FI15967

Request

1. Legal and Organisational Structure

  • Please confirm the legal status of PartnershipONE (e.g. joint committee, limited company, shared service). 
  • Provide a copy of any legal agreements, service-level agreements, or memoranda of understanding (MoUs) that define Dover’s involvement in PartnershipONE.
  • List the councils that participate in PartnershipONE and describe how responsibilities are divided between them.

2. Governance and Officer Appointments

Provide a list of any individuals who: 

  • Hold formal positions within PartnershipONE (e.g. director, board member, senior manager), 
  • And are also employees or officers of Dover District Council. 
  • For each individual, please include: 
    • Their title within Dover District Council; 
    • Their role within PartnershipONE; 
  • Whether their responsibilities include oversight of FOI, complaints, or governance. 

3. Accountability and Oversight

  • Provide any internal policies or documentation describing how Dover District Council exercises oversight of PartnershipONE. 
  • Please also include minutes, reports or summaries from any Dover committees or officer meetings (from January 2022 onwards) where the governance, performance, or structure of PartnershipONE was discussed. 

4. FOI and Complaints Processes

  • How are Freedom of Information requests or complaints relating to PartnershipONE handled? 
  • Are such requests processed by Dover officers, PartnershipONE officers, or another party? 
  • Are any conflict-of-interest procedures in place when handling requests or complaints that involve PartnershipONE's own governance or staff?

Response

1. As follows:

  • Private company limited by shares
  • Attached are the following agreements:
    • Agreement relating to Financial Assessment, Payment and Debt Recovery Services dated 31 January 2025
    • Deed of Amendment relating to Agreement for Financial Assessment, Payment and Debt Recovery Services of 31 January 2025
    • Shareholders agreement
  • Canterbury City Council, Dover District Council and Thanet District Council.  The whole of the issued share capital of the company is held by the three Councils between them i.e. each council owns 1000 of the 3000 shares in the company that are currently allotted. Each Council appoints one of the three directors to the board of the company.

2. As follows:

  • Helen Lamb – Director of PartnershipOne
  • Head of Finance and Investment
  • Director
  • Only as a non-executive director of PartnershipOne

3. As follows:

  • This was included within the reports to the East Kent Services Committee which are online at https://moderngov.dover.gov.uk/ieListMeetings.aspx?CommitteeId=337
  • Although the Council may hold this information, from our preliminary assessment, we have estimated that the cost of complying with your request would exceed the ‘appropriate limit’.  The period covered by your request includes the period during which PartnershipOne was being set up and the contract settled.  During this period there would have been many officer meetings, apart from the Cabinet meetings and East Kent Services Committee meetings.  Locating all of this information and collating it would far exceed the limit set within the Act.    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.  Under the Act we have a responsibility to assist, we therefore provide links to the following meetings that are published on the Council’s website:
    • The issue of PartnershipOne was considered at the following meetings of the East Kent Services Committee from January 2022 onwards
    • The issue of PartnershipOne was considered at the following meetings of Dover District Council’s Cabinet from January 2022 onwards
    • The issue of PartnershipOne was considered at the following meetings of Dover District Council’s Overview and Scrutiny Committee from January 2022 onwards 

4. As follows:

  • Under the Council’s complaints procedures – see page 110 of the Agreement relating to Financial Assessment, Payment and Debt Recovery Services dated 31 January 2025
  • By PartnershipOne staff
  • Please find attached Code of Conduct and a Conflicts of Interest Policy.  Whilst neither specifically mention conflicts relating to complaints, these documents would collectively provide assurance around officers’ conduct and actions were a potential conflict to arise.  In addition to this, the 3 Directors received formal training around company director legal responsibilities and conflicts of interest, which was delivered by an external legal professional. 

 

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