FI14321

Request

  1. Details of all compensation paid to employees, ex employees and residents of the Dover District from 01/04/23 to current.
  2. Details of any fines paid by any department of DDC in relation to any punishment from 01/04/23 to current.

Response

  1. The Council has made two payments to now ex-employees during that time period, but the amount paid is considered personal data and therefore exempt from disclosure under Section 40(2) of the Freedom of Information Act.  This information constitutes third-party personal data within the provisions of the UK General Data Protection Regulation (“the UK GDPR”), as supplemented by the Data Protection Act 2018 (“the DPA”). We consider that disclosure of this information would breach data protection principle (a) (i.e. that data “should be processed lawfully, fairly and in a transparent manner in relation to the data subject”). These individuals would not reasonably expect their personal data to be disclosed in this context and therefore the Council is not providing the information.  In addition, providing the figures involved may make it possible to identify the individuals concerned.  The Council does, on occasions, pay compensation to residents who make formal complaints via the Council’s complaints process.  The amount of compensation paid is not recorded centrally and is held on the individual case file for each complaint.  To ascertain whether an individual has received compensation would mean a search of every complaint file to see if the information is held.  As the information is not readily available and from our preliminary assessment, we have estimated that the cost of complying with your request would exceed the ‘appropriate limit’.  The appropriate limit has been specified in regulations and for Local Government it is set at £450. This represents the estimated cost of one person spending 2½ working days in determining whether the information is held, locating, retrieving and extracting the data. I regret therefore, that on this occasion I must refuse this part of your request in accordance with Section 12(1) of the Freedom of Information Act.
  2. The Council holds no recorded or documented information about any fines paid in relation to the above.