S19 Flood Recommendations Implementation
Case reference EIR2024/02125
Received 20 December 2024
Published 16 January 2025
Request
Response
For every S19 report your authority has filed as part of its 'lead local flood risk management authority' duties under the 2010 Flood and Water Management Act, I would like to request information about whether the recommendations have been implemented and when. I would like this information arranged in a table (excel or pdf) with each row detailing the recommendation, the report it belongs to, and the date of completion.
A. Herefordshire Council holds information on S19 reports and what recommendations have been implemented and when.
This information is held by the Economy and Environment Directorate.
There are currently 28 Section 19 investigation reports held within the department that would need reviewing for this request. It will take time for the small team to review the reports and their conclusions, collate into recommendations and confirm dates etc from correspondence since then. It will take an average of 45 minutes per report to pull this information together.
Under the Environmental Information Regulations 2004, public authorities can make a ‘reasonable’ charge for staff time and costs in such requests. Due to the complexity and volume of the information which needs to be searched through, there will be a fee payable for this information to be retrieved, collated and provided to you. The fee is in accordance with Regulation 8 of the Environmental Information Regulations 2004, and with our information requests charging policy.
The Information Commissioner’s Office suggests that public authorities use a rate of £25 per hour for any staff time involved. This in line with the rate applicable under the Freedom of Information Act by virtue of The Freedom of Information and Data Protection (Appropriate Limits and Fees) Regulations 2004.
The fee payable is £525
This has been calculated as follows:
Officer time to retrieve, collate and provide information at rate of £25 per hour (21 hours @ £25 per hour) = £525
Please therefore take this letter as a charging notice under Regulation 8 of the Environmental Information Regulations 2004.
Payment may be made online via the council’s website using the council’s 24 hour secure payment service, which accepts most major debit or credit cards. Please select ‘Information Requests’ from the list of services.
If you are unable to make payment online, and require an alternative payment option, please let me know.
You have 60 working days in which to pay this fee. The information will be sent to you following receipt of this fee and the work being carried out as specified above. If remittance is not received during this time we will consider the request closed.
Please note that, even if the fee is paid, this does not automatically mean that you will be provided with the information requested. The information will still need to be checked to see whether any exceptions apply, for example, whether any information is the personal data of a third party, or whether any is commercially sensitive, etc. If it is considered that any exceptions do apply, then this information may be withheld in part or in its entirety. If that is the case, you will be advised of the reasons for this and given details of your right to appeal.
Please be advised, the Department have put in place additional resource to assist with Herefordshire Council’s flooding response and a priority for the increased resources will be to review the status of these Section 19 investigation locations. We therefore envisage that the information requested will be available by the summer, at which time it will be published on Herefordshire Council’s website, and therefore available free of charge.
Documents
This is Herefordshire Council's response to a freedom of information (FOI) or environmental information regulations (EIR) request.
You can browse our other responses or make a new FOI request.