Northumberland County Council

7726 - RIPA and Training 2018/19

Details:

Reference Number: 7726
Request Date: 26/05/2020 Archived

Question and Response:

Q.1 How many Regulation of Investigative Powers Act 2000 (RIPA)

A.1 Applications were submitted by council staff in 2017, 2018 and 2019? 3

Q.2 How many council staff are currently trained to enable them to submit a Regulation of Investigative Powers Act 2000 (RIPA) Application?

A.2 There are believed to up to 5 staff so trained

Q.3 What was your training budget in 2017, 2018, 2019 for Regulation of Investigative Powers Act 2000 (RIPA) Training?

A.3 There is no designated RIPA training budget. Any training is resourced from generic training budgets

Q.4 Was any of your training budget made up by grants? If so, how much?

A.4 No

Q.5 What training courses did you commission in 2018/2019 on the topic of Regulation of Investigative Powers Act 2000 (RIPA)?

A.5 No RIPA training sessions were commissioned in 2018/19

Q.5a How many sessions of each course did you commission?

Q.5b What was the price per course?

Q.5c Who delivered each course?

Q.5d What was the method of delivery (e.g. face or face, online etc.)

Q.6 What is the name of the councils Monitoring Officer?

A.6 Liam Henry

Q.6a What are their contact details?

A.6a liam.henry@northumberland.gov.uk

Q.7 What are the names of the councils Authorising Officers?

A.7 Peter Simpson

Q.7a What are their contact details?

A.7a peter.simpson@northumberland.gov.uk

Q.8 When was your last inspection from the Investigatory Powers Commissioner’s Office?

A.8 6th June 2017

Q.9 When is your next inspection from the Investigatory Powers Commissioner’s Office?

A.9 We have yet to be notified of the date of the next inspection.

7743 - Resident parking permits

Details:

Reference Number: 7743
Request Date: 28/05/2020 Archived

Question and Response:

Q.1 How many resident parking permits are issued each year

A.1 There were 2777 resident permits issued for the year 1 April 2019 to 31 March 2020

Q.2 How much does the council spend on producing the permits

A.2 Holographic/branded permit paper costs £556 per 3000 sheets

Permit holder wallets cost £105 per box 1000 wallets

Postage costs approximately £1800

The application process is fundamentally self service however there are some internal staff resources required to deal with enquiries, payments and printing of permits however these duties are split over a number of both back office staff, Customer Services Advisors, cashiers and IT support and so the cost cannot be quantified.

We have developed an inhouse permit system, there are no third party IT costs.

Q.3 Are the permits, standard print or are they a scratchcard type permit

A.3 Resident permits are printed on to Holographic/branded permit paper.

Q.4 How do residents pay for the permits?

A.4 Residents pay for their resident parking permit online as part of the application process.

If there are any IT issues a payment can be taken over the phone by a Customer Services Advisor or a member of the back office team. Payments can ordinarily be made in person at a Customer Information Centre, however these are temporarily closed due to the COVID19 pandemic.

Q.5 How many council run car parks do you have?

A.5 Please refer to the information on our web pages for information on our Off Street Parking Places Composite Order 2014 TRO_19 and associated amendments: https://www.northumberland.gov.uk/Highways/Roads/Traffic.aspx#4trafficregulationorders

There is also more information available on the Transparency code pages on our website at: https://www.northumberland.gov.uk/About/Transparency.aspx#transparency

Q.6 What is the cost of maintaining the payment machines?

A.6 We have a maintenance contract covering the ticket machines in Corbridge. The contract covers 19 ticket machines at the cost of £405 per machine per annum (2020/2021).

There is no maintenance contract on our other ticket machines. We pay as and when maintenance issues arise and the cost depends on the fault. For the financial year 2019/2020 the ad hoc maintenance costs incurred for repair and maintenance of our coastal and railway station machines was circa £2,300

Q.7 How much revenue is generated by the car parks?

A.7 Please refer to the information on our webpages for information on our parking accounts. There is a breakdown of income and expenditure on the authority's on-street and off-street parking accounts.

https://www.northumberland.gov.uk/About/Transparency.aspx#transparency

Q.8 What is the breakdown of the revenue between cash v electronic payments?

A.8 In 2019/2020 financial year 82% of the ticket machine income was taken as cash payments, 18% of the ticket machine income was taken by card

Please note: only 12 ticket machines are card payment enabled.

Q.9 Does the council have any staff or visitor car parks and how are they monitored?

A.9 There is on site staff car parking provided at County Hall and other outlying council offices. These car parks are not part of the Traffic Regulation and therefore are not enforced.

7753 - Placements of elderly persons

Details:

Reference Number: 7753
Request Date: 03/06/2020 Archived

Question and Response:

Please would provide the following information in respect of placements made by the local authority of elderly persons funded (in whole or part) by yourselves.

Q.1 How many new placements of elderly persons were made by the local authority into registered residential or nursing homes during the financial year 2019/20?

A.1 533

Q.2 How many of that total number were placed into homes outside the local authority boundary?

A.2 41

Q.3 For persons benefitting from local authority funding, what is the fee to be paid by the council for elderly persons placed within independent sector care homes during the financial year 2020/2021 for the following categories of care?

Q.3.1 Elderly Residential Care
Q.3.2 Elderly Dementia Residential Care
Q.3.3 Elderly Nursing Care*
Q.3.4 Elderly Dementia Nursing Care*

*Please state fee exclusive of the NHS Funded Nursing Care payment (FNC) for 3 and 4.

A.3 Current fees are shown in the attached table.

7785 - Primate Licensing - 2020

Details:

Reference Number: 7785
Request Date: 15/06/2020 Archived

Question and Response:

This request is in 2 parts. Please answer all of the questions in the first section whether or not you have any licences issued under the Dangerous Wild Animals Act (DWAA). If there are any current DWAA licences for primates in your area, please also complete all of the questions in the second section.

As of 25th February 2020:

PART 1
Q.1 How many DWAA licences are currently issued in your area?

A.1 1

Q.2 How many of these DWAA licences are issued for primates (monkeys, apes or prosimians such as lemurs)?

A.2 None

Q.3 How many applications for licences to keep primates under the DWAA Act have been refused in your area in the last 12 months?

A.3 None

Q.3a On what grounds were they refused?

A.3a N/A

Q.4 What is the cost of obtaining a DWAA licence in your area (please indicate whether this includes any veterinary fees incurred)?

A.4 £116.00 + Vet fee

Q.5 What is the cost of ‘renewing’ a DWAA licence in your area (please indicate whether this includes any veterinary fees incurred)?

A.5 £116.00 + Vet fee

Q.6 Are you aware of any breeders or dealers of primates in your area?

A.6 No

Q.6a If yes how many? And are they licensed under the Pet Animals Act?

A.6a N/A

Q.7 If a member of the public is aware of a breach of the Animal
Welfare Act with regards to a primate, who do they contact in your area?

A.7 Licensing Enforcement.

Q.8 In order to be granted DWAA licences for primates, must
applicants demonstrate that they meet the conditions laid out in the Code of Practice for the Welfare of Privately Kept Non-human Primates?

A.8 Yes

Q.9 If a DWAA licence is not renewed, do you contact previous licence holders to establish why it has not been renewed?

A.9 Yes

Q.10 Would you investigate what has happened to primates that were licensed in your area but are no longer licensed?

A.10 Yes

PART 2 - N/A

Q.11 If there are primates licensed in your area, please provide copies of all licences, and the most recent relevant veterinary and inspection report(s) for each licence (on the understanding that for data protection purposes, certain information may be obscured). If no written reports are available, please indicate the date on which the most recent report was conducted, by whom, and the outcome of the visit. If not included in the report(s), please also provide the following information:

For each licence issued for primates:

Q.11a How many individuals of each species are covered (please provide the scientific name: i.e. Sapajus apella)?

Q.11b What is the age and sex of each licensed primate? If this information is not kept by your council, please indicate so.

Q.11c Where was each primate obtained? If this information is not kept by your council, please indicate so.

Q.11d Are these primates considered to be pets? If not, how are they classified?

Q.11e Please confirm whether any restriction is placed on the breeding of the licensed animals. If no restriction exists, please indicate whether the existing licence would automatically cover the offspring, and until what age this cover would last.

Q.11f Has a licence been issued to the licence holder previously?

Q.11g If so, what was the last year a licence was issued, and what primates were licenced?

Q.12 Would you or someone in your department, be willing to share any further information about DWAA licensing?

Q.13 And who can we contact for such information?

7803 - Asbestos survey report for former Stonelaw middle school Cramlington

Details:

Reference Number: 7803
Request Date: 19/06/2020 Archived

Question and Response:

Q.1 Please confirm your current supplier for Gas and Electricity

A.1 Corona Energy for gas and EDF Energy for electricity.

Q.2 When do the current contracts expire for each?

A.2 Gas due to expire 01.04.2024 & electricity 31.03.2023

Q.3 If looking to save costs on these, who is responsible for the project?

A.3 Martin France - Contracts Manager

Q.4 How many sites is this person responsible for?

A.4 280 Gas sites & 766 electricity.

7823 - Kerbside recycling

Details:

Reference Number: 7823
Request Date: 24/06/2020 Archived

Question and Response:

Q.1 How many tonnes of kerbside recycling you collected in each of the past three years broken down by (a) plastics (b) glass, (c) paper (d) card.

A.1 Plastic, paper and card are collected as dry mixed recycling and the tonnage is recorded as mixed not by material. We do not collect kerbside glass.

Year	Material	SUM of Tonnes
2017/18	Aluminium cans	234.2
	Card	2725.02
	HDPE [2]	602.5
	Paper	9767.6
	PET [1]	800.4
	Steel cans	1044.5
2017/18 Total		15174.22

2018/19	Aluminium cans	362.3
	Card	2055.6
	HDPE [2]	612.1
	Mixed paper & card	1521
	Paper	8776.9
	PET [1]	954.3
	Steel cans	895
2018/19 Total		15177.2

2019/20	Aluminium cans	391.3
	Card	3218
	HDPE [2]	711.5
	Mixed paper & card	2895.2
	Paper	5772.3
	PET [1]	1029.9
	Steel cans	960.5
2019/20 Total		14978.7

Grand Total		45330.12

Q.2 Please can I ask if since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic any of these groups (a), (b), (c) or (d) are still being sent for recycling or are now being sent to landfill or an incinerator.

A.2 Covid 19 has not had an effect on how we process our dry mixed recycling in that they still go to our West Sleekburn Material Recycling Facility (MRF) to sorted and bulked up before being sent to various end destinations for reprocessing.

Q.3 If any of these groups (a), (b), (c) or (d) are now being sent to landfill or an incinerator, when and why was this decision taken?

A.3 Not applicable as all of our kerbside rubbish is sent to the Material Recycling Facility (MRF)