Payments to councillors and council officers

The request was successful.

Dear Sir or Madam,
Kindly supply details of all payments, gifts, benefits in kind, privileges and/or shares, made or promised by planning applicants, their representatives, PR companies and/or subsidiary companies to councillors and/or council officers from July 2006 onwards.

Yours faithfully,

Gary Crow

contact us Inet Email, Elmbridge Borough Council

Thank you for your enquiry, which has been passed to the relevant officer for action. In accordance with our Customer Care policy you should receive a reply from us within 10 working days. Alternatively you could visit our FAQ web page at http://www.elmbridge.gov.uk/faq/ or contact us on 01372 474474

Elmbridge Borough Council, Civic Centre, High Street, Esher, Surrey, KT10 9SD
Direct Line: 01372 474474
email: [email address]
www.elmbridge.gov.uk

This email, and any attachments, is strictly confidential and may be legally privileged. It is intended only for use by the addressee. If you are not the intended recipient, any disclosure, copying, distribution or other use of this communication is strictly prohibited. If you have received this message in error, please contact the sender and delete it from your system. The opinions expressed in this email are not necessarily those of Elmbridge Borough Council.

This email has been scanned by Email Security Systems.

Georgina Healy, Elmbridge Borough Council

Ref: FOI-26-2009
By Email: [FOI #6645 email]

29 January 2009

Dear Mr Crow

REQUEST FOR INFORMATION UNDER THE FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT 2000
(‘The Act’)

Thank you for your recent requests under the 2000 Act made on 24
January 2009, which we formally received on Monday 26 January 2008. As
requested, we are responding electronically.

Elmbridge Borough Council (EBC) holds a number of registers where the
information requested may be held. The Registers are available for
public inspection, except in one instance, as explained below.

Request:
Kindly supply details of all payments, gifts, benefits in kind,
privileges and/or shares, made or promised by planning applicants, their
representatives, PR companies and/or subsidiary companies to councillors
and/or council officers from July 2006 onwards.

Councillors:
There is a Register of Members’ Interests in which Councillors are
required to disclose any gifts and hospitality they have received and
are required to disclose any interests they have.

Councillors, Heads of Directorates and Head of Legal Services:
The Council also keeps a record of ‘Related Party Transactions’ in
which Councillors and EBC’s Head of Directorates and Head of Legal
Services are required to declare any related third party transactions.
An overview of this information can be found EBC’s annual Statement of
Accounts which is available to view on EBC’s website.

Council Officers - Gifts & Hospitality:
There are 9 registers in which Council Officers are required to
disclose any gifts and hospitality received depending on which
directorate to which they belong:
· Chief Executive Directorate - 1 register
· Resources Directorate (includes Finance, Legal, Admin & Office,
Local Taxation, Information Systems and Internal Audit divisions.) - 1
register.
· Services Directorate (includes Building Control, Community
Support Services, Environmental Care, Environmental Health & Licensing,
Housing, Leisure and Cultural Services and Town Planning divisions).
The 7 divisions each have their own register, which is then forwarded on
a quarterly basis to the head of this Directorate.

Council Officers - Interests:
With regards to your request in relation to interests of Council
Officers, we seek to rely on the following:

In accordance with section 17 of the 2000 Act, please be advised that
this Council refuses to release the details of interests in respect of
Council Officers.

This is because this information is exempt from disclosure under
section 40(2) and (3) - ‘Personal Information’ and section 41 -
‘Information provided in confidence’:

According to section 40:
(2) Any information to which a request for information relates is also
exempt information if -
a) it constitutes personal data which do not fall within subsection
(1), and
b) either the first or the second condition below is satisfied.
(3) The first condition is
a) in a case where the information falls within any of the
paragraphs (a) to (d) of the definition of “data” in section 1(1) of
the Data Protection Act 1998 that the disclosure of the information to a
member of public otherwise than under this Act would contravene -
i) any of the data protection principles, or
ii) section 10 of that Act (right to prevent processing likely to
cause damage or distress), and…….

According to section 41
(1) Information is exempt information if-
(a) it was obtained by the public authority from any other person
(including another public authority), and
(b) the disclosure of the information to the public (otherwise than
under this Act) by the public authority holding it would constitute a
breach of confidence actionable by that or any other person.”

The above exemptions are absolute and therefore are not subject to the
public interest test. The Council has considered the following in
applying this exemption:

· to disclose this information would be to breach the first data
protection principle under the Data Protection Act 1998 on the grounds
that to do so would be unfair to the individual officer/employee. This
information may also be construed as an extension of their personal file
and therefore constitutes as personal data.
· the release of this information may cause unwarranted intrusion
into their privacy and consequently cause them distress or damage, which
would breach section 10 of the Data Protection Act 1998.
· the Council Officers/employees have a reasonable and legitimate
expectation of privacy. This is because they have provided this
information in confidence.

In addition to the above exemptions, we have also considered section 44
of the Act - (Statutory Prohibition) and consequently consider that to
disclose this information is prohibited by Article 8 - ‘the right to
private life’ under the Human Rights Act 1998. This would be
consistent with the section 40 of the Freedom of Information Act.

Access to the Registers that are available for public inspection

If you wish to inspect the Registers at the Council’s Civic Centre,
please contact 01372 474185 and ask for Legal Services to arrange an
appointment during normal working hours.

If, however, you require a paper copy, please note that a fee will be
payable to us before we can provide you with photocopies of the
Register.

The fee covers the costs of photocopying and postage charges only. The
charges have been calculated in accordance with the Freedom of
Information and Data Protection (Appropriate Limit and Fees) Regulations
2004. We note that your request covers July 2006 onwards and we
estimate that there are 1010 pages so we calculate your fee as
follows:
· 1010 pages x 0.10p per page = £101.00
and
· postage costs estimated at £12.24 standard, £16.62 first class,
or £17.34 recorded delivery

Please kindly note that we are unable to continue processing your
request until you confirm that you require photocopies of the
information and until the fee is paid.

If you wish us to continue to process your request in paper form, you
should pay the fee requested within 3 calendar months by 30 April 2009.
If we do not receive payment of the fee by this date, we will take it
that you do not wish to pursue this request and will consider the
request closed.

If, for whatever reason, you are unhappy with our response, you have
the right to ask for an internal review. Internal review requests
should be submitted within two months of the date of receipt of the
response to your original letter and should be addressed to Head of
Legal Services, Elmbridge Borough Council, Civic Centre, High Street,
Esher, Surrey KT10 9SD.

Should you then remain dissatisfied at the outcome of that process, you
are entitled to appeal against the decision by contacting The
Information Commissioner's Office, Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow,
Cheshire, SK9 5AF.

Yours sincerely

Freedom of Information Officer
For Interim Head of Legal Services

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Dear Sir or Madam,

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

I am writing to request an internal review of Elmbridge Borough Council's handling of my FOI request 'Payments to councillors and council officers'.

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

Yours sincerely,

Gary Crow

contact us Inet Email, Elmbridge Borough Council

Thank you for your enquiry, which has been passed to the relevant officer for action. In accordance with our Customer Care policy you should receive a reply from us within 10 working days. Alternatively you could visit our FAQ web page at http://www.elmbridge.gov.uk/faq/ or contact us on 01372 474474

Elmbridge Borough Council, Civic Centre, High Street, Esher, Surrey, KT10 9SD
Direct Line: 01372 474474
email: [email address]
www.elmbridge.gov.uk

This email, and any attachments, is strictly confidential and may be legally privileged. It is intended only for use by the addressee. If you are not the intended recipient, any disclosure, copying, distribution or other use of this communication is strictly prohibited. If you have received this message in error, please contact the sender and delete it from your system. The opinions expressed in this email are not necessarily those of Elmbridge Borough Council.

This email has been scanned by Email Security Systems.

contact us Inet Email, Elmbridge Borough Council

Thank you for your enquiry to the Legal Services Team, which has been
passed to the relevant officer for action. In accordance with our Customer
Care policy you should receive a reply from us within 10 working days.

Please note that we are not able to reply to unsolicited emails.

Legal Services
Elmbridge Borough Council
High Street, Civic Centre, Esher
Surrey, KT10 9SD
[1]http://www.elmbridge.gov.uk

This message has been Forwarded by The Mail Room at EBC
Elmbridge Borough Council
Civic Centre, High Street, Esher, Surrey KT10 9SD
Tel: 01372 474474
email: [2][email address]
or visit [3]www.elmbridge.gov.uk

>>> Gary Crow <[FOI #6645 email]> 29/01/2009 22:41
>>>
Dear Sir or Madam,

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

I am writing to request an internal review of Elmbridge Borough
Council's handling of my FOI request 'Payments to councillors and
council officers'.

A full history of my FOI request and all correspondence is
available on the Internet at this address:

[4]http://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/pa...

Yours sincerely,

Gary Crow

show quoted sections

Alan Harrison, Elmbridge Borough Council

Dear Mr Crow,

Thank you for your message.

I am treating your message as a request for an internal review of your request for information. The Council responded to your request by email and letter attachment dated 29 January 2009.

You have not specified grounds for review so I have examined the entirity of the request and the Council's response.

I note that the Council has identified which information it holds and where it is found. The Council is not obliged to hold any of this information in an electronic form. Some of the information you have sought is available for public inspection. As an alternative to public inspection, the Council has specified alternatives to physical inspection, including the provision of photocopies for which there would be a charge. Relevant hard copies are compiled in register form for the most part and run to many hundreds of pages. It is not reasonably practicable, and will likely exceed the cost threshold in any event, to scan more than 1,000 individual pages for electronic transmission to you.

I have considered the categories of information which the Council considers are exempt from disclosure and assessed these against advice issued by the Information Commissioner. I conclude that these exemptions apply.

You have already been advised of your right to complain to the Information Commissioner and you have been given his address. The website is www.ic.gov.uk where all relevant forms and guidance can be found.

Yours sincerely,

Alan Harrison
Interim Head of Legal Services
Elmbridge Borough Council
Civic Centre, High Street,
Esher, Surrey KT10 9SD
Tel: 01372 474192
Email: [email address]

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Dear Alan Harrison, How much notice is required for public inspection of these registers ?

Yours sincerely,

Gary Crow

Alan Harrison, Elmbridge Borough Council

Dear Mr Crow,

There is no notice period - all statutory registers are open for public inspection during office hours.

Yours sincerely,

Alan Harrison
Interim Head of Legal Services
Elmbridge Borough Council
Civic Centre, High Street,
Esher, Surrey KT10 9SD
Tel: 01372 474192
Email: [email address]

show quoted sections

Dear Alan Harrison, Thank you for clarifying this. I will inspect the registers at the council offices during
office hours as you suggest.

Yours sincerely,

Gary Crow