Employment Tribunal (Alison Mountney v Wirral Council) Day 10 of 10: Judgement
Employment Tribunal (Alison Mountney v Wirral Council) Day 10 of 10: Judgement
Liverpool Civil & Family Court, Vernon Street, Liverpool, L2 2BX (the venue for Employment Tribunal case 2400718/16)
This is a report of a very small part of an Employment Tribunal hearing I attended (the judgement). By this point the matter had already been heard over 9 days and this was day 10 of 10. Brief details are below.
Venue: Tribunal Room 2, Third Floor, Liverpool Civil and Family Court Hearing Centre, 35 Vernon Street, Liverpool, Merseyside, L2 2BX
EXCLUSIVE: 10 more invoices paid by Wirral Council including £3,203.88 for budget setting and £15,667.25 for a special guardianship order
EXCLUSIVE: 10 more invoices paid by Wirral Council including £3,203.88 for budget setting and £15,667.25 for a special guardianship order
Below this are ten invoices paid for by Wirral Council during the 2013/14 financial year. The first is for £15,276.96 from Eversheds for the ever cryptic “governance and employment issues”. As it’s paid for by Wirral Council’s HR department it’ll be for employment issues and the Wirral Council reference is down as “Jim Wilkie”. This in itself is a bit odd as it’s for work done in February 2013, as Jim Wilkie retired on the 7th June 2012.
Next is an invoice from Eversheds, but for £3,203.88 for “Budget setting”. Again this is odd as the Wirral Council reference is down as “Bill Norman” and it is for work done in February 2013. Bill Norman however was made redundant by Wirral Council on the 30th September 2012 (through a compromise contract costing Wirral Council £151,416). So Bill Norman wouldn’t have had anything to do with the setting of the budget in February 2013.
The third and fourth invoices are from Weightmans for £4,976.64 & £4,482. I think this are for legal advice about Birkenhead regeneration connected to the plans that Wirral Council’s Cabinet recently agreed to consult on involving Neptune Developments Limited.
Moving to another regeneration project, the fifth invoice is for £8,133.90 for legal advice around a section 106 agreement connected to the Wirral Waters planning application. I’m puzzled about why this invoice was sent directly to Peel and the confusing VAT which was added to the total amount, then taken off it!
Invoice six is another Weightmans invoice for £1,668 for EU procurement advice. The next invoice is from Eversheds and is for £1,720.68 of employment advice. Eversheds also submitted another invoice for £4,811.74 for advice in March 2013 on “governance and employment issues“. As the HR department paid the invoice I think it can safely be assumed it was for an employment issue.
The ninth invoice from Seatons Solicitors is for work on a special guardianship order and is for £15,667.25. The last invoice for £1,660.80 is from DMM Psychology Limited for a cognitive functioning report and psychological reports (although this is for a quarter of the total amount as its being split four ways).
Wirral Council invoice Eversheds £15276.96 15th March 2013Wirral Council invoice Eversheds £3203.88 15th March 2013Wirral Council invoice Weightmans £4976.64 27th Match 2013Wirral Council invoice Weightmans £4482 2nd April 2013Wirral Council invoice Eversheds £8133.90 15th April 2013Wirral Council invoice Weightmans £1668 28th February 2013Wirral Council invoice Eversheds £1720.68 5th April 2013Wirral Council invoice Eversheds £4811.74 8th April 2013Wirral Council invoice Seatons £15667.65 25th March 2013Wirral Council invoice DMM Psychology Ltd £6643.20 8th May 2013
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Wirral Council spends £2,294.57 on a German translation and the prize for the most pointless redaction
Wirral Council spends £2,294.57 on a German translation and the prize for the most pointless redaction
Wirral Council invoice Capita Translation and Interpreting Limited £2294.57 11th July 2013
Wirral Council spent £2,294.57 with Capita Translation and Interpreting Limited for translation of documents from English to German. Quite why Wirral Council would spend this much on translation is unknown.
The list of payments made over £500 list the department as being the Law, HR and Asset Management department, however the invoice itself has CYP (Children and Young People) written on it.
There’s not much more to be said than this, so I’ll just move on to the most pointless bit of blacking out I’ve seen by Wirral Council on an invoice:
Wirral Council invoices Weightmans £942 24th September 2013
As you can see on this invoice the total sum payable (£785 + VAT of £157 which comes to £942) is blacked out.
So why was the total blacked out (which can easily be determined by adding two figures together)? I quote from the official response:
“Just to clarify, the invoices I supplied to you were redacted on the basis of advice from our legal section rather than by departments themselves.”
Yes this is Wirral Council, a Council that describes itself as “open and transparent”, which is seemingly something not believed by its legal department!
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The first is to a Dr Gareth Vincenti (consultant psychiatrist) for a 2 hour medico-legal interview and assessment on 24th July 2013, charge for MMCI-III (10th September 2013), scrutiny of medical notes and other documentation as supplied (4 hours) and preparation of report (3 hours). This comes to £2,550 + VAT (total £3,060).
I’ve supplied both the original and a partly unredacted copy of this as the original is heavily redacted. My additions are in green.
The next five are all from Eversheds and range from Employment Tribunal claims, counsel fees, advice on governance and employment issues, strategic advice, employment and governance advice (appeals). The amounts of these are £1,408.03, £14,336.40, £4,098.00, £1,549.80 and £23,280.00.
There are also a further dozen HR related Eversheds invoices that I haven’t scanned in and included here with amounts ranging from £1,140 to £14,049.60 (inclusive of VAT). These further invoices are for (amounts are inclusive of VAT) advice on governance and employment issues (1/3/13 to 26/3/13) £4,811.74, employment advice (6/3/13 to 8/4/13) £14049.60, employment advice (22/4/13 to 21/5/13) £10,893.60, employment advice (22/5/13 to 29/7/13) £8,508.00, employment advice (22/7/13 to 9/8/13) £1,315.97, employment advice (11/8/13 to 24/9/13) £1,140.00, advice on governance and employment issues (4/11/13 to 8/11/13) £3,345.60, employment advice (6/11/13 to 3/12/13) £2,280.00, secondment (4/12/13 to 13/1/14) £2,850, advice on governance and employment issues (2/12/13 to 6/12/13) £1,722.00, employment advice (18/11/13 to 24/1/14) £7,800 and employment advice (14/1/14 to 25/2/14) £2354.88.
Wirral Council Dr Gareth Vincenti consultant psychiatrist £3060 31st December 2013Wirral Council Dr Gareth Vincenti consultant psychiatrist £3060 31st December 2013 partially unredactedWirral Council Eversheds £1408.23 21st May 2013 Employment Tribunal claims travel expenses photocopying charges 3rd April 2013 to 11 April 2013Wirral Council Eversheds £14336.40 25th September 2013 advice on governance and employment issues travel expenses counsel’s fees August 2013 to September 2013Wirral Council Eversheds £1549.80 24th January 2014 employment and governance advice appealsWirral Council Eversheds £4098 24th January 2014 employment advice strategic adviceWirral Council Eversheds £23280 26th February 2014 advice on governance and employment issues Counsels fees
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Norman’s bill just keeps on rising, £7,883.88 for external legal advice on setting a budget when he wasn’t there
Norman’s bill just keeps on rising, £7,883.88 for external legal advice on setting a budget when he wasn’t there
Every year Wirral Council has to set a budget for the next year. In fact Wirral Council have been doing this since 1974 (and probably in shadow form for the year before that).
For some reason in 2013, at Wirral Council someone decided to ask Frances Woodhead of Eversheds (a legal firm) for advice. Ironically (considering what happened to Bill Norman) she lists on Evershed’s website her experience on “Advising on sensitive senior officer dismissals” and her experience as “Director of Legal Services at Sheffield City Council”.
Yet these invoices relate to advice given in February 2013 for the 2013/14 budget, five months after Bill Norman was no longer employed by Wirral Council! Were Eversheds not told he had left? Who was Frances Woodhead advising if it wasn’t actually Bill Norman as stated on the invoice (who was no longer employed by Wirral Council)? The invoices quite clearly show travel expenses of £61.40 which means somebody must have travelled somewhere to meet someone (who obviously wasn’t Bill Norman)!
What was it about the 2013/14 Budget that required nearly £8k of legal advice anyway?
Budget setting legal costs £4680 00p Counsels fees May 2013Budget setting legal costs £3203 88p Bill Norman Frances Woodhead March 2013
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