Coventry City Council Respond Promptly to FOIA Request

Dear Mr. Curly

Thank you for your request for information about the number of disabled people with learning difficulties employed by Coventry City Council, which we received on 13 November 2006. Your request has been considered under the Freedom of Information Act 2000.

My reasonable enquiries have included a review of your request, which is addressed below.

How many disabled people with learning difficulties Coventry City Council employs in manual jobs at the national minimum wage or above.

As mentioned in the letter acknowledging your request dated 16 November 2006, the Council holds information about the number of employees with a disability, but does not have a category that defines the nature of their disability e.g. learning difficulties. Therefore a figure for the number of disabled people with learning difficulties employed by Coventry City Council cannot be provided. However, a figure can be provided for the number of best value employees who have declared a disability. Best value employees are permanent employees or temporary employees with at least one year of service. As at 30th September 2006 this figure was 705.

Coventry City Council has implemented Single Status, which harmonises the working conditions of former manual and non-manual employees, which means that there is no longer a distinction between these groups of workers. However, in the absence of a definition of "manual" we have attempted to identify this group by making an assumption based on job titles. Of the 705 disabled employees, approximately 161 may have formerly been classified as manual. All of these people are paid at the national minimum wage or above.

Please note that most of the information that you request is owned by the Coventry City Council and subject to copyright protection. Under the Re-Use of Public Sector Information 2005 Regulations you are free to use this information for your own use or for the purposes of news reporting. However, any other type of re-use under the Regulations, for example; publication of the information or circulation to the public, will require permission of the copyright owner and may be subject to terms and conditions. For documents where the copyright does not belong to Coventry City Council you will need to apply separately to the copyright holder.

If you wish to apply to reuse the information you have requested or have any other issues relating to this request please do not hesitate to contact me.

If you are unhappy with the way the Coventry City Council has handled your request, you may ask for an internal review. Please contact the Information Governance Team, who will arrange an internal review of your case, at:

Information Governance Team

Customer & Business Services

Council House, Basement Room 5

Earl Street, Coventry.

CV1 5RR

If you are not content with the outcome of the internal review, you have the right to apply directly to the Information Commissioner for a decision. The Information Commissioner can be contacted at:

Information Commissioner’s Office

Wycliffe House

Water Lane

Wilmslow

Cheshire

SK9 5AF

Yours sincerely

Paul Harding

HR Adviser, Business Support