Councillor's family members working for childrens services

Response to this request is long overdue. By law, under all circumstances, Kent County Council should have responded by now (details). You can complain by requesting an internal review.

Peter Injustice

Dear Kent County Council,
Councillor's family members working for childrens services

Please provide a list of all councillors and their family members who work for or are contracted to do work for childrens services.

Yours faithfully,

Peter Injustice

Kent County Council

Dear Mr Injustice

 

Thank you for your email below.

 

Kent County Council acknowledges your request for information under the
Freedom of Information Act 2000. Assuming KCC holds this information, we
will endeavour to supply the data to you as soon as possible but no later
than 12th July 2016 (20 working days from date of receipt).

 

We will advise you as soon as possible if we do not hold this information
or if there are exemptions to be considered and/or any costs for providing
the information. Please quote our reference - FOI/16/0951 - in any
communication regarding this particular request.

 

Best regards

 

Laura Pronger | Information Access Officer | Information Resilience &
Transparency Team | Kent County Council | Room 2.71, Sessions House,
Maidstone, ME14 1XQ | 03000 416590 |
[1]http://www.kent.gov.uk/about-the-council...
|

 

 

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Kent County Council

Dear Mr Injustice  

 

Thank you for your request for information made under the Freedom of
Information Act (FOIA) 2000. I am pleased to provide the response below:

 

Please provide a list of all councillors and their family members who work
for or are contracted to do work for children’s services.

 

Kent County Council does not have a list of Councillors who may have
family members working for the authority.

 

If you are unhappy with this response, and believe KCC has not complied
with legislation, please ask for a review by following our complaints
process; details can be found at this link
[1]http://www.kent.gov.uk/about-the-council...
on our website. Please quote reference FOI/16/0951.

 

If you still remain dissatisfied following an internal review, you can
appeal to the Information Commissioner, who oversees compliance with the
Freedom of Information Act 2000. Details of what you need to do, should
you wish to pursue this course of action, are available from the
Information Commissioner’s website [2]http://www.ico.org.uk/concerns.

 

Yours sincerely

 

Laura Pronger | Information Access Officer | Information Resilience &
Transparency Team | Kent County Council | Room 2.71, Sessions House,
Maidstone, ME14 1XQ | 03000 416590 |
[3]http://www.kent.gov.uk/about-the-council...
|

 

 

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Peter Injustice

Dear Kent County Council,

Are you stating that no elected Councillors have family members who work directly or indirectly for children's services at KCC ?

Yours faithfully,

Peter Injustice

Peter Injustice

Dear Kent County Council,

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

I am writing to request an internal review of Kent County Council's handling of my FOI request 'Councillor's family members working for childrens services'.

Kent County Council have not confirmed that no elected Councillors have family members who work directly or indirectly for children's services at KCC.

A full history of my FOI request and all correspondence is available on the Internet at this address: https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/c...

Yours faithfully,

Peter Injustice

Kent County Council

Dear Mr Injustice

Thank you for your email.

As a result of your email dated 4th July 2016 in which you asked us "are you stating that no elected Councillors have family members who work directly or indirectly for children's services at KCC", we instigated a review of our original response. That review is being carried out by an independent officer on behalf of the Head of Paid Service and a response is in the process of being finalised and will be with you as soon as possible but in any event by 1st August (within 20 working days).

Yours sincerely

Pauline Banks | Information Governance Specialist | Information Resilience & Transparency Team | Kent County Council | Room 2.71, Sessions House, Maidstone, ME14 1XQ Telephone 03000 415811 | http://www.kent.gov.uk/about-the-council...

 

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Kent County Council

Dear Mr Injustice

 

I have now completed an independent review of KCC's response to your
request for information and can confirm that we are not saying that none
of Kent County Council's (KCC) elected members have relatives that work
within Children's Services.  We are simply saying is that we do not hold
that information in the form of a list. 

 

In carrying out my review I can add to our earlier response to confirm
that as part of the employment process prospective employees are required
to disclose if they are related to a Member or Senior Officer of KCC when
applying for a job.  That information is not held in the form of a list
but where relevant will be held on the individuals personnel file and to
search all of those records would exceed the appropriate limit of £450 (18
hours @ £25 per hour) to comply with your request and therefore under
section 12 of the Freedom of Information Act we are not obliged to comply
with your request. 

 

With regard to our Members, they are required to declare that their
husband/wife/civil partner, or a person with whom they are living as
husband/wife or as if they are civil partners are working for KCC.  That
information is recorded by individual Members via forms that are uploaded
onto KCC's website, KCC does not hold the information in the form of a
list but it is publicly available information that can be found on the
individual Members' Register of Interests that can be viewed on KCC's
website via the following link.
[1]https://democracy.kent.gov.uk/mgMemberIn... In addition
some information may be found on the Related Party Transaction forms that
are also available on KCC's website via the same link. 

 

In conclusion, I can confirm that KCC does not hold information in a
format that would enable us to readily identify whether information
falling under the scope of your request is held.  Therefore we are unable
to uphold your complaint.  However we do acknowledge that we should have
provided the relevant links to where some information might be held so
that you could ascertain this for yourself, we would therefore like to
apologise for this oversight.  

 

If you still remain dissatisfied following an internal review, you can
appeal to the Information Commissioner, who oversees compliance with the
Freedom of Information Act 2000. Details of what you need to do, should
you wish to pursue this course of action, are available from the
Information Commissioner’s website [2]http://www.ico.org.uk/complaints

 

Yours sincerely

 

 

Pauline Banks | Information Governance Specialist | Information Resilience
& Transparency Team | Kent County Council | Room 2.71, Sessions House,
Maidstone, ME14 1XQ Telephone 03000 415811 |
[3]http://www.kent.gov.uk/about-the-council...

 

 

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Dear Kent County Council,

Can you please confirm if Cllr Paul Carter leader of Kent County Council, daughter-in-law has or does work for KCC Family Group conference service ?

Yours faithfully,

Peter Injustice

Kent County Council

Dear Mr Injustice

 

Thank you for your email

 

Kent County Council acknowledges your request for information under the
Freedom of Information Act 2000/Environmental Information Regulations
2004.

 

Following our previous response sent to you on the 1^st August 2016
(below) where we mentioned that our members are required to declare that
their husband/wife/civil partner, or a person with whom they are living as
husband/wife or as if they are civil partners are working for KCC.  That
information is recorded by individual Members via forms that are uploaded
onto KCC's website however the information regarding a daughter in law
being employed by Kent County Council does not come under the scope of
this required declaration and does not need to disclosed in a public
domain.

 

However that being said to enable to us to check our systems to establish
if this information is even held, please provide the individuals full name
you are referring to.

 

As soon as we receive this information, we will let you know the latest
date that you can expect a reply by.

 

Please quote our reference – FOI/16/1466 - in any communication regarding
this particular request.

 

Best regards

 

Kirsty-Leigh Robertson| Information Access Officer | Information
Resilience & Transparency Team | Room 2.71, Sessions House, Maidstone |
Phone 03000 418301 | Fax 03000 420303 |
[1]http://www.kent.gov.uk/about-the-council...
|

 

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Dear Kent County Council,

Mrs Lauren Carter

Yours faithfully,

Peter Injustice

Kent County Council

Dear Mr Injustice

 

Thank you for your clarifying your request. I can now confirm that the
latest complete by date for your request is 12^th October 2016

 

We will advise you as soon as possible if we do not hold this information
or if there are exemptions to be considered and/or any costs for providing
the information. Please quote our reference - FOI/16/1466 - in any
communication regarding this particular request.

 

Best regards

 

Kirsty-Leigh Robertson| Information Access Officer | Information
Resilience & Transparency Team | Room 2.71, Sessions House, Maidstone |
Phone 03000 418301 | Fax 03000 420303 |
[1]http://www.kent.gov.uk/about-the-council...
|

 

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Kent County Council

Dear Mr Injustice

 

Thank you for your request for information made under the Freedom of
Information Act (FOIA) 2000, relating to the Leader’s daughter-in-law.

 

We can confirm that from our HR system that a Lauren Carter is employed by
KCC within the Social Care, Health and Wellbeing directorate. However, we
do not hold any information to either confirm or deny whether she is
related or connected to the Leader in any way. Therefore, we cannot answer
your question in its entirety. Please note that the Freedom of Information
Act 2000 only provides a right of access to recorded information and there
is no obligation on public authorities to create information to satisfy a
request.

 

If you are unhappy with this response, and believe KCC has not complied
with legislation, please ask for a review by following our complaints
process; details can be found at this link
[1]http://www.kent.gov.uk/about-the-council...
on our website. Please quote reference FOI/16/1466.

 

If you still remain dissatisfied following an internal review, you can
appeal to the Information Commissioner, who oversees compliance with the
Freedom of Information Act 2000. Details of what you need to do, should
you wish to pursue this course of action, are available from the
Information Commissioner’s website [2]http://www.ico.org.uk/concerns.

 

Yours sincerely

 

Kirsty-Leigh Robertson| Information Access Officer | Information
Resilience & Transparency Team | Room 2.71, Sessions House, Maidstone |
Phone 03000 418301 | Fax 03000 420303 |
[3]http://www.kent.gov.uk/about-the-council...
|

 

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Dear Kent County Council,

Surely Paul Carter KCC Leader must know if this is his daughter-in-law ?

Yours faithfully,

Peter Injustice

Kent County Council

Dear Mr Injustice

 

Thank you for your email.

 

As my colleague explained to you in her response, the Freedom of
Information Act 2000 provides you with a right of access to RECORDED
information. The Act does not cover knowledge i.e.: information that is in
someone’s head. The Act does not place any obligations on local
authorities to create new information or find the answer to a question by
asking staff who may happen to know it.

 

Therefore, as KCC does not hold any record that contains information
either confirming or denying whether Lauren Carter is related to the
Leader in any way, I maintain our original stance was correct.

 

If you remain unhappy, you should now appeal to the Information
Commissioner, who oversees compliance with the Freedom of Information Act
2000 and the Data Protection Act 1998. Details of what you need to do,
should you wish to pursue this course of action, are available from the
Information Commissioner’s website [1]http://ico.org.uk/concerns, or you
can phone the ICO Helpline on 0303 123 1113.

 

Best regards

 

Caroline Dodge | Team Leader | Information Resilience & Transparency Team
| Room 2.71, Sessions House, Maidstone | Phone 03000 416033 | Fax 03000
420303 | [2]http://knet/ourcouncil/Pages/information... |

 

 

 

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Dear Kent County Council,

In someone's head, do you mean Paul Carter's head or is it a secret ?

Yours faithfully,

Peter Injustice