Spotlight on South Lanarkshire

In June 2010, the Scottish Information Commissioner decided that a Freedom of Information (FOI) request I submitted to South Lanarkshire Council - was not 'vexatious', as the council tried to argue.

The council was given until 8 August 2010 to respond properly to my request - having wasted all this time, of course - with completely spurious objections about the request being vexatious.

Here's the original request I made to South Lanarkshire Council - on 10 September 2009:

Archie Strang
Chief Executive
South Lanarkshire Council
Almada Street
Hamilton
ML3 0AA

By e-mail

Dear Mr Strang

Freedom of Information Request

I would like to make the following enquiry under the Freedom of Information Scotland Act 2002.

I would like to know:

1. What were South Lanarkshire Council’s reasons for not adopting the nationally recommended COSLA (Gauge) Job Evaluation Scheme (JES)?

2. What was South Lanarkshire Council’s share of the £250,000 costs of producing the nationally recommended COSLA JES?

3. Who were the creators or authors of South Lanarkshire Council’s 555 Job Evaluation Scheme (JES)?

4. What payment did the creators/authors of South Lanarkshire Council’s 555 JES receive for their time and expertise?

5. What credentials did the creators/authors possess for developing South Lanarkshire Council’s 555 JES?

I look forward to hearing from you in due course

Kind regards


Mark Irvine

Other councils in Scotland are perfectly happy to provide this information - without any fuss or bother.

So, let's see what South Lanarkshire Council has to say - within the next few days.