Use of consultants

The request was refused by Wirral Metropolitan Borough Council.

Dear Wirral Metropolitan Borough Council,

Can I have a breakdown of:

1. How many paid consultants did the council use in:

2018/19
2019/20
2020/21
2021/22
2022/23

2. What was the total cost per year for using these consultancy services in:

2018/19
2019/20
2020/21
2021/22
2022/23

3. For active regeneration and development projects, what is:

The number of consultants that have been used
The total cost for using these consultancy services.

4. For regeneration and development projects that the Council are no longer pursuing, what is:

The number of consultants that have been used
The total cost for using these consultancy services.

5. What is the current average daily rate for consultancy services?

6. What is the current average daily rate for staff employees in a similar role?

Yours faithfully,
Ed Barnes

Dear Wirral Metropolitan Borough Council,

When can I expect a response in relation to this request?

Yours faithfully,

Ed Barnes

InfoMgr, FinDMT,

Chased also 👍

Many Thanks

Emma Murphy
Information Management Officer

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InfoMgr, FinDMT,

Dear Mr Barnes

 

Thank you for your recent enquiry, please find your response below. 
Please do accept Wirral Council’s apologies for the delay in response to
your enquiry.

 

Question:

1. How many paid consultants did the council use in:

2018/19

2019/20

2020/21

2021/22

2022/23

2. What was the total cost per year for using these consultancy services
in:

2018/19

2019/20

2020/21

2021/22

2022/23

Response:

Unfortunately, for question 1 and 2 of this request Wirral Council
consider this to be a very vague and a broad term.  As such the Council
would not be able to answer question in present format as Consultancy
covers many specific areas of professions and technical expertise.  

We therefore confirm we do not record information in this format to
provide.

 

Wirral Council therefore consider that to manipulate and extract the level
of the information requested, which would take a manual operation over
many service for the aforementioned years would exceed the limit for a
response in accordance with the Freedom of Information Act 2000 for the
full five financial years you have requested.

 

The Council rely on Section 12 of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 to
refuse these questions. S12 states that public authorities are not
required to comply with a request for information if it is estimated that
to do so would exceed the appropriate limit, currently set at 18.5 hours.

 

The Freedom of Information Act 2000 does provides that you may submit a
re-formed or reduced scope request  you may therefore re-submit this part
of your request to [1][Wirral Borough Council request email] and we will aim to
respond with a substantive reply within 20 working days.

 

Question:

3. For active regeneration and development projects, what is:The number of
consultants that have been used The total cost for using these consultancy
services.

We can confirm Wirral Council do not tend to usually hire consultants for
specific projects but we do for wide ranging advice and technical
guidance.   We can further advise you Agency staff are more common,
however they are fulfilling specific roles where we do not have the staff
resources and not providing consultation.

Question:

4. For regeneration and development projects that the Council are no
longer pursuing, what is:The number of consultants that have been used The
total cost for using these consultancy services.

Please refer to response at Question 3 above.

Question:

5. What is the current average daily rate for consultancy services?

Please refer to responses above

Question:

6. What is the current average daily rate for staff employees in a similar
role?

Wirral Council confirms it wouldn't be employing consultants where it is
has the expertise in house.

 

 

To further assist and advise you please note view all suppliers and
contract details are available on the [2]Chest Procurement Register. Spend
and budget information is made publicly available on our website:
[3]Budgets and spending | www.wirral.gov.uk  
[4]https://www.wirral.gov.uk/about-council/...

 

You have the right under Section 17 of the Freedom of Information Act 2000
to ask for an internal review of any information refused.  Please direct
any request for an internal review to [5][Wirral Borough Council request email]
 and your request will be allocated to another officer for review.  If you
are dissatisfied with the outcome of an internal review you also have the
right to complain to the information Commissioner, who can be contacted at
[6]https://ico.org.uk/global/contact-us/

 

Yours sincerely

 

 

Tracy O'Hare

Information Management Officer

Wirral Council

PO Box 290

Brighton Street

Wallasey

CH27 9FQ

Email:[7][Wirral Borough Council request email]

Visit our website: [8]www.wirral.gov.uk

 

 

 

This information supplied to you is copyrighted and continues to be
protected by the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.   You are free
to use it for your own purposes, including any non commercial research you
are doing and for the purposes of news reporting. Any other reuse, for
example commercial publication, would require our specific permission, may
involve licensing and the application of a charge

 

 

 

 

 

 

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