Payouts to Officers of Wirral Council
Paul Cardin made this Freedom of Information request to Wirral Metropolitan Borough Council
This request has been closed to new correspondence. Contact us if you think it should be reopened.
Dear Wirral Metropolitan Borough Council,
Please browse to Wirral Leaks, an increasingly popular Wirral-based blog, and to the post dated 5th October 2013, entitled:
"Bullying Is An Ugg-ly Business"
http://wirralleaks.wordpress.com/2013/10...
This blog has been the source of entirely accurate information in the past and worryingly, this particular thread reports that an unnamed officer of the council has recently been compensated in the sum of £48,000 (tax free) - following what appears to have been an internal dispute / complaint.
I would like you to read the article and provide details of ALL council officers who have been in receipt of these kind of payments, whether hidden or declared, in these or similar circumstances.
Please provide:
1. Date of payment
2. Amount of payment
3. Reason for payment
4. Have the payment / circumstances been declared publicly?
5. Subject matter e.g. Racial Discrimination; Bullying & Harassment; Dignity at Work Complaint, etc.
6. Copies of reports; aide memoirs; emails; letters; memoranda; notes; meeting minutes; meeting notes (verbatim or non-verbatim), whether in written or electronic format, and connected to meetings, council scrutiny committees, investigations (internal or external), and / or the processing of any payments.
7. Outcome - e.g. whether employees involved are still employed by the council.
8. Disciplinary Action involved, if any.
9. Number of employees involved in dispute / complaint
10. Number of employees in receipt of payment(s)
I am not asking for names or job positions / sections / departments as I'm aware these details could be used to identify employees and thereby infringe upon their personal privacy. Please redact such identifying information in line with the Data Protection Act.
However, please do not overstep the mark by redacting e.g. the quantities in public money that may have been paid out to officers. Such details are vital to the legitimate and compelling public interest.
Please be kind enough to acknowledge receipt of this FoI request as soon as possible,
Yours faithfully,
Paul Cardin
Paul Cardin left an annotation ()
The controversial subject of Wirral Council either squandering huge amounts of public money or being unlawfully separated from it has aroused wide public condemnation locally.
http://www.wirralglobe.co.uk/news/107412...
The demand for openness around this council's hidden dealings is growing, as is the legitimate and compelling public interest.
I still await an acknowledgement of this request, sent wellbover a week ago.
Good Afternoon
Thank you for your recent request made under the Freedom of Information
Act.
The Council is unable to provide the details requested because it believes
the information requested is personal data, as it relates to a living
individual(s) who can be identified from that data (Section 1 (1) of the
Data Protection Act 1998).
The Council considers your request for information to be exempt
information under Section 40(2) of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 in
that you are asking for information which would enable you to identify an
individual(s).
The Council also considers 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. The Council does not consider that any of the
conditions in Schedule 2 would be met.
Accordingly, your request for information has been refused pursuant to
Section 17 (1) of Freedom of Information Act 2000, and the exemption
contained in Section 40 (2) of the Act.
You have the right to request an Internal Review of the refusal to supply
the information requested. This can be done by emailing
[1][email address] your request will then be allocated to
an independent Officer.
If you remain dissatisfied with the response to an Internal Review then
you do also have the right to complain further to the Information
Commissioner, whose office is situated at:
Information Commissioner’s Office
Wycliffe House
Water Lane
Wilmslow
Cheshire SK9 5AF
Tel: 08456 30 60 60 or 01625 54 57 45
Fax: 01625 524510
[2]www.ico.gov.uk
Kind regards,
Sent on behalf of
Tracy O'Hare
Information Management
Transformation and Resources
Wirral Council
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.
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Good Afternoon,
Thank you for your enquiry below. The Council is unable to provide the
details requested because it believes the information requested is
personal data, as it relates to a living individual who can be identified
from that data. (Section 1 (1) of the Data Protection Act 1998).
The Council considers your request for information to be exempt
information under Section 40(2) of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 in
that you are asking for information which would enable you to identify an
individual.
The Council also considers 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. The Council does not consider that any of the
conditions in Schedule 2 would be met.
Accordingly, your request for information has been refused pursuant to
Section 17 (1) of Freedom of Information Act 2000, and the exemption
contained in Section 40 (2) of the Act.
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 the information
requested. Please direct any request for an internal review to
[1][Wirral Borough Council request email]
You do also have the right to complain to the Information Commissioner, if
you are dissatisfied with the outcome of any internal review, whose office
is situated at:
Information Commissioner's Office
Wycliffe House
Water Lane
Wilmslow
Cheshire SK9 5AF
Tel: 08456 30 60 60 or 01625 54 57 45
Fax: 01625 524510 [2]www.ico.gov.uk <[3]http://www.ico.gov.uk/>
Kind Regards
Jane Corrin
Information and Central Services Manager
Transformation and Resources
Wirral Council
Dear Corrin, Jane,
If you provided a redacted version of the information, as clearly requested, this would not risk breaching anybody's personal data privacy, especially if this is done carefully and professionally.
The public interest in getting to the bottom of rumoured five figure payouts is building steadily and needs to be addressed and satisfied.
I believe it is reasonable to ask you to do this.
Please carry out an internal review with this advice in mind,
Yours sincerely,
Paul Cardin
Dear Mr. Cardin,
Thank you for your request for an internal review. After reviewing the
original response sent to you, I believe the Council is correct in its
original response and we maintain our original position in this matter.
The Council is not able to disclose the information you have requested
as I believe the information to be personal data, as defined in Section 1
(1) of the Data Protection Act 1998. The reviewer therefore maintains the
position that the information is exempt from disclosure under Section
40(2) of the Freedom of Information Act 2000. The reviewer further
concludes that to disclose the information would contravene 1^st Data
Protection principle which states 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.”
You are able to make representation and complain to The Information
Commissioner, if you are dissatisfied with the internal review response,
details below:
[1]https://www.ico.org.uk/Global/contact_us
Yours sincerely
Sent on behalf of Surjit Tour
Head of Legal & Member Services and Monitoring Officer
Department of Transformation and Resources
Wirral Metropolitan Borough Council
Town Hall
Brighton Street
Wallasey
Wirral
CH44 8ED
Tel: 0151 691 8569
Fax: 0151 691 8482
Email: [2][email address]
From: Paul Cardin [mailto:[FOI #180051 email]]
Sent: 31 October 2013 18:33
To: Corrin, Jane
Subject: Internal review of Freedom of Information request - Payouts to
Officers of Wirral Council
Dear Corrin, Jane,
If you provided a redacted version of the information, as clearly
requested, this would not risk breaching anybody's personal data privacy,
especially if this is done carefully and professionally.
The public interest in getting to the bottom of rumoured five figure
payouts is building steadily and needs to be addressed and satisfied.
I believe it is reasonable to ask you to do this.
Please carry out an internal review with this advice in mind,
Yours sincerely,
Paul Cardin
References
Visible links
1. https://www.ico.org.uk/Global/contact_us
2. mailto:[email address]
mailto:[email address]
Paul Cardin left an annotation ()
To set this query into a better context, here is the Daily Post article which reported the council's response when it was discovered that £48,000 had apparently been paid to an internal officer in mysterious, unreported, unscrutinised circumstances.
http://www.liverpooldailypost.co.uk/news...
One can compare the Council leader's response here to the other incident, where £45,000 was defrauded out of the council.
In that instance, the leader "banged the table", giving the very strong impression that no stone would be left unturned in finding out went wrong and ensuring it never happened again.
However, when directly questioned in the council chamber by the opposition party leader Councillor Jeff Green about the unscrutinised £48,000 pay out to "Somebody" on the inside, he was uncharacteristically silent, insisting that he had nothing to add to the CEO's email to councillors - which appeared to be an attempt to globally "gag" councillors.
As of 30th November 2013, the above events, witnessed by many members of the press and public have not, repeat not been written up into the draft minutes of the meeting, which is here.
Somebody should now intervene before the next meeting and it is decided that the minutes are a "correct record" because they are certainly NOT, and history is once again in danger of being rewritten, "Improvement" Board or no "Improvement" Board:
See 35 (where the question should be....)
http://democracy.wirral.gov.uk/documents...
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Paul Cardin left an annotation ()
The controversial subject of Wirral Council either squandering huge amounts of public money or being unlawfully separated from it has aroused wide public condemnation locally.
http://www.wirralglobe.co.uk/news/107412...
The demand for openness around this council's hidden dealings is growing, as is the legitimate and compelling public interest.
I still await an acknowledgement of this request, sent well over a week ago.