FOI Request - Public sector off-payroll (IR35) reforms

Dear Mr Chaplin,

Thank you for your enquiry, which has been forwarded to the appropriate
officers for a response. The usual timescale for a response is twenty
working days, that is by or on 11.01.19.

If for any reason the Council needs to extend this timescale you will be
notified in accordance with the relevant legislation.

Please note that in 2012 the County Council adopted a position in
principle that FoI and EIR requests to West Sussex County Council and the
Council's responses may be published on the Council's website in a
suitably anonymised form. This is in addition to the individual response
to the requestor, and in line with the Council's commitment to
transparency and open data.   

Yours sincerely,

Helen Thompson.

Freedom Of Information |  [1]West Sussex County Council | Location:
County Hall, Chichester PO19 1RQ
E-mail: [2][email address]

[3]EmailFooterImg

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Dear Mr Chaplin

Ref: WSCC$1509127 - 1083592 - LVC - DC – HR

I refer to your request dated 11^th December 2018, which has been dealt
with under the Freedom of Information Act 2000.

Your request was for:

In April 2017 Government introduced new rules into the public sector
called the off-payroll reforms, commonly referred to as “IR35”.

[1]https://www.gov.uk/guidance/off-payroll-...

 We understand you may (or may not) have planned for this and developed a
set of internal guidelines to be used when on boarding flexible workers,
or contractors.

 Please can you:

1.       Tell us if you are familiar with these reforms – yes or no?

2.       send us a copy of your internal guidelines used for any internal
guidance,

3.       send us any policies you use surrounding the reforms.

4.       send us any documents you use to explain your policies to
agencies who supply workers to you.

5.       Send us your internal guidance explaining how you assess the
status for each contractor.

We have now completed a search for the information which you requested and
I confirm the Authority holds information relevant to the request.

Please see answers below corresponding with the numbers on your request.

1.       Tell us if you are familiar with these reforms – Yes

2.       send us a copy of your internal guidelines used for any internal
guidance.

3.       send us any policies you use surrounding the reforms.

For answers to Q2 and 3 please see attached Policy and Procedure for
engaging self employed workers, consultants and office holders.

4.       send us any documents you use to explain your policies to
agencies who supply workers to you.

We expect agencies to follow the attached policy and procedure already
provided.

5.       Send us your internal guidance explaining how you assess the
status for each contractor.

          Please see attached procedure and supporting appendices for
employing self employed contractors.

Please note that One Way to Buy refers to our Procurement team and this
team is also involved in the process.

We use the HRMC’s tool CEST (Check employment status for tax) for
assessing the status of contractors.

The attached information will explain our policy and practice for
employing self employed workers and contractors.  

The information supplied to you continues to be protected by the
Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. You are free to use it for your
own purposes, including any non-commercial research you are doing and for
the purposes of news reporting. Any other reuse, for example commercial
publication, would require the permission of the copyright holder. Most
documents supplied by us will be copyright of West Sussex County Council.

Information you receive which is not subject to WSCC copyright continues
to be protected by the copyright of the person, or organisation, from
which the information originated. You must ensure that you gain their
permission before reproducing any third party (non WSCC) information.

If you have any queries about this letter, please contact me. Please
remember to quote the reference number above in any future communications.

If you are unhappy with the way your request has been handled, you may
wish to ask for a review of our decision via the ‘FOI inbox’. 

If you are not content with the outcome of the internal review, you may
apply directly to the Information Commissioner for a decision. Generally,
the ICO cannot make a decision unless you have exhausted our internal
review procedure. The Information Commissioner can be contacted at:

The Information Commissioner's Office,

Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow, Cheshire SK9 5AF.

Yours sincerely

BSD Information Liaison Officers

BSD FoI Liaison Officers, [2]West Sussex County Council 

Location: 2^nd Floor, The Grange, Chichester, PO19 1RG

Email:- [3][email address]

Please do not delete the above reference number  

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References

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1. https://www.gov.uk/guidance/off-payroll-...
2. http://www.westsussex.gov.uk/__
3. mailto:[email address]