Roads compensation 1990-2015 inclusive

Waiting for an internal review by Durham County Council of their handling of this request.

Dear Durham County Council,

Please kindly provide us with details of compensation payments for damage caused
due to poor condition of roads (potholes, etc) by year from 1990 to 2015 inclusive.

1. Total claims for compensation your council received for year.
2. Total claims your council paid out compensation for year.
3. Highest single amount paid out in compensation for year.
4. Lowest single amount paid out in compensation for year.
5. Average amount paid out in compensation for year.
6. Total compensation paid out for year.

For helpful reference we provide equivalent data supplied by other councils:

Westminster City Council
https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/r...

Barnet Borough Council
https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/r...

Yours faithfully,

Lee Jefferson

Freedom of Information,

This letter is our acknowledgement of your request received 20-MAY-2018. 
Please note the reference number in the subject line of this email and
refer to it in any future correspondence. The case officer dealing with
your request is:

 

Lawrence Serewicz Tel. 03000 268038

 

Depending on the type of request, it will be handled under the Freedom of
Information Act (FOIA) or the Environmental Information Regulations
(EIR).  Both of these have a statutory 20 working day deadline for a
response however, in some cases, the deadline may be extended to 40
working days. The deadline for an FOIA request can be extended if an
extended public interest test is required before deciding to respond. The
deadline for an EIR request can be extended if the information requested
is too voluminous or complex to respond to fully within the 20 day
timescale. If this is the case, we will write to explain that to you.

 

If we hold this information, we will let you know and in most cases supply
it to you.  You may request a particular format for receiving the
information and we will do our best to accommodate. In most cases, we will
respond by email or letter in 12 point Arial font.  If you have a
particular need to receive the material in a different format, please let
us know.

 

In some cases, the information you request will be exempt from disclosure.
What this means is that the legislation allows the Council to refuse to
provide the information. Where this occurs, we will tell you the reasons
why and we will explain how to appeal that decision.

 

If your requests refers to a third party, then they may be consulted about
disclosing the information before we decide whether to release the
information to you.  For example, if someone asks about a contract with a
supplier, we will contact the supplier to consider their views about
disclosing the information.

 

NB: There may be a charge for environmental information. Please contact us
if you have any questions about that charge.

 

In some cases, we may require a payment to cover photocopying, postage, or
other production costs on requests that require large amounts of
photocopying. However, we will discuss this with you and look for ways to
provide the information in electronic formats if possible.  If a payment
is required, it must be provided before we can send you the information. 
If a payment is required, the 20 working day time limit for responses is
suspended until the payment is received. 

 

We may also need to contact you to clarify your request. We are obliged to
do this under s.16 of the Act, which refers to the duty to provide advice
and assistance to applicants.  When we ask to clarify your request, the 20
working day countdown stops until we hear back from you. If you have not
contacted us about the request within 30 days, we will close it.

 

Please note that your request and our response will be put on the
Council’s disclosure log.  What this means is that we keep a log of all
the requests and responses if anyone wants to look at them. When we put
the request and response on the log, we remove the applicant’s name and
any personal references. In any case, where personal information remains,
it will be done in accordance with the Data Protection Act (DPA).

 

If you have any questions or need further information, then please
contact:

 

The Information Management Team

Durham County Council

Assistant Chief Executive’s Office

Room 4/143-148

County Hall

Durham

DH1 5UF

Tel. 03000 268035

Email: [1][Durham County Council request email]

 

Further information is also available from the Information Commissioner
at:

Information Commissioner's Office

Wycliffe House

Water Lane

Wilmslow

Cheshire

SK9 5AF

Telephone: 01625 545 745

Fax: 01625 524 510

Email: [2][email address]

[3]www.informationcommissioner.gov.uk

 

Yours sincerely,

 

The Information Management Team

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Freedom of Information,

Dear Lee Jefferson,

 

FREEDOM OF INFORMATION – RESPONSE TO REQUEST

 

We regret that we have been unable to provide the information within the
20 day deadline.

 

Rest assured that every effort is being made to provide the information
and we shall endeavour to respond to you as soon as possible.

 

Your request is currently with the service area, we will contact the
service area to remind them of the request and provide it to you as soon
as it is available.

 

In the meantime, please accept our sincere apologies and please contact
the relevant case officer – Lawrence Serewicz Tel. 03000 268038, should
you wish to discuss this matter further.

 

We wish to take this opportunity to thank you for your patience.

 

Our main contact details are:

 

The Information Management Team

Durham County Council

Assistant Chief Executive’s Office

Room 4/143-148

County Hall

Durham

DH1 5UF

Tel: 03000 268038

Email: [1][Durham County Council request email]

 

Yours sincerely,

 

The Information Management Team

 

show quoted sections

Dear Durham County Council,

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

Pursuant to Section 45 we require an internal review to be carried out on the handling of this request.

Authority failed to provide a valid response within acceptable parameters of Section 10(1).

What the law says:

1. Authorities must respond to requests promptly, without exception, and by the twentieth working day following the date of receipt of the request in order to comply with Section 10(1).
Where required, an authority may claim a reasonable extension of time to consider the public interest test but it must do this by the twentieth working day following the date of receipt of the request in order to comply with section 10(1). As section 10(3) only permits extensions for further consideration of the public interest, the additional time cannot be used to determine whether the exemptions themselves are engaged.

- Duty under section 1(1)(a) confirm or deny whether the information is held;
- Duty under section 1(1)(b) to provide information that is held to the requester;
- Duty under section 17 to issue a refusal notice explaining why a request has been refused.

What we require from the internal review:

1. Provide a full account to explain the authorities' failure to provide a valid response within acceptable parameters of Section 10(1).
If the authority considers itself exempt from Section 10(1) we then require the reviewer to explain why. If it does not consider itself exempt then we require a copy of your recommendations to the authority for improvement and a date of when it expects to resume a lawfully-compliant Freedom of Information service to the public.

We shall store the time limit for a satisfactory internal review on file, after which point this matter shall be passed onto the Information Commissioner.

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

Yours faithfully,

Lee Jefferson

Freedom of Information,

1 Attachment

Dear Lee Jefferson
Freedom of Information Act 2000 - Response to request for information - FOI20186887LJ
Please accept our sincere apologies for our late response to your request for information. Please see our response attached.
Yours sincerely

Christine Paciorek BA(Hons) PC foi and dp
Freedom of Information and Data Protection Officer
Transformation and Partnerships
Durham County Council
County Hall
Durham
DH1 5UF
Telephone 03000 268036
Switchboard 03000 26 0000

www.durham.gov.uk
Follow us on Twitter @durhamcouncil
Like us at facebook.com/durhamcouncil
Follow us on linkedin.com/company/durham-county-council

show quoted sections

Dear Freedom of Information,

Thanks for your correspondence dated 26th July 2018. We still require the internal review though as stated on 4th July 2018. It is now 47 working days since the FoI request was acknowledged by the authority. If you don't intend on carrying out the internal review please let us know so we can pass it directly to the Information Commissioner.

Yours sincerely,

Lee Jefferson

Freedom of Information,

Hi Kelly

Please can you do a search for this internal review.

Thanks

Chris

Christine Paciorek BA(Hons) PC foi and dp
Freedom of Information and Data Protection Officer
Transformation and Partnerships
Durham County Council
County Hall
Durham
DH1 5UF
Telephone 03000 268036
Switchboard 03000 26 0000

www.durham.gov.uk
Follow us on Twitter @durhamcouncil
Like us at facebook.com/durhamcouncil
Follow us on linkedin.com/company/durham-county-council

show quoted sections

Freedom of Information,

Our new reference number: IR20187206LJ

Dear Lee Jefferson,

Following your email below, we will now carry out an Internal Review for the above request. To allow us to track your internal review more easily and provide a timely response, we have logged it under a new reference number, as above. A response from the review will be provided within 20 working days or no later than 40 working days in accordance with the Freedom of Information Act 2000.

The case officer dealing with your request is:

Julie Hodgson Tel. 03000 268037

Yours sincerely,

Information Management Team
Durham County Council

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Dear Freedom of Information,

On interval reviews the Information Commissioner states "Whilst there is no statutory time limit within which an internal review must be carried out, the approach of the ICO is that they should generally be completed within 20 working days, and within 40 working days at the most."

Since we requested an internal review on 4th July 2018 it should be completed by 31st July 2018 but certainly no later than 28th August 2018. If this is a problem then we require an explanation.

Yours sincerely,

Lee Jefferson

Freedom of Information,

1 Attachment

 

 

Dear Lee Jefferson,

 

Please find attached our response to your Freedom of Information request
for internal review.

 

Kind regards,

 

Julie Hodgson

Freedom of Information and Data Protection Officer

Transformation and Partnerships

Durham County Council

Room 143 - 148

County Hall

Durham

DH1 5UF

Direct Tel: 03000268037

 

Switchboard: 03000260000

 

[1]www.durham.gov.uk

Follow us on Twitter @durhamcouncil

Like us at facebook.com/durhamcouncil

Follow us on linkedin.com/company/durham-county-council

 

 

 

 

 

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Dear Freedom of Information,

Please read the details below carefully.

In response to your correspondence claiming you cannot find a trace of our request for internal review dated 4th July 2018. Please find below a summary of events with delivery logs.

20th May 2018 - FoI request submitted to authority. Confirmation of delivery: https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/outgoing_...

21st May 2018 - FoI request acknowledged by authority
20th Jun 2018 - Authority apologises for not meeting the 20 day deadline
(our requested information not supplied within)

04th Jul 2018 - We requested an internal review. Confirmation of delivery: https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/outgoing_...

We suggest you have your IT people analyse the delivery log of our 4th July 2018 message requesting an internal review. There is no reason why they should not be able to retrieve the message and show any fate of the message (including the person who deleted it - IF it was deleted).

2018-07-04 15:46:56 [5375] 1faj3Y-0001Oh-8w <= request-486318-[REDACTED]@whatdotheyknow.com H=owl.ukcod.org.uk [46.43.39.108]:53539 I=[46.43.39.111]:25 P=esmtps X=TLS1.2:ECDHE_RSA_AES_256_GCM_SHA384:256 CV=no S=3773 M8S=0 id=[email address] T="Internal review of Freedom of Information request - Roads\n compensation 1990-2015 inclusive" from <request-486318-[REDACTED]@whatdotheyknow.com> for [email address]
2018-07-04 15:46:56 [1071] 1faj3Y-0000HF-6E => [email address] F=<request-486318-[REDACTED]@whatdotheyknow.com> P=<request-486318-[REDACTED]@whatdotheyknow.com> R=send_to_smarthost T=remote_smtp S=3553 H=[REDACTED] PRX=[]:0 I=[46.43.39.108]:53539 X=TLS1.2:ECDHE_RSA_AES_256_GCM_SHA384:256 CV=no DN="CN=mx0.mysociety.org" C="250 OK id=1faj3Y-0001Oh-8w" QT=0s DT=0s
2018-07-04 15:46:57 [5376] 1faj3Y-0001Oh-8w => [email address] F=<request-486318-[REDACTED]@whatdotheyknow.com> P=<request-486318-[REDACTED]@whatdotheyknow.com> R=dnslookup_returnpath_dkim T=remote_smtp_dkim_returnpath S=4701 H=cpe.durham.gov.uk [217.23.233.70]:25 PRX=[]:0 I=[46.43.39.103]:50137 X=TLS1.2:ECDHE_RSA_AES_256_GCM_SHA384:256 CV=yes DN="OU=Domain Control Validated,OU=Issued through Durham County Council E-PKI Manager,OU=COMODO SSL Wildcard,CN=*.durham.gov.uk" C="250 2.0.0 Ok: queued as 41LP2m1JP8zWsG9" QT=1s DT=1s

Nothing you've stated changes the fact that the authority is in breach of Section 10(1). It cannot be denied that the authority acknowledged our request on 21st May 2018. On 20th June 2018 the authorities' message of apology constitutes an admission of the Section 10(1) breach.

The law says:

Authorities must respond to requests promptly, without exception, and by the twentieth working day following the date of receipt of the request in order to comply with Section 10(1).

Where required, an authority may claim a reasonable extension of time to consider the public interest test but it must do this by the twentieth working day following the date of receipt of the request in order to comply with section 10(1). As section 10(3) only permits extensions for further consideration of the public interest, the additional time cannot be used to determine whether the exemptions themselves are engaged.

- Duty under section 1(1)(a) confirm or deny whether the information is held;
- Duty under section 1(1)(b) to provide information that is held to the requester;
- Duty under section 17 to issue a refusal notice explaining why a request has been refused.

We still require an internal which contains the following information:

1. A full account to explain the authorities' failure to provide a valid response within acceptable parameters of Section 10(1).

2. We require a copy of your recommendations to the authority for improvement and a date of when it expects to resume a lawfully-compliant Freedom of Information service to the public.

3. If the authority considers itself exempt from Section 10(1) we then require the reviewer to explain why.

If a valid response containing everything we've asked for from the internal review is not received in due course we shall refer the matter to the ICO.

Yours sincerely,

Lee Jefferson

Lee Jefferson left an annotation ()

Duplicate of our message sent 3rd August 2018 also sent to Durham Council's FoI email address directly from our email system in light of their internal issues.

Freedom of Information,

Dear Lee Jefferson,

In view of your email communication below we will carry out an internal review into the timeliness of your request, reference number: FOI20186887LJ. This is because a response to your request was sent on 26 July 2018 which was after the statutory deadline.
We will complete this as soon as possible.

Kind Regards, Julie

show quoted sections

Freedom of Information,

4 Attachments

Dear applicant
Please see attached response to your request for an internal review. Please accept our apologies for the delay in responding to your request.
Yours faithfully
The Information Management Team
Durham County Council

show quoted sections

Dear Freedom of Information,

We still await an internal review as per our request dated 4th July 2018 and repeated on 3rd August 2018.

If the authority does not intend to provide it then kindly let us know so the matter can be referred to the ICO. The authorities' dismissal of an internal review request being delivered on 4th July 2018, despite being presented with whatdotheyknow's public proof of delivery logs shall also be referred.

Events:

On 20th May 2018 We issued a request to the authority which is publicly available at the link below. This request was generated on the whatdotheyknow system which allows the public to see whether messages have reached their destination should any dispute arise.

We would ask you simply click this link in order to see this public Freedom of Information request along
with all messages associated with it (including proof of delivery logs to the server of the authority)

https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/r...

Scroll down to 4th July 2018 and you will see our interval review request. Click on the green 'Delivered'
link on the upper left of the internal review request and you will be presented with the deliver log which
proves our internal review request was received. In our previous message this log was supplied but sadly you failed to act on it.

Our internal review request asked the authority to: "Provide a full account to explain the authorities' failure to provide a valid response within acceptable parameters of Section 10(1). Provide a copy of your recommendations to the authority for improvement and a date of when it expects to resume a lawfully-compliant Freedom of Information service to the public." To-date we have not received this internal review information.

On 26th July 2018 the authority provided the FoI information we requested on 20th May 2018.

It took the authority 47 working days to provide the information requested (21stMay2018 to 26thJuly2018).
Section 10(1) states it should take no longer than 20 working days.

On 3rd August 2018 In response to your claim that no internal review request was received or sent on 4th July 2018, we provided you with another copy of our internal review request. This was also sent from us directly.

On 8th August 2018 The authority provided what it claimed to be a response to our internal review request, yet failed to provide any of the information we requested from the internal review (presented to the authority in full on 4th July 2018 and 3rd August 2018 respectively).

We still await this information. As stated above if we don't receive it then the entire matter will be referred to the ICO, including the authorities' failure to properly investigate an apparent problem within its own system.

Yours sincerely,

Lee Jefferson

Lee Jefferson left an annotation ()

Duplicate of the message above also sent to the authority from our system.

Dear Freedom of Information,

The authority has failed to respond with any intent to
1. Properly investigate the apparent disappearance of our 4th July request for internal review.
2. Act on whatdotheyknow's message informing you that the 4th July message was delivered.
3. Ask its technical team to liaise with whatdotheyknow as whatdotheyknow suggested.
4. Supply the information requested on our 3rd August request for internal review (duplicate of 4th July).

Given the above, we confirm this matter is now being placed in the hands of the Information Commissioner for full investigation.

Yours sincerely,

Lee Jefferson