Council staff working on climate action

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Climate Emergency UK

Dear West Suffolk Council,

Please treat this as a Freedom of Information/Environmental Information Regulations request.

I would like information about your council’s staff positions in relation to climate action for the Council Climate Action Scorecards. This information is most likely to be held by a HR department or similar.

In particular, please supply me with information relating to the following questions:

1a. How many staff does the Council directly employ (excluding contractors or subcontractors, and excluding teachers), that work directly for the Council as opposed to a school, leisure centres or other venture?

1b. How many directly employed staff spend 3 or more days per week (0.6 Full Time Equivalent (FTE)) on implementing the Climate Action Plan or other climate change projects? Please provide a list of all the roles. Please exclude waste management staff unless they are specifically working 3 or more days per week on implementing the Climate Action Plan or other climate change projects.
If you have answered yes to have a biodiversity planning officer and/or a retrofit staff member below, both these staff members can be included in this question even if they are contracted. This is likely to include all staff in your climate/sustainability team, such as Climate Change Officers or similar. This may include full time staff who spend 60% of their time on climate change projects and 40% of their time on other work.
You might include other staff in other departments, such as a procurement officer if they are spending 3 or more days per week (0.6 FTE) on writing and implementing a sustainable procurement policy or a planner that is working primarily on low carbon policies for new buildings.

2. Does the council have one or more staff member who works on home energy efficiency retrofitting, such as retrofit officers or project managers across the council area, for 3 or more days per week (0.6+ FTE)? This can include both directly employed and contracted staff, provided they work 3 or more days per week (0.6 FTE). The work of this officer may include working on any retrofit projects, including council buildings, council homes or private rented or owned households.
Please list any roles that work in this area, including the full time equivalent (FTE) if they work part time.
Please include staff members that are shared with other councils, such as between county and district councils, and note if they are shared across other areas.

3. How many planning ecologists (ecologists within the planning department) or equivalent working for 3 or more days per week (0.6+ FTE) does the council employ to scrutinise planning reports for Biodiversity Net Gain? This can include both directly employed and contracted staff, provided they work 3 or more days per week (0.6 FTE).

I look forward to hearing from you in due course.

Yours faithfully,

Hannah Jewell, Climate Emergency UK

foi, West Suffolk Council

 Thank you for your request for information from West Suffolk Council
(formerly Forest Heath District and St Edmundsbury Borough Councils until
31 March 2019). 

 

1.   Information about West Suffolk Council Services can be viewed on our
website: West Suffolk Council homepage

 

2.  Published information is available on our Open data page: 
[1]www.westsuffolk.gov.uk/opendata and includes the following:   

• Business rates data
• Car park income/expenditure    
• Constitution   
• Contracts (current)
• Councillors’ allowances/attendance
• Election results
• Fraud data
• Grants    
• Locality budgets
• Payments to suppliers 
• Public Health funerals
• Purchase Orders
• data eg Gender pay gap report, Organisation chart, Pay Policy
statement, Senior staff salaries 

 

 3.  Additional information available on our website:

• Planning applications – current and historic 
[2]www.westsuffolk.gov.uk/planningapplications  
• Council housing stock – transferred to housing associations 
• Licensing registers – westsuffolk.gov.uk/licensing 
• Waste service/bins
– [3]https://www.westsuffolk.gov.uk/bins/when...

 

 4.  West Suffolk Council is not responsible for every service in the
area: 

Suffolk County Council runs many services. Requests for matters dealt with
by the county council should be resubmitted to Suffolk County
Council at [4]https://www.suffolk.gov.uk/ eg

• roads and transport 
• children, families, learning/schools 
• adult social care and health 
• refugee resettlement schemes
• public health in Suffolk 
• births, deaths and ceremonies * 

* Burial/cremation records

• historical records held by Suffolk records office -
[5]www.suffolkarchives.co.uk
• current records held by individual churches/cemeteries/crematoriums
• West Suffolk Council cemeteries
[6]https://www.westsuffolk.gov.uk/Births-an...

 

Please note 

• we record requests for information which cannot be found in the
council’s available sources on our website
• we will contact you if we require clarification to process your
request
• the 20 working days allowed for replying to requests does not include
bank holidays

  

 

Customer Services Team 

Customer and Digital Services 

Families and Communities 

 

[7]www.westsuffolk.gov.uk

West Suffolk Council

#TeamWestSuffolk

 

West Suffolk Council supports our staff to work flexibly and we respect
the fact that you may also be working at different times to suit you and
your organisation's needs. Please do not action or respond to this message
outside of your own working hours. 

 

Report, pay and apply online 24 hours a day

Find my nearest for information about your area

 

West Suffolk Council is the Data Controller of the information you are
providing. Any personal information shared by email will be processed,
protected and disposed of in accordance with the General Data Protection
Regulations and Data Protection Act 2018. In some circumstances we may
need to disclose your personal details to a third party so that they can
provide a service you have requested, fulfil a request for information or
because we have a legal requirement to do so. Any information about you
that we pass to a third party will be held securely by that party. For
more information on how we do this and your rights in regards to your
personal information and how to access it, visit our website: How we use
your information  

 

 

     

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References

Visible links
1. http://www.westsuffolk.gov.uk/opendata
2. http://www.westsuffolk.gov.uk/planningap...
3. https://www.westsuffolk.gov.uk/bins/when...
4. https://www.suffolk.gov.uk/
5. http://www.suffolkarchives.co.uk/
6. https://www.westsuffolk.gov.uk/Births-an...
7. http://www.westsuffolk.gov.uk/

Shand, Craig, West Suffolk Council

2 Attachments

Dear Hannah

 

I refer to your request for information dated 16 January 2023.

 

Request

 

1a.     How many staff does the Council directly employ (excluding
contractors or subcontractors, and excluding teachers), that work directly
for the Council as opposed to a school, leisure centres or other venture?

         

1b.     How many directly employed staff spend 3 or more days per week
(0.6 Full Time Equivalent (FTE)) on implementing the Climate Action Plan
or other climate change projects? Please provide a list of all the roles.
Please exclude waste management staff unless they are specifically working
3 or more days per week on implementing the Climate Action Plan or other
climate change projects.

                   

2.       Does the council have one or more staff member who works on home
energy efficiency retrofitting, such as retrofit officers or project
managers across the council area, for 3 or more days per week (0.6+ FTE)?
This can include both directly employed and contracted staff, provided
they work 3 or more days per week (0.6 FTE). The work of this officer may
include working on any retrofit projects, including council buildings,
council homes or private rented or owned households.

         

3.       How many planning ecologists (ecologists within the planning
department) or equivalent working for 3 or more days per week (0.6+ FTE)
does the council employ to scrutinise planning reports for Biodiversity
Net Gain? This can include both directly employed and contracted staff,
provided they work 3 or more days per week (0.6 FTE).

 

Response

 

1a.     West Suffolk Council has a headcount of 693 directly employed
staff (permanent and temporary) as of 31 January 2023.

 

1b.     There are three members of staff who spend three or more days per
week  implementing the Climate Action Plan.

 

2.       There is one member of staff who spends three or more days per
week working on home energy efficiency.

 

3.       The Council does not employ any planning ecologists specifically
for this task. The Council has two planning ecologists working more than
three days a week who may undertake this task periodically as part of
their role.

 

If you are unhappy with this response you may request an internal review
of this matter via the Council’s corporate complaints procedure. 

 

If, after an internal review, you are still unhappy with the decision, you
have a right of appeal to the Information Commissioner: 

 

Website: [1]www.ico.org.uk
Email via website:  [2]https://ico.org.uk/global/contact-us/ema...
Tel: 0303 123 1113
Address: Information Commissioner’s Office

Wycliffe House

Water Lane

Wilmslow

Cheshire  SK9 5AF

 

Kind regards

 

Craig

 

══════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════

Craig Shand Assoc CIPD
Senior HR Business Partner
HR and Organisational Development
Direct dial:  01284 757004
Mobile:  07956 772553
Email:  [email address]
[3]www.westsuffolk.gov.uk
West Suffolk Council
#TeamWestSuffolk

[4]electoralcommission.org.uk/voterid

West Suffolk Council supports our staff to work flexibly and we respect
the fact that you may also be working at different times to suit you and
your organisation's needs. Please do not action or respond to this message
outside of your own working hours.

[5]Report, pay and apply online 24 hours a day
[6]Find my nearest for information about your area
West Suffolk Council is the Data Controller of the information you are
providing. Any personal information shared by email will be processed,
protected and disposed of in accordance with the General Data Protection
Regulations and Data Protection Act 2018. In some circumstances we may
need to disclose your personal details to a third party so that they can
provide a service you have requested, fulfil a request for information or
because we have a legal requirement to do so. Any information about you
that we pass to a third party will be held securely by that party. For
more information on how we do this and your rights in regards to your
personal information and how to access it, visit our website: [7]How we
use your information
 

 

 

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