Confirmation of Freedom Of Information Request

Thank you for your request for information.

Your request details have now been recorded and will be passed on to the
appropriate Divisional Records Officer for action.

This Freedom Of Information Request was based on the following
information:

Name: LS Palmer
Address: see email address
Email: [FOI #59276 email]
Telephone:
Request Details: 1. In relation to the years from 2003 to 2010 Please
could you provide your accounts in respect of

A. children's Services
B. Legal Services.

2. Since 2003, Regarding abuse/neglect of children by staff(employed and
agency) of children's services, please could you provide a year by year
breakdown of how many applications/referrals you have made to:

a. GSCC
b. The Criminal Court/Crown Prosecution
c. Independent Safeguarding Authority (or Equivalent).

3. Since 2003, Regarding abuse and neglect of children by clients
of children and Family services, please could you provide a year by
year breakdown of how many applications/referrals you have made to.

a. The Family Court
b. The Criminal Court/Crown Prosecution
c. The Independent Safeguarding Authority (or Equivalent)

FOI Reference Number: 6507
Target Completion Date: 21/02/2011

Please do not reply to this email.
This is an automatic response to your request, and replies to this message
will not be actioned.

If you need to contact Westminster City Council regarding your request,
please contact:

mailto:[Westminster City Council request email]
Tel:020 7641 3921

show quoted sections

Dear Madam/ Sir,

Thank you for your recent Freedom of Information Request, which we
received on 24 January 2011.

I've set out our responses to your specific questions below the questions
themselves below.

1. In relation to the years from 2003 to 2010 Please could you provide
your accounts in respect of

A. children's Services
B. Legal Services.

Please find our annual accounts attached for the period from 2003/4 to
2009/10 attached below.

2. Since 2003, Regarding abuse/neglect of children by staff(employed and
agency) of children's services, please could you provide a year by year
breakdown of how many applications/referrals you have made to:

a. GSCC
One referral has been made in 2010/11.

b. The Criminal Court/Crown Prosecution
The local authority does not make referrals to either the criminal court
or the Crown Prosecution Service - the local authority makes referrals to
the Police and carries out joint investigations with the Police. It is for
the Police to refer to the Crown Prosecution Service, and in turn it is
for the Crown Prosecution Service to initiate criminal proceedings.

c. Independent Safeguarding Authority (or Equivalent).
One referral was made in 2010/11 and 7 referrals (5 of which related to
Schools Staff) were made in 2009/10.
Please note that we are unable to provide responses in relation to the
period from 2003 to 2009 as we do not hold the information.

3. Since 2003, Regarding abuse and neglect of children by clients
of children and Family services, please could you provide a year by
year breakdown of how many applications/referrals you have made to.

a. The Family Court
We do not hold this information amongst our structured data, so it would
need to be retrieved from individual files held over the 7 years that you
are seeking information for. Your request for this information will
therefore not be processed. This is because the cost of locating and
retrieving the information exceeds the "appropriate limit" as stated in
the Freedom of Information (Fees and Appropriate Limit) Regulations 2004.
It is estimated that it would cost £8,750 to comply with your request.

In accordance with the Freedom of Information Act 2000 this email acts as
a Refusal Notice.

You have the right of appeal against the decision. If you wish to appeal
please set out in writing your grounds of appeal and send it to:
Stephen Murphy
ICT Relationship Manager
Westminster City Council
Adults Services / Children's Services
9th Floor, City Hall
64 Victoria Street, London
SW1E 6QP
e-mail: [email address]

Should you still be dissatisfied with the outcome of any such complaint
you have the right to make a complaint to the Information Commissioner,
pursuant to section 50 of the FOIA. The contact details are:

Information Commissioner's Office
Wycliffe House
Water Lane
Wilmslow
Cheshire
SK9 5AF
Telephone: 01625-545-700
[1]www.informationcommissioner.gov.uk

b. The Criminal Court/Crown Prosecution
The local authority does not make referrals to either the criminal court
or the Crown Prosecution Service - the local authority makes referrals to
the Police and carries out joint investigations with the Police. It is for
the Police to refer to the Crown Prosecution Service, and in turn it is
for the Crown Prosecution Service to initiate criminal proceedings.

c. The Independent Safeguarding Authority (or Equivalent)
The Independent Safeguarding Authority's (ISA) role is to help prevent
unsuitable people from working with children and vulnerable adultsThe
appropriate referral point where there is a concern regarding abuse and
neglect of children by parents and / or carers is Children and Family
Services.

Yours sincerely,

Stephen Murphy
Stephen Murphy
ICT Relationship Manager

Westminster City Council
Adults Services / Children's Services
9th Floor, City Hall
64 Victoria Street, London
SW1E 6QP
Tel: 020 7641 2255
e-mail: [email address]

show quoted sections

References

Visible links
1. http://www.informationcommissioner.gov.uk/

Dear Madam/Sir,

Further to my email of 15 February 2011, I have now received some further
information regarding referrals to the Family Court. We have managed to
find a means of collating the data which avoided the need to retrieve it
from individual files.

The information you requested is as follows:

April 2003 - March 2004 = Total
41
April 2004 - March 2005 = Total 35
April 2005 - March 2006 = Total 40
April 2006 - March 2007 = Total 34
April 2007 - March 2008 = Total 30
April 2008 - March 2009 = Total 35
April 2009 - March 2010 = Total 28
April 2010 - Jan 2011 = Total 26

Please accept my apologies for the delay in providing this information and
for any confusion caused by my previous response.

Yours sincerely,

Stephen Murphy

Stephen Murphy
ICT Relationship Manager

Westminster City Council
Adults Services / Children's Services
9th Floor, City Hall
64 Victoria Street, London
SW1E 6QP
Tel: 020 7641 2255
e-mail: [email address]

show quoted sections