Response 3627722

Response to request for information

Reference

3627722

Response date

20 February 2025

Request

1. Please list all council expenses claimed by all councillors since May 2023.
2. Please list all council expenses claimed by Conservative councillors from the period May 2019 to May 2023.
3. Please provide all emails pertaining to Bingham's new proposed car park from 2015 to February 2022.

Response

1. Please list all council expenses claimed by all councillors since May 2023.

   • Expenses claimed by councillors are published on the Council’s website annually. You can find 2023-24 financial year, plus subsequent ones, broken down by Councillor by following the link:  Members' Allowances - Rushcliffe Borough Council

     On the basis that the information for May 2023 – March 2024 is already published and reasonably accessible to you, we are unable to provide the information requested as the information is exempt under section 21 of the FOI Act.

     Please note, expenses for 2024-25 are not yet finalised as the financial year is not yet complete. The information that you have requested for this financial year is therefore exempt from disclosure under Section 22 of the FOIA as it relates to information intended for future publication. Section 22 provides that:

     1. Information is exempt if –
     2. a) The information is held by a public authority with a view to its publication, by the authority or any other person, at some future date (whether determined or not).
     3. b) It is reasonable in all circumstances that the information should be withheld from disclosure until the date referred to in paragraph a).

     Section 22 is a qualified exemption subject to the public interest test. We have considered the public interest in releasing the information against the public interest in withholding it. There is a public interest in transparency being demonstrated by releasing the information, however transparency is also achieved by the Council publishing this information on its’ website. Section 22 recognises that it must be reasonable to withhold the information until the date of publication. Disclosing the information would require staff to spend time on accelerating publication rather than other activities in the public interest and may result in inaccurate or unchecked information being disclosed prematurely resulting in the public being misled. Given the necessary preparation and administration involved in publishing the information we consider that our publication timetable is reasonable.  We have therefore concluded that the public interest in withholding this information outweighs the public interest in releasing it.

2. Please list all council expenses claimed by Conservative councillors from the period May 2019 to May 2023.

   • Please see information requested in the table below:

     Expenses claimed by Conservative councillors from the period May 2019 to May 2023

     Financial Year	Total Expenses Claimed	Value of Conservative	Other
     2019-20	£5708.78	£5316.73	£392.05
     2020-21	£535.84	£535.84	0
     2021-22	£1713.13	£1570.33	£142.80
     2022-23	£5067.55	£4935.8	£131.75
     2023-24	£4252.8	£4200.8	£52.00

3. Please provide all emails pertaining to Bingham's new proposed car park from 2015 to February 2022.

   • In accordance with Section 1(1) of the FOIA 2000, any person making a request for information to a public body is entitled – (a) to be informed in writing by the public authority whether it holds information of the description specified in the request, and (b) if that is the case, to have that information communicated to him.

     Section 1(3) states that where a public authority reasonably requires further information in order to identify and locate the information requested and has informed the applicant of that requirement, the authority is not obliged to comply with Section 1(1) unless it is supplied with that further information.

     In accordance with Section 16 of the FOIA 2000, we have a duty to provide advice and assistance to clarify unclear requests.  The Council’s Data Protection Officer, Sara Pregon, contacted you via email on 29 January 2025 at 11:49 seeking further clarification to agree reasonable search terms due to the breadth of the request. However, you have not responded to that email.

     Your request as submitted has therefore been considered and we have to advise you that we will not be able to answer your request without exceeding the appropriate limit. This is because to locate, retrieve and extract the information requested would involve consideration of 24,106 emails. Initial enquires have returned 24,106 emails from 1852 mailboxes using the following search terms:

     • All mailboxes
     • 1st Jan 2015-28th Feb 2022
     • Keywords requiring ALL phrases to be present: "New" AND "Car Park" AND "Bingham"

     To assess whether the Council holds the information requested we will need to retrieve each email and review it to extract information relevant to your request. We estimate that it will take approximately 1 minute (on average) for us to locate and retrieve each email and then extract any relevant information. This means that it will take the Council approximately 24,106 minutes or 401 hours and 46min to comply with your request.

     Section 12 of the Freedom of Information Act makes provision for public authorities to refuse requests for information where the cost of dealing with them would exceed the appropriate limit, which for local authorities is set at £450. This represents the estimated cost of one person spending 18 hours in determining whether the authority holds the information, and locating, retrieving and extracting it. The appropriate limit is prescribed by regulation 3 of the Freedom of Information and Data Protection (appropriate Limit and Fees) Regulations 2004.

     The Council may be able to provide some information in the scope of your request if you reduce or refine your request to bring the cost of compliance under the limit. Please contact me if you would like to refine your request or require advice on doing so.