How many people does it take to change a lightbulb at Barnet Council? The official response

 On the 8th February I sent a Freedom of Information request to Barnet Council, asking how many people it would take to change a lightbulb in the Leaders office at Barnet Council (and how much it would cost).

Here is the official (non) response. As you can see, they have declined to say how many people are involced or how much the process costs. It seems the council thinks that trying to ascertain information about Council costs and procedures is deemed "humourous" and "vexatious".

As far as I am concerned, the request was neither humourous or vexatious. It was sent to try and ascertain how much bureacracy and resource was involved in managing a simple and easy to understand process. This would enable one to judge whether Barnet Council are efficient with our cash. Clearly, plebs like me are either comedic or vexatious. Sad really, I thought Barnet Council were paid by us, to work for us. Here is there response.

	London Borough of Barnet, North London Business Park, Oakleigh Road South, London N11 1NP
	20 February 2013
	Our ref: 218942

 

Thank you for your request received on 8 February 2013, for the following information:

Please can you inform me how many people it takes to change a lightbulb in the Leader of Barnet Council's office. Please break this down into :

1. The number of people actually involved in the process of managing and implementing the change of lighbulb
2. The number of people involved in drawing up the contract to manage the changing of the lightbulb.
3. The number of people involved in monitoring the contract to manage the changing of the lightbulb.
4. The number of people involved in health and safety/risk assessments to ensure the lightbulb is safely changed.
5. The number of people involved in procurement of the lightbulb.
6. The number of people involved in storage of the lightbulb.
7. Any other people involved in the changing of the lightbulb who are not covered by ny of the previous six categories.

Please can you also provide estimated costs of changing a lightbulb in the leader of Barnet Councils office, taking account of all of these costs.

We have processed this request under the Freedom of Information Act 2000.

  

Response

The council is required to respond to a request for recorded information under the Freedom of Information Act 2000, regardless of the requester’s intention. A stated humorous request may be judged vexatious under the legislation and refused, but the council is still required to expend resource in responding.

There are no processes involved in lighting maintenance specific to the Leader’s Office and therefore we consider the information requested not held. However, in the spirit of section 16 of the Act, which requires the council to provide advice and assistance to a requester, it may interest you to know that with respect to office areas within the council offices, the changing of a lightbulb would require a call being raised with the council’s facilities team resulting in an individual custodian being sent to change the bulb. Said custodian will employ appropriate and safe measures to change the lightbulb. Changing a lightbulb is part of the role of custodian, not requiring a separate contract. We hope that this sheds some light on the matter for you.

Your rights

If you are unhappy with the way your request for information has been handled, you can request a review within the next 20 working days by writing to the FOI Officer at: The London Borough of Barnet, North London Business Park, Oakleigh Road South, London, N11 1NP (email foi@barnet.gov.uk).

If, having exhausted our review procedure, you remain dissatisfied with the handling of your request or complaint, you will have a right to appeal to the Information Commissioner at: The Information Commissioner's Office, Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow, Cheshire, SK9 5AF (telephone: 0303 123 1113; website www.ico.gov.uk).  There is no charge for making an appeal.