Agenda item

To receive questions from, and provide answers to, the public, provided they have been submitted in accordance with the requirements of Standing Order 13.4(f).

The following questions were submitted by Mr James Smith in accordance with the requirements of Standing Order 13.4(f):

1)           What work has been undertaken by the Council to assess and evaluate services within the Lots being delivered by Havant Borough Council employed-staff, under an in-house service improvement planning model?

2)           What Key Performance Indicators measuring the costs and quality of performance have been set for:

a)           Capita. To measure the costs and quality of its performance against the costs and quality of the service previously delivered by Havant Borough Council staff (e.g. Revenues and Benefits and Customer Services)?

b)           Any new provider. To measure the costs and quality of performance against the services presently delivered by Capita and previous to that, by Havant Borough Council staff?

3)           What guarantee can be given that the jobs, pay and conditions of staff presently employed by Havant Borough Council, will be retained at their current levels, if the work is outsourced?

4)           What measures are being taken to ensure in-house expertise is retained should a new provider fail in its contractual commitments?

5)           Broken down to its component parts (i.e. standard contract costs, charges and bonuses etc.), how much has Havant Borough Council paid Capita, year on year for the service Capita have delivered to the Council since the contract began? What are the transaction costs (to date) of the existing contract with Capita?

6)           Many residents care deeply about tax avoidance and tax evasion, particularly when increased government tax income could be spent on protecting the local government grant. What research has been and will be undertaken into potential contractors’ tax affairs?

The following responses were provided by Councillor Fairhurst:

Question 1

 It is the Council’s corporate strategy to make savings through commissioning our services from other organisations and Cabinet reviewed the options available for these services in reaching their decision to enter this tendering exercise in December 2014.

Question 2

a)    Current contract

In-year cash collection rate for Council Tax

In-year cash collection rate for Business Rates

Reduction in prior year arrears for Council Tax

Reduction in prior year arrears for Business Rates

Average processing time for Benefit new claims

Average processing time for Benefit change of circumstances

Average accuracy rate for Benefit new claims and change of circumstances

Value of Housing Benefit overpayment recoveries in-year

Reduction in prior year Housing Benefit overpayment debt

Percentage of telephone calls answered within 20 seconds

Percentage of correspondence received and processed by the Council and responded to within 10 days

Percentage of e-mails acknowledged within 1 working day

Percentage of face-to-face customers visiting the Council seen within 10 minutes

b) The KPIs for these services are the same as the current contract, although in some cases the proposed standards are higher.  The procurement process has not yet confirmed these standards.

Question 3

The employees transfer under TUPE and this gives them assurance that they will remain on their current contractual terms and conditions.

Question 4

We are maintaining some expertise in a shared client side and, following a resourcing review currently underway, the Chief Executive is proposing to retain some experience in the key services in her management team. 

Question 5

We do not hold component information or individual transaction costs.  The total annual payments for the current contract are:

Question 6

The financial leads on the project checked the background of all suppliers at the pre-qualification stage. This process included examining the published accounts of each company and investigating any comments from the independent auditors. There was no evidence of tax avoidance in publically held records relating to them.