RE: Enquiry to all councils by Ibrahim - written 16/12/2009 11:40:08


Hi Karen

There have been no decisions about the Taxpayers Alliance themselves that I know of but lots of decisions about access to salary information. You can read the scripts to my podcasts as well as the articles in the Law Society Gazette where I make mention of them.  The latest article and podcast discusses a case involving the Department for Transport which is about disclosure of salaries and bonuses.

Based on all the cases my view is that:

- salary bands are disclosable but not salaries
- same with bonuses though better to gross these up with salaries to disclose the overall sum paid within a £5,000 band
- disclosure of names of officers depends on seniority and job role - the more senior or front facing the more likely to be disclosed (see the IT decision involving the Ministry of Defence and Rob Evans - again mentioned in the podcasts and articles.)

Request one - disclosable

Request two - see above

To find the decisions and references you could do a keyword search using the Google search facility on my website. Hope this helps.
 
Karen wrote (11/12/2009 09:38:11):

We have just received our yearly request from Taxpayers Alliance as follows:

I am writing to request details of the total remuneration of senior council staff.  “Total remuneration” includes, but is not limited to, items such as base salary, bonus, benefits in kind, car allowances, expenses, payments for returning officer duties and redundancy payments.

1. For each year 2007-08 and 2008-09, the number of council staff receiving total remuneration of £100,000 or more each. 

2. For each year 2007-08 and 2008-09, and for each individual included in question 1 above, the individual’s name, position, total remuneration and a full breakdown of that remuneration.

Do you know whether there have been any decisions in the past regarding responses to Taxpayers Alliance?  Our feeling is that we should respond to most of it, though are not sure on the benefits in kind or redundancy payments. However, we are likely to be met with “resistance” by senior managers so if there is any evidence out there to back up our advice, I would be grateful if you could point me towards it.



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