Information Team Croydon
Digital Services
Assistant Chief Executive Directorate
Bernard Wetherill House
7th Floor, Zone B
Croydon
CR0 1EA

Contact: Information Team
[Croydon Borough Council request email]

NOTE: Please do not edit the subject line when replying to this email. If
you have a processing request, please ensure you quote that reference in
your emails to us.

DEAR Adam Bychawski

Freedom of information request - FOI/7682

Subject: Environmental Health Officers

Your request is being considered and you will receive a response within
the statutory timescale of 20 working days, subject to the application of
any exemptions. Where consideration is being given to exemptions the 20
working day timescale may be extended to a period considered reasonable
depending on the nature and circumstances of your request. In such cases
you will be notified and, where possible, a revised time-scale will be
indicated. In all cases we shall attempt to deal with your request at the
earliest opportunity.

If we are unable to provide you with the information requested we will
notify you of this together with the reason(s) why, and details of how you
may appeal.

Please note that the directorate team may contact you for further
information where we believe that the request is not significantly clear
for us to respond fully. 

Kind Regard

Information Management Team

Croydon Digital Services

Assistant Chief Executive Directorate

7th Floor, Zone B

Bernard Weatherill House

8 Mint Walk

Croydon CR0 1EA

Information Team Croydon
Digital Services
Assistant Chief Executive Directorate
Bernard Wetherill House
7th Floor, Zone B
Croydon
CR0 1EA

Contact: Information Team
[Croydon Borough Council request email]

Dear Adam Bychawski

Request FOI/7682

Your request has been considered under the provisions of the Freedom of
Information Act. Please accept our apologies for the lengthy delay in
responding to you. Specifically, you have requested the following
information:

For each of the financial years 2017/18, 2018/19, 2019/20, 2020/21,
2021/22, 2022/23 please provide me with the following:

1. The total number of staff employed (directly or indirectly) by the
local authority to inspect residential properties for category 1 or 2
hazards.

2. Of (1), the total number who were qualified Environmental Health
Officers.

3. The total number of inspections carried out by either (1) or (2) to see
whether category 1 or 2 hazards exist in residential properties which are
owned by the council or social housing providers, or privately rented.
(Please refer to section four of the Housing Act 2004 if in doubt about
the nature of the inspections.)

4. The total number of complaints that the local authority has received
about hazards or poor conditions in residential properties which are owned
by the council or social housing providers, or privately rented.

We do not have officers trained to identify cat 1 or 2 HHSRS hazards. We
are unable to determine total number of inspections carried out to see
whether category 1 or 2 hazards exist in residential properties.
Inspections are carried out by housing and environmental health staff and
are not recorded in a way that we can draw this information from any
reports or electronic systems that we have.

Our formal complaints system records complaints by service area and to
look for any report specific to this each complaint for the services that
cover properties each complaint would need to be checked manually. We have
also approached housing and environmental health asking them to look
through general enquires, correspondence or any reports of this type that
they have received. Again, they both confirm that they do not separately
capture resports/requests of this type as specific as this and in order to
search and locate this information they would need to undertake a detailed
piece of work which would exceed the appropriate limit.  The Freedom of
Information (Fees and Appropriate Limit) Regulations 2004 specifies an
“appropriate limit” for the amount of time the council needs to spend
undertaking that search.  If the council estimates that the time taken to
locate, retrieve and extract the information requested will exceed the
appropriate limit, then under Section 12 of the Act, it is not obliged to
comply with that request.

The appropriate limit currently specified by the Regulations for local
authorities is £450. This represents the estimated cost of one person
spending two and a half working days in locating, retrieving and
extracting the information from where it is stored.  We estimate that the
cumulative time it would take officers to retrieve the complete records
you are seeking would exceed the appropriate limit. Therefore, we are
unable to disclose the information you are seeking.

The Council publishes Access to Information requests and responses on its
online Disclosure Log. (Any request included within this log will be
anonymised appropriately)

To view the Council’s Disclosure Log, please visit our website available
here:

[1]The Freedom of Information (FOI) Act | Croydon Council
(disclosure-log.co.uk)

If you are dissatisfied with the way the Council has handled your request
under the Freedom of Information Act you may ask for an internal review. 
This should be submitted to us within 40 working days of this response. 
You can do this by outlining the details of your complaint by:

Email:        [Croydon Borough Council request email]

Writing:     Information Team

London Borough of Croydon

Bernard Weatherill House

7^th Floor - Zone B

8 Mint Walk

Croydon CR0 1EA

Any requests received after the 40 working day time limit will be
considered only at the discretion of the council.

If you are not content with the outcome of the 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 

Croydon Council

References

Visible links
1. https://croydon.disclosure-log.co.uk/