Council finances briefly open
If you want to get really detailed financial documents from your local council, there is a much more powerful tool than the Freedom of Information Act - but blink and you may miss the chance to use it.
It's the Audit Commission Act in England, which gives you the right to see the accounts and all the accompanying financial documents for the council's audit. In Scotland it's the Local Authority Accounts (Scotland) Regulations 1985; in Wales the Public Audit (Wales) Act 2004; and in Northern Ireland the Local Government (Accounts and Audits) Regualtions (NI) 2006.
But it only applies for a short period each year. You've got to know when that is, and strangely enough councils don't seem to give it enormous publicity.
Now the Orchard News agency has peformed the valuable service on its website of collating the relevant dates for many different councils.
This is a rarely used public information right. Some time back I produced a documentary for Radio 4 about access to information with my colleague Michael Crick. When as part of it he visited his local council Wandsworth in south London to look at their audit documentation, he found that he was only the second person to have done this in fourteen years.
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What is the procedure for getting this information once the "season", as it were, is open?
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It should be made available for you to look at if you just turn up at the council offices and ask to see it, but it's probably helpful to phone the council finance department in advance and make an arrangement.
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Thank you so much for bringing this to wider public attention. I had no idea there was such a fabulous piece of legislation out there!!!
I have just telephoned my local authority (they have a 24hour contact centre) and expressed a desire to exercise my rights under Section 15 as the period for Liverpool is currently 'open'.
The person with whom I was speaking didn't know anything about the Audit Commission Act but has taken my contact details and promised me I will get a call back on Monday.
I shall see what transpires then.
It's not often I get excited about any of the legislation I have seen in recent years, but this one is a real gem!
Thanks again :)
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I am disappointed to discover that I missed the window for my council by 2 days. Thanks for the information though, I will make use of it next year.
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Just a quick update...
My local authority unsurprisingly failed to reply to me on Monday as promised.
I telephoned them again and was told if I wanted this information I needed to make a request under FOI.
I then e-mailed the Director of Finance and asked him to point me in the right direction for accessing the information under the Audit Commission Act, and although I have the nice little 'Read-Receipt' for my e-mail, he too has not replied to me.
I also made a request to the Police Authority by e-mail and they have ignored me aswell.
Great piece of legislation, but when those subject to it just ignore it, what do you do then?
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This is very interesting, I found myself in litigation with Wandsworth council and one of the ways to prove my case was to get access to the audited accounts.
I experienced great difficulty in accessing this and Wandsworth put up many barriers to prevent me from doing so - citing costs as a barrier, and insisting I had to do it 'at the council offices, during working hours (9-4 in the council's case, and to have a member of council staff accompany me - like I'm going to steal them or something).
As it turned out Wandsworth settled out of court and it wasn't required.
However this issue of cost seems to arise time after time. I'm afraid it's not an acceptable reason for not releasing public information. I agree that there should be a cost burden on the public body - so why haven't they started publishing this information in advance?
They will have to face facts that it's more expensive to fulfil 5 FOI requests for the same thing than it is to simply make the information publicly available in the first place. Unfortunately it will probably be the year 3000 before local government catch up and apply sensible thinking.
I think this FOI act is the best legislation ever. It's not even that the information is that exciting or revealing when you finally see it - but it's very interesting to see which bits if information public bodies don't think you shoudl be seeing.
MP's expenses is a good example - it's not that exciting or revealling really - but all the fuss they made over not wanting to reveal it has put it under greater scrutiny.
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Steve,
Coincidentally, I'm on the case of Liverpool. I think there's three of us after this independently (must be something in the air, given that it's officially the worst run council in the country), so they're going to have to learn to handle us.
The incomprehensible press release which (barely) satisfies Section 16 (Notice to the Public) is under "public notice" here:
http://www.liverpool.gov.uk/Council_government_and_democracy/About_your_council/Council_finance/Statement_of_accounts/index.asp
I went yesterday and saw the Jean Sibeon (Head of Finance). She said as there's so much of it available, I need to specify which bits I want and to come back later. Her phone is: 0151 225 2263. I suggest you have an idea of what you want to look at and book an appoint. I don't know what to expect yet.
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Many thanks to Martin for referring to the ONB survey. It has been a busy few weeks on the phone to switchboards and finance offices!
We had a detailed discussion at a conference at City University, London, for journalists and academics this past weekend, regarding FOI and audit commission access rights.
Our survey of nearly 200 local authorities and police authorities in England and Wales over the last few weeks has illustrated several points.
Firstly, some LAs and PAs don't seem to be aware that the 'window' was extended from 15 days to 20 days in 2003, and are closing accounts 'early'.
Having said that - Portsmouth leaves its books open to inspection for 12 months! And if they can do it, why can't the others?
Secondly, very few people (including journalists) actually bother to make enquiries. This legislation is simply underused.
Thirdly, some LAs and PAs (eg: Lancashire CC) advertise the dates on websites but the vast majority don't.
I'd like to hear about how people get on with any enquiries they make. Perhaps we can all learn from each other's experiences. Let's keep this discussion going?
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