Six new requests on expenses etc

The request was partially successful.

Dear Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman,

Re: FDN-171651

Financial Year PHSO expenses etc 2012/2013

All six requests relate to the same time period.

Request 1 - JTO/12
Non taxable working lunches

How many lunches took place within the time period?
Where were these working lunches held... ie name of restaurant/hotel ?
Which member of staff was present?

Whom were they wining and dining?
What was the purpose if these lunches etc?

Request 2 - JTO/13
Hotels

In which hotels did PHSO staff stay?
How many times did staff stay in hotels?
For what purpose?

Request 3- JTO/14

Air travel- JTO/15

Which destinations did staff fly to?
For what purpose?

Request 4- JTO/16

Taxis- JTO/17

How many journeys were undertaken in taxis?
And to what destinations?
For what purpose?

Request 5- JTO/18

Miscellaneous travel and subsistence

I request an itemised list of these - as is provided by our MP's and other public officials.

Request 6- JTO/19

Did the PHSO go through a proper tendering procedure for the £38k of lunches provided by Elior? If not, why not?

How many lunches were provided by Elior?

For what purpose were these lunches held?

Yours faithfully,

[Name Removed]

foiofficer, Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman

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Ombudsman. This return e-mail shows that we have received your
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All email communications with PHSO pass through the Government Secure
Intranet, and may be automatically logged, monitored and/or recorded for
legal purposes.
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the CSIA Claims Tested Mark (CCTM Certificate Number 2006/04/0007), the UK
Government quality mark initiative for information security products and
services. For more information about this please visit www.cctmark.gov.uk

foiofficer, Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman

1 Attachment

Dear [Name Removed]

 

Thank you for your email of 24 September 2013 about PHSO expenses for the
financial year 2012-2013. I will address each of your requests in turn.

 

“Request 1 - JTO/12

 

How many lunches took place within the time period?

Where were these working lunches held... ie name of restaurant/hotel ?

Which member of staff was present?

 

Whom were they wining and dining?

What was the purpose if these lunches etc?”

 

It would be very unusual for a working lunch not to be held in PHSO’s
offices. There were 639 hospitality orders during the business year
2012-2013 (421 fulfilled by Elior and 218 fulfilled by either Ruby Ruby,
Relish Sandwich Shop or Philpotts Ltd). However, we do not specifically
record whether hospitality orders are for lunch or for other refreshments,
like tea and coffee.  In order to tell you how many of these 639 orders
were for lunch we would need to review all of the order forms. This work
would far exceed the time and cost limit as set out in section 12 of the
Freedom of Information Act 2000.

 

The “appropriate limit” is specified in the Freedom of Information and
Data Protection (Appropriate Limit and Fees) Regulations 2004. In relation
to this Office, the appropriate cost limit is 18 hours or £450 at £25 per
hour.  If the appropriate cost limit is exceeded, information is exempt
from release under section 12 of the Freedom of Information Act.

 

Similarly, we do not record the purpose of the meeting on the hospitality
order. Nor do we record who is present at meetings relation to the
hospitality order. In order to collate the information you have requested,
we would need to review each of the 639 orders and then contact the
meeting organisers. Again, this work would far exceed the time and cost
limit as set out in section 12 of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 and
the information is therefore exempt from release.

 

Beyond this, in order to establish whether a working lunch was held
outside of the PHSO offices, we would need to review each of the 727
subsistence claims made during the year 2012-13. Once more, this work
would far exceed the time and cost limit as set out in section 12 of the
Freedom of Information Act 2000.

 

“Request 2 - JTO/13

Hotels

 

In which hotels did PHSO staff stay?

How many times did staff stay in hotels?

For what purpose?”

 

I have provided a list of the hotels used by PHSO staff during the
business year 2012-2013 in Annex A at the end of this response. There were
340 hotel bookings during the business year 2012-2013. These stays were
for business purposes.

 

The hotels would have been selected and the bookings made in line with our
travel and subsistence code (attached).

 

“Request 3- JTO/14

 

Air travel- JTO/15

 

Which destinations did staff fly to?

For what purpose?”

 

PHSO staff took 83 flights in 2012/13. In some instances (but not always)
the destination of the flight will be on the booking form. However, the
purpose of the trip will not be. In order provide you with the information
you have requested we would need to review each booking and speak to the
person who took to trip. This work would exceed the time and cost limit as
set out in section 12 of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 and the
information is therefore exempt from release.

 

“Request 4- JTO/16

 

Taxis- JTO/17

 

How many journeys were undertaken in taxis?

And to what destinations?

For what purpose?”

 

244 taxi journeys were claimed for in the business year 2012-13.  To
extract the information you have requested we would need to review each of
those claims. This work would exceed the time and cost limit as set out in
section 12 of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 and the information is
therefore exempt from release.

 

“Request 5- JTO/18

 

Miscellaneous  travel and subsistence

 

I request an  itemised list of these - as is provided by our MP's and
other public officials.”

 

The Freedom of Information Act 2000 entitles people to recorded
information where it is held by a public body. Where the information is
not held, the public body is not required to create it in order to release
it. PHSO staff are not public officials in the way that MPs are and, as
such, we do not hold ‘an itemised list’ of ‘miscellaneous travel and
subsistence’ claims made by PHSO staff during the business year 2012-2013.
Nor does the Freedom of Information Act 2000 require us to create one for
you.

 

In any event, in order to provide you with the information you have
requested, we would need to extract it from the 727 subsistence claims
made in the business year 2012-2013. This work would exceed the time and
cost limit as set out in section 12 of the Freedom of Information Act 2000
and the information is therefore exempt from release.

 

“Request 6- JTO/19

 

Did the PHSO go through a proper tendering procedure for the £38k of
lunches provided by Elior? If not, why not?

 

How many lunches were provided by Elior?

 

For what purpose were these lunches held?”

 

The contract with Elior was awarded following a proper tendering
procedure. As I have said in answer to your first request, it is not
possible to tell you within the time and cost limit as set out in section
12 of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 precisely how many of the 421
hospitality orders fulfilled by Elior in the business year 2012-2013
(totalling £38k) were for lunches. How much lunches cost in total and what
the purpose of the working lunches was is also exempt under section 12 of
the Freedom of Information Act 2000.

 

Yours sincerely

 

 

Luke Whiting

Head of Freedom of Information and Data Protection

 

Annex A

 

o Adobe Manchester
o Arora Hotel Manchester
o Best Western Corona
o Comfort Inn London Vauxhall
o Crowne Plaza Manchester Centre
o Days Hotel London Waterloo
o Days Hotel Manchester
o Doubletree By Hilton
o Doubletree London Westminster
o Grange Rochester
o Holiday Inn Exp Victoria
o Ibis Manchester Portland Street
o Macdonald Manchester Hotel
o Macdonald Townhouse
o Marine Hotel
o Mercure Manchester
o Novotel London Waterloo
o Novotel Manchester Centre
o Palace Hotel Manchester
o Park Plaza County Hotel
o Park Plaza London Riverbank
o Park Plaza Westminster
o Pestana Chelsea
o Portland Hotel By Thistle Manchester
o Premier Inn Manchester City Centre
o St Giles Hotel
o Travelodge Edinburgh Central
o Travelodge London Waterloo

 

 

 

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Dear foiofficer,

Thank you.

My understanding from your reply is that none of the information requested and denied to me is on computer ....and therefore this is the reason that it is not readily available.

And the reason that the data is non-accessible .... the person hours due to employees having to sift through each piece of paper, rather than doing a quick computer search, which would bring the extraordinarily high number of hours stated down to a minimum.

1. Could you therefore confirm that the PhSO only records its expenses claims on paper .....and not computer?

2. I understand that the PHSO is non-accountable to the public, via Parliament, and has no ethics officer to monitor any expenses financial mismanagement, but are there any plans to bring the PHSO into the computer age so that greater and proper accessible scrutiny can be given to the amount spent on its expenses in its £32m annual budget?

Yours sincerely,

[Name Removed]

foiofficer, Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman

Thank you for your e-mail to the Parliamentary and Health Service
Ombudsman. This return e-mail shows that we have received your
correspondence.

show quoted sections

All email communications with PHSO pass through the Government Secure
Intranet, and may be automatically logged, monitored and/or recorded for
legal purposes.
The MessageLabs Anti Virus Service is the first managed service to achieve
the CSIA Claims Tested Mark (CCTM Certificate Number 2006/04/0007), the UK
Government quality mark initiative for information security products and
services. For more information about this please visit www.cctmark.gov.uk

Dear foiofficer,

WDTK stating this is out of time.

Yours sincerely,

[Name Removed]

foiofficer, Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman

Thank you for your e-mail to the Parliamentary and Health Service
Ombudsman. This return e-mail shows that we have received your
correspondence.

show quoted sections

All email communications with PHSO pass through the Government Secure
Intranet, and may be automatically logged, monitored and/or recorded for
legal purposes.
The MessageLabs Anti Virus Service is the first managed service to achieve
the CSIA Claims Tested Mark (CCTM Certificate Number 2006/04/0007), the UK
Government quality mark initiative for information security products and
services. For more information about this please visit www.cctmark.gov.uk

Dear Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman,

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

I am writing to request an internal review of Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman's handling of my FOI request 'Six new requests on expenses etc'.

It seems that the PHSO has a very lax accounting system when it comes to expenses.

With no ethics officer and mostly no idea of how money is being spent it seems that accountants would have to look through each piece of paper and question employees as to what exactly taxpayers money is being used for to get any idea of the how the money is being spent.

If they are, why aren't they computerising the information to find any patterns of fraud, or areas of unnecessary expenditure?

Surely an organisation dependent in government funds is not functioning like this in 2013?

And why would so many free lunches be requested at HQ? Especially with uncategorised purposes. It seems that, since it gets a massive £32m to spend, the PHSO is intent in doing just that..almost unaccountably.

Are there any plans for the PSHO to get a firmer grip in how it spends taxpayers money in computerising expense forms, so that the public may have some idea on how the Ombudsman with the biggest budget in 10 countries avoids scrutiny by maintaining such a non-accountable system?

Or is it the philosophy for the PHSO to spend content with maintaining secrecy because, fundamentally, the PHSO is still arrogant enough to believe that it's expenses expenditure is no business of the public? (As MP's used to do.)

So I would request that the PHSO look again at whether the requested information is easily retrievable - because it should be.

If it isn't, then the reputation that the PHSO has for little public accountability and little openness and transparency due to an arrogant lack of organisational ethical controls and contempt for the public in general is being demonstrated by the response.

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,

[Name Removed]

foiofficer, Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman

Thank you for your e-mail to the Parliamentary and Health Service
Ombudsman. This return e-mail shows that we have received your
correspondence.

show quoted sections

All email communications with PHSO pass through the Government Secure
Intranet, and may be automatically logged, monitored and/or recorded for
legal purposes.
The MessageLabs Anti Virus Service is the first managed service to achieve
the CSIA Claims Tested Mark (CCTM Certificate Number 2006/04/0007), the UK
Government quality mark initiative for information security products and
services. For more information about this please visit www.cctmark.gov.uk

Dear foiofficer,

The Doubletree and the Park Plaza hotels, Westminster

Could you please tell me why staff are staying in hotels adjacent to your offices?

As a sample, I request details if why staff stayed in hotels in Westminster,

Yours sincerely,

[Name Removed]

foiofficer, Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman

Thank you for your e-mail to the Parliamentary and Health Service
Ombudsman. This return e-mail shows that we have received your
correspondence.

show quoted sections

All email communications with PHSO pass through the Government Secure
Intranet, and may be automatically logged, monitored and/or recorded for
legal purposes.
The MessageLabs Anti Virus Service is the first managed service to achieve
the CSIA Claims Tested Mark (CCTM Certificate Number 2006/04/0007), the UK
Government quality mark initiative for information security products and
services. For more information about this please visit www.cctmark.gov.uk

foiofficer, Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman

Dear [Name Removed]

Your information request (FDN-174389)

I can confirm that we currently operate a paper based system for expenses claims. While we hope to move to a computerised system at some stage, there is currently no time table for doing so.

Yours sincerely

Luke Whiting
Head of Freedom of Information and Data Protection

show quoted sections

All email communications with PHSO pass through the Government Secure Intranet, and may be automatically logged, monitored and/or recorded for legal purposes.
The MessageLabs Anti Virus Service is the first managed service to achieve the CSIA Claims Tested Mark (CCTM Certificate Number 2006/04/0007), the UK Government quality mark initiative for information security products and services. For more information about this please visit www.cctmark.gov.uk

Dear foiofficer,

Thanks. I expect no one wants to spend out on a proper system before the reorganisation. Most prudent.

Yours sincerely,

[Name Removed]

foiofficer, Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman

Thank you for your e-mail to the Parliamentary and Health Service
Ombudsman. This return e-mail shows that we have received your
correspondence.

show quoted sections

All email communications with PHSO pass through the Government Secure
Intranet, and may be automatically logged, monitored and/or recorded for
legal purposes.
The MessageLabs Anti Virus Service is the first managed service to achieve
the CSIA Claims Tested Mark (CCTM Certificate Number 2006/04/0007), the UK
Government quality mark initiative for information security products and
services. For more information about this please visit www.cctmark.gov.uk

foiofficer, Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman

Dear [Name Removed]

Your information request (FDN-177448)

I write further to your email of 4 November 2013 where you also why members of staff stay in hotels near our London Offices. You particularly reference The Doubletree and the Park Plaza hotels.

Our travel management service provider is Redfern Travel. The Central Government Travel Management Services framework has been awarded to Redfern Travel. We use Redfern Travel for most of our hotel bookings, but occasionally we do use Expotel if the Crown Hotel Programme (CHP), or government rates are not available from Redfern Travel. The CHP rate is cheaper, or equivalent to government rate.

Members from our Manchester Office would normally use hotels near our London Office if there was a business need for them to be in the London Office for more than one day. In line with the Travel and Subsistence policy which you have previously been provided, staff tend to stay at the Park Plaza or Novotel as these hotels offer the most competitive rates.

However, there have been a couple of exceptions (all occurring in the prior year) when approval has been granted for staff to stay specifically in Double Tree, Westminster. The two occasions this happened involved disabled members of staff attending a Disability Conference. The approval in these cases was given because their medical or disability meant the members of staff needed to be close to the Office.

Yours sincerely

Claire Helm
Freedom of Information/Data Protection Officer Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman
E: [email address]
W: www.ombudsman.org.uk

show quoted sections

All email communications with PHSO pass through the Government Secure Intranet, and may be automatically logged, monitored and/or recorded for legal purposes.
The MessageLabs Anti Virus Service is the first managed service to achieve the CSIA Claims Tested Mark (CCTM Certificate Number 2006/04/0007), the UK Government quality mark initiative for information security products and services. For more information about this please visit www.cctmark.gov.uk

Dear foiofficer,

The Park Plaza is scorching expensive.

Around £150 a night without breakfast. For the cheapest rooms.

....I know, I've stayed there.

What about the Premier Inn?

Highly recommended and just over £100 a night.

Yours sincerely,

[Name Removed]

foiofficer, Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman

Thank you for your e-mail to the Parliamentary and Health Service
Ombudsman. This return e-mail shows that we have received your
correspondence.

show quoted sections

All email communications with PHSO pass through the Government Secure
Intranet, and may be automatically logged, monitored and/or recorded for
legal purposes.
The MessageLabs Anti Virus Service is the first managed service to achieve
the CSIA Claims Tested Mark (CCTM Certificate Number 2006/04/0007), the UK
Government quality mark initiative for information security products and
services. For more information about this please visit www.cctmark.gov.uk

Brown Steve, Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman

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Steve Brown

Head of Risk, Assurance and Programme Management Office

Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman

E: [email address]

W: [1]www.ombudsman.org.uk

 

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All email communications with PHSO pass through the Government Secure
Intranet, and may be automatically logged, monitored and/or recorded for
legal purposes.
The MessageLabs Anti Virus Service is the first managed service to achieve
the CSIA Claims Tested Mark (CCTM Certificate Number 2006/04/0007), the UK
Government quality mark initiative for information security products and
services. For more information about this please visit www.cctmark.gov.uk

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[Name Removed] (Account suspended) left an annotation ()

Predictable answer from Mr Brown.

I wonder if he has ever found any request was not answered to its fullest extent?

...And it seems that he has overlooked my helpful cheaper hotel recommendations too.