Freedom of information (FOI) releases from Herefordshire Council

This is a disclosure log of Herefordshire Council's responses to freedom of information (FOI) or environmental information regulations (EIR) requests that might be of wider public interest.

If you can't find the information you're looking for, you can make a new FOI request.

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2,976 disclosures

  1. Audit Committee Annual/External Reviews

    CIPFA Guidance on Local Authority Audit Committees states that "Recommended practice is for audit committees to review and assess themselves annually or to seek an external review."

    We realise that the committee with audit related responsibilities are not always called 'Audit Committee'. Please can you confirm what the title of this committee is within your local authority and answer the following questions in relation to that committee.

    a) Internal Annual Review of Audit Committee For each of the last five financial years please provide me with a copy of the audit committee's annual review of its work. Please state the date the review was published and how it was made public at the time.

    b) External Review of Audit Committee

    Please confirm the most recent date that an external review of the audit committee was sought, who undertook that review, when and where it was published and provide a copy of the review.

    Published: 28 December 2023

  2. Use of Scrutiny Call-In Mechanism

    This request relates to uses of the call-in mechanism that forms part of the overview and scrutiny committee system.

    If your authority has an overview and scrutiny system please answer the following:

    For the past ten years, please confirm how many decisions taken by the council's cabinet/executive were available for call-in.

    Please provide a table showing a breakdown of the following for each year since 2013.

    For each year please state how many call-ins there were.

    For each call-in please show which committee called them in, what the response was, the topic and provide a link to the relevant committee where the call was discussed.

    If the S.12 time limit would be exceeded by responding to this request, please answer for a fewer number of years, starting with the most recent.

    Published: 28 December 2023

  3. Independence of Audit and/or Scrutiny Committee Chairs

    The independence of scrutiny committees and audit committees has been identified in a number of Public Interest Reports as being an important factor in facilitating meaningful scrutiny and challenge within local authorities.

    If your local authority doesn't not have an overview and scrutiny system please answer the following in relation to the committee within your councils which has audit responsibilities.

    If your local authority has an overview and scrutiny system please note that as audit committees are not formally treated as part of scrutiny it may be that they are treated differently in the council's constitution and policies.

    Please confirm whether you are responding to this request in relation to scrutiny committees and/or audit committees.

    If your local authority has an overview and scrutiny committee system, please confirm how many committees (excluding audit) are part of that system?

    Policy on Selection & Appointment of Committee Chairs: Please provide the council's current policy on selection and appointment of scrutiny committee chairs and audit committee chairs. Please either copy and paste the section of council policy relating to the selection of scrutiny and audit committee chairs or provide a link and details of the section/sub-section within the document where we can locate this information.

    Current Political Configuration of Committee Chairs/Conveners: Please provide a figure showing what percentage of current scrutiny and audit committee chairs (or conveners) are members of an opposition party to the main controlling party or controlling coalition.

    Published: 28 December 2023

  4. Number of overgrown garden complaints for last 3 years

    We are reaching out to all of the councils in the UK requesting the following information to be released:

    * The number of complaints in the last 3 years for 'overgrown gardens' or similar.

    Please could you let me know if this is a category that falls under your complaints options and if so, send us the data for this.

    Published: 27 December 2023

  5. IN8IT dynamic purchasing system for Hereford for disabled facilities grants

    I wish to have the expenditure costs of instigating/commissioning the IN8IT dynamic purchasing system for Hereford for disabled facilities grants, and the proposed savings and benefits of this system.

    I wish to see the financial savings to the tax payer for this.

    I wish to know:

    How much this has cost the council to date;

    The ongoing costs;

    Savings made against previous years spends.

    Published: 22 December 2023

  6. Pothole spending and JCB PotholePro

    Please advise:

    1. How much money your local authority has spent repairing potholes in the financial year 2022/23.

    2. Have you made any use of a JCB PotholePro vehicle for your repairs or do you have plans to do so?

    3. If you have made use of a JCB PotholePro vehicle, or have plans to do so, please advise what savings (if any) have been achieved, or you expect to achieve.

    Published: 22 December 2023

  7. Commission of Supported Accommodation

    FOI request for Commissioners for Children, Families and Young Peoples Services or Procurement/Contract Management colleagues Please can you support us with some benchmarking in our new service design by responding to the following questions?:

    1. How do you currently commission 16+ Supported Accommodation?

    2. What is it you commission and how is it accessed? I.e. o Supported Housing options with support workers and 24/7 staffing/ security (e.g. Foyers) o Supported Lodgings o Self-contained solo accommodation o Spot purchase placement options for young people age 16/17 o Spot purchase placement options for young people age 18+ o Dedicated emergency beds o Floating Support

    3. Do you have any dedicated accommodation and housing support for Care Leavers up to 25 years -If yes , please provide details

    4. Please let us know how you commission accommodation and housing support for Separated Children seeking Asylum

    5. Do you commission different levels/ tiers of support depending on the young person's level of need/ circumstances ? if yes, please provide details

    6. How are you ensuring that providers are able to meet the requirements of new Ofsted 'The Supported Accommodation (England) Regulations 2023'

    7. Does this take account of unaccompanied asylum seeking children? If so, please can you give some detail about what is delivered?

    8. What barriers do you face in commissioning this service/s?

    9. What is working well in these services?

    10. How much is your hourly rate for the support worker in this provision?

    Published: 22 December 2023

  8. Special Areas of Conservation (SAC) and Zones of Influence (ZOI)

    Under the terms of the Freedom of Information (FOI) act, I am writing to you with 8 requests for information:

    1. Have you received communication from Natural England, or consultants on behalf of Natural England, concerning recreational impacts in Special Areas of Conservation (SAC) as a result of new housing development?

    2. Has Natural England designated any part of this local authority a Zone of Influence (ZOI)?

    3. If yes, how much land (km) is currently designated a ZOI?

    4. Have you been advised to implement an exclusion zone due to the impact of net increases in development?

    5. If yes, how large is the boundary of the exclusion zone?

    6. Have you been advised to implement a presumption against net increases of residential development in specified areas of the local authority due to a ZOI?

    7. How many homes are currently help up as a result of the interim position?

    8. Have you worked with any developers to agree a recreational impact mitigation scheme and allow home building to resume?

    Published: 22 December 2023

  9. Telecare - analogue to digital switchover

    I would appreciate if you could supply the following information under FOI:

    1. The name of the lead officer responsible for the Telecare analogue to digital switchover, their email address, and phone number

    2. The number of Telecare recipients

    3. An approximate percentage of completion to switching over from analogue to digital Telecare boxes

    4. The name of the supplier of the Telecare alarm receiving centre software that is utilised

    Published: 21 December 2023

  10. Bridge conditions and maintenance for the financial year 2022/2023

    I am making this request under the Freedom of Information Act. Please see the following set of questions.

    The definition of a "road bridge" in the 'Well-Managed Highway Infrastructure A Code of Practice' is a structure with a span of 1.5m or more providing public highway passage for motor vehicles over an obstacle such as a watercourse, railway, road or valley.

    Using this definition, please provide the following information for all road bridges for which you own as highway authority, including those which are jointly owned with another authority, but for which you are the lead authority.

    These questions all relate to the financial year 2022/2023.

    1. How many road bridges are you responsible for maintaining?

    2. For the last financial year 2022/23:

    (i) How many Principal Inspections have taken place in that year?

    (ii) How many Principal Inspections did you plan to do in that year?

    3. For the last financial year 2022/23:

    (i) How many General Inspections have taken place in that year?

    (ii) How many General Inspections did you plan to do in that year?

    4. For the last financial year 2022/23 how many Structural Reviews did you undertake?

    5. How many substandard bridges do you have (in terms of ability to carry 44t vehicles)?

    Please exclude bridges that have weight restrictions for environmental reasons.

    6. Of these substandard bridges, how many do you intend to return or upgrade to full load carrying capacity in the next 5 years?

    7. How many bridges would you return to full load carrying capacity if you had no resource restrictions?

    8. (i) How many post-tensioned bridges do you have?

    (ii) How many of those have had PTSIs within the last 18 years?

    (iii) Of those that have not had a PTSI, how many require/are due one?

    (iv) How much funding would you anticipate is required to remove the backlog of PTSIs for those bridges identified in Q8(iii)?

    9. In monetary terms, what is the current Depreciation (i.e. difference between your GRC and DRC for 2022/23?

    10. What is the calculated value of your workbank? (Workbank is defined as the total value of condition-based maintenance work that has been identified and can be calculated using SAVI or by other means)

    11. (i) What is the annual revenue works expenditure for maintaining your bridge stock (excluding staff costs)?

    (ii) What is the annual capital works expenditure for maintaining your bridges stock?

    (iii) What total budget would you estimate is required to maintain the bridge stock at its current level (standstill budget)?

    12. For the last financial year: 2022/23:

    (i) How many of your bridges required a Stage 1 Scour Assessment?

    (ii) How many Stage 1 Scour Assessments did you undertake?

    13. For the last financial year: 2022/23:

    (i) How many of your bridges required a Stage 2 Scour Assessment?

    (ii) How many Stage 2 Scour Assessments did you undertake?

    14. (i) How many bridges under your management completely collapsed in 2022/23?

    (ii) How many bridges under your management partially collapsed in 2022/23?

    (iii) Would you be happy to share the detail with members of the UK Bridges Board? Y/N

    15. What was your Bridge Stock Condition Index (BSCI) at the end of 2022/23 (or current if easier)?

    16. What issues with managing your bridge stock causes you most concern?

    Published: 21 December 2023