Report of the Head of Democracy and Governance

This report provides a half year report of requests made under the Freedom of Information Act 2000.  The Scrutiny Committee is asked to note the report.

The Committee received a report of the Head of Democracy and Governance setting out details of requests made under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 from 1 October 2013 to 31 March 2014.

The Head of Democracy and Governance informed the Committee that in paragraph 3.8 that the year at the end of the paragraph should have read ‘2008’ and not ‘2005’.

The Head of Democracy and Governance referred the Committee to Appendix 2 which set out some statistics for Freedom of Information (FOI) requests.  There had been a yearly increase in the number of requests received by the Council.  The percentage of responses completed within 20 days had fallen and this was partly due to the delays in the responses completed by Revenues and Benefits.  The service had been concentrating on improving the performance of its time to complete benefit application requests.  A dedicated officer had now been appointed to respond to FOI requests.

The Director of Finance added that there had been an increase in the number of officers in that service who would manage FOI requests, complaints and appeals.

The Head of Democracy and Governance stated that no complaints had been submitted to the Information Commissioner. 

In response to a question from Councillor Brown about public health funerals, the Head of Democracy and Governance advised that the Council received regular FOI requests for this information.  She would contact Customer Services and forward details of the response to the request received in March 2014.  She informed the Committee that Environmental Health tried to find relatives of the deceased person, but when this was not possible the Council paid for the funeral.

Following a question from Councillor Taylor about the procedure if a complaint was made to the Information Commissioner, the Head of Democracy and Governance explained that the Council’s response times could be monitored and checked for improvement.  It was possible that a notice could be issued or as a final resort a fine could be imposed on the authority.

Councillor Williams commented that it had been interesting to see the yearly statistics but would prefer benchmarking information with other authorities.

The Head of Democracy and Governance advised that the benchmarking data was being co-ordinated by St Albans District Council.  Officers from Watford Borough Council would press for the information.

Councillor Brandon said that he had been advised of an instance where no information had been provided but it had not been clear if the information had been held by the Council.  He asked whether this could be clarified.

The Head of Democracy and Governance informed the Committee that the responses were recorded by the relevant service on to the Council’s software.  The information for the quarterly report was drawn out of the programme by Customer Services staff.  She was unsure whether it would be possible to expand on the information provided.

The Head of Democracy and Governance stated that if Members had any questions about individual requests they should contact her and she would respond.  

RESOLVED –

1.         that the contents of the report be noted.

2.         that the requested information be circulated to the Committee.