Freedom of Information
Request received on 13/01/2010:
I would like to request information on the number of meetings or discussions, organised by non-public sector organisations such as think tanks, attended by the organisation's staff where the discussion of policy development was the purpose of the meeting.
I am requesting:
1. The number of occasions in the last three years when a member of the organisation attended formal a) conferences, b) summits, c) meetings, d) lunches and/or e) dinners which were organised by a non-public sector organisation and where the purpose was to discuss policy.
2. The i) names of any members of the organisation's Board/Executive who attended and ii) the number of times they attended in the last three years formal a) conferences, b) summits, c) meetings, d) lunches and/or e) dinners which were organised by a non-public sector organisation and where the purpose was to discuss policy.
3. In the last three years, how many a) public affairs, b) public relations and/or c) policy development staff employed by the organisation attended formal a) conferences, b) summits, c) meetings, d) lunches and/or e) dinners which were organised by a non-public sector organisation and where the purpose was to discuss policy.
4. In the last three years, what was the cost of staff i) first class and ii) non-first class travel to formal a) conferences, b) summits, c) meetings, d) lunches and/or e) dinners which were organised by a non-public sector organisation and where the object of the forum was to discuss policy.
5. In the last three years, how many times has the organisation hosted formal a) conferences, b) summits, c) meetings, d) lunches and/or e) dinners where the object of the forum was to discuss policy.
Response provided on 10/02/2010:
1. Ten
2. Uday Dholakia, LBRO Board Member - 3 / Ann Hemingway, LBRO Board Member - 1 / Robin Dahlberg, LBRO Board Member - 1 / Graham Russell, Chief Executive LBRO - 3 / Previous Deputy Chief Executive - 3 / Sarah Smith, Director of Delivery and Performance - 1
(This totals more than 10 because some events were attended by more than one member of the Executive/Board)
3. Three policy development staff attended four events in total
4. (i) Cost of first class travel = £1,274.35 (ii) Cost of non first class travel = £634.99
5. Seven
Note 1: In answering these questions, we understood ‘policy' to refer to Government policy and ‘Executive' (Question 2) to refer to LBRO's Senior Management team. For Question 3 we included all of our staff in the assessment against criteria. In trawling our central records for the answers to the questions, we focused on corporate activities and excluded meetings which were for the purpose of discussing LBRO projects, for example discussions with business about Primary Authority.
Note 2: As a single office based in the Midlands, with a national remit, travel costs are inevitably incurred. We seek to keep these costs to a minimum by applying a cost / benefit assessment of travel requirements, and by managing travel as efficiently as possible. It is our policy to seek out the most economically advantageous option having regard to cost and business need and where possible rail tickets are reserved on a pre booked, closed ticket basis as early as possible to secure best discounts available. The full policy can be found on our website: http://www.lbro.org.uk/docs/travel-and-subsistence-policy.pdf