Please advise us, How much you have paid for legal advice and ongoing costs

The request was successful.

Dear Wandsworth Borough Council,
Can you please advise us,How much money has been paid to "BrowneJacobson or any other legal company to defend claims of child abuse at

1. Beecholme Residential Home

2. Any other Wandsworth run home.

Yours faithfully,

Graeme Sergeant

Freedom Of Information,

Request for Information - 2019/0625 - Legal advice & ongoing costs

Thank you for your request for information received on 01/02/2019.

This will be processed in accordance with the appropriate access to
information regime.

Regards

FOI and DPA Officer
[1][email address]

IMPORTANT:
This email and any of its attachments are intended solely for the use of
the individual or entity to whom they are addressed. If you have received
this message in error you must not print, copy, use or disclose the
contents to anyone. Please also delete it from your system and inform the
sender of the error immediately. Emails sent and received by Richmond and
Wandsworth Councils are monitored and may be subsequently disclosed to
authorised third parties, in accordance with relevant legislation.

References

Visible links
1. mailto:[email address]

Freedom Of Information,

Request for Information - 2019/0625 - Legal advice & ongoing costs

 

I refer to your request for information received on 01/02/2019.  Please
accept our apologies for the delay.  Please see the information below in
response to your request: -

 

Can you please advise us, how much money has been paid to Browne Jacobson
or any other legal company to defend claims of child abuse at:

 

1. Beecholme Residential Home?

 

The information is not held in a readily extractable format and requires
manual checking to review individual records held across two practice
management systems due to a change in system in November 2018, further
cross checking would also be required to isolate the costs as requested. 
There are currently 23 open case files that would need to be manually
checked and cross referenced, some of the costs would be covered by
insurers so further cross checking and calculations would be required to
extract specifically the amount the Council would pay Browne Jacobson in
relation to Beecholme, this would take an hour per case and in total would
take approximately 23 hours.

 

It would exceed the appropriate limit, as specified in the Freedom of
Information and Data Protection (Appropriate Limit and Fees) Regulations
2004, to calculate the total sums payable.  Therefore Section 12(1) of the
Act applies.  The appropriate limit has been set at £450 and may include
working hours of any person acting on our behalf at a rate of £25 per
hour.  This equates to 18 hours to identify, locate, retrieve and extract
the relevant information.

 

2. Any other Wandsworth run home?

 

Children’s Services have historically only held information pertaining to
the children within their care and these are held as Social Services
files.  Files are archived according to an individual or a family name. 
Files are not held on Children’s Homes.  All records would need to be
searched manually which would require looking through approximately
129,000 children’s records.  Each record would take at least one minute to
review per file and in total would take approximately 2,150 hours.  

 

It would exceed the appropriate limit, as specified in the Freedom of
Information and Data Protection (Appropriate Limit and Fees) Regulations
2004, to calculate the total sums payable.  Therefore Section 12(1) of the
Act applies.  The appropriate limit has been set at £450 and may include
working hours of any person acting on our behalf at a rate of £25 per
hour.  This equates to 18 hours to identify, locate, retrieve and extract
the relevant information.

 

I hope this information meets your needs.  If you do not understand the
information provided or wish to discuss anything further, please feel free
to contact me and I, or another member of the team will be able to assist
you.

 

Please note, all material provided by Wandsworth Council in response to
your request for information is for your personal, non-commercial use. 
Wandsworth Council reserves all rights in the copyright of the information
provided. Any unauthorised copying or adaptation of the information
without express written confirmation from Wandsworth Council may
constitute an infringement of copyright.  Any intention to re-use this
information commercially may require consent. Please forward any requests
for re-use of information to the FOI officer.

 

If you are dissatisfied with the information provided in relation to your
request you may make representations to the Chief Executive. 
Correspondence should be addressed to: 

 

Room 149, Wandsworth Town Hall, Wandsworth High Street, London, SW18 2PU

 

If you are not content with the outcome of the internal review, you have
the right to apply directly to the Information Commissioner for a
decision.  The Information Commissioner can be contacted at: 

 

Information Commissioner's Office, Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow,
Cheshire, SK9 5AF

 

 

Regards,

 

Kaitlin McSwiggan
FOI & DPA Officer
Serving Richmond and Wandsworth Council

020 8871 7202
[1][email address]

[2]www.richmond.gov.uk / [3]www.wandsworth.gov.uk

 

 

From: Graeme Sergeant <[FOI #549325 email]>
Sent: 01 February 2019 11:48
To: Freedom Of Information <[email address]>
Subject: Freedom of Information request - Please advise us, How much you
have paid for legal advice and ongoing costs

 

Dear Wandsworth Borough Council,
Can you please advise us,How much money has been paid to "BrowneJacobson
or any other legal company to defend claims of child abuse at

1. Beecholme Residential Home

2. Any other Wandsworth run home.

Yours faithfully,

Graeme Sergeant

-------------------------------------------------------------------

Please use this email address for all replies to this request:
[4][FOI #549325 email]

Is [5][Wandsworth Council request email] the wrong address for Freedom of Information
requests to Wandsworth Borough Council? If so, please contact us using
this form:
[6]https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/change_re...

Disclaimer: This message and any reply that you make will be published on
the internet. Our privacy and copyright policies:
[7]https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/help/offi...

For more detailed guidance on safely disclosing information, read the
latest advice from the ICO:
[8]https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/help/ico-...

Please note that in some cases publication of requests and responses will
be delayed.

If you find this service useful as an FOI officer, please ask your web
manager to link to us from your organisation's FOI page.

-------------------------------------------------------------------

IMPORTANT:
This email and any of its attachments are intended solely for the use of
the individual or entity to whom they are addressed. If you have received
this message in error you must not print, copy, use or disclose the
contents to anyone. Please also delete it from your system and inform the
sender of the error immediately. Emails sent and received by Richmond and
Wandsworth Councils are monitored and may be subsequently disclosed to
authorised third parties, in accordance with relevant legislation.

References

Visible links
1. mailto:[email address]
2. http://www.richmond.gov.uk/
3. http://www.wandsworth.gov.uk/
4. mailto:[FOI #549325 email]
5. mailto:[Wandsworth Council request email]
6. https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/change_re...
7. https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/help/offi...
8. https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/help/ico-...

Dear Wandsworth Borough Council,

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

I am writing to request an internal review of Wandsworth Borough Council's handling of my FOI request 'Please advise us, How much you have paid for legal advice and ongoing costs'.

[ GIVE DETAILS ABOUT YOUR COMPLAINT HERE ]
The Council has employed BrowneJacobsonLLP and this is not cheap.We believe the Council is trying to use Smoke and Mirrors to ensure,we cannot find out the actual amount spent by the Council defending claims.Can you please review the request and if necessary limit it to Beechholme Childrens Home only.We look forward to hearing from you in due course.

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

Yours faithfully,

Graeme Sergeant

Freedom Of Information,

Official

 

Dear Mr Sergeant,

 

Thank you for your email received 18/03/2019.

 

I write to confirm that the South London Legal Partnership are currently
carrying out an internal review of your FOI request ref: 2019/0625 on
behalf of Wandsworth Council and you can expect to receive a response by
15/04/2019.

 

 

Regards,

 

Kaitlin McSwiggan
FOI & DPA Officer
Serving Richmond and Wandsworth Council

020 8871 7202
[1][email address]

[2]www.richmond.gov.uk / [3]www.wandsworth.gov.uk

 

 

From: Graeme Sergeant <[FOI #549325 email]>
Sent: 17 March 2019 17:52
To: Freedom Of Information <[email address]>
Subject: Internal review of Freedom of Information request - Please advise
us, How much you have paid for legal advice and ongoing costs

 

Dear Wandsworth Borough Council,

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

I am writing to request an internal review of Wandsworth Borough Council's
handling of my FOI request 'Please advise us, How much you have paid for
legal advice and ongoing costs'.

[ GIVE DETAILS ABOUT YOUR COMPLAINT HERE ]
The Council has employed BrowneJacobsonLLP and this is not cheap.We
believe the Council is trying to use Smoke and Mirrors to ensure,we cannot
find out the actual amount spent by the Council defending claims.Can you
please review the request and if necessary limit it to Beechholme
Childrens Home only.We look forward to hearing from you in due course.

A full history of my FOI request and all correspondence is available on
the Internet at this address:
[4]https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/p...

Yours faithfully,

Graeme Sergeant

-------------------------------------------------------------------
Please use this email address for all replies to this request:
[5][FOI #549325 email]

Disclaimer: This message and any reply that you make will be published on
the internet. Our privacy and copyright policies:
[6]https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/help/offi...

For more detailed guidance on safely disclosing information, read the
latest advice from the ICO:
[7]https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/help/ico-...

Please note that in some cases publication of requests and responses will
be delayed.

If you find this service useful as an FOI officer, please ask your web
manager to link to us from your organisation's FOI page.

-------------------------------------------------------------------

IMPORTANT:
This email and any of its attachments are intended solely for the use of
the individual or entity to whom they are addressed. If you have received
this message in error you must not print, copy, use or disclose the
contents to anyone. Please also delete it from your system and inform the
sender of the error immediately. Emails sent and received by Richmond and
Wandsworth Councils are monitored and may be subsequently disclosed to
authorised third parties, in accordance with relevant legislation.

References

Visible links
1. mailto:[email address]
2. http://www.richmond.gov.uk/
3. http://www.wandsworth.gov.uk/
4. https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/p...
5. mailto:[FOI #549325 email]
6. https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/help/offi...
7. https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/help/ico-...