5th October 2012

The FoI request:  http://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/secret_agreement_allowing_suspen

More on Coleman here, from the Local Government Chronicle, including some far-fetched guff about how it would cost the public over a million “if we don’t act decisively in their interest.”

It’s not often these people act in the public interest…  if at all, so don’t be fooled into believing this is the slightest bit genuine.

Dear Wirral Metropolitan Borough Council,

On 3rd October 2012, former Acting Chief Executive; former Finance
Director, and suspended senior officer Ian Coleman received
permission, as part of a protected process, concealed from public
view, to leave his employment with Wirral Council.  According to the
press, this is believed to involve the granting of an early
retirement package worth £82,000.

http://www.wirralglobe.co.uk/news/996522…

Above is a link to a news story published the next day in the
Wirral Globe, which reported this matter.  The comments beneath the
article also indicate the strength of feeling amongst an outraged
public.

The former CEO, Jim Wilkie, who himself is the subject of another
freedom of information request, currently breaching the FOI Act:

http://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/ag…

…admitted to years of learning disabled abuse by the council.
This was followed by the departure of two senior social services
officers in January of this year.  It is still not clear whether
these two individuals WERE leaving as a result of their involvement
in abuse AND whether they signed compromise agreements with gagging
clauses.  As of today, despite several assurances, Wirral have not
responded to the following FoI request and are many months overdue
and again in breach of the FOI Act:

http://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/da…

The Wirral public have still yet to see any sign of accountability
or a reckoning towards the as yet anonymous employees who
perpetrated this sustained abuse against learning disabled people
over a period of several years.

There were also abuses of power, as found by two independent
investigations – but which remain unpunished. Admission to learning
disabled abuse here (See 7.1):

http://democracy.wirral.gov.uk/mgConvert…

Please provide all information you have which is connected to the
departure of Mr Coleman.  This will relate to meetings, hearings,
discussions, reports, and may be stored in the form of recorded
minutes, verbatim and non-verbatim notes, emails, letters, memos,
aide memoirs, documents, whether electronically or manually stored.

Please confirm and provide details of the existence of any payments
made to Mr Coleman in relation to his departure.  This will indicate
which position / role he was fulfilling and the total amount(s) of
final salary pension monies released attached to that role.  This
will include precise amounts, the method of payment and the budget
from which the payment was / is to be derived.

Please confirm details of the existence of any “compromise
agreement” or “confidentiality agreement” or “compromise contract”
or “confidentiality contract” agreed and signed by Mr Coleman in
relation to this departure or to his involvement in abuse or
malpractice.  This will include confirmation and description of any
‘gagging clauses’ and whether a positive / neutral / negative
reference was provided regarding potential future employment.

In light of the [strangely] recent discovery by Wirral’s Chief
Internal Auditor David Garry that “compromise contracts” were NOT
being recorded but were being arranged behind closed doors, beyond
any councillor scrutiny and beyond view of the public:

http://democracy.wirral.gov.uk/documents…

…please describe the exact process that was followed and supply the
documents, reports, aide memoirs, notes, etc. that were created and
recorded as part of the NEW process.  Please take a deep breath
before you do this, and ponder your overriding duty to act not out
of self-interest, but fairly and impartially in the unbending
service of us the public.

Please provide the names and addresses of all organisations /
bodies involved in providing legal advice to Mr Coleman. Please
also provide details of meetings which occurred including times,
dates and matters discussed.
Please confirm the details of any disciplinary charges either
planned or levelled against Mr Coleman in relation to any failures
/ malpractice / abuse which may or may not have brought about his
departure from the Council.

If Mr Coleman was provided with a “clean bill of health” regarding
his time served at the council, please provide a copy of this /
these document(s).

Please redact documents as you see fit, and remove any personally
sensitive information in accordance with the requirements of the
Data Protection Act.”

Please be mindful that if Mr Coleman was the “Acting Chief
Executive” and fulfilling that role, and paid / rewarded in line
with that role as part of this secret agreement, I am making you
aware that case law within this area, combined with the legitimate
and compelling public interest demands a far greater degree of
openness,

Yours faithfully,

Paul Cardin

6th October 2012

This is probably covered by the above, but just to be certain, I’ve added the following:

Dear Wirral Metropolitan Borough Council,

Further to the publicised £82,000 figure, please include the total
amounts of any additional severance payments, the existence of
which may not have been referred to within the publicity material
released by Wirral Council.

Indeed this figure may be calculated subsequent to 3rd October
2012. Please look for it, and if found, supply it.

Given the ongoing climate of ongoing scandal on Wirral, the public
interest is building very quickly on this important case, and I
believe it will need to be satisfied with early answers,

Yours faithfully,

Paul Cardin

Response in from FoI section at Wirral:

From: InfoMgr, FinDMT
Wirral Metropolitan Borough Council
2 November 2012

Good Morning

Thank you for your request below, Wirral Council can confirm there were no
additional payments.  Please see link where the report has been published
on our web site.

[1]http://democracy.wirral.gov.uk/ieListDoc…

Thank you for your enquiry, kind regards

Kind regards

Tracy O’Hare

Information Management

Wirral Council

And then, three days later:

From: InfoMgr, FinDMT
Wirral Metropolitan Borough Council
5 November 2012

Good Morning

Thank you for your request below, Wirral Council can confirm this is
information held with a view to publication at a future date and considers
this information exempt from disclosure under section 22 FOIA 2000 as
information that the authority is intending to publish at a future date

You have the right under Section 17 of the Freedom of Information Act 2000
to ask for an internal review of the refusal of the information
requested.  Please would you direct any request for an internal review to
Mr Michael Rowan, Legal and Member Services, Department of Law, HR and
Asset Management, Town Hall, Brighton Street, Wallasey, CH44 8ED
You do also have the right to complain to the information Commissioner, if
you are dissatisfied with the outcome of any internal review, whose office
is situated at:

Information Commissioner’s Office
Wycliffe House
Water Lane
Wilmslow
Cheshire SK9 5AF
Tel: 08456 30 60 60 or 01625 54 57 45
Fax: 01625 524510  www.ico.gov.uk <[1]http://www.ico.gov.uk/>

Thank you for your enquiry, kind regards

Tracy O’Hare
Information Management
Wirral Council

My response:

From: Paul Cardin
5 November 2012

Dear InfoMgr, FinDMT,

I have requested a diverse range of information and now seek some
further clarification.

In order for me to proceed, please re-read my original request and
respond more precisely on the nature of the information which you
have a settled intention to publish to the general public in the
future.

OR… confirm the following:

o Apart from the existence of ‘additional payments’, which was
previously dealt with, the authority is engaging a Section 22
exemption on the remaining full range of diverse information which
I have requested.

Once I have your response, which I hope arrives this week, I will
consider whether to request an internal review or not,

Yours sincerely,

Paul Cardin

I am asking the council to list the information which it is going to publish.  I asked for a varied spread of info.  They’d come back and told me there weren’t any additional payments, so is it now going to publish everything else I asked for at a later date?  Does the Section 22 exemption used here cover everything else?  If not, then the exemption is NOT engaged and will fail.

UPDATE   6th December 2012

As they hadn’t responded, I prodded them as follows:

From: Paul Cardin
6 December 2012