Audit and Risk Management | A blog about Wirral Council, Wirral Council's councillors & officers

Why do councillors get allowances tax-free and YOU end up paying the £10,820.28 tax?

In an update to the earlier story Why is there a £17k to £19k discrepancy in allowances and expenses for councillors on Merseyside Fire and Rescue Authority?, Merseyside Fire and Rescue Service have been in touch to explain what’s going on.

Firstly, when Merseyside Fire and Rescue Authority declared that councillors cost (and told the public this at a public meeting) £7k in expenses earlier in the year (it was this public meeting).

This should’ve actually been £14k.

£7k was the amount claimed back by councillors, Merseyside Fire and Rescue Service then paid a further £7k in expenses directly (that should’ve been included in the figures).

With me so far?

No I come to a rather shocking revelation.

The allowances paid to councillors at Merseyside Fire and Rescue Authority are paid tax-free. A Wirral Council councillor has left a comment stating that for Wirral Council, income tax and NI are deducted from councillors’ allowance from the amounts councillors receive.

I’ll try and explain.

I’m self-employed so I have to declare what I earn each year to HMRC [Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs]. HMRC then tell me how much National Insurance and Income Tax I pay and I pay that out of my gross profits.

However councillors are paid allowances and at MFRA (and presumably other public bodies but not Wirral Council) that pays them the allowance is paying any income tax or National Insurance due on top of that!

It isn’t coming out of their allowances! So everybody else has to pay tax out of their gross pay councillors do not! Who pays for this cosy arrangement? You do through taxes!

The amounts of course for a small authority like Merseyside Fire and Rescue Authority for these beneficial tax arrangements the costs are small (£10,820.28) as it has only eighteen councillors.

However in the annual totals published each year because of the The Local Authorities (Members’ Allowances) (England) Regulations 2003, SI 2003/1021 these amounts are not included. This misleads the public into thinking that councillors cost far less than they actually do cost.

The Wirral Council figures for councillors allowances for 2014/15 were published earlier this year. These figures presumably include income tax/NI, whereas similar figures for the MFRA do not.

In a question I posed to Councillor Adrian Jones earlier this year he stated “however in future the cost of Member’s [councillor’s] taxi journeys undertaken pertinent to these taxi contracts will be published on the Council’s website as soon as practicable after the end of each financial year.”

This response to a FOI request I made, shows the total spend on councillors for taxis from April to December 2014 was £1,829.55.

So over the whole year, that would be an estimated £2,400.

The figures however declared in the official expenses table only come to less than a thousand pounds.

Obviously this means the taxi amounts have once again not been included with the official figures despite Councillor Adrian Jones suggesting that they would.

I exercised my Audit Commission Act 1998, s.15 right this year (as I’m a local government elector in Wirral) to copies of the paperwork to do with expenses.

Wirral was supposed to (as not to do so would be breaking the law) provide them by the end of the inspection period which finished on the 14th August 2015.

This is to allow a reasonable period for any questions to the auditor or any objections to be resolved by the time the accounts have to be closed by 30th September 2015.

I have sadly only received a very small fraction of what I requested.

Merseytravel, Merseyside Fire and Rescue Authority and Merseyside Waste Disposal Authority all managed to provide the information either by the end of the inspection period or shortly after.

Wirral Council has not. It’s now over a month passed the 14th August 2015 and I’m still waiting.

There’s also a right to inspect these councillor expenses, again Wirral Council just states that they are dealing with this under the audit legislation, that the paperwork they have from HR on councillor expenses is incomplete therefore I can’t see it yet!!!

I mean seriously! They didn’t mind giving me incomplete paperwork last year (but did mind me pointing out it was incomplete and having to go back and do it properly).

Apparently they’ve spent some money this time on software to black bits out, since the Vincenti incident and the accidental disclosure of ~200 members of staff names, dates of birth, national insurance numbers and pension details to me in a contract it seems that Wirral Council has difficulties in doing this right.

Quite why Merseytravel, Merseyside Fire and Rescue Authority and Merseyside Waste Disposal Authority didn’t have any major difficulties (bearing in mind these are public authorities that from memory have a far smaller budget than Wirral Council), even when one of the documents I requested was an over 800 page £1.2 billion contract with a company to send Merseyside’s rubbish on a train far away and burn it with many redactions scattered through the contract or with a contract with Merseyside Fire and Rescue Authority, that was so big it came on DVD and on paper took up three massive storage boxes (in fact the contract is so large I’ve only been able to publish part of it), I think has to do with the fact that those public authorities have a culture of taking their legal obligations more seriously.

These other public authorities understand a culture of openness and accountability, but Wirral Council can sadly (despite improvements) cling to an insular culture from its past. This culture was in part what led to the events that removed of a previous Labour administration in 2012 and former Leader of the Council Cllr Steve Foulkes.

Wirral Council likes it seems to be downright unusual and not learn from best practice elsewhere how to get better. As detailed above in the question to Councillor Jones, change from practices that shouldn’t happen are promised, but then the changes that have been promised don’t happen.

The public notice for those other authorities (apart from one that didn’t include a name) meant the request went straight to a member of their senior management team.

At Wirral Council that wasn’t the case.

At those other authorities this meant the request got dealt with within or near the timescales as the “instructions came down from on high” .

Fort Perch Rock car park New Brighton 29th June 2015 photo 1

I might point out that last year using the same rights under the audit, I published part of a Wirral Council lease with Neptune about car parking in New Brighton that was referred to in the Cabinet decision to U-turn and abandon plans to introduce charges for car parking at Fort Perch Rock.

Wirral Council would seriously try the patience of a saint. Sadly they force me into a position where I have to use arcane legal procedures and involve the external auditor (thus costing Wirral Council more by sadly driving up their external audit costs) to try and get anywhere.

Wirral Council’s Audit and Risk Management Committee meets next week on the 22nd September to discuss the 2014/15 accounts. One of the matters they’ll be discussing formed an earlier story on this blog.

The £6.9 billion Merseyside Pension Fund that Wirral Council manages pays a pension to a close relative of mine so I had better declare that as an interest.

However does anyone have any suggestions as to what I can to ensure Wirral Council does things better?

Or do people already think I’m perfectly capable of answering that one myself?

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Did Wirral Council’s Pensions Committee really approve the accounts of the £6.9 billion Merseyside Pension Fund?

Pensions Committee (Merseyside Pension Fund) 15th September 2015 Left Peter Wallach Head of Pensions Right Cllr Paul Doughty Chair of the Pensions Committee

Below is a copy of my statutory objection to the approval of the accounts of the Merseyside Pension Fund (a £6.9 billion pension fund that form part of Wirral Council’s accounts) which go to Wirral Council and its auditors Grant Thornton.

It’s rather dull and technical, but in the interests of openness and transparency I am publishing it below. It relates to yesterday’s meeting of the Pensions Committee that can be viewed below. I was so cheesed off I made two spelling mistakes in the email (a corrected version is below).

Plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose!

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Wirral Council’s Pension Committee public meeting of the 15th September 2015 Part 1 of 2 (Merseyside Pension Fund)

I reckon receiving this email will probably be about as welcome at Wirral Council as someone breaking wind in an open plan office. However such is life! The press are independent for a reason!

Subject: Statutory objection to Pensions Committee approval of Merseyside Pension Fund Accounts for 2014/15

CC: Pat Philips
CC: Colin Hughes
CC: Surjit Tour
CC: Peter Wallach
CC: Joe Blott
CC: Tom Sault

CC: Cllr Paul Doughty
CC: Cllr Ann McLachlan
CC: Cllr George Davies
CC: Cllr Treena Johnson (email address unknown)
CC: Cllr Adrian Jones
CC: Cllr Brian Kenny
CC: Cllr Geoffrey Watt
CC: Cllr Kathy Hodson
CC: Cllr Cherry Povall
CC: Cllr Pat Cleary
CC: Cllr Anita Leech

CC: Cllr Nick Crofts (Liverpool City Council)
CC: Cllr John Fulham (St Helens Council)
CC: Cllr William Weightman (Knowsley Council)
CC: Paulette Lappin (Sefton Council)

CC: Cllr Jim Crabtree
CC: Cllr Ron Abbey
CC: Cllr Chris Blakeley
CC: Cllr Angela Davies
CC: Cllr David Elderton
CC: Cllr Phil Gilchrist
CC: Cllr John Hale
CC: Cllr Matthew Patrick

CC: Fiona Blatcher
CC: Heather Green
CC: Chris Blakemore

Dear all,

I am a local government elector in the Wirral Metropolitan Borough Council area and make this statutory objection to the Pensions Committee approval of the the Merseyside Pension Fund Accounts for 2014/15 (see Audit Commission Act 1998, s.16).

For the purposes of clarity to the auditor this is a statutory objection to a matter not in relation to a matter covered by Audit Commission Act 1998, s.17-18 but Audit Commission Act 1998, s.8.

As required I am sending a copy of this objection to the auditor, those I have contact details for on Wirral Council’s Pensions Committee (I do not have an email address for Cllr Treena Johnson), Wirral Council’s Audit and Risk Management Committee and those tasked with corporate governance at Wirral Council such as the Monitoring Officer Mr. Tour, the Head of Pensions Peter Wallach, the Strategic Director for Transformation and Resources Joe Blott and Tom Sault the Acting 151 Officer as well as other relevant people.

I do not have contact details for some on the Pensions Committee. I am sending this to the officer who took the minutes of the Pensions Committee meeting on the 14th September 2015 in the hope that it can be forwarded to those I do not have contact details for (the non-councillor members and Cllr Treena Johnson).

As this is a rather technical objection, I provide below a summary of the key points.

However I first need to declare an interest. I have a close family relative who is currently paid a pension by Merseyside Pension Fund, therefore a close interest in the corporate governance of the Fund being done properly.

On the 14th September 2015, I and three other members of the public (two of whom were employed by Grant Thornton and are Wirral Council’s auditors) attended a public meeting of Wirral Council’s Pensions Committee.

This meeting was filmed by myself and published shortly after, see

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and

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One of the functions of the Pensions Committee as detailed in Wirral Council’s constitution is to approve the statement of accounts and financial statements of the Merseyside Pension Fund and recommend these to the Audit and Risk Management Committee.

This is because the Merseyside Pension Fund forms part of Wirral Council’s accounts. There is a statutory deadline to approve the statement of accounts for the 2014/15 financial year by the 30th September 2015.

As mentioned at the Pensions Committee itself by one of the councillors this Fund is valued at ~£6.9 billion.

Item 4 and 5 on the agenda of that meeting were the pension fund accounts 2014/15 and draft annual report.

As the Pensions Committee is a public meeting of a local authority, legislation that governs public meetings applies to it. The statement of accounts formed part of a document known as the “Report & Accounts 2014/15” which was given to those on the Pensions Committee present on the afternoon of the meeting itself.

Please note the reference below to principal council, by virtue of Local Government Act 1972, s.100E also apply to committees and sub-committees of a principal council. The Pensions Committee is a committee of a principal council.

Local Government Act 1972, s.100B(4), is quite clear on the procedure that should be followed in the case of agenda items that are not open to inspection by members of the public five clear days before the meeting.

(4) An item of business may not be considered at a meeting of a principal council unless either—

(a) a copy of the agenda including the item (or a copy of the item) is open to inspection by members of the public in pursuance of subsection (1) above for at least [five clear days] before the meeting or, where the meeting is convened at shorter notice, from the time the meeting is convened; or

(b) by reason of special circumstances, which shall be specified in the minutes, the chairman of the meeting is of the opinion that the item should be considered at the meeting as a matter of urgency.

It is clear that the Report & Accounts 2014/15 for the Merseyside Pension Fund did not fall under the description in s. 100B (4)(a) and therefore the procedure in 100B(4)(b) applies. The Chairman of the Pensions Committee Cllr Paul Doughty did not specify at the meeting itself his opinion that the item should be considered as a matter of urgency, nor would the reasons for this be specified in the minutes.

This is an important corporate governance safeguard written into legislation.

Firstly, if the documents are not made available to the public five clear days before the meeting, the public and press cannot scrutinise them. Secondly (as was mentioned at the meeting itself) at least one councillor expressed the view that half an hour was insufficient to scrutinise a highly technical 46 page document.

This is not a one off occurrence. Officers in previous years have frankly played these games of brinkmanship with accounts routinely handed to those tasked with corporate governance to approve on the evening of the meeting itself. The safeguard above in s.100(4)(b) above, details a procedure to be followed if the matter is urgent.

Therefore my objection is that because of what I have detailed above, the Pensions Committee did not approve the statement of accounts for the Merseyside Pension Fund because:

(a) the report was late and
(b) it is clear from the legislation that a procedural step was missed making the decision ultra vires.

I am however not an unreasonable person and suggest the following course of corrective action. If this is followed I will happily withdraw my objection.

i) That the Pensions Committee holds a further meeting between now and 30th September 2015.
ii) The Audit and Risk Management Committee recommendation is altered (agenda item 12 meeting of the 22nd September 2015) to be conditional on the meeting outlined in i) and the same for any Cabinet meeting that has to approve the same item
iii) That at this special meeting it considers the items referred to in this objection in a way that is not open to legal challenge or perceived to be ultra vires and that the information for this meeting is published on Wirral Council’s website five clear days before the meeting.

As Wirral Council’s auditors Grant Thornton will no doubt make clear, the matter that forms this objections needs to be resolved before the accounts are signed off. I look forward to reading and hearing responses to this objection.

However as this is a perceived serious corporate governance failing, I am making this objection public.

Yours sincerely,

John Brace

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Wirral Council spent £6,950 for 10 days of IT support for councillors & £7,498.48 on a family planning course

Wirral Host of the Open Championship 2014

As one of the new requirements of The Local Government (Transparency Requirements) (England) Regulations 2015 Wirral Council are required to publish certain types of information specified in the Local Government Transparency Code 2015.

Wirral Council published on the 14th May 2015 details of contracts, commissioned activity, purchase orders, framework agreements and any other legally enforceable agreement of between £5,000 and £10,000 on the data.gov.uk website here.

The first contract that caught my eye was one for £6,950 with Odgers Interim (which if you remember a previous blog post of mine is an organisation that provides agency staff). The title of the contract is “consultancy support of Windows 7 & ICT Services” and its description is “10 Days Consultancy in Support of Windows 7 & ICT services to Elected Members Total £6,950.00”. Elected Members means councillors.

Wirral Council also spent £5,000 with England’s Golf Coast Limited for “Annual Membership to England’s Golf Coast”, £6,812.30 with an organisation called Assist Managed Services for a week of cleaning up New Brighton in July 2014, £5,000 with a company called O’Neill PR based in Macclesfield for “Tourism PR at the Open Golf Championship 2014”, £5,854.45 for catering at a wedding on the 16th August 2014 to a Skelmersdale based catering company (although this will have been recharged to whoever paid for the wedding), £8,000 to AMION Consulting Limited for “Development of a vision for Wirral’s tourism strategy to sustain and grow the Borough’s visitor economy” described as for “developing a vision for Wirral’s Tourism businesses a 5 year strategy for the Borough’s visitor economy”, £9,847.80 to Huck Nets Limited for a piece of play equipment called a Birds Nest Tree at Diamond Farm, Saughall Massie, £7,498.48 to Wirral University Teaching Hospital NHS Foundation Trust for a “Family Planning Course”, £7,597.13 for a “Viking Playship” from Hags-SMP Limited, £6,510.00 to H&G Healthcare Limited for 100 “flu vaccination vouchers” in October 2014, £6,533.99 to AECOM Limited for a “Wirral Docks Bridge Feasibility Study” and £9,570 to Exterion Media (UK) Ltd to “supply poster sites for the Wonders of Wirral Spring Campaign”.

Whereas I’m generally a fan of increased transparency involving Wirral Council, in the description field published on the data.gov.uk website about a payment for £9,275.74 to Autism Initiatives, Wirral Council have included the full name of the child or adult with autism. In the context of services provided by Autism Initiatives this would also be classed as “sensitive personal information”. Also in two payments to West Kirby Residential School (a special school) for school fees, Wirral Council have revealed the name of two children by the information published on the website. Again in the context this would be classed as “sensitive personal information”. Maybe Wirral Council needs to think again whether it is being too transparent in these sensitive areas?

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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.

Wirral Council invoice Capita Health and Wellbeing Limited £520 Page 1 of 3 18th March 2013 1

Wirral Council invoice Capita Health and Wellbeing Limited £520 Page 2 of 3 18th March 2013 1

Wirral Council invoice Capita Health and Wellbeing Limited £520 Page 3 of 3 18th March 2013 1

Wirral Council invoice The Lucy Faithfull Foundation £699.31 28th March 2013 2

Wirral Council invoice Andrew Haggis St Johns Buildings £10,344 page 1 of 2 15th March 2013 3

Wirral Council invoice Jonathan Taylor St Johns Buildings £1,320 18th March 2013 6

Wirral Council invoice Forepsych Limited psychological assessment report £688.35 3rd February 2013 11

Wirral Council invoice Michael J Kennedy St Johns Buildings £576 2nd April 2013 12

Wirral Council invoice Remy Zentar St Johns Buildings £1,800 27th March 2013 13

Wirral Council invoice Sharpe Pritchard £25,698 31st March 2013 Page 1 of 2 14

Wirral Council invoice Sharpe Pritchard £25,698 31st March 2013 Page 2 of 2 14

Wirral Council invoice Gail A Owen St Johns Buildings £2,928 9th April 2013 15

Wirral Council invoice Nicola Miles 7 Harrington St Chambers £2,130 9th April 2013 16

Wirral Council invoice Kate Burnell St Johns Buildings 9th April 2013 £792 17

Wirral Council invoice Andrew Haggis St Johns Buildings 11th April 2013 £864 18

Wirral Council invoice Andrew Haggis St Johns Buildings 16th April 2013 £720 19

Wirral Council invoice Michael J Kennedy St Johns Buildings 16th April 2013 £1,032 20

Wirral Council invoice Dr Jennifer Ashcroft JJ Ashcroft Clinical Psychology Services Ltd 7th April 2013 £900.75 21

Wirral Council invoice Gail A Owen St Johns Buildings 26th April 2013 £591.36 22

Wirral Council invoice Joanne Jade Abraham St Johns Buildings 20th April 2013 £600 23

Wirral Council invoice Jonathan Bellamy St Johns Buildings 25th April 2013 £511.68 24

Wirral Council invoice Sara A Mann St Johns Buildings 26th April 2013 £528 25

Wirral Council invoice Tim D N Kenward 7 Harrington St Chambers 19th April 2013 Page 1 of 2 £900 26

Wirral Council invoice Tim D N Kenward 7 Harrington St Chambers 19th April 2013 Page 2 of 2 £900 26

Wirral Council invoice Remy Zentar St Johns Buildings 23rd April 2013 £936 27

Wirral Council invoice Susan Edwards St Johns Buildings 2nd May 2013 £672 28

Wirral Council invoice DMM Psychology Ltd 8th March 2013 £1660.80 29

Wirral Council invoice Sara A Mann St Johns Buildings 8th May 2013 £823.68 30

Wirral Council invoice Rebecca Smith St Johns Buildings 8th May 2013 £720 31

Wirral Council invoice Andrew Haggis St Johns Buildings 9th May 2013 £1200 32

Wirral Council invoice Rebecca Smith St Johns Buildings 9th May 2013 £720 33

Wirral Council invoice Benjamin Lawrence St Johns Buildings 13th May 2013 £787.50 34

Wirral Council invoice Advanced Childcare Assessments Limited 30th April 2013 £2,641.20 35

Wirral Council invoice Joanne Jade Abraham St Johns Buildings 15th May 2013 Page 1 of 2 £528 36

Wirral Council invoice Joanne Jade Abraham St Johns Buildings 15th May 2013 Page 2 of 2 £528 36

Wirral Council invoice Louis Browne Exchange Chambers 15th May 2013 £3445.74 37

Wirral Council invoice Claire Grundy St Johns Buildings 14th May 2013 £1800 38

Wirral Council invoice Sharpe Pritchard 17th May 2013 £640 39

Wirral Council invoice Andrew Haggis St Johns Building 17th May 2013 £1200 40

Wirral Council invoice Sara A Mann St Johns Building 17th May 2013 £528 41

Wirral Council invoice Andrew Haggis St Johns Building 21st May 2013 £576 42

Wirral Council invoice Cerys Williams St Johns Building 22nd May 2013 £2454.72 43

Wirral Council invoice Andrew Haggis St Johns Building 24th May 2013 £768 44

Wirral Council invoice Michael J Kennedy St Johns Building 28th May 2013 £811.29 Page 1 of 2 45

Wirral Council invoice Michael J Kennedy St Johns Building 28th May 2013 £811.29 Page 2 of 2 45

Wirral Council invoice Simon Maddison St Johns Building 23rd May 2013 £1260 46

Wirral Council invoice Sara A Mann St Johns Buildings 31st May 2013 £607.48 47

Wirral Council invoice Document Technology Limited 10th May 2013 £569.58 48

Wirral Council invoice Jennifer Lesley Scully St Johns Buildings 4th June 2013 £849.60 49

Wirral Council invoice Susan Edwards St Johns Buildings 10th June 2013 £993.60 50

Wirral Council invoice Ginette Fitzharris St Johns Buildings 11th June 2013 £799.68 51

Wirral Council invoice Joanne Jade Abraham St Johns Buildings 13th June 2013 £2,208.96 52

Wirral Council invoice Grant Thornton UK LLP 14th June 2013 £63,504 53

Wirral Council invoice Catherine Rimmer St Johns Buildings 17th June 2013 £504 54

Wirral Council invoice Stephen J Bedford St Johns Buildings 17th June 2013 £1,584 55

Wirral Council invoice Stephen J Bedford St Johns Buildings 19th June 2013 £1,584 56

Wirral Council invoice Michael J Kennedy St Johns Buildings 25th June 2013 £552 57

Wirral Council invoice The Association of Electoral Administration 14th May 2013 £3,556.25 58

Wirral Council invoice Andrew Haggis St Johns Buildings 1st July 2013 £960 59

Wirral Council invoice Jonathan Taylor St Johns Buildings 1st July 2013 £4,910.40 Page 1 of 2 60

Wirral Council invoice Jonathan Taylor St Johns Buildings 1st July 2013 £4,910.40 Page 2 of 2 60

Wirral Council invoice Sara A Mann St Johns Buildings 1st July 2013 £523.20 61

Wirral Council invoice Tim D N Kenward 7 Harrington St Chambers 19th June 2013 Page 1 of 2 £3,660 62

Wirral Council invoice Tim D N Kenward 7 Harrington St Chambers 19th June 2013 Page 2 of 2 £3,660 62

Wirral Council invoice Jonathan Taylor St Johns Buildings 3rd July 2013 £849.60 63

Wirral Council invoice Michael J Kennedy St Johns Buildings 28th May 2013 £3,264 Page 1 of 2 64

Wirral Council invoice Michael J Kennedy St Johns Buildings 28th May 2013 £3,264 Page 2 of 2 64

Wirral Council invoice Andrew Haggis St Johns Buildings 12th July 2013 65 £1,440 65

Wirral Council invoice Jonathan Taylor St Johns Buildings 12th July 2013 £552 66

Wirral Council invoice Gaynor Lloyd St Johns Buildings 12th July 2013 £1822.08 67

Wirral Council invoice Sharpe Pritchard 18th July 2013 £10,080 68

Wirral Council invoice Joanne Jade Abraham St Johns Buildings 25th July 2013 £696 69

Wirral Council invoice Michael J Kennedy St Johns Buildings 25th July 2013 page 1 of 2 £7344 70

Wirral Council invoice Michael J Kennedy St Johns Buildings 25th July 2013 page 2 of 2 £7344 70

Wirral Council invoice Jonathan Manning Arden Chambers 26th July 2013 £1,800 71

Wirral Council invoice Jonathan Manning Arden Chambers 26th July 2013 £1,800 72

Wirral Council invoice Helen Roberts Forensic Clinical Psychologist 1st August 2013 £821.10 75

Wirral Council invoice Helen Roberts Forensic Clinical Psychologist 1st August 2013 £590.50 76

Wirral Council invoice Jonathan Taylor St Johns Buildings 7th August 2013 £1392 77

Wirral Council invoice Sara A Mann St Johns Buildings 5th August 2013 £639.36 78

Wirral Council invoice Gaynor Lloyd St Johns Buildings 12th August 2013 £1822.08 79

Wirral Council invoice Helen Wilson St Johns Buildings 12th August 2013 £2016 80

Wirral Council invoice Ginette Fitzharris St Johns Buildings 19th August 2013 £528 81

Wirral Council invoice Ginette Fitzharris St Johns Buildings 15th August 2013 £511.68 82

Wirral Council invoice Andrew Haggis St Johns Buildings 22nd August 2013 £864 83

Wirral Council invoice Helen Wilson St Johns Buildings 21st August 2013 £703.68 84

Wirral Council invoice Andrew Haggis St Johns Buildings 4th September 2013 £576 85

Wirral Council invoice Grant Thornton UK LLP 12th September 2013 £63504 86

Wirral Council invoice Jonathan Taylor St Johns Buildings 11th September 2013 £687.36 87

Wirral Council invoice Michael J Kennedy St Johns Buildings 11th September 2013 £1992 88

Wirral Council invoice Jennifer Lesley Scully St Johns Buildings 16th September 2013 Page 1 of 2 £1296 89

Wirral Council invoice Jennifer Lesley Scully St Johns Buildings 16th September 2013 Page 2 of 2 £1296 89

Wirral Council invoice Jonathan Taylor St Johns Buildings 16th September 2013 £1230.72 90

Wirral Council invoice Jonathan Taylor St Johns Buildings 17th September 2013 £655.68 91

Wirral Council invoice Jonathan Taylor St Johns Buildings 25th September 2013 £561.60 92

Wirral Council invoice Paul Burns Exchange Chambers 23rd September 2013 £930 93

Wirral Council invoice Jennifer Lesley Scully St Johns Buildings 30th September 2013 £720 94

Wirral Council invoice Andrew Haggis St Johns Buildings 2nd October 2013 £912 95

Wirral Council invoice Benjamin William Jones St Johns Buildings 1st October 2013 £900 96

Wirral Council invoice Ginette Fitzharris St Johns Buildings 7th October 2013 £511.68 97

Wirral Council invoice Kate Burnell St Johns Buildings 10th October 2013 £1248 98

Wirral Council invoice Jonathan Taylor St Johns Buildings 14th October 2013 £720 99

Wirral Council invoice Cater Walsh Media Services Ltd 25th October 2013 £528 100

Wirral Council invoice Sara A Mann St Johns Buildings 21st October 2013 £831.36 101

Wirral Council invoice Ginette Fitzharris St Johns Buildings 21st October 2013 £576 102

Wirral Council invoice Ginette Fitzharris St Johns Buildings 21st October 2013 £753.60 103

Wirral Council invoice Helen Wilson St Johns Buildings 30th October 2013 £3235.20 104

Wirral Council invoice Kate Burnell St Johns Buildings 30th October 2013 £1113.60 105

Wirral Council invoice Jonathan Taylor St Johns Buildings 31st October 2013 £1128 106

Wirral Council invoice Jonathan Taylor St Johns Buildings 30th October 2013 £528 107

Wirral Council invoice Mark Senior St Johns Buildings 1st November 2013 £864 108

Wirral Council invoice Jennifer Lesley Scully St Johns Buildings 11th November 2013 £993.60 109

Wirral Council invoice Susan Edwards St Johns Buildings 8th November 2013 £591.36 110

Wirral Council invoice David V Glasgow 30th October 2013 £740.37 111

Wirral Council invoice Jonathan Taylor St Johns Buildings 13th November 2013 £576 112

Wirral Council invoice Helen Wilson St Johns Buildings 18th November 2013 £753.60 113

Wirral Council invoice Christine Johnson Atlantic Chambers 22nd November 2013 £2940 114

Wirral Council invoice Paul Burns Exchange Chambers 22nd November 2013 Page 1 of 2 £4210 115

Wirral Council invoice Paul Burns Exchange Chambers 22nd November 2013 Page 2 of 2 £4210 115

Wirral Council invoice Susan Edwards St Johns Buildings 25th November 2013 £696 116

Wirral Council invoice Robin Hopkins kbw 12th November 2013 £1872 117

Wirral Council invoice Wilkin Chapman LLP 16th October 2013 £1598.40 118

Wirral Council invoice Jonathan Taylor St Johns Buildings 21st November 2013 £576 119

Wirral Council invoice Jonathan Taylor St Johns Buildings 26th November 2013 £1272 120

Wirral Council invoice Jonathan Taylor St Johns Buildings 11th December 2013 Page 1 of 2 £3473.28 121

Wirral Council invoice Jonathan Taylor St Johns Buildings 11th December 2013 Page 2 of 2 £3473.28 121

Wirral Council invoice Mark Senior St Johns Buildings 3rd December 2013 £2399.04 122

Wirral Council invoice Mark Senior St Johns Buildings 4th December 2013 £672 123

Wirral Council invoice Susan Edwards St Johns Buildings 27th November 2013 £504 124

Wirral Council invoice Grant Thornton UK LLP 12th December 2013 £51120 125

Wirral Council invoice Ruth Stockley Kings Chambers 19th November 2013 £607.50 126

Wirral Council invoice Cerys Williams St Johns Buildings 7th January 2014 £528 127

Wirral Council invoice Jennifer Lesley Scully St Johns Buildings 8th January 2014 Page 1 of 3 £5096.64 128

Wirral Council invoice Jennifer Lesley Scully St Johns Buildings 8th January 2014 Page 2 of 3 £5096.64 128

Wirral Council invoice Jennifer Lesley Scully St Johns Buildings 8th January 2014 Page 3 of 3 £5096.64 128

Wirral Council invoice Nigel Lawrence 7 Harrington Street Chambers 11th December 2013 £27185.90 129

Wirral Council invoice Tim D N Kenward 7 Harrington Street Chambers 7th January 2014 £2220 130

Wirral Council invoice Grant Thornton UK LLP 11th December 2013 £63504 131

Wirral Council invoice Damien Sanders St Johns Buildings 15th January 2014 £600 132

Wirral Council invoice Leona Harrison St Johns Buildings 15th January 2014 £1536 133

Wirral Council invoice Michael J Kennedy St Johns Buildings 15th January 2014 £672 134

Wirral Council invoice Catherine Rimmer St Johns Buildings 20th January 2014 £720 135

Wirral Council invoice Helen Wilson St Johns Buildings 21st January 2014 £912 136

Wirral Council invoice Joanne Jade Abraham St Johns Buildings 17th January 2014 £951.36 137

Wirral Council invoice James Gatenby St Johns Buildings 20th January 2014 £607.68 138

Wirral Council invoice Helen Wilson St Johns Buildings 23rd January 2014 £816 139

Wirral Council invoice Joanne Jade Abraham St Johns Buildings 23rd January 2014 £696 140

Wirral Council invoice Anthony Gill Kings Chambers 28th January 2014 £1860 141

Wirral Council invoice Sweet & Maxwell Ltd 2nd January 2014 £1041.60 142

Wirral Council invoice Andrew Haggis St Johns Buildings 14th February 2014 £720 143

Wirral Council invoice Kate Burnell St Johns Buildings 18th February 2014 £511.68 144

Wirral Council invoice Peta M L Harrison St Johns Buildings 18th February 2014 £888 145

Wirral Council invoice Weightmans LLP 25th February 2014 £1360.80 146

Wirral Council invoice Damien Sanders St Johns Buildings 26th February 2014 £528 147

Wirral Council invoice Paul Burns Exchange Chambers 19th February 2014 Page 1 of 3 £1120 148

Wirral Council invoice Paul Burns Exchange Chambers 19th February 2014 Page 2 of 3 £1120 148

Wirral Council invoice Paul Burns Exchange Chambers 19th February 2014 Page 3 of 3 £1120 148

Wirral Council invoice Robin Hopkins KBW 10th February 2014 £1008 149

Wirral Council invoice Joanne Jade Abraham St Johns Buildings 5th March 2014 £543.36 150

Wirral Council invoice Weightmans LLP 30th January 2014 £4982.40 151

Wirral Council invoice Lexis Nexis Butterworths 3rd March 2014 £1659 152

Wirral Council invoice Mark Senior St Johns Buildings 10th March 2014 £528 153

Wirral Council invoice Mark Senior St Johns Buildings 10th March 2014 £600 154

Wirral Council invoice Sharpe Pritchard 31st January 2014 £6468 155

Wirral Council invoice Cerys Williams St Johns Buildings 13th March 2014 £816 156

Wirral Council invoice Mark Senior St Johns Buildings 18th March 2014 Page 1 of 2 £1296 157

Wirral Council invoice Mark Senior St Johns Buildings 18th March 2014 Page 2 of 2 £1296 157

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Wirral Council reveals it identified £1,256,823 of fraud and £409,311 of "irregularity" in the last year

Wirral Council reveals it identified £1,256,823 of fraud and £409,311 of “irregularity” in the last year

One of the advantages to the new transparency regime imposed on Wirral Council by national government regulations is that they’re being forced to publish more information about their activities by the deadline of 31st December 2014.

For example the information below is on their fraud investigating efforts. As I’m obliged to do so under the terms of the licence I will state “This contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0.”

Here are the statistics published about Wirral Council for fraud in 2013/14 on the data.gov.uk website. My comments are added in italics.

Number of occasions powers under the Prevention of Social Housing Fraud (Power to Require Information)(England) Regulations 2014, or similar powers used 2.

The regulations explicitly referred to came into effect until 6th April 2014, therefore couldn’t have actually been used at all by Wirral Council in the 13/14 financial year. Looking at the new regulations it’s about requesting information from such as banks on people suspected of housing fraud.

Total number (absolute and full-time equivalent) of employees undertaking investigations and prosecutions of fraud 7

Total number (absolute and full-time equivalent) of professionally accredited counter fraud specialists 7

Not quite sure whether these are a total of 14 employees or the same 7 in both categories.

Amount spent by the authority on the investigation and prosecution of fraud £159,000

Probably a combination of employee time, legal costs and external costs

Number of fraud cases investigated 507

So split between 7 FT employees, that’s an average of 72 each a year or 26 hours per a case.

Total number of occasions on which fraud was identified 71

Well I’d expect this number to be less than 507.

Total number of occasions on which irregularity was identified 436

In other words in every fraud case investigated where fraud wasn’t found, it was put down as irregularity.

Total monetary value of the fraud that was detected £1,256,823

Well I expected it would be something, but £1.2 million in a year (compared to the size of Wirral Council’s budget and financial transactions isn’t too bad I suppose. So each fraud was on average for an amount of £17,701, but cost on average £2,239 per identified fraud case to investigate.

Total monetary value of the irregularity that was detected £409,311

I still don’t fully understand what irregularity means but there you go! Maybe someone can leave a comment and explain that!

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Wirral Council reveals it identified £1,256,823 of fraud and £409,311 of “irregularity” in the last year

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