Why did Liverpool City Council release the names of children and their parents in childcare proceedings and a vulnerable adult?
Why did Liverpool City Council release the names of children and their parents in childcare proceedings and a vulnerable adult?
I do not have permission from either the Family Court nor the Court of Protection to publish the names of parties involved in these cases with Liverpool City Council. So those names I have blurred in green.
Yet, in what will not surprise anyone Liverpool City Council’s redactions of these documents during a public inspection meant the names of parents, children and parties was revealed to me. Their staff even let me take away copies.
Before publication I have covered some of these up in green.
Liverpool City Council’s Chief Executive in his capacity as Combined Authority Returning Officer states that we are not a media organisation.
Whereas Liverpool City Council may wish to live in a world where they can control the media, there is a point where it can backfire. The press is independent.
Maybe ICO will slap them on the wrist and tell them to improve.
Or maybe this sort of matter is taken seriously?
I don’t know, but tomorrow voters in Wavertree will get to vote whether they want more of the same or a change.
Is the way Liverpool City Council treats the personal information of vulnerable adults and children replicated in their attitude towards how they treat them? With a lack of care?
If you click on any of the buttons below, you’ll be doing me a favour by sharing this article with other people.
EXCLUSIVE: 155 invoices paid by Wirral Council in 2013/14 for legal services, external audit, physiotherapy and psychological assessments
EXCLUSIVE: 155 invoices paid by Wirral Council in 2013/14 for legal services, external audit, physiotherapy and psychological assessments
Below are 155 of the invoices I requested during the 2013/14 audit. They range from invoices to the Council’s external auditor Grant Thornton UK LLP, criminal work, a couple of judicial reviews, appealing an ICO decision notice to the First Tier Tribunal (Information Rights) as well as a lot of times Wirral Council have taken parents to court about their children. Some of these invoices I’ve previously written about on this blog, such as about the invoice about appealing the ICO decision notice. Turns out now I look at it more carefully there was a further invoice for £1,008 from February 2014 in that matter too.
Some of the others I’ve already on the blog as I received them in August 2014. However I didn’t publish them in August because I’ve had to go through a process of blacking out all the names (and partial names) of children and parents.
Added in green to many invoices are the representative (where known) from the list of payments in 2013/14 greater than £500. I’ve also added back in (on some) text which has been obscured by information blacked out on double-sided pages and bled through.
There is an index to all 155 invoices that can be downloaded here. I’ve tried to use the following file format when naming each file “Wirral Council invoice” followed by representative/organisation, amount, date, page number where there are multiple pages for the same invoice followed by invoice number.
Invoices 73 & 74 aren’t published here as they were cancelled and replaced by invoices 75 & 76. There is another batch of invoices I have yet to scan in, which is a mix of invoices for legal services and other general invoices. Below you should find all 155 invoices.
If you click on any of these buttons below, you’ll be doing me a favour by sharing this article with other people. Thanks:
1 invoice and 1 letter about the secret Court application I’m not allowed to write about that cost Wirral Council £535.20
1 invoice and 1 letter about the secret Court application I’m not allowed to write about that cost Wirral Council £535.20
I’m going to write a story now to show you how difficult it is to do investigative journalism in this country due to the legal framework here, as there are details I know about this story which is would be unlawful for me to publish.
There are two documents associated with this story so first I have to explain the background as to what they are and why I got them. The first is an invoice dated 13th January 2014 to Wirral Council from Lees Solicitors to Wirral Council for the sum of £535.20. This is for:
36 minutes preparation for a hearing at £160/hour 36 minutes which is £96 (+ VAT of £19.20) = £115.20
Counsel’s fee £350 (+VAT of £70) = £420
Grand total: £535.20
Due to legal restrictions *(*don’t you just love this country sometimes and their restrictions on the press?) although I know the names of the parties (such as the Applicant and Respondent) in this case, I’m not allowed to publish either of them on this blog. I cannot tell you who (although I know) the Applicant or Respondent are. In fact I’d better not tell you the date of the hearing, just in case you use that to somehow figure out who the Applicant and Respondent are. As far as I can tell (maybe I’m wrong) I’m not allowed to get a copy of or publish the Court Order (if there is one) that resulted from the hearing to consider the application.
This is openness and transparency in the local courts British style.
So why are Wirral Council paying £535.20 to Lees Solicitors for the legal work outlined in the invoice below? I think I’ve gone as far as I can do in answering that question as the rest would be educated guesswork.
Ironically I get more openness and transparency from Laura Quarry of the Family Court at Birkenhead than I get from Wirral Council in this matter in her letter to me dated 27th October 2014 (also below that the Wirral Council invoice). Mind you it is not hard to be more open and transparent than Wirral Council is it?
Laura Quarry states “Thank you for your letter dated 24th October 2014. This case is a Private Law Family matter. Therefore as you are not a party to this application, we cannot provide you with the documents you have requested. The documents you have requested refer to a civil matter and the case number you have provided is not a civil case number.
If you can provide us with a civil case number we can process your request. Please find enclosed your fee.”
If anyone would like to translate exactly what that means by leaving a comment, please do! I think I understand what she means although I may be wrong!
So which department is involved at Wirral Council in Family Court matters that the press aren’t allowed to write about? Why the Children and Young Peoples Department at Wirral Council of course! Who else?
In a recent change a few years ago, the press can be present at court hearings in the Family Court, however we’re still not allowed to report the details. The Family Court run to a different set of rules to the rest of the court system you see.
If you click on any of the buttons below, you’ll be doing me a favour by sharing this with other people.