PFI PPP Safety Audit

The request was refused by Kirklees Borough Council.

Dear Kirklees Borough Council,

This request for information is an attempt to seek reassurance about the safety of public buildings in the light of the findings revealed in the Inquiry commissioned following the collapse of a school building wall in Edinburgh and subsequent closure of 17 schools.
Please answer the following for each PFI/PPP schemes in the local authority area treating each scheme as a separate request.
Please provide all documents showing how your organisation has responded to the findings contained in the report on Edinburgh Schools Construction by John Cole: including, but not limited to memos, emails, minutes, reports.
I would like to understand the expertise and resource committed by your organisation to the management and oversight of PFI schemes from procurement through to ongoing contract operation. Please provide documents relating to the PFI Team(s) allocated to each project its makeup and structure of the team during each project phase. This may comprise terms of reference, organisation chart, post titles and role profiles.
Provide the deed of appointment for the Independent Certifier and any other documents setting out the scope of that role. Please confirm the level of indemnity insurance and liability period.
Please confirm whether your organisation employed a member of the Institute of Clerk of Works or an inspector of similar standing and assigned them to each construction site. If someone in this role was employed please confirm their level of qualification, the salary associated with this role and how much time was allocated to per project/site.
Please provide a list of all enforcement or improvement notices served; investigations carried out and reports commissioned into fire safety (include dates and specify who commissioned or issued these) Please provide copies of all items listed.
Provide details of all attempts to make deductions relating to structural defects for each project. Confirm the amount, what it was for, and when the deduction was made.�

Yours faithfully,

Megan Ingles

Freedom Info, Kirklees Borough Council

Dear Ms Ingles

I confirm receipt of your information request and that I am looking into this.

I will respond to you in due course.

Regards

Information Access Team
Legal, Governance & Monitoring
Telephone: 01484 221000 (voice activated switchboard – please ask for Freedom of Information)

This email and any attachments are confidential. If you have received it in error - notify the sender immediately, delete it from your system, and do not use, copy or disclose the information in any way. Kirklees Council monitors all emails sent or received.

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Dear Freedom Info,

I have not yet received a response to my request for information. 20 working days from the date of my request would have been 23rd June 2017. Please could you respond to my request and provide an explanation for the delay.

Yours sincerely,

Megan Ingles

Freedom Info, Kirklees Borough Council

Dear Ms Ingles,

Thank you for your email. I will follow this up with colleagues dealing with your request for information, and will send you a response as soon as possible.

Your sincerely,

Information Access Team
Legal, Governance & Monitoring
Governance & Democratic Services
Kirklees Council
Civic Centre 3, High Street, Huddersfield, HD1 2TG

Telephone: 01484 221000 (voice activated switchboard – please ask for Data Protection)

This email and any attachments are confidential. If you have received it in error - notify the sender immediately, delete it from your system, and do not use, copy or disclose the information in any way. Kirklees Council monitors all emails sent or received.

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Freedom Info, Kirklees Borough Council

Dear Ms Ingles

 

FoI 15259 - PFI / PPP schemes re safety of public buildings

 

I am writing in response to your request dated .  This has been dealt with
under the Freedom of Information Act 2000.

 

May I first of all apologise for the delay in responding to your request.

 

You asked for the following information:

 

This request for information is an attempt to seek reassurance about the
safety of public buildings in the light of the findings revealed in the
Inquiry commissioned following the collapse of a school building wall in
Edinburgh and subsequent closure of 17 schools.

 Please answer the following for each PFI/PPP schemes in the local
authority area treating each scheme as a separate request.

Please provide all documents showing how your organisation has responded
to the findings contained in the report on Edinburgh Schools Construction
by John Cole: including, but not limited to memos, emails, minutes,
reports.

I would like to understand the expertise and resource committed by your
organisation to the management and oversight of PFI schemes from
procurement through to ongoing contract operation. Please provide
documents relating to the PFI Team(s) allocated to each project its makeup
and structure of the team during each project phase. This may comprise
terms of reference, organisation chart, post titles and role profiles.

Provide the deed of appointment for the Independent Certifier and any
other documents setting out the scope of that role. Please confirm the
level of indemnity insurance and liability period.

Please confirm whether your organisation employed a member of the
Institute of Clerk of Works or an inspector of similar standing and
assigned them to each construction site. If someone in this role was
employed please confirm their level of qualification, the salary
associated with this role and how much time was allocated to per
project/site.

Please provide a list of all enforcement or improvement notices served;
investigations carried out and reports commissioned into fire safety
(include dates and specify who commissioned or issued these)  Please
provide copies of all items listed.

Provide details of all attempts to make deductions relating to structural
defects for each project. Confirm the amount, what it was for, and when
the deduction was made

 

The Council’s response to your specific questions is set out below:

 

·         Please provide all documents showing how your organisation has
responded to the findings contained in the report on Edinburgh Schools
Construction by John Cole: including, but not limited to memos, emails,
minutes, reports.

 

A review of the Council’s schools PFI buildings was completed and no
issues were identified.

 

·         I would like to understand the expertise and resource committed
by your organisation to the management and oversight of PFI schemes from
procurement through to ongoing contract operation. Please provide
documents relating to the PFI Team(s) allocated to each project its makeup
and structure of the team during each project phase. This may comprise
terms of reference, organisation chart, post titles and role profiles.

 

The Council employs a full time Contract Manager, a Contract Monitoring
Officer and a Finance Officer.

 

·         Provide the deed of appointment for the Independent Certifier
and any other documents setting out the scope of that role. Please confirm
the level of indemnity insurance and liability period.

 

An Independent Certifier was not appointed. However Employers Agents were
appointed who provided a Quality Assurance role.

 

·         Please confirm whether your organisation employed a member of
the Institute of Clerk of Works or an inspector of similar standing and
assigned them to each construction site. If someone in this role was
employed please confirm their level of qualification, the salary
associated with this role and how much time was allocated to per
project/site.

·         Please provide a list of all enforcement or improvement notices
served; investigations carried out and reports commissioned into fire
safety (include dates and specify who commissioned or issued these) Please
provide copies of all items listed.

·         Provide details of all attempts to make deductions relating to
structural defects for each project. Confirm the amount, what it was for,
and when the deduction was made

 

The Council can confirm that it does hold information falling within the
scope of your request but believes that it would exceed the appropriate
time limit for complying with the request in order to provide it.

 

Section 12 of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 allows a public
authority to refuse a request if the cost of providing the information to
the applicant would exceed the ‘appropriate limit’ as defined by the
Freedom of Information and Data Protection (Appropriate Limit and Fees)
Regulations 2004:

 

12 Exemption where cost of compliance exceeds appropriate limit

(1) Section 1(1) does not oblige a public authority to comply with a
request for information if the authority estimates that the cost of
complying with the request would exceed the appropriate limit.

(2) Subsection (1) does not exempt the public authority from its
obligation to comply with paragraph (a) of section 1(1) unless the
estimated cost of complying with that paragraph alone would exceed the
appropriate limit.

 

The Regulations provide that the appropriate limit to be applied to
requests received by local authorities is £450 (equivalent to 2.5 days (or
18 hours) of work).  In estimating the cost of complying with a request
for information, an authority can only take into account any reasonable
costs incurred in:

 

(a) determining whether it holds the information,
(b) locating the information, or a document which may contain the
information,
(c) retrieving the information, or a document which may contain the
information, and
(d) extracting the information from a document containing it.

 

For the purposes of the estimate the costs of performing these activities
should be estimated at a rate of £25 per hour.

 

The information requested is not held in an easily accessible format by
the Council.  The Council does not routinely record the information
requested and has no statutory or operational need to do so.

 

The Council believes that it would take a considerable amount of time to
extract and collate the information requested. The information requested
dates back to 2001; there are 2 Schools PFI contracts. The Council would
need to ask a number of officers across each of the Services concerned to
interrogate their records to determine whether they hold any information
falling within the scope of your request.  Taking into account the likely
costs of searching the records, which will be a mixture of paper and
electronic, and the number of people that would need to be involved, the
Council believes that the cost of complying with your request would far
exceed the appropriate limit of £450. 

 

The request for disclosure of the information is therefore refused under
section 12 of the Freedom of Information Act 2000. 

 

Under section 1(3) of the Act, a public authority need not comply with a
request unless any further information reasonably required to locate the
information is supplied.  If a request is too broad or general in nature,
then public authorities have a duty to provide advice and assistance to
the applicant in order to focus the request.  Although the Council cannot
answer your request as it currently stands, it might be able to answer a
refined request within the cost limit. You may wish to consider narrowing
the scope of your request, although please be aware that the Council
cannot guarantee at this stage that a refined request will fall within the
appropriate cost limit. 

 

If you are not content with the handling of your request, you have the
right to ask for an internal review.  Requests for internal reviews should
be submitted within 2 months of the date of receipt of the response to
your original request and should be addressed to the Monitoring Officer,
1st floor, Civic Centre 3, Market Street, Huddersfield HD1 2EY. 
Alternatively, you can send an email to:
[1][email address]. 

 

Please remember to quote the reference number above in any future
communications.

 

If you are not content with the outcome of any review you have the right
under section 50 of the 2000 Act to apply to the Information Commissioner
for a decision as to whether your request for information has been dealt
with in accordance with the requirements of the Act.  The Information
Commissioner’s website is at [2]www.ico.org.uk and gives more information
about the role and duties of the Commissioner.  The Information
Commissioner can be contacted at: Information Commissioner’s Office,
Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow, Cheshire, SK9 5AF.

 

Yours sincerely

 

Information Access Team

Legal, Governance & Monitoring

Telephone: 01484 221000 (voice activated switchboard – please ask for
Freedom of Information)

 

This email and any attachments are confidential. If you have received it
in error - notify the sender immediately, delete it from your system, and
do not use, copy or disclose the information in any way. Kirklees Council
monitors all emails sent or received.

 

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