What did Cllr Gordon Friel answer when asked about guards and the Merseyrail strike?

What did Cllr Gordon Friel answer when asked about guards and the Merseyrail strike?

What did Cllr Gordon Friel answer when asked about guards and the Merseyrail strike?

                                              

Cllr Gordon Friel (Transport Committee, Liverpool City Region Combined Authority) 4th January 2018 answering questions about Merseyrail strike action
Cllr Gordon Friel (Transport Committee, Liverpool City Region Combined Authority) 4th January 2018 answering questions about Merseyrail strike action

In an update to the blog post headlined Why are there 3 further days of strike action on the Merseyrail network this month?, on Thursday afternoon I asked Cllr Gordon Friel questions about the strike referred to in that earlier post.
Continue reading “What did Cllr Gordon Friel answer when asked about guards and the Merseyrail strike?”

Why are Bombardier suing Merseytravel over the contract for new trains?

Why are Bombardier suing Merseytravel over the contract for new trains?

Why are Bombardier suing Merseytravel over the contract for new trains?

                                           

Councillor Steve Foulkes (Lead Member for Finance and Organisational Development) (left) at a Merseytravel Committee meeting
Councillor Steve Foulkes (Lead Member for Finance and Organisational Development) (left) at a Merseytravel Committee meeting

Edited 26.11.17 to include link to Hansard report of parliamentary debate and also text of first two pages of Particulars of Claim.

I’ve written previously about the large sum that Merseytravel is spending to defend a legal challenge brought by Bombardier over the procurement of new trains on the Merseyrail network.

You can read a decision by The Hon Mr Justice Coulson as to whether the Particulars of Claim are confidential here. That decision decides that the Particulars of Claim are not confidential.
Continue reading “Why are Bombardier suing Merseytravel over the contract for new trains?”

Who are the 17 candidates in the elections of Members of Parliament for Birkenhead, Wallasey, Wirral South and Wirral West?

Who are the 17 candidates in the elections of Members of Parliament for Birkenhead, Wallasey, Wirral South and Wirral West?

Who are the 17 candidates in the elections of Members of Parliament for Birkenhead, Wallasey, Wirral South and Wirral West?

                                       

Holy Cross primary school Bidston polling station Bidston St James 4th May 2017 resized
Holy Cross primary school Bidston polling station Bidston St James 4th May 2017 resized

I will declare an interest in this piece as my father has proposed one of the candidates.

The deadline for nominations (plus a £500 deposit) ended yesterday at 4 pm and the candidates in the general election to be Members of Parliament for Wirral West, Wirral South, Birkenhead and Wallasey are now known.

They are as follows (by constituency alphabetically, then by surname alphabetically).

BIRKENHEAD

Allan John BRAME (Liberal Democrats)
Jayne Louise Stephanie CLOUGH (Green Party)
Frank FIELD (Labour Party)
Stewart Anthony GARDINER (Conservative Party)

WALLASEY

Debbie CAPLIN (United Kingdom Independence Party)
Paul Philip CHILDS (Liberal Democrats)
Lily CLOUGH (Green Party)
Angela EAGLE (Labour Party)
Andy LIVSEY (Conservative Party)

WIRRAL SOUTH

Chris CARUBIA (Liberal Democrats)
Alison MCGOVERN (Labour Party)
Mandi ROBERTS (Green Party)
Adam Christopher SYKES (Conservative Party)

WIRRAL WEST

Tony CALDEIRA (Conservative Party)
John Bernard Cowan COYNE (Green Party)
Margaret GREENWOOD (Labour Party)
Peter Timothy Clifford REISDORF (Liberal Democrats)

If you click on any of the buttons below, you’ll be doing me a favour by sharing this result with other people.

What new right does the Local Audit (Public Access to Documents) Act 2017 give to journalists?

What new right does the Local Audit (Public Access to Documents) Act 2017 give to journalists?

What new right does the Local Audit (Public Access to Documents) Act 2017 give to journalists?

                                       

Six Pump Court invoice £2400 Liverpool City Council David Hercock thumbnail
Six Pump Court invoice £2400 Liverpool City Council David Hercock thumbnail | Above is a £2,400 invoice to Liverpool City Council from David Hercock of Six Pump Court for a brief on an appeal involving Tharmathevy Thanabalasingam of Kenny Food and Wine. This invoice went to P (which stands for Paul) Merriman. The matter was an appeal of a decision made by councillors. Clicking on the thumbnail will load an easier to read version.

Despite the fact there is a byelection of a councillor for Claughton (as well as the Liverpool City Region Combined Authority Mayor) on Thursday another election (the snap general election) has led to this blog post I am writing.

When a general election is called, some legislation goes through the wash-up and gets passed in the last few days of a Parliament before MPs cease to be MPs (just for information Parliament dissolves on the 3rd May 2017).

There are a number that received Royal Asset recently that effect local government, such as the Guardianship (Missing Persons) Act 2017, Local Audit (Public Access to Documents) Act 2017, Bus Services Act 2017, Neighbourhood Planning Act 2017, Children and Social Work Act 2017 and Parking Places (Variation of Charges) Act 2017.

However I wanted to write about the Local Audit (Public Access to Documents) Act 2017.

Since Victorian times there has been a period each year when the public can inspect and make copies of accounting records relating to the previous financial year. Copies can be made by the person doing the inspection (or more usually requested from the public body concerned).

These are connected to rights of local government electors to make objections about whether money is lawfully spent and related matters.

The legislation since Victorian times has given this right to “persons interested” which has been interpreted over the years by the courts as applying to those registered to vote for the area concerned, bodies that pay business rates in that area and those who are representatives of those two classes (such as an accountant acting on behalf of a local government elector).

This means for example I that didn’t previously have a legal right to ask to look at the financial records for Liverpool City Council. In fact back then I asked to do so, you can find some of those invoices here, but when I rather stupidly told them I didn’t live in Liverpool, it all got a bit (and I paraphrase) “these are local council financial records for local people – there’s nothing for wools like you to see here” and they politely told me the rest of my request was refused.

Liverpool City Council for example in this 17-18 financial year have agreed to spend:

Revenue (net base budget): £399.6 million
Capital: £131.6 million

The change made by the Local Audit (Public Access to Documents) Act 2017 means that in 2 months time the definition will be “persons interested or any journalist”.

“journalist” is defined as any person who produces for publication journalistic material (whether paid to do so or otherwise).

So it covers those who do for a living such as myself, unpaid bloggers and a wide variety of other people too.

The Act received Royal Assent on the 27th April 2017, so 27th April 2017 plus 2 months means it’ll come into force (although please correct me if I’m a day or two out) 29th June 2017. It applies only to public bodies based in England or Wales.

There are three classes of public bodies (Category 1, Category 2 and Category 2 with exempt status).

Category 1 are those with a yearly expenditure or income of over £6.5 million a year, or smaller bodies that have decided to have a full audit.

Category 2 are the ones with a spend or income of less than £6.5 million a year.

Category 2 with exempt status have to be bodies with income or expenditure of less than £25,000 a year, are not less than 3 years old and with no concerns raised by the auditors (or courts) in the preceding financial year.

When the 30 day period starts and ends is a decision to be made by the public body, but cover specific dates*:-

*I’m assuming at this point that the Accounts and Audit Regulations 2015 still sets this.

Category 1 – the first ten working days in June following the end of the financial year
Category 2 – the first ten working days in July following the end of the financial year

So this means for journalists, the new legal right (which will come into force near the end of June) will only cover part of the inspection period this year.

Example

30 working day period runs from 1.6.17 to 12.7.17

“persons interested” from 1.6.17 to 12.7.17
“journalists” from 29.6.17 to 12.7.17

It effectively compresses the inspection period for journalists to a fortnight for Category 1 authorities (although it is to be noted the old inspection period used to be only four weeks).

The chief financial officer for category 1 and category 2 authorities are required by law to publish a public notice on their website alerting the public to this 30 working day inspection period before it starts.

Last year, locally both Merseytravel and the Liverpool City Region Combined Authority failed to achieve this somewhat basic step within the required timescales.

If you click on any of the buttons below, you’ll be doing me a favour by sharing this article with other people.

Incredible: how many more people will die early from air pollution as politicians delay?

Incredible: how many more people will die early from air pollution as politicians delay?

Incredible: how many more people will die early from air pollution as politicians delay?

                                    

Mayor Joe Anderson Chair at a meeting of the Liverpool City Region Combined Authority 21st April 2017
Mayor Joe Anderson Chair at a meeting of the Liverpool City Region Combined Authority 21st April 2017

Air quality is an issue that affects everybody and is a cross-cutting theme that covers both the Combined Authority Mayoral election and the General Election.

The story so far is that the judiciary ruled that the government was not doing enough to combat air pollution. Air pollution was causing an estimated 40,000 early deaths a year.

The judgement published in November 2016 ([2016] EWHC 2740 (Admin)) pointed out that the 2015 Air Quality Plan had to be quashed and the government was required to come up with a new Air Quality Plan.

Despite having 5 months to come up with a new plan, now they want to delay matters by at least a further 2 months because of the General Election (followed by a consultation).

As a result of the court case, the government were required to publish a new Air Quality Plan by 4 pm yesterday (but didn’t), instead they have made an application to the court for an extension.

I include below what was said in the House of Commons yesterday on this matter which contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0
Continue reading “Incredible: how many more people will die early from air pollution as politicians delay?”