invoices for councillors' taxi expenses from Eyecab Limited (Passenger Transport Contract) for 2015/16 financial year
Dear Wirral Metropolitan Borough Council,
There are payments that Wirral Council make to a company called Eyecab Limited (Passenger Transport Contract) LOT4 about taxi journeys for Wirral Council councillors.
Wirral Council receives invoices from Eyecab Limited for these journeys.
I quote from the contract:
"2.3 LOT 4 Ad Hoc Journeys for Wirral Councillors by Taxi
....
2.3.8 Invoicing
Invoices should be submitted once a month for all journeys undertaken by Councillors for official business only. There will be no payment in advance for journeys. The invoice should contain the following information
• Journey collection and arrival destinations
• Date and time of journey
• Name of the Councillor ordering the journey
Invoices will be paid at the price agreed between Wirral Council and the Contractor at the time of award of contract. If an overcharge is identified on an invoice a credit note will be
required from the Contractor or a deduction for the amount owed clearly identified on the following invoice.
Invoices should be forwarded to:-
Carl Thompson
Legal and Member Services
Wallasey Town Hall
Brighton Street
CH44 8ED"
Could you please provide in response to this request:
i) a copy of the invoices from the following months received by Wirral Council from Eyecab Limited to Wirral Council for Lot 4 (Ad Hoc Journeys for Wirral Councillors by Taxi) for
A) April 2015,
B) May 2015,
C) June 2015,
D) July 2015,
E) August 2015,
F) September 2015,
G) November 2015,
H) December 2015,
I) January 2016,
and
J) any associated credit notes (if they exist) relating to the same invoices detailed in A-I above.
I remind you of your section 16 duty to provide advice and assistance. However in order to be helpful to you, Carl Thompson's email address is [email address] .
As it's come up in decision notice before, I will point out that consideration of whether exemptions apply to the information requested do not count towards the 18.5 hour limit.
I draw your attention to the recent Court of Appeal judgement (which was about a FOI request about invoices relating to expenses claimed by MPs) and was an appeal by the Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority [2015] EWCA Civ 388, [2015] 1 WLR 2879, [2015] WLR 2, [2015] WLR(D) 194 http://www.bailii.org/ew/cases/EWCA/Civ/... .
Yours faithfully,
John Brace
Dear Mr Brace,
Wirral Council thanks you for your request.
The Council considers that the exemption contained in [1]Section 40 (2) of
FOIA, applies to part of this requested information, that is Junior
officer names and names and information relating to Eye Cab Limited
employees. The exemption can be relied upon as you are asking for
information which is personal data, in respect of which you are not the
data subject. We consider that the disclosure of requested information
would contravene the the second data protection principle. This is
because personal data shall be obtained only for one or more specified and
lawful purpose and shall not be further processed in any manner
incompatible with that purpose or those purposes; and shall not be
processed unless at least one of the conditions in [2]Schedule 2 of the
Data Protection Act 1998 is met. We consider that the individuals named
in these invoices would have a legitimate expectation that their personal
data would not be further processed. We can therefore provide to you
redacted invoices representing all the LOT 4 invoices for the period
requested and can confirm that there are no credit notes or further pages
appended to these invoices.
You have the right under Section 17 of the Freedom of Information Act 2000
to ask for an internal review of the refusal to supply some of the
information requested. Please direct any request for an internal review
to [3][Wirral Borough Council request email]
If you are dissatisfied with the result of your internal review, you also
have the right to complain to the Information Commissioner, whose address
is The Information Commissioner’s Office, Wycliffe House, Water Lane,
Wilmslow, Cheshire SK9 5AF [4]https://ico.org.uk/global/contact-us/
We trust that you find this information of assistance
Your sincerely,
Tracy O'Hare
Information Management Officer
Legal Services
Wallasey Town Hall
Brighton Street
Wallasey
Wirral
CH44 8ED
Transformation and Resources
[5][Wirral Borough Council request email]
[6]LGC Awards15_Winner_MIP
This information supplied to you is copyrighted and 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 our specific permission, may
involve licensing and the application of a charge
Dear Wirral Metropolitan Borough Council,
Please pass this on to the person who conducts Freedom of Information reviews.
I am writing to request an internal review of Wirral Metropolitan Borough Council's handling of my FOI request 'invoices for councillors' taxi expenses from Eyecab Limited (Passenger Transport Contract) for 2015/16 financial year'.
Thank you for supplying 32 A4 pages relating to my request. However unfortunately I am requesting an internal review for the reasons below. Please also note you have a s.16 duty to provide advice and assistance to those making a FOI request.
Each invoice comprises of two pages. An example of this would be page 1 and page 3. The first page contains a numerical reference for each journey and its cost. The second page details the councillor or councillors that took each journey.
Page 3 makes reference to "LOT 5" and "ACHO" (reference 2801 and 2802) Could you explain the meaning of LOT 5 and ACHO please?
Page 1 also states "Please note: LOT6* Highlighted RED" *could be LOT 5. As you have supplied a black and white copy could you please specify which entries are highlighted in red on page 1?
Page 2 and 4 are blank, is this intentional?
Page 5 is supplied at an extremely low quality, which means the figures are not readable. Could you resupply this page please? Also which items are highlighted on this page in red?
Page 6 is blank and the second page of the invoice that starts on page 5 is missing (detailing journey references 2901-2910). Could the second page of the invoice that starts on page 5 be supplied please?
Page 8 is blank and the second page of the invoice that starts on page 7 is missing (detailing journey references 3001 to 3011). Could the second page of the invoice that starts on page 7 be supplied please? Also could page 7 be supplied in a higher resolution as the figures and words on a coloured background are nearly impossible to read at this resolution?
Are pages 10 and 12 intentionally blank?
Page 13 refers to a red highlight for a different lot. Could you please confirm which journeys are highlighted in red as this is a black and white copy?
Page 14 is blank and the second page of the invoice that starts on page 13 is missing (detailing journey references 3201 to 3211). Could the second page of the invoice that starts on page 13 be supplied please?
The invoice starting on page 15 is scanned in at an extremely low quality. Could this please be supplied at a resolution where the figures in the miles column and amount are legible please?
Page 16 is blank and the second page of the invoice that starts on page 15 is missing (detailing journey references 3301 to 3321). Could the second page of the invoice that starts on page 15 be supplied please?
The invoice starting on page 17 is scanned in at a low quality setting. Could this please be supplied at a higher resolution so that it is readable please? Also which items are highlighted in red on page 17?
Page 19 (journey reference 3409) in the column headed Councillor is blacked out. This is neither a junior officer name or a taxi driver name. Section 17 of the Freedom of Information Act 2000, see http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2000... requires a refusal notice to state what is redacted, which exemption/s are relied upon and why. Could you please explain why this information has been redacted and the class of information not included in the refusal notice please?
Page 20 is blank, is this intentional?
The invoice starting on page 21 is scanned in at a low quality setting. Could this please be supplied at a higher resolution so that it is readable please? Also which items are highlighted in red on page 21?
Page 22 is blank, is this intentional?
Page 24 is blank, is this intentional?
What items are highlighted in red on page 25?
Page 26 is blank, is this intentional?
Page 28 is blank, is this intentional?
What items are highlighted in red on page 29?
Page 30 is blank, is this intentional?
Page 32 is blank, is this intentional?
Finally a number of journeys instead of a councillor/s's name are down as "Housing". Are these journeys undertaken by councillors or work undertaken by Eye Cab Limited for Wirral Council for a different lot (councillors are LOT 4)?
A full history of my FOI request and all correspondence is available on the Internet at this address: https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/i...
Yours faithfully,
John Brace
Dear Mr Brace
I write further to your request for an internal review of the Council’s
response to your enquiry detailed above. Please accept my apologies for
the delay in responding to your request for review.
As the reviewing officer I have revisited your enquiry and have noted your
comments with regards to the quality and clarity of the invoices provided
to you in response to your original Freedom of Information request.
Please find attached further copies of the invoices, which have been
individually coped at a higher resolution to ensure that the print is more
readable and that all invoices now run sequentially and I have removed
blank pages that were incorrectly included when originally copied and
scanned. This should satisfy your comments with regards to clarity and
blank pages.
If you still find the invoices difficult to read, I am happy to forward a
hard copy if you are willing to provide a postal address.
With regards to invoice numbers LOT4/29, LOT 4/30, LOT 4/32 and LOT 4/33,
I have made enquiries with the Council’s Transaction Centre and Business
Support Team as to why there is no second page detailing journeys made.
The Payments Team has reviewed all records relating to these invoices and
advised that all information held has been disclosed. The Council is
unable to advise why no journey summaries were provided for those
invoices. There is, therefore, no further recorded information to provide
in response to this point.
In respect of your other points, I would advise as follows:-
“LOT5” and “ACHO”
I can advise that LOT5 relates to Housing Options team and ACHO represents
Councillor Andrew Hodgson.
“LOT6 Highlighted Red”
There is no LOT6, it is LOT5. We are unable to provide a colour copy of
the invoice as all invoices received from EyeCab Limited are delivered
electronically and no colour version was received. There is, therefore,
no further recorded information to provide in regard to this point and all
other references to highlighted red text in your review request.
“Journey Reference 3409”
I can advise that the name redacted from that invoice was the name of a
Housing Service Officer. It was considered that providing the name of that
employee would constitute a breach of Data Protection principles as the
officer in question would have no reasonable expectation that their
personal details would be disclosed.
I am satisfied that this information was correctly withheld as it amounts
to personal data, being data which relates to a living individual who can
be identified from that data (Section 1 (1) of the Data Protection Act
1998). I therefore consider that this information is exempt information
under Section 40 (2) of the Freedom of Information Act.
I am of the opinion that the disclosure of the requested information would
contravene the first data protection principle; that personal data shall
be processed fairly and lawfully and shall not be processed unless at
least one of the conditions in Schedule 2 of the Data Protection Act 1998
is met and I do not consider that any of the conditions in Schedule 2
would be met. I am therefore refusing this part of your request for
information under Section 17 (1) of Freedom of Information Act 2000,
relying on the exemption contained in Section 40 (2) of the Act.
I trust this now clarifies the Council’s response to your Request for
Information. If you are dissatisfied with the response contained within
this Internal Review, you have the right to complain to the Information
Commissioner (ICO) below:-
Information Commissioner’s Office
Wycliffe House
Water Lane
Wilmslow
Cheshire
SK9 5AF
[1]https://ico.org.uk/global/contact-us/
Telephone 0303 123 113
Yours sincerely
Lynette Paterson
Senior Information Management Officer
Records and Information Management
Legal Services
Transformation and Resources
Wallasey Town Hall
Brighton Street
Wallasey
Wirral
CH44 8ED
[2]Tel: 0151 691 8201
[3][Wirral Borough Council request email]
[4]LGC Awards15_Winner_MIP
This information supplied to you is copyrighted and 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 our specific permission, may
involve licensing and the application of a charge
References
Visible links
1. https://ico.org.uk/global/contact-us/
2. file:///tmp/Tel:0151
3. mailto:[Wirral Borough Council request email]
We work to defend the right to FOI for everyone
Help us protect your right to hold public authorities to account. Donate and support our work.
Donate Now