Section 151 Officer and Section 114 Notice
Dear Maidstone Borough Council,
Can you tell me the name of the Council's Section 151 Officer? Has the 151 officer considered issuing a Section 114 Notice.
The attached may be of assistance,
Kent County Council finance officer Zena Cooke takes leave of absence
Simon Finlay, Local Democracy Reporter 23 January 2024
One of Kent County Council’s most senior and highest paid officials has taken a sudden and unexpected leave of absence from her role.
Zena Cooke, corporate director for finance and procurement, is understood to be still working for the authority but her deputy John Betts has now stepped into the position.
Her role carries a salary of up to £155,000 a year, according to KCC bandings.
Conservative KCC leader Roger Gough read a short statement to his group members yesterday morning (Jan 22) at County Hall. Cllr Gough gave no reason for Ms Cooke’s absence.
Ms Cooke’s job, which she has held for more than five years, is significant because she also acts as the Section 151 officer at KCC.
Her absence was noted at a key KCC meeting last week.
By law, the holder can issue a Section 114 notice, declaring the council effectively bankrupt if it cannot meet its statutory duties with the funding provided by central government.
One backbencher told LDRS: “No idea what’s going on. There are a lot of rumours now circulating, of course, none of which I would give any credence to.”
‘Zena’s role is the toughest in local government at the best of times and these are the hardest of times...’
Thanet Labour county councillor Barry Lewis said: “News to me - but it sounds serious.”
The council said: “KCC is not commenting on this.”
Ms Cooke has worked in local government for more than three decades, including as Director of Resources at the London Borough of Tower Hamlets, where she was the Section 151 officer.
Before that, she was a senior official at Maidstone Borough Council, according to her LinkedIn account.
KCC faces having to make drastic cutbacks as it scrambles to find tens of millions of pounds of savings or face having to issue a section 114 notice.
Another Tory backbencher said: “Zena’s role is the toughest in local government at the best of times and these are the hardest of times - there are enormous pressures from all sides.
“She’s uber experienced and has been in post for a long time. But no one will say anything but then that’s normal for most Conservative backbenchers these days.”
Yours faithfully,
Fergus Wilson
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Dear Fergus Wilson
RE: FREEDOM OF INFORMATION (FOI) ACT REQUEST
Thank you for your request for information. This e-mail is to confirm your request has been received and logged. The reference number for your request is FOI/11072
We will respond within 20 working days following the date we received your request.
After considering your request, we may refuse to supply some or all of the information under a number of exemptions that exist in legislation. For details of these exemptions, please visit the Information Commissioner’s website: https://ico.org.uk/for-organisations/gui....
If you have any queries about this e-mail, please contact us on [Maidstone Borough Council request email]. Please remember to quote the reference above in any future communications.
Yours sincerely
Information Governance Team
Corporate Insight, Communities and Governance
Maidstone Borough Council, Maidstone House, King Street, Maidstone, Kent ME15 6JQ
w www.maidstone.gov.uk
Dear Fergus Wilson
FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT REQUEST
Under section 1(1)(a) of the Freedom of Information Act, we can confirm that the Council does hold the information you have requested.
A copy of the information is attached.
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If you are not content with the outcome of your request, you may apply directly to the Information Commissioner for a decision. Generally, the Information Commissioner cannot make a decision unless you have exhausted the complaints procedure provided by the Council. The Information Commissioner can be contacted at: The Information Commissioner’s Office, Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow, Cheshire SK9 5AF.
Yours sincerely
Information Governance Team
Corporate Insight, Communities and Governance
Maidstone Borough Council, Maidstone House, King Street, Maidstone, Kent ME15 6JQ
w www.maidstone.gov.uk
Dear Complaints & FOI (MBC),
Thank you for your communication received today.
There are numerous references in the media regarding numerous councils where it has been stated that council has been considering issuing a Section 114 notice. In this day and age it is something that all Section 151 Officers have to consider.
It is of course an Opinion but must surely be foremost in the mind of any Section 151 officer in any Kent Council.
My question was a simple one and indeed a binary question requiring a simple Yes or No which I will repeat. Has Mark Green, the Section 161 Officer, considered issuing a Section 114 Notice. Yes or No?
Yours sincerely,
Fergus Wilson
Thank you for contacting the Information Governance Team at Maidstone
Borough Council.
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received.
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please visit our website:
• [1]Freedom of Information/Environmental Information Regulation
Requests
• [2]Complaints
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• [4]Customer Care Policy
Regards
Information Governance Team
Corporate Insight, Communities and Governance
Maidstone Borough Council, King Street, Maidstone, Kent ME15 6JQ
w [5]www.maidstone.gov.uk
To access our digital services please visit
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by email https//maidstone.gov.uk/emailbilling We understand the importance
of ensuring that personal data, including sensitive personal data is
always treated lawfully and appropriately and that the rights of
individuals are upheld. We are required to collect, use and hold personal
data about individuals. Data is required for the purposes of carrying out
our statutory obligations, delivering services and meeting the needs of
individuals that we deal with. This includes current, past and prospective
employees, service users, members of the public, Members of the Council,
our business partners and other local authorities or public bodies. To
view our full statement to see how your data will be stored and processed
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confidential. If you receive it by mistake, please advise the sender by
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Dear Fergus Wilson
Thank you for contacting us.
The Freedom of Information Act provides a right of access to recorded information held by public authorities. The Act’s provisions do not provide any rights of access to thoughts, opinions, comments or interpretations, unless they have been physically recorded in some way.
Your request is asking for an opinion. This information is not in scope of the Act and therefore this information is not held.
Yours sincerely
Information Governance Team
Corporate Insight, Communities and Governance Maidstone Borough Council, Maidstone House, King Street, Maidstone, Kent ME15 6JQ w www.maidstone.gov.uk
Dear Maidstone Borough Council,
Please pass this on to the person who conducts Freedom of Information reviews.
I am writing to request an internal review of Maidstone Borough Council's handling of my FOI request 'Section 151 Officer and Section 114 Notice'.
I am not asking what Mr Green's Opinion was or was not. It seems to me that all Section 151 officers in Kent must surely be considering the financial situation.
Hence my question amounts to has Mr Gren considered issuing a Section 114 Notice ? It is a simple Yes or No required,.
A full history of my FOI request and all correspondence is available on the Internet at this address: https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/s...
Yours faithfully,
Fergus Wilson
Thank you for contacting the Information Governance Team at Maidstone
Borough Council.
This is an automated response to confirm that your e-mail has been
received.
For more information on how we manage requests, and our response times,
please visit our website:
• [1]Freedom of Information/Environmental Information Regulation
Requests
• [2]Complaints
• [3]Data Protection
• [4]Customer Care Policy
Regards
Information Governance Team
Corporate Insight, Communities and Governance
Maidstone Borough Council, King Street, Maidstone, Kent ME15 6JQ
w [5]www.maidstone.gov.uk
To access our digital services please visit
https://maidstone.gov.uk/service Sign up to receive your Council Tax bill
by email https//maidstone.gov.uk/emailbilling We understand the importance
of ensuring that personal data, including sensitive personal data is
always treated lawfully and appropriately and that the rights of
individuals are upheld. We are required to collect, use and hold personal
data about individuals. Data is required for the purposes of carrying out
our statutory obligations, delivering services and meeting the needs of
individuals that we deal with. This includes current, past and prospective
employees, service users, members of the public, Members of the Council,
our business partners and other local authorities or public bodies. To
view our full statement to see how your data will be stored and processed
please visit https://maidstone.gov.uk/dataprotection This email is
confidential. If you receive it by mistake, please advise the sender by
email immediately. Any unauthorised use of the message or attachments is
prohibited. Unless stated otherwise, any opinions are personal and cannot
be attributed to Maidstone Borough Council. Unless a purchase order is
attached this email is not a contract or an order. It is your
responsibility to carry out Virus checks before opening any attachments.
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Dear Fergus Wilson
Thank you for your request for an internal review. I have passed this on to Mid Kent Legal Services to review your request and the response. You will receive a response within 20 working days.
If you are not content with the outcome of your complaint, you may apply directly to the Information Commissioner for a decision. Generally, the Information Commissioner cannot make a decision unless you have exhausted the complaints procedure provided by the Council. The Information Commissioner can be contacted at: The Information Commissioner’s Office, Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow, Cheshire SK9 5AF. https://ico.org.uk/
Yours sincerely
Information Governance Team
Corporate Insight, Communities and Governance
Maidstone Borough Council, Maidstone House, King Street, Maidstone, Kent ME15 6JQ
w www.maidstone.gov.uk
Dear Mr Wilson
RE: Internal Review of FOI/11072
I write further to your request for an internal review, following the
Council’s response to your request for information.
An internal review is a thorough, independent, re-examination of the
Council’s decision in relation to a request for information under the
Freedom of Information Act 2000 (‘FOIA’). Under the Council’s
arrangements, interval reviews are conducted by a Legal Officer within
Mid-Kent Legal Services. The review investigates whether your request has
been dealt with in accordance with the relevant information rights
legislation. In this case, the FOIA.
The scope of my investigation is to thoroughly assess and review whether
the Council has carried out its obligations in accordance with the FOIA. I
have considered whether exemptions have been correctly applied to your
request and whether your request falls in scope of the Data Protection Act
2018 (‘DPA’) and the UK General Data Protection Regulation (‘UK GDPR’).
The DPA implements UK GDPR into legislation. This is the regime in which
all public authorities and organisations must adhere to when processing
individual’s personal data.
Personal data is information that relates to an identified or identifiable
individual. What identifies an individual could be as simple as a name or
a number or could include other identifiers such as an IP address or a
cookie identifier. If it is possible to identify an individual directly
from the information, the Council has a statutory obligation to process
this information in compliance with the DPA. Therefore, when an
information request is received by the Council that includes information
containing personal data, the Council must process this request with this
in mind. Individuals can request their own personal data via the Council’s
Subject Access Request process and procedures (providing the information
is not subject to DPA exemptions). Third parties can request an
individual’s personal information upon receipt of evidence that the third
party has authorisation by the individual to so do. Further information on
the DPA, individuals’ data rights and how organisations must process data
can be found on the Information Commissioner’s website.
Correspondence
As part of this internal review, I have examined the correspondence
between yourself and the Council which concerns your request.
Internal Review
I can confirm that I have thoroughly re-examined FOI/11072. I have
considered whether the Council has carried out its obligations in
accordance with the FOIA, UK GDPR and the DPA.
The FOIA provides you, as a member of the public, with the right to
information held by the Council unless that information is subject to
exemptions stipulated by legislation. Firstly, I have considered how the
Council have handled your request. Section 10 of the FOIA stipulates that
the Council must respond to a request for information within 20 working
days. I am satisfied that on this occasion the Council met its obligation
in this respect, as the Council received your request on 5 February 2024
and responded on 8 February 2024.
Your initial request asked the Council for the following information:
1. Can you tell me the name of the Council’s Section 151 Officer?
2. Has the Section 151 Officer considered issuing a Section 114 Notice?
The Council issued the following response on 8 February 2024:
1. Mr Mark Green.
2. As you will be aware, the Freedom of Information Act provides a right
of access to recorded information held by public authorities. The Act’s
provisions do not provide any rights of access to thoughts, opinions,
comments or interpretations, unless they have been physically recorded in
some way.
Your request has been worded in such a way it is perceived as requesting
an opinion. This information is not in scope of the Act and therefore this
information is not held. Under section 16 of the Freedom of Information
Act we have a duty to advise and assist. I can advise that the Section 151
officer has not issued a Section 114 Notice.
In relation to FOIA requests, the ICO provide the following guidance: “if
you have information in your records that answers a question you should
provide it in response to the request. You are not required to answer a
question if you do not already have the relevant information in recorded
form.”
I am satisfied that on this occasion, the Council has acted within the
scope of the FOIA. The Council has a duty to provide recorded information
under the FOIA, unless a relevant exemption applies. I am satisfied that
asking whether an Officer has considered issuing a Notice does not fall
within the scope of “information in recorded form”.
For the reasons set out above, the Council upholds its decision and
response, and all subsequent correspondence on this occasion. I trust this
review clarifies the Council’s process in respect of your request and
whether it adhered to the FOIA, the DPA and UK GDPR.
The above concludes the internal review process. If you are not content
with the outcome of the review, the Commissioner can be contacted at: The
Information Commissioner’s Office, Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow,
Cheshire SK9 5AF.
Yours sincerely
Rob Jarman
Head of Development Management
On Behalf of Gary Rowland
Mid-Kent Legal Services
For and on behalf of Claudette Valmond
Head of Legal Partnership and Monitoring Officer
Dear Complaints & FOI (MBC),
Thank you for Mr Jarman's response.
I have asked precisely the same question of many other Councils in Kent and received a straight forward no nonsense binary answer.
Again I ask has the Section 151 Officer considered issuing a Section 114 Notice? Yes or No?
Stop being evasive!
Yours sincerely,
Fergus Wilson
Thank you for contacting the Information Governance Team at Maidstone
Borough Council.
This is an automated response to confirm that your e-mail has been
received.
For more information on how we manage requests, and our response times,
please visit our website:
• [1]Freedom of Information/Environmental Information Regulation
Requests
• [2]Complaints
• [3]Data Protection
• [4]Customer Care Policy
Regards
Information Governance Team
Corporate Insight, Communities and Governance
Maidstone Borough Council, King Street, Maidstone, Kent ME15 6JQ
w [5]www.maidstone.gov.uk
To access our digital services please visit
https://maidstone.gov.uk/service Sign up to receive your Council Tax bill
by email https//maidstone.gov.uk/emailbilling We understand the importance
of ensuring that personal data, including sensitive personal data is
always treated lawfully and appropriately and that the rights of
individuals are upheld. We are required to collect, use and hold personal
data about individuals. Data is required for the purposes of carrying out
our statutory obligations, delivering services and meeting the needs of
individuals that we deal with. This includes current, past and prospective
employees, service users, members of the public, Members of the Council,
our business partners and other local authorities or public bodies. To
view our full statement to see how your data will be stored and processed
please visit https://maidstone.gov.uk/dataprotection This email is
confidential. If you receive it by mistake, please advise the sender by
email immediately. Any unauthorised use of the message or attachments is
prohibited. Unless stated otherwise, any opinions are personal and cannot
be attributed to Maidstone Borough Council. Unless a purchase order is
attached this email is not a contract or an order. It is your
responsibility to carry out Virus checks before opening any attachments.
References
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4. https://maidstone.gov.uk/home/primary-se...
5. http://www.maidstone.gov.uk/
Dear Fergus Wilson
Your request has completed our freedom of information process. If you remain dissatisfied with the response you will need to go to the Information Commissioner’s Office.
Kind Regards
Information Governance Team
Corporate Insight, Communities and Governance
Maidstone Borough Council, Maidstone House, King Street, Maidstone, Kent ME15 6JQ
w www.maidstone.gov.uk
Dear Complaints & FOI (MBC),
Thank you for your response. The ICO is where it should go to next.
I make the point that you Legal Services is hardly independent!
Further, MBC has misunderstood the question thinking I was seeking the Section 151 Officer's Opinion. I was not!
I was merely asking whether the Section 151 Officer had considered a Section 114 Notice and not whether the Section 151 Officer considered issuing a Section 114 Notice AND IF SO WHAT WAS HIS OPINION?
MBC has answered a question that I did not ask!
KCC, Kent Police and certain other Kent Councils have had to cut staff. It would be a very unusual Council in this day and age if the Section 151 officer did not keep a watching brief over the council's finances on a Daily Basis. To look on a Daily Basis is to "consider" whether a Section 114 Notice is necessary.
He may of course consider it unnecessary but again that was not the question I asked and would be an Opinion.
The question was specific merely requiring a Yes or No.
Yours sincerely,
Fergus Wilson
Thank you for contacting the Information Governance Team at Maidstone
Borough Council.
This is an automated response to confirm that your e-mail has been
received.
For more information on how we manage requests, and our response times,
please visit our website:
• [1]Freedom of Information/Environmental Information Regulation
Requests
• [2]Complaints
• [3]Data Protection
• [4]Customer Care Policy
Regards
Information Governance Team
Corporate Insight, Communities and Governance
Maidstone Borough Council, King Street, Maidstone, Kent ME15 6JQ
w [5]www.maidstone.gov.uk
To access our digital services please visit
https://maidstone.gov.uk/service Sign up to receive your Council Tax bill
by email https//maidstone.gov.uk/emailbilling We understand the importance
of ensuring that personal data, including sensitive personal data is
always treated lawfully and appropriately and that the rights of
individuals are upheld. We are required to collect, use and hold personal
data about individuals. Data is required for the purposes of carrying out
our statutory obligations, delivering services and meeting the needs of
individuals that we deal with. This includes current, past and prospective
employees, service users, members of the public, Members of the Council,
our business partners and other local authorities or public bodies. To
view our full statement to see how your data will be stored and processed
please visit https://maidstone.gov.uk/dataprotection This email is
confidential. If you receive it by mistake, please advise the sender by
email immediately. Any unauthorised use of the message or attachments is
prohibited. Unless stated otherwise, any opinions are personal and cannot
be attributed to Maidstone Borough Council. Unless a purchase order is
attached this email is not a contract or an order. It is your
responsibility to carry out Virus checks before opening any attachments.
References
Visible links
1. https://maidstone.gov.uk/home/primary-se...
2. https://maidstone.gov.uk/home/primary-se...
3. https://maidstone.gov.uk/home/primary-se...
4. https://maidstone.gov.uk/home/primary-se...
5. http://www.maidstone.gov.uk/
Dear Maidstone Borough Council,
On 22nd February, 2024 Tonbridge and Malling Borough Council replied as follows:-
Dear Mr Wilson,
Thank you for your recent Freedom of Information request, please see below.
The name of the council's Section 151 officer is Sharon Shelton.
Has the 151 Officer considered issuing a Section 114 Notice? No she hasn't considered issuing a s114 notice
My question is if TMBC can give a straight forward no nonsense answer the why cannot MBC do so?
Yours faithfully,
Fergus Wilson
Thank you for contacting the Information Governance Team at Maidstone
Borough Council.
This is an automated response to confirm that your e-mail has been
received.
For more information on how we manage requests, and our response times,
please visit our website:
• [1]Freedom of Information/Environmental Information Regulation
Requests
• [2]Complaints
• [3]Data Protection
• [4]Customer Care Policy
Regards
Information Governance Team
Corporate Insight, Communities and Governance
Maidstone Borough Council, King Street, Maidstone, Kent ME15 6JQ
w [5]www.maidstone.gov.uk
To access our digital services please visit
https://maidstone.gov.uk/service Sign up to receive your Council Tax bill
by email https//maidstone.gov.uk/emailbilling We understand the importance
of ensuring that personal data, including sensitive personal data is
always treated lawfully and appropriately and that the rights of
individuals are upheld. We are required to collect, use and hold personal
data about individuals. Data is required for the purposes of carrying out
our statutory obligations, delivering services and meeting the needs of
individuals that we deal with. This includes current, past and prospective
employees, service users, members of the public, Members of the Council,
our business partners and other local authorities or public bodies. To
view our full statement to see how your data will be stored and processed
please visit https://maidstone.gov.uk/dataprotection This email is
confidential. If you receive it by mistake, please advise the sender by
email immediately. Any unauthorised use of the message or attachments is
prohibited. Unless stated otherwise, any opinions are personal and cannot
be attributed to Maidstone Borough Council. Unless a purchase order is
attached this email is not a contract or an order. It is your
responsibility to carry out Virus checks before opening any attachments.
References
Visible links
1. https://maidstone.gov.uk/home/primary-se...
2. https://maidstone.gov.uk/home/primary-se...
3. https://maidstone.gov.uk/home/primary-se...
4. https://maidstone.gov.uk/home/primary-se...
5. http://www.maidstone.gov.uk/
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