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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The first (two A4 pages) is from Sharpe Pritchard (numbered 14), transaction 202652 from 2nd May 2013 for £25,698.
It’s dated 31st March 2013 and is for legal services in the matter of:- (the rest is blacked out) in the period January to March of 2013 totalling £15,540.
It carries over to a second page where it states it’s also for Counsel’s fees of £5,875 in the (blacked out) hearing.
These two amounts total £21,415.00. VAT of £4,283.00 is then added making a grand total of £25,698.00.
Sharpe Pritchard Invoice 1 Page 1 of 2 2nd May 2013 £25698 legal services HR Wirral CouncilSharpe Pritchard Invoice 1 Page 2 of 2 2nd May 2013 £25698 legal services HR Wirral Council
The next is also a two A4 page invoice, this time from Tim D N Kenward of 7 Harrington Street Chambers. It was dated 19th April 2013 and Wirral Council is the defendant in the case of Gregory Eyitene v Wirral Metropolitan Borough Council. It is for £900 and relates to 19 pages of written advice and an amended draft letter (3 pages) that took 6 hours.
It also relates to a previously paid invoice of £1875.00 for an 18 pages submission on grounds of appeal, plus advice by telephone, email, perusal of documentation with regards to disciplinary proceedings.
This totals to £750 (£125/hour * 6) + VAT of £150 = £900. Colin Hughes was the solicitor at Wirral Council that dealt with this matter and the file reference is CJH/LHRAM/25270.
Tim D N Kenward Invoice 2 Page 1 of 2 7 Harrington Street Chambers 19th April 2013 Gregory Eyitene v Wirral Metropolitan Borough Council £900 written advice draft letterTim D N Kenward Invoice 2 Page 2 of 2 7 Harrington Street Chambers 19th April 2013 Gregory Eyitene v Wirral Metropolitan Borough Council £900 written advice draft letter
This is also a two A4 page invoice of Tim D N Kenward of 7 Harrington Street Chambers. It was dated 19th June 2013 and Wirral Council is the defendant in the case of Gregory Eyitene v Wirral Metropolitan Borough Council. It is for £3,660.00.
This is for:
Skeleton argument 5 hours preparation £750 + VAT (£150) = £900
List of authorities and paginated bundle of authorities and letter to Employment Appeal Tribunal 2 hours £300 + VAT (£60) = £360
Brief on hearing listed and prepared for preliminary hearing – Prep 10 hours, travel 4 hours, waiting 15 minutes hearing 2 hours 15 minutes £2,000 + VAT (£400) = £2,400
Total: £3,660.00.
Tim D N Kenward Invoice 3 Page 1 of 2 7 Harrington Street Chambers 19th June 2013 Gregory Eyitene v Wirral Metropolitan Borough Council £3660 skeleton argument authorities Employment Appeal TribunalTim D N Kenward Invoice 3 Page 2 of 2 7 Harrington Street Chambers 19th June 2013 Gregory Eyitene v Wirral Metropolitan Borough Council £3660 skeleton argument authorities Employment Appeal Tribunal
This is an invoice from Sharpe Pritchard dated 18th July 2013 for £10,080. This is for legal services from April to May 2013 in the matter of (blacked out).
Sharpe Pritchard Invoice 4 Page 1 of 1 18th July 2013 £10080 legal services April to May 2013
This is an invoice from Jonathan Manning of Arden Chambers for £1,800 dated 26th July 2013. This is for 6 hours of advice given on the 8th March 2013 @ £250/hour (+VAT) in a “Determination of Employment” matter involving Wirral Metropolitan Borough Council. The blacked out bit of the line after DX 33016 is “CARDIFF”.
It appears a duplicate of invoice 6 but with more redaction.
Jonathan Manning Invoice 5 Page 1 of 1 Arden Chambers 26th July 2013 £1800 advice determination of employment
This is an invoice from Jonathan Manning of Arden Chambers for £1,800 dated 26th July 2013. This is for 6 hours of advice given on the 8th March 2013 @ £250/hour (+VAT) in a “Determination of Employment” matter involving Wirral Metropolitan Borough Council.
It appears a duplicate of invoice 5 but with more redaction.
Jonathan Manning Invoice 6 Page 1 of 1 Arden Chambers 26th July 2013 £1800 advice determination of employment
This is an interim invoice for £1,598.40 (including VAT) from Wilkin Chapman LLP. It was dated 16th October 2013 and is for advice to Wirral Council’s Monitoring Officer in August 2013.
Charges
It includes £1,190 (+VAT £238.00) total £1,428.00
Expenses
It includes an amount of £11.60 (+VAT of £2.30) total £13.80 for subsistence.
It also includes expenses for £130.50 (+VAT of £26.10) total £156.60. However the reason for this £156.60 is blacked out.
Wilkin Chapman LLP Invoice 7 Page 1 of 1 16th October 2013 advice to Monitoring Officer in August 2013 subsistence expenses £1598 40p
This is an invoice for £607.50 from Ruth Stockley of Kings Chamber for email advice (2.25 hours). She charges £225/hour (+VAT). The invoice dated 19th November 2013 and it’s to do with a planning case.
Ruth Stockley Invoice 8 Page 1 of 1 Kings Chambers 19th November 2013 email advice planning £607 50p
This is an invoice for £2,220.00 from Tim D N Kenward of 7 Harrington Street Chambers. It was dated 7th January 2014. Wirral Metropolitan Borough Council is the defendant.
It is for the following:
9/12/13 Respondents Notice (8 pages) £350
20/12/13 Skeleton Argument (19 pages) 4 hours £750
3/1/14 Written advice (11 pages)
Notice of application (2 pages)
Draft order (2 pages)
Statement in support of application (10 pages)
Total 4 hours £750
Total £1850
VAT £370
Total Due £2,220
Tim D N Kenward Invoice 9 Page 1 of 1 Harrington Street Chambers 7th January 2014 respondent s notice skeleton argument written advice notice of application draft order statement in support of application £2220
This is an invoice for a 1 year subscription from 2/4/14 to 1/4/15 for “Law of Food & Drugs” from LexisNexis. Invoice was dated 3rd March 2014 and is for £1659.
LexisNexis Invoice 10 Page 1 of 1 Law of Food and Drugs 1 Year subscription £1659
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Wirral Council Employee Survey 2013: Industrial relations: a riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma
Wirral Council Employee Survey 2013: Industrial relations: a riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma
One of the quandaries you face in the press is just what you do over leaked documents. When I was working in print it was easy, the procedure was everything just had to be double sourced. With Wirral Council that has in the past often caused problems as two bits of Wirral Council would flat-out contradict each other over the same facts!
The particular document I am referring to is the Ipsos Mori “Wirral Council Employee Survey 2013”. This contains such classic lines such as:
“The contents of this report are of a commercially sensitive and confidential nature and intended solely for the review and consideration of the person or entity to which it is addressed. No other use is permitted and the addressee undertakes not to disclose all or part of this report to any third party (including but not limited, where applicable, pursuant to the Freedom of Information Act 2000) without the prior written consent of the Company Secretary of Ipsos MORI.”
In an “open and transparent” public sector, where Wirral Council wanted to show how it had emerged from the nightmare of its past “industrial relations” issues, here’s just one industrial relations issue that would not be happening:
a) employee appeals/grievance hearings of Wirral Council employees now decided by Wirral Council management behind closed doors instead of councillors (unlike other local councils) at public meetings behind closed doors. Yes it was a Labour administration and Labour councillors that decided to change the constitution and go against the trade unions on that one!
b) excessive secrecy on HR matters (but I’m the press and I would say that wouldn’t I?), however it’s not just me but others that state the same thing?
The whole ninety-page document that is the Wirral Council Employee Survey 2013 (before you get to the appendices) is the kind of thing that councillors, the public, employees and others should be able to read, but I’m sure management would rather not like to ever see the light of day.
“To act as Head of Paid Service to the Council and to provide workforce leadership for the Council.”
In other words the buck stops at him. OK answerable to the public then are councillors who are Cabinet Members, but from an officer perspective ultimately Graham Burgess (or whoever replaces him after the end of this year) sets the culture of the organisation when it comes to workforce matters.
It was during Graham Burgess’ tenure as Chief Executive/Head of Paid Service that the changes to the grievance and appeals procedures were changed. One of the reasons given at the time was that with large-scale redundancies, councillors would’ve been snowed under dealing with employee appeals.
That may be a legitimate reason to put forward for the change (and yes I have heard at least one former councillor moan during a public meeting about how terribly long-winded some employee appeals/grievances were). However taking councillors out of grievance appeals meant that any future whistleblowers would only be heard by management. Then management have a vested interest in making sure issues are resolved behind the scenes (such as paying off whistleblowers to leave and keep quiet) and then the underlying issues are not talked about by councillors in public meetings (making life easier for management) or indeed written about in the press.
I think it is about time I published some of the Human Resources related invoices to do with Employment Tribunals and employee issues so that the public can see how expensive to the public purse it is to not have effective internal processes to deal with employee matters. Previously such procedures (despite their flaws) relied not on the more independent decisions of councillors but now it’s purely officers who decide instead. I’m not saying councillors would make decisions that were less likely to result in large expensive legal bills, it’s just I personally disagree (a rare political point on my part) with the lack of political oversight in employee matters as it means councillors are less likely to know what’s going on.
I fully realise matters have been dealt with behind closed doors, but there is a point where too much secrecy can be counter productive in the public sector as it results in no one being personally accountable for the results of their actions.
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The 6 “missing” pages of Cllr Tony Smith’s expenses claims shed more light on Lyndale School matters
The 6 “missing” pages of Cllr Tony Smith’s expenses claims shed more light on Lyndale School matters
As part of the 2013/14 audit of Wirral Council, I exercised a legal right to a copy of the councillors’ expenses forms. I have published what I received last month (which attracted much public interest), but a lot of pages were still not provided at that point. You can read the earlier nine pages for Councillor Tony Smith here.
The internal processes seem to be that the finance side of Wirral Council ask for these from Human Resources. Human Resources then ask for legal advice. The legal side of Wirral Council then recommend to redact officer names, registration numbers of councillors’ cars, payroll numbers, signatures and other information on these forms. Quite why that whole process takes over two months I’m not quite sure.
As many readers of this blog will know there was a call in of the Cabinet decision of September 4th on Lyndale School which happened during a five-hour public meeting on the evening of October 2nd 2014. The six pages of the Cabinet Member for Education’s expenses (Cllr Tony Smith) I requested in August 2014 but were only supplied to me this morning (17th October 2014).
It shows some meetings which may be of interest to the continuing public debate on Lyndale School. The last meeting with Alison McGovern MP is education related due to its location, however whether it is connected to Lyndale School or a different education matter I am unsure at this point. I include the original six pages below.
Wirral Council also provided me today with a further dozen or so pages of councillors expenses for other councillors that had also been missing from what I had been supplied with. I plan to publish these in the near future.
Date | Description | Departure location | Return time and location| No of miles| Rate
17.5.13 | Visits to Foxfield and Elleray Park School – in role of Cabinet Member | Home | | 10 | 0.40p
9.8.13 | Meeting re Lyndale School with Director + Officers / Hamilton Building | Home | Hamilton | 10 | 0.40p
13.9.13 | Meeting ?? ?? M.P. Alison McGovern and officers / Hamilton | Home | Hamilton | 10 | 0.40p
Cllr Tony Smith expenses claim 2013 page 1 of 6Cllr Tony Smith expenses claim 2013 page 2 of 6Cllr Tony Smith expenses claim 2013 page 3 of 6Cllr Tony Smith expenses claim 2013 page 4 of 6Cllr Tony Smith expenses claim 2013 page 5 of 6Cllr Tony Smith expenses claim 2013 page 6 of 6
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Expense claim forms for Councillor David Elderton (Wirral Council) 2013 to 2014
Expense claim forms for Councillor David Elderton (Wirral Council) 2013 to 2014
Our thrilling alphabetical series on councillors’ mileage expense claims to Wirral Council’s Human Resources department continues with Councillor David Elderton. Councillor David Elderton is a Conservative councillor for West Kirby and Thurstaston ward. We were supplied with ten pages relating to him and thankfully he seems to be submitting them on a monthly basis and actually filling them in!
It contains interesting details in it such as details of a briefing about Wirral Council’s Hoylake Golf Resort with that popular person at Wirral Council [officer name redacted]. In fact there are many redactions, which is probably why HR took about a month to do this.
I’ll point out it’s not Councillor David Elderton redacting this, it’s Wirral Council officers. The issue of a briefing for councillors in that area about the Hoylake Golf Resort was discussed at a meeting of Council so it’s nice to see it happened, albeit with Wirral Council’s usual air of secrecy about the whole matter. When are Wirral Council going to be open and transparent with the public about this matter instead of shrouding it in the veil of commercial interests and secrecy?
A lot of the rest of the pages are to do with Councillor David Elderton’s work on Wirral Council’s Planning Committee, its associated site visits and other committees that he is on. As he provides departure and arrival times it shows how long things take when a councillor lives at the other end of the Borough from Wallasey Town Hall. It’s a shame the redactions of it don’t help with understanding more about the work councillors do behind the scenes away from the gaze of the cameras and public.
Cllr David Elderton expenses claim 2013 2014 page 1Cllr David Elderton expenses claim 2013 2014 page 2Cllr David Elderton expenses claim 2013 2014 page 3Cllr David Elderton expenses claim 2013 2014 page 4Cllr David Elderton expenses claim 2013 2014 page 5Cllr David Elderton expenses claim 2013 2014 page 6Cllr David Elderton expenses claim 2013 2014 page 7Cllr David Elderton expenses claim 2013 2014 page 8Cllr David Elderton expenses claim 2013 2014 page 9Cllr David Elderton expenses claim 2013 2014 page 10
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