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.

1,821 disclosures

1. Translation, Interpretation and language services costs

   Please provide me with the following information for the financial years 2020/2021, 2021/22, 2022/23:

   The amount spent by the council on translation, interpretation and language services in all areas of council competence, including:

   Primary and secondary schools;

   adult social care services and child social care services;

   the provision of any social housing for which it has responsibility;

   libraries;

   recycling and waste collection;

   transport;

   and other area in which such expenditure has been made.

   If, for whatever reason, you are unable to provide the information for a certain facet of your operations please highlight which information cannot be disclosed and continue to disclose the rest of the information.

   Published: 5 January 2024

2. Contracted out trial for dog fouling and littering

   I should like to know if the contracted out trial for dog fouling and litter actually occurred. I can find no mention of this matter after around April 2023.

   If this trial has happened, who is the Agency involved and:-

   how many fines have been issued broken down into Dog matters and litter issues.

   Published: 5 January 2024

3. Expenditure and Young People's services

   I am writing with a Freedom of Information request with regards to expenditure on children and young people's services.

   Please can you provide the information detailed below, in both the table, and the additional questions underneath this.

   1) What are the counts for the below items over the specified financial years?

   NB - this is formatted as a table but has been lost in the HTML of the online form.

   COLUMNS:

   2016/17 2017/18 2018/19 2019/20 2020/21 2021/22 2022/23

   ROWS:

   Overall number of council-ran youth centres in local authority

   Overall number of youth centres in local authority run by other organisations

   Overall number of directly employed youth workers and youth support workers (Head count)

   Overall number of directly employed youth workers and youth support workers (FTE)

   2) As part of the Section 251 Outturn submitted to Department for Education for the 2022/23 financial year, which budget line did your local authority include expenditure on Holiday Activities and Food (HAF) programme?

   (e.g., 2.4.1 (Other specific grants); 3.5.2 Targeted services for young people)

   Please specify if this changed between 2021/22 and 2022/23 financial years.

   3) Did your local authority receive any of the Youth Investment Fund from the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport?

   a. Yes/no

   If Yes:

   b. How much money was received?

   c. Which Phase was this as part of? Phase 1 launched in January 2022 for small-scale projects; Phase 2 launched in August 2022

   d. What project(s) was YIF used for in your local authority?

   e. Was this a new-build or refurbishment/renovation of existing space?

   f. Was this funding included as part of your Section 251 Out turn statement to DfE? If so, which budget line was this attributed to, and in which financial year?

   Published: 3 January 2024

4. Organisation's latest telecommunications infrastructure contract positions

   I am reaching out with a request for information regarding the organisation's latest telecommunications infrastructure contract positions.

   Please see below for full scope of information required:

   1) Information regarding your Wider Area Network (WAN)

   • Incumbent

   • Contract End Date

   • WAN Contract Value

   • Number of sites

   • WAN Annual Spend/Revenue

   2) Information regarding Mobiles:

   • Incumbent

   • Contract End Date

   • Mobile sims/devices Contract Value

   • Number of users

   • Device Type

   • Latest Device Refresh Date

   • Mobile annual spend

   • MDM type if any

   3) Annual Telecoms Spend/Revenue (2022/2023)

   Published: 3 January 2024

5. Copy of policy for Organisational Information Model

   Please find attached document relating to version control.

   "The Organisational Information Model details common metadata which should be applied to help with this. For version control, metadata should be the version number and the version status."

   Please can you provide your policy/document on Organisational Information Model.

   Published: 3 January 2024

6. 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

7. 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

8. 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

9. 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

10. 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