Ernie Clark. Hilperton Division, Wiltshire Council.

The meeting will be held at The Olympiad in Chippenham!
I have always made good use of the right to ask questions of the council leadership at council meetings. Many other councillors have now taken-up the idea and a record number have been asked this time.

My contribution, with the answers, are below. Some of the answers do tend to drag on a tad.

Questions From Councillor Ernie Clark, Hilperton Division.

Question 1, to Leader.

What progress is being made to recover the 'non-pensionable honoraria' awarded either for doing additional work or 'acting up' at Kennet District Council? Has any money actually been recovered yet?

Response.

We are pursuing recovery however recovery is being contested. It would be inappropriate to comment further.

Question 2, to Leader.

(amended since original submission) The pay–bands of the Chief Executive and Chief Officers (2nd tier and above) are now available on the WC website. Will the Leader advise how many officers in tier 2 or above received a pay rise in the last twelve months?

Response.

The pay scales of all employees of Wiltshire Council are increased annually in line with the nationally agreed pay award. However there has been no nationally agreed pay award for 1st and 2nd tier officers (including the Chief Executive) and all other HAY graded senior managers since April 2008, and for other employees there has been no pay award since April 2009. In addition to the nationally agreed pay award all employees subject to the terms and conditions negotiated by the national joint council or the joint negotiating committee for Chief Officers or Chief Executives are subject to incremental progression within the salary range for their post up to a maximum. For most employees there are four incremental salary points, and this is the case for all 1st and 2nd tier officers. Incremental progression takes place in April each year, and is a contractual entitlement. For 1st and 2nd tier officers progression is subject to performance. In April this year 11 1st and 2nd tier officers received an increment out of a possible 25, as a majority are already at the top of their salary band and therefore have had no incremental pay increase this year or pay award since 2008. There have been no other pay rises, other than for promotion, in the last 12 months.

Question 3, to Leader.

Publically available information shows that the Chief Executive of this authority claimed £1,292.80 expenses for February this year. Can a breakdown of this figure please be given.

Response.

The following provides a breakdown of the Chief Executive’s expenses claimed in respect of February 2011: £1,200 - Accommodation costs of £600 per month (as per agreed relocation package – figure relates to costs for February and March). £ 92.80 - Travel and subsistence.

Question 4, to Leader.

The Local Government Group states, for officers in tier 2 or above, that ‘Data on individuals. Data to be published for each individual includes Organisation Name, Body (organisational identifier), Individual's Name (subject to consent), Job title, Service Area, Full-Time Equivalent, FTE Pay band for disclosure – this will be shown in £5,000 bands...’ However, this authority has chosen to ignore the £5k banding and, instead, publishes the whole salary band for each officer. Why is WC choosing to do this? Who made the decision to do so? The whole idea was that the public had an approximate idea of what senior officers earn. Showing the whole spread of the pay scale seems to be an obvious attempt to thwart the wishes of Parliament. However, I am pleased to see that our senior officers have consented to their name being shown together with their job title and commend them for their openness.

Response.

The government has pledged greater transparency across the public sector through publishing data to strengthen accountability to citizens. The government has committed to publishing certain information on salaries, spending and contracts by January 2011. Guidance on this is available on the LGA website, and was revised in November 2010. This guidance outlines definitions of senior managers, i.e. those at first and second tier, and the requirement for us to publish senior salary information. The guidance provides a frame of reference for the main areas to consider and includes the provision of individual data on all senior employees earning more than £150,000 by job title and name and individual data on all senior employees’ earnings between £50,000 and £150,000 by job title only. The Information Commissioners Office (ICO) has provided further guidance on how to disclose this information. This guidance emphasises the importance of looking at each individual case, but advocates routine disclosure of salary scales. It recommends disclosure only ‘to the extent necessary to fulfil a legitimate public interest’. One way of doing this would be to disclose salary scales to the nearest £5,000, and this is the approach taken by the council initially. However when the salaries of the Chief Executive, Corporate and Service Directors were first published a number of queries were raised. The information was causing some confusion as it did not disclose actual salaries. In some cases the salary bands were exaggerating the actual salary for that employee. To provide clearer information about the salaries of senior managers, which goes beyond the guidance provided, the decision was taken by the Service Director HR & OD, in conjunction with the Governance team, to publish the actual salary range for each post. Permission to do this was sought from each senior manager, in line with the ICO guidance.

I am allowed to ask one supplementary question for each of the four I have submitted and the written answer to question # 4 would certainly seem to need further investigation.