Public exercise of inspection and objection rights under Local Audit and Accountability Act 2014
Dear Hertfordshire County Council,
The Local Audit and Accountability Act 2014 provides members of the public with rights to inspect, within an annual inspection window, the council’s accounts and related documents. It also provides local electors with the right to object to an item of the accounts. Prior to the 2014 Act these same rights were enshrined in the Audit Commission Act 1998.
As a regular user of these rights, in my capacity as a local journalist, local elector, member of accountability campaigns and academic researcher I am interested in understanding the frequency and the way in which these rights are being used across the country.
The MHCLG have recently launched an independent inquiry into the quality of local authority audit (the Redmond Review). One of the questions in the recent call for views asks whether the “the inspection and objection regime allow local residents to hold their council to account in an effective manner?” whilst also acknowledging that data is not currently gathered at a national level on the citizen uses of these rights. I feel there is therefore a strong public interest in the timely disclosure of the information in this request.
Please provide the following information:
A. For all the objections you received between 2009 and 2019 (i.e. relating to financial years 2008/9 to 2018/19 inclusive) please provide the following information in an excel spreadsheet. Please use the list below as column headers and compile the data for each objection in a separate row.
1. Objection reference no.
2. Financial year the objection relates to
3. Subject/summary of the objection
4. Date objection was received
5. Did objector ask the auditor make a referral to the High Court?
6. Did objector ask the auditor to issue a Public Interest Report?
7. Was the objection accepted as valid?
8. If not, why?
9. Was a public interest report issued?
10. Was a referral made to the High Court?
11. If so, what was the High Court’s decision?
12. Were any other recommendations made or actions taken by the auditor under the powers set out in Section 24 of the Local Audit and Accountability Act?
13. Date objector was sent a final decision notice
14. How much was the council charged by the auditor to carry out work in relation to the objection?
B. For all the inspection requests you received between 2009 and 2019 (i.e. relating to financial years from 2008/9 to 2018/19 inclusive), please provide the following information in an excel spreadsheet. Please use the list below as column headers and compile the data for each inspection request in a separate row.
1. Inspection reference number
2. Financial year inspection request refers to
3. Date request for information received
4. Was the request accepted as valid?
5. If not, why?
6. Was request transferred to FOI?
7. If transferred to FOI, what was the justification for doing so?
8. Subject/summary of request as recorded
9. Which department(s) dealt with the information request?
10. Date the response and documents requested were sent to requester
Yours faithfully,
Megan I Waugh
Dear Ms Waugh,
Reference number: FOI/RAP/09/19/18167
Thank you for your correspondence of the 25^th September 2019 requesting
the following information:
A. For all the objections you received between 2009 and 2019 (i.e.
relating to financial years 2008/9 to 2018/19 inclusive) please provide
the following information in an excel spreadsheet. Please use the list
below as column headers and compile the data for each objection in a
separate row.
1. Objection reference no.
2. Financial year the objection relates to 3. Subject/summary of the
objection 4. Date objection was received 5. Did objector ask the auditor
make a referral to the High Court?
6. Did objector ask the auditor to issue a Public Interest Report?
7. Was the objection accepted as valid?
8. If not, why?
9. Was a public interest report issued?
10. Was a referral made to the High Court?
11. If so, what was the High Court’s decision?
12. Were any other recommendations made or actions taken by the auditor
under the powers set out in Section 24 of the Local Audit and
Accountability Act?
13. Date objector was sent a final decision notice 14. How much was the
council charged by the auditor to carry out work in relation to the
objection?
B. For all the inspection requests you received between 2009 and 2019
(i.e. relating to financial years from 2008/9 to 2018/19 inclusive),
please provide the following information in an excel spreadsheet. Please
use the list below as column headers and compile the data for each
inspection request in a separate row.
1. Inspection reference number
2. Financial year inspection request refers to 3. Date request for
information received 4. Was the request accepted as valid?
5. If not, why?
6. Was request transferred to FOI?
7. If transferred to FOI, what was the justification for doing so?
8. Subject/summary of request as recorded 9. Which department(s) dealt
with the information request?
10. Date the response and documents requested were sent to requester
Your request for information is being considered under the Freedom of
Information Act 2000. We will respond to your request as quickly as
possible, and by close of 23^rd October 2019 at the latest.
If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact me, quoting
the reference number above.
Yours sincerely,
Michael Warby
Information Access Manager
Information Access Team
Hertfordshire County Council
Room 216a
Postal Point CHN 320
County Hall,
Hertford, SG13 8DQ
01992 555848 (25848)
Email: [1][Hertfordshire County Council request email]
The Information Access Team supports Hertfordshire County Council's
Freedom of Information and Environmental Information Regulations activity.
Hertfordshire - County of Opportunity
Follow us online:
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****Disclaimer****
The information in this message should be regarded as confidential and is
intended for the addressee only unless explicitly stated. If you have
received this message in error it must be deleted and the sender notified.
The views expressed in this message are personal and not necessarily those
of Hertfordshire County Council unless explicitly stated. Please be aware
that emails sent to or received from Hertfordshire County Council may be
intercepted and read by the council. Interception will only occur to
ensure compliance with council policies or procedures or regulatory
obligations, to prevent or deter crime, or for the purposes of essential
maintenance or support of the email system.
References
Visible links
1. mailto:[Hertfordshire County Council request email]
2. http://www.hertfordshire.gov.uk/
3. http://twitter.com/hertscc
4. https://www.facebook.com/hertscountycoun...
Dear Ms Waugh,
Reference number: FOI/RAP/09/19/18167
On 25^th September 2019 Hertfordshire County Council received the
following request for information from you:
A. For all the objections you received between 2009 and 2019 (i.e.
relating to financial years 2008/9 to 2018/19 inclusive) please provide
the following information in an excel spreadsheet. Please use the list
below as column headers and compile the data for each objection in a
separate row.
1. Objection reference no.
2. Financial year the objection relates to 3. Subject/summary of the
objection 4. Date objection was received 5. Did objector ask the auditor
make a referral to the High Court?
6. Did objector ask the auditor to issue a Public Interest Report?
7. Was the objection accepted as valid?
8. If not, why?
9. Was a public interest report issued?
10. Was a referral made to the High Court?
11. If so, what was the High Court’s decision?
12. Were any other recommendations made or actions taken by the auditor
under the powers set out in Section 24 of the Local Audit and
Accountability Act?
13. Date objector was sent a final decision notice 14. How much was the
council charged by the auditor to carry out work in relation to the
objection?
B. For all the inspection requests you received between 2009 and 2019
(i.e. relating to financial years from 2008/9 to 2018/19 inclusive),
please provide the following information in an excel spreadsheet. Please
use the list below as column headers and compile the data for each
inspection request in a separate row.
1. Inspection reference number
2. Financial year inspection request refers to 3. Date request for
information received 4. Was the request accepted as valid?
5. If not, why?
6. Was request transferred to FOI?
7. If transferred to FOI, what was the justification for doing so?
8. Subject/summary of request as recorded 9. Which department(s) dealt
with the information request?
10. Date the response and documents requested were sent to requester
Your request has now been considered and we are unable to provide you with
the information you have requested. A central log of what has been
requested is not held, as a consequence we would need to search
individuals e-mail accounts, which for one officer and 2 years’ worth we
estimate to be 4,000 files at an equated time of 30 seconds per search,
which equals over 33 hours and would equate to over 18 hours of work.
Under Section 12 of the Act, the Council is not obliged to comply with a
request for information if the authority estimates that the costs of
complying with the request would exceed the appropriate limit.
The Freedom of Information and Data Protection (Appropriate Limit and
Fees) Regulations 2004 has set the appropriate limit as £450 based on a
charge at £25 per hour.
The estimated time likely to be spent by the Council on the request and
costs are as follows:
Determining whether the Council hold the information:
Searching the manual and electronic records of the Council to determine
whether the information is held.
Time: 8 hours
Locating the information or documents containing the information:
Time: 8 hours
Retrieving such information or documents:
Retrieving all manual and electronic information held in the Council
relating to your request including archived correspondence files and
electronic records
Time: 8 hours
Extracting the information from documents and files containing it
(excluding editing or redacting information):
Time: 9 hours
Total time = 33 Hours
Total cost = £825
You may wish to narrow your request to your first question and resubmit
your request so that it falls within the “appropriate limit”.
In accordance with the Freedom of Information Act 2000 this correspondence
acts as a Refusal Notice.
If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact me, quoting
the reference number on this correspondence. To find out more about
Freedom of Information, please visit [1]www.hertsdirect.org/foi
If you are unhappy with the way the County Council has handled your
request for information you may request an internal review of the request.
This will be carried out by a member of the County Council Legal Services
Team, who has had no prior involvement with the request. Requests for an
internal review should be sent to the Information Governance Unit at the
address above.
If you are unhappy with the outcome of the internal review you are
entitled to ask the Information Commissioner to investigate your
complaint. You should write to: FOI/EIR Complaints Resolution, Information
Commissioner's Office, Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow, Cheshire, SK9
5AF.
Yours sincerely,
Michael Warby
Information Access Manager
Information Access Team
Hertfordshire County Council
Room 216a
Postal Point CHN 320
County Hall,
Hertford, SG13 8DQ
01992 555848 (25848)
Email: [2][Hertfordshire County Council request email]
The Information Access Team supports Hertfordshire County Council's
Freedom of Information and Environmental Information Regulations activity.
Hertfordshire - County of Opportunity
Follow us online:
[3]herts-county-council logo [4]twitter icon [5]facebook icon
****Disclaimer****
The information in this message should be regarded as confidential and is
intended for the addressee only unless explicitly stated. If you have
received this message in error it must be deleted and the sender notified.
The views expressed in this message are personal and not necessarily those
of Hertfordshire County Council unless explicitly stated. Please be aware
that emails sent to or received from Hertfordshire County Council may be
intercepted and read by the council. Interception will only occur to
ensure compliance with council policies or procedures or regulatory
obligations, to prevent or deter crime, or for the purposes of essential
maintenance or support of the email system.
References
Visible links
1. http://www.hertsdirect.org/foi
2. mailto:[Hertfordshire County Council request email]
3. http://www.hertfordshire.gov.uk/
4. http://twitter.com/hertscc
5. https://www.facebook.com/hertscountycoun...
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