Bedford Borough Council Requests and Responses Received March 2011
Request ID / Date of response / Request and Response2004 / 17/3/2011 / Request:
This is a request under the Freedom of Information Act 2000.
Could you please supply me with the following information?
· The number of access to social care files requests by persons who were previously ‘looked after children’ in the care of your local authority from 2007 to the present day for which the information is held. These requests would be for access to the mandatory child care files that are kept on each looked after child.
Of these requests we wish to know:
· The number of individual requests that have ended with the files located and a copy of the file supplied to the subject of the file
· The number of individual requests that have ended with only part of the files being located and supplied to the subject of the file
· The number of individual requests that have not been met because the files have been lost
· The number of individual requests that have not been met because the files have been destroyed
· The number of individual requests, whether the subject of the file had received all of their file or some of their file, that were followed up with a letter, e-mail or other correspondence once they had been through the full Subject Access Request process
We would like to include in this FOI requests, a request for the following information?
· Do you retain the social care file(s) of all previously looked after children
· Do you, or have you ever had a policy of destroying the social care file(s) of previously looked after children
· If so, could you supply us with details of your local authority policy under which the policy of destruction was determined
Please include copies of relevant material which you hold in terms of paper and electronic records, including e-mails.
Our response:
Request pursuant to Freedom of Information Act 2000 – Request No 2004.
I refer to your recent enquiry for information held by the Council.
Under the provisions of the Freedom of Information Act, the authority must state whether or not the information exists and I confirm that we do hold the information you requested.
Please find the information you requested below. You requested:
Please note:
Bedfordshire County Council ceased to exist on 1 April 2009 when two unitary councils were introduced across Bedfordshire. All services previously hosted by the County Council are now provided by either Bedford Borough Council or Central Bedfordshire Council depending on the area concerned. Therefore the figures supplied for 2007/08, 2008/09 are for Bedfordshire County Council and 2009/10, 2010/11 are for Bedford Borough Council only. We are therefore not able to disaggregate the data for Beds County Council or provide any info for Central Bedfordshire Council..
The detailing refers to files for closed archived cases and all files in Records Management Archives have been disclosed for all cases.
Data for open cases is dealt with by the Social Workers concerned as part of their open case recording policy.
As a department we log Access Requests we receive but we do not necessarily deal with these as they are sometimes dealt with by other departments for example Legal, Adoption, Mental Health, Police requests, CAFCASS and other Authorities. Therefore the figures below (for Bedford Borough Council) are not a true indication of the number of requests directly from a ‘Looked After’ person.
Could you please supply me with the following information?
The number of access to social care files requests by persons who were previously ‘looked after children’ in the care of your local authority from 2007 to the present day for which the information is held. These requests would be for access to the mandatory child care files that are kept on each looked after child.
2007/08 – 135 Bedfordshire County Council
2008/09 – 211 Bedfordshire County Council
2009/10 – 104 Bedford Borough Council
2010/11 – 116 up to February 2011 – Bedford Borough Council
These are the figures broken down for Bedford Borough Council for 2009/2010/2011 (total 220 over 2 years)
65 Full Access
19 No ID received
15 No Records
43 CAFCASS/ other Council
52 Legal
9 Police
6 Adoption
2 Mental Health
9 Central Bedfordshire
9 Internal Open
We are unable to breakdown the figures for 2007/08 & 2008/09 as these were completed by Bedfordshire County Council
Of these requests we wish to know:
The number of individual requests that have ended with the files located and a copy of the file supplied to the subject of the file
Of the 220 files over 2 year period, 65 were given full access
The number of individual requests that have ended with only part of the files being located and supplied to the subject of the file
0
The number of individual requests that have not been met because the files have been lost
0
The number of individual requests that have not been met because the files have been destroyed
0
The number of individual requests, whether the subject of the file had received all of their file or some of their file, that were followed up with a letter, e-mail or other correspondence once they had been through the full Subject Access Request process
0
We would like to include in this FOI requests, a request for the following information?
Do you retain the social care file(s) of all previously looked after children
Please refer to the policy attached
Do you, or have you ever had a policy of destroying the social care file(s) of previously looked after children
Please refer to the policy attached
If so, could you supply us with details of your local authority policy under which the policy of destruction was determined
Policy attached.
Please email for copies of documents
2005 / 16/3/2011 / Request:
Please may I have the wages/salaries paid to members of staff from £30,000 upwards?
Following clarification: indicating the job groups which fall within each band.
Our response:
Request pursuant to Freedom of Information Act 2000 – Request No 2005.
I refer to your recent enquiry for information held by the Council.
Under the provisions of the Freedom of Information Act, the authority must state whether or not the information exists and I confirm that we do hold the information you requested.
Please find the information requested below:
Job Group / Basic Salary Grade / Basic Salary Range
Chief Executive / Chief Executive / £163,000 - £170,000
Directors / Director / £102,000 - £133,575
Assistant Directors / Band 18
Band 17
Band 16 / £91,200 - £100,900
£77,300 - £85,400
£62,293 - £70,496
Heads of Service / Band 16
Band 15
Band 14 / £62,293 - £70,496
£49,857 - £55,972
£44,792 - £47,687
Senior Officers / Band 14
Band 13
Band 12
Band 11 / £44,792 - £47,687
£39,855 – £43,351
£34,549 - £38,961
£30,851 - £33,661
2006 / 7/2/2011 / Request and our response:
Request pursuant to Freedom of Information Act 2000 – Request No. 2006
I refer to your e-mail which was received and registered on 28th February 2011 and by the Council’s calculations, the 20 day statutory limit expires on 28th March 2011. Set out below is the full request and the Council’s response.
1. Details of the Information being sought (“the Request”):
To obtain or view footage of an area of Bedford where an incident took place.
2. Pursuant to Section 17 (1) of the Act the Council:
2.1 States that the Information is exempt information.
2.2 Specifies, that the exemption in question is contained within Section 31 (Law Enforcement).
2007 / 28/3/2011 / Request and our response:
Request Pursuant to Freedom of Information Act 2000 – Request No. 2007
I refer to your recent enquiry for information held by the Council.
Under the provisions of the Freedom of Information Act, the authority must state whether or not the information exists and I can confirm that we do hold some of the information requested and this is detailed below.
1. How many people have your Council taken to court for non-payment of Council Tax in the current financial year?
8,410 Council Tax summonses issued.
2. Of the people taken to court how many have subsequently claimed Council Tax benefit?
Information not available.
3. Of the people taken to court how many have been unable to prove their income sufficient to make a Council Tax benefit claim?
Information not available.
4. Of the people taken to court how many have been passed over to bailiffs (civil enforcement agents)?
2,924 Council Tax liability orders issued to bailiffs.
5. What is the average, median mode and largest amounts charged in excess of the original Council Tax bill (including court costs)?
The Council does not hold this information. However, we can confirm that the collectable amount referred to our bailiffs in the year to date is £2,047102.
6. How many people, after the involvement of bailiffs, have been unable to settle the bill in full within 30 days of their goods (personal possessions) being seized?
Information not available, however, no goods have been removed for Council Tax this year.
7. What is the average amount (in total) recovered by bailiffs, what is their average charge, and how much is passed over to the Council (they are acting on your behalf so you should have their figures)?
£351,479 received from bailiffs up to 11 February 2011, fees of £56,036 charged by bailiff companies.
8. How many repossession letters has the Council’s Housing Officer received this financial year?
This information is only available from October 2010 to date. To collect the information prior to that date would have to be done manually and would break the 18 hour threshold. The Freedom of Information Act 2000 does not oblige the Council to comply with a request for information if it estimates that the cost of complying with the request would exceed the “appropriate limit.” This appropriate limit has been set in the Freedom of Information and Data Protection (Appropriate Limit and Fees) Regulations 2004 which provides that for a local authority the appropriate limit is £450. This is calculated by reference to a maximum of 18 hours being taken and the cost of staff time being set in the Regulations as £25 per hour.
Since October 2010 the Council has received 72 letters.
9. How many repossessions has the Council prevented with its mortgage reserve scheme?
The Council has not used the mortgage rescue scheme to prevent eviction and therefore the figure is 0.
10. How many students at Bedford College should be provided with free transport there and back and are not receiving it?
We do not hold information of those who have not applied for transport, only those who have.
You can apply to the Council to be assessed for subsidised or free travel costs. The deadline to receive application forms for the 2010/2011 academic year was 31 December 2010, however, we would be happy to assess your son's entitlement for the current year even though the deadline has passed and an application form is enclosed with this letter and should be returned to Customer Contact Manager, at Borough Hall. Assistance in completing the form can be provided if required and you will find all of the contact details on the form together with details of the criteria.
A response to the issues you raised separately in respect of Council Tax recovery will be sent under separate cover.
2008 / 30/3/2011 / Request:
The information that i require is in regards to the annual ice cream amenity sites within Bedford for the following sites.
· Russell Park
· Suspension Bridge
· Mill Meadows
· Priory Country Park
· Bedford Athletic Stadium
· Bedford Park Main Entrance
· Bedford Park East Lodge Entrance
The information I require is for the period 2008,2009,2010 and 2011.I would like to know how many tenders for each of the above sites were received and how much was tendered for each of the above sites
Response:
Subject: FOI 2008 - Ice cream concessions
I refer to your recent enquiry for information held by the Council.
Under the provisions of the Freedom of Information Act, the authority must state whether or not the information exists and I confirm that we do hold the information you requested.
Please find information you requested below on the number of tenders received for 2008, 2009, 2010 and 2011 and the total income from ice cream concession sites.
Ice cream concession sites – tender information
Site / 2008 / 2009 / 2010 / 2011
Russell Park / 2 / 2 / 3 / 3
Suspension Bridge / 3 / 2 / 3 / 3
Mill Meadows / 4 / 2 / 3 / 3
Priory Country Park / 2 / 2 / 2 / 2
Bedford Athletic Stadium / 3 / 3 / 4 / 3
Bedford Park Main / 3 / 2 / 4 / 3
Bedford Park East / 3 / 2 / 3 / 4
Total income from ice cream concession sites
Site / (£)
2008 / 2009 / 2010 / 2011 / TOTAL over the 4 years for individual sites
Russell Park / 36,110
Suspension Bridge / 51,100
Bedford Park – East / 33,985
Bedford Park – Main / 9,215
Mill Meadows / 11,450
Mowsbury Park / 2,200
Priory Country Park / 22,130
Bedford Athletic Stadium / 2,235
Jubilee Park / 15
TOTAL across all sites per year / 59,845 / 34,305 / 35,660 / 38,630 / 168,425
Pursuant to Section 17 (1) of the Act the Council states that information on how much was tendered for each of the above sites is exempt information, and that the exemption in question is contained within Section 43 Commercial interests – exempt if the disclosure would or would be likely to prejudice commercial interests of any person including the public authority holding it and the duty to arise with the disclosure would prejudice the commercial interests.