Temporary Accommodation/ Housing FOI request - 8.7.22
Dear Eastbourne Borough Council,
I am writing to request the following information under the Freedom of Information Act.
Q1. Of the households living with children in temporary accommodation at the end of December 2021 (the last quarterly data publicly available), how many were placed in accommodation outside of your local authority area?
Q2. Of the households living with children in temporary accommodation in each of the following financial years, how many were placed in accommodation outside of your local authority area?
a. 2017/2018
b. 2018/2019
c. 2019/2020
d. 2020/2021
e. 2021/2022
Q3. For the households with children who left a placement in B&B/ hotel accommodation during each of the following financial years, what was the average time spent in B&B/hotel accommodation?
a. 2017/2018
b. 2018/2019
c. 2019/2020
d. 2020/2021
e. 2021/2022
Yours faithfully,
Sally Wardle
Thank you for your information request received today.
I am currently reviewing your request and investigating whether there is
any information available for disclosure. The Council, in accordance with
Section 10 of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 (‘the Act’), will reply
to your request promptly and in any event not later than the twentieth
working day following the date of receipt. Subject Access Requests will be
responded to within one calendar month in line with the GDPR (General Data
Protection Regulation).
In accordance with section 8(1)(b) of the Act and related guidance from
the Information Commissioner’s Office, the Council reserves the right to
treat any request for information as invalid unless the requester supplies
their real name. In such cases, the Council may request proof of
identity.
Kind Regards
Information Governance Officer
Lewes District Council and Eastbourne Borough Council
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Dear Ms. Wardle,
Re: Information Request: EFOI 16640
Thank you for your information request dated 8 July 2022 received in our
office the same day.
Q1. Of the households living with children in temporary accommodation
at the end of December 2021 (the last quarterly data publicly available),
how many were placed in accommodation outside of your local authority
area?
Q2. Of the households living with children in temporary accommodation
in each of the following financial years, how many were placed in
accommodation outside of your local authority area?
a. 2017/2018
b. 2018/2019
c. 2019/2020
d. 2020/2021
e. 2021/2022
Q3. For the households with children who left a placement in B&B/
hotel accommodation during each of the following financial years, what was
the average time spent in B&B/hotel accommodation?
a. 2017/2018
b. 2018/2019
c. 2019/2020
d. 2020/2021
e. 2021/2022
I have carefully considered your request and investigated whether there is
any additional information available that is not already publicly
available.
I have determined that the greater part of information you have requested
is already publicly available, and therefore under the Freedom of
Information Act (2000), Section 21 (information accessible to applicant by
other means) this information is exempt from requiring further action in
order to make it accessible to you and the general public.
The above exemption specifies that where information is already reasonably
accessible to the applicant there is no duty for the local authority to
provide any additional copy of the material. This may include information
for which a charge applies.
This exemption also requires Eastbourne Borough Council to inform you
where this information is available from and how to access it. The details
of how to obtain it are provided in the link below:
The greater part of the information you have requested is publicly
available via this website –
[1]https://www.gov.uk/government/collection...
Unfortunately Eastbourne Borough Council is unable to provide information
after 2020 as its reporting systems are unable to produce the necessary
summary information. We are moving to the Arbitras system which will
enable reporting to recommence in future however this will not include
historical information.
The council does hold the information its systems but to produce an answer
for the missing periods would require us to access every record to see
whether it applied to the given criteria and we estimate this would take a
greater amount of time than the prescribed 18 hours and so the remaining
information is exempt under Section 12 (1) of the FOIA 2000.
All applicants have a 'right to review'. A review should be focused on
the original request and should identify how the council’s response failed
to answer your information request. Reviews must be made in writing (or
e-mail) within 40 working days of receipt of this response and addressed
to the Information Governance Reviews Officer, to the address below.
Information Governance Reviews Officer
Lewes District Council and Eastbourne Borough Council
1 Grove Road
EASTBOURNE
BN21 4TW
Email: [2][email address]
Please contact me again, quoting your reference number, if you require any
further assistance with your current request and I will do my best to
provide the relevant help and advice.
Regards,
Kevin Rance
Information Governance Officer
Tel: +44(0)1273 471600
[3][email address]
Lewes and Eastbourne Legal Services acting on behalf of Lewes District
Council and Eastbourne Borough Council
Lewes District Council: Southover House, Southover Road, Lewes BN7 1AB
[4]www.lewes-eastbourne.gov.uk. Minicom 01273 484488
Eastbourne Borough Council: 1 Grove Road, Eastbourne BN21 4TW
[5]www.lewes-eastbourne.gov.uk. Text Relay 18001 01323 410000
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References
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1. https://www.gov.uk/government/collection...
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Dear Kevin,
Many thanks for your message, however I am very confident this information is not available publicly.
Local authorities publish information on the number of households placed in temporary accommodation outside of their local authority area. However, they do not publish information on the number of households with children placed in temporary accommodation outside of their local authority area.
Local authorities also do not publish the length of time households with families spend in B&B/ Hotel emergency accommodation.
Please could you provide this information as per my initial request?
Yours sincerely,
Sally Wardle
Dear Ms. Wardle,
Thank you for your follow up enquiry dated 25 July 2022 and please accept my apologies for the delay in responding.
I regret to inform you that the councils do not hold information on the number of children in households which are placed in other authorities at present.
• All applicants have a ‘right of review’. A review should be focused on the original request and should identify how the council has dealt incorrectly with your Information Request. Reviews must be made in writing (or e-mail) within 40 working days of receipt of this response and addressed to the Information Governance Reviews Officer, to the address below.
Information Governance Reviews Officer
Lewes District Council and Eastbourne Borough Council
Eastbourne Town Hall
Grove Road
Eastbourne
BN21 4UG
E-mail : [email address]
Regards,
Kevin Rance
Information Governance Officer
Tel: +44(0)1273 471600
[email address]
Lewes and Eastbourne Legal Services acting on behalf of Lewes District Council and Eastbourne Borough Council
Lewes District Council: Southover House, Southover Road, Lewes BN7 1AB www.lewes-eastbourne.gov.uk. Minicom 01273 484488
Eastbourne Borough Council: 1 Grove Road, Eastbourne BN21 4TW www.lewes-eastbourne.gov.uk. Text Relay 18001 01323 410000
Save a tree… please do not print this email unless you really need to
This email is confidential and for the exclusive use of the above named addressee(s) or an authorised agent. If you are not the intended recipient(s), you are prohibited from copying, distributing, disseminating, or in any other way using the content of this email. If you have received this email in error, please contact the sender using the contact details given above.
All our Network computers operate virus-scanning but we make no guarantee that any attachment to this email is free from computer viruses. You are advised to check all attachments using your own virus-scanning software before opening or executing them.
All written communications sent by and to Eastbourne Borough Council are subject to the Freedom of Information Act 2000. You should therefore be aware that this email or the information contained in it may be disclosed without notice to a third party making a request for information about the subject matter of this email.
Dear Kevin Rance,
Thank you for your reply.
For the sake of clarity, I am interested in the number of households with children (not the number of children in households that are placed in TA). Can you confirm that Lewes District Council does not hold the information that I am requesting in Q1 - Q3?
Q1. Of the households living with children in temporary accommodation at the end of December 2021 (the last quarterly data publicly available), how many were placed in accommodation outside of your local authority area?
Q2. Of the households living with children in temporary accommodation in each of the following financial years, how many were placed in accommodation outside of your local authority area?
a. 2017/2018
b. 2018/2019
c. 2019/2020
d. 2020/2021
e. 2021/2022
Q3. For the households with children who left a placement in B&B/ hotel accommodation during each of the following financial years, what was the average time spent in B&B/hotel accommodation?
a. 2017/2018
b. 2018/2019
c. 2019/2020
d. 2020/2021
e. 2021/2022
Yours sincerely,
Sally Wardle
Dear Ms. Wardle,
Thank you for your follow up email dated 24 August 2022.
I have checked with our Housing department and can advise that the council does hold the data on its systems but over a number of different platforms and to produce responses to these questions would take in excess of 18 hours. I must apologise for providing an incorrect response previously.
I regret, however, that this means that your request is exempt under section 12 (1) of the Freedom of Information Act 2000.
Section 12(1) states:
The general right of access to information held by public authorities does not oblige a public authority to comply with a request for information if the authority estimates that the cost of complying with the request would exceed the ‘appropriate limit’.
The ‘appropriate limit’ has been determined by the Lord Chancellor and is currently set at £450 for a local authority. This figure equates to a maximum of 18 hours officer time, excluding disbursement costs, before the local authority has the choice to either commence charging at £25 per additional hour or not to respond to the request.
The council’s current policy is not to proceed with requests if they exceed the ‘appropriate limit’. However, this does not indicate that the council is not willing to respond to your request. If you were able to modify your request in order to bring it below the appropriate limit by being more specific about the parameters of your question the council would be happy to provide an answer.
Regards,
Kevin Rance
Information Governance Officer
Tel: +44(0)1273 471600
[email address]
Lewes and Eastbourne Legal Services acting on behalf of Lewes District Council and Eastbourne Borough Council
Lewes District Council: Southover House, Southover Road, Lewes BN7 1AB www.lewes-eastbourne.gov.uk. Minicom 01273 484488
Eastbourne Borough Council: 1 Grove Road, Eastbourne BN21 4TW www.lewes-eastbourne.gov.uk. Text Relay 18001 01323 410000
Save a tree… please do not print this email unless you really need to
This email is confidential and for the exclusive use of the above named addressee(s) or an authorised agent. If you are not the intended recipient(s), you are prohibited from copying, distributing, disseminating, or in any other way using the content of this email. If you have received this email in error, please contact the sender using the contact details given above.
All our Network computers operate virus-scanning but we make no guarantee that any attachment to this email is free from computer viruses. You are advised to check all attachments using your own virus-scanning software before opening or executing them.
All written communications sent by and to Eastbourne Borough Council are subject to the Freedom of Information Act 2000. You should therefore be aware that this email or the information contained in it may be disclosed without notice to a third party making a request for information about the subject matter of this email.
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