsh, Transformation Manager , e-mail [email address]

Please remember to quote the reference number above in any future communications.

If you are not content with the outcome of an internal review, you have the 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,

Sylvia

Sylvia Smith
Snr Admin & Electoral Services Officer
West Lancashire Borough Council
______________________________

Tel: 01695 585031
Fax: 01695 585050
West Lancashire Borough Council,
52 Derby Street, Ormskirk, L39 2DF
______________________________

www.westlancs.gov.uk

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Freedom of Information Act 2000 – Request for Information

Thank you for your email 28th October where you requested information about breakdown of staffing costs within Customer Services to provide telephony, web/email and face to face services over the last 5 years.

I can confirm that the Council holds this information. The information is exempt under Section 21 of the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) because the information is already in the public domain, therefore accessible to you. You can find the information you require at: http://www.westlancs.gov.uk/council_and_... Staffing costs for Customer Services can be found on the following pages;
2009/10 – Page 13
2010/11 – Page 13
2011/12 – Page 13
2012/13 – Page 20
2013 /14 – Page 18

If you are dissatisfied with the handling of your request, you have the right to ask for an internal review. Internal review requests should be submitted within two months of the date of receipt of the response to your original letter and should be addressed to: Shaun Walsh Transformation Manager [email address]

Please remember to quote the reference number above in any future communications.

If you are not content with the outcome of an internal review, you have the 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,

Sylvia Smith
Snr Admin & Electoral Services Officer
West Lancashire Borough Council
______________________________

Tel: 01695 585031
Fax: 01695 585050
West Lancashire Borough Council,
52 Derby Street, Ormskirk, L39 2DF
______________________________

www.westlancs.gov.uk

Think before you print – save energy, paper and ink.

show quoted sections