Rochdale Metropolitan Borough Council Spending On Newspaper Adverts

The request was refused by Rochdale Metropolitan Borough Council.

Dear Rochdale Metropolitan Borough Council,

Please provide me with the following information as per a Freedom Of Information Act Request:

1. How much has the Rochdale Metropolitan Borough Council spent on job adverts with the Guardian, Manchester Evening News and other newspapers from the Scott Trust?

2. How much has the Rochdale Metropolitan Borough Council spent on job adverts with newspapers not owned by the Scott Trust?

3. How much has the Rochdale Metropolitan Borough Council spent on non-job adverts with the Guardian, Manchester Evening News and other newspapers from the Scott Trust?

4. How much has the Rochdale Metropolitan Borough Council spent on non-job adverts with newspapers not owned by the Scott Trust?

Please break the figures down for each of the last five years and break down for each newspaper title.

Yours faithfully,

Sean Moran

FOI, Rochdale Metropolitan Borough Council

Dear Mr. Moran,

 

RE: - REQUEST FOR INFORMATION

Thank you for your request for information held by Rochdale Council which
was received by us on 16th February 2014 regarding spending on newspaper
articles.

 

I write to advise you that your request has been allocated to the
department best able to deal with your queries, and will be considered
under the Freedom of Information Act. Under the Act we are required to
provide a response within 20 working days, therefore you should receive a
response from us by the end of 14th March 2014.

Should you have any queries, please contact us using the details below.
Yours sincerely,

Information Governance Unit
Floor 2

No1 Riverside

Smith Street

Rochdale

OL16 1XU

 

Tel: 01706 925505
Email: [1][Rochdale Council request email]

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References

Visible links
1. mailto:[Rochdale Council request email]
2. http://www.rochdale.gov.uk/planning_and_...

FOI, Rochdale Metropolitan Borough Council

3 Attachments

Dear Mr. Moran,

 

Notice of Refusal Issued under Section 12, Freedom of Information Act,
(2000).

 

Further to your Freedom of Information Request which was received on 16^th
February 2014, I am emailing to provide you with the below response to
your request:

 

Under the Freedom of Information Act 2000, Rochdale Borough Council has a
duty to supply any information on request, unless there is an exemption.

 

Please be advised that to supply the information that you have requested,
it is estimated to exceed the statutory limit of £450.

 

Although this information is held, we are unable to supply it to you as it
is estimated to take more than 18 hours to determine, locate, retrieve and
extract the information. This request is therefore refused under Section
12 of the Freedom of Information Act 2000.

 

This section relieves a public authority from the obligation to comply
with a request for information under Section 1(1) of the Act where the
estimated time required to locate, review and extract the information
exceeds a certain threshold set out in Regulations.

 

The Regulations set out the cost limit for Government departments and for
other public authorities. For local government, Regulation 3 states that
the cost limit is £450 and Regulation 4(4) states that the prescribed
hourly rate is £25 which equates to 18 officer hours.

 

You asked the below 4 questions:

 

1. How much has the Rochdale Metropolitan Borough Council spent on job
adverts with the Guardian, Manchester Evening News and other newspapers
from the Scott Trust?

 

2. How much has the Rochdale Metropolitan Borough Council spent on job
adverts with newspapers not owned by the Scott Trust?

 

3. How much has the Rochdale Metropolitan Borough Council spent on non-job
adverts with the Guardian, Manchester Evening News and other newspapers
from the Scott Trust?

 

4. How much has the Rochdale Metropolitan Borough Council spent on non-job
adverts with newspapers not owned by the Scott Trust?

 

 

Although we do hold the information that you have requested, we
unfortunately do not record it in an easily reportable format that would
answer your queries.

 

To find this information we would need to go through each advert which
RMBC has paid to have published, to extract which particular newspaper it
was published in and whether it was a job advert or non-job advert. This
would mean checking 1477 records, which would take approximate 2 minutes
each. This equals just over 49 hours, exceeding the statutory 18 hour
limit.

 

I am sorry that we are unable to provide the full information that you
require. We would be able to provide the amount spent on adverts overall
with the ‘Scott Group’ and then with ‘Other Newspapers’ but are unable to
do the breakdowns you require due to time constraints. If you would find
these overall amounts useful, please don’t hesitate to get back in touch
and we will extract this information for you.

 

 

The council considers it has fulfilled your Freedom of Information
request.  However, if you are unhappy with the service you have received
in relation to your request or wish to make a complaint or appeal against
any decision we have made in response to your request you should write in
the first instance to:

 

Should you disagree with the decision to not comply with your request, you
may appeal to:

 

The Internal Review Panel

The Information Governance Unit

Corporate Services

Floor 2

Number One Riverside

Smith Street

Rochdale

OL16 1XU

 

E-mail: [1][Rochdale Council request email]

 

Should you further disagree with the decision following the appeal you may
wish to contact the Office of the Information Commissioner:

 

Office of the Information Commissioner

Wycliffe House

Water Lane

Wilmslow

Cheshire

SK9 5AF

 

[2]www.ico.gov.uk

 

Tel: 0303 123 1113

Fax: 01625 524510

 

Should you have any queries, please contact me.

 

Yours sincerely,

 

 

Stacey Bullen L

IG Engagement Officer

Customers & ICT

 

 

[3]Phone [4]01706 925505

[5]Mail [6][Rochdale Council request email]

 

Rochdale Borough Council

Floor 2, Number One Riverside

Smith Street, Rochdale, OL16 1XU

 

To access our services go to [7]www.rochdale.gov.uk

For news and social media updates go to [8]www.rochdalenewsroom.com

 

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References

Visible links
1. mailto:[Rochdale Council request email]
2. http://www.ico.gov.uk/
4. file:///tmp/tel:+441706925427
6. mailto:[Rochdale Council request email]
7. http://www.rochdale.gov.uk/
8. http://www.rochdalenewsroom.com/
9. http://www.rochdale.gov.uk/planning_and_...

Richard Taylor left an annotation ()

I am surprised by the council's refusal in this case.

I would suggest asking for an internal review; asking if alternative approaches to extracting the requested information could be used. I would have expected it to be possible to query the council's finance system for payments to the relevant payees.

Alternatively if FOI is not working in this case perhaps the provision in the Audit Commission Act 1998 which allows electors to inspect documents backing up the council’s published accounts could be used to go into the council and inspect the relevant documents in person.