Please provide the following information for your authority.
1. Monitoring Officer Appointment and Organisational Position
Please confirm:
1.1 Professional background
Whether the Monitoring Officer is:
• legally qualified (solicitor or barrister) The Monitoring Officer is a Solicitor.
• another professional (which one)
1.2 Nature of appointment
Whether the Monitoring Officer appointment is:
• permanent (substantive)Yes, the Monitoring Officer is a permanent appointment.
• interim
If the Monitoring Officer is currently interim, please confirm:
• the date the interim appointment commenced N/A
• the anticipated end date (if known) N/A
1.3 Organisational position
Please confirm:
• the directorate or department in which the Monitoring Officer role sits The Monitoring Officer role sits within the Strategy and Resources directorate and within the Legal Services department.
• whether the Monitoring Officer also serves as Head of Legal Services / Director of Legal / equivalent Monitoring Officer also serves as the City Solicitor.
2. Legal Services Structure
Please confirm how legal services are delivered within the authority:
• in-house legal team Yes
• shared legal service with other authorities
• combined authority / regional legal service
• outsourced external provider
• hybrid arrangement
If legal services are delivered through a shared service, please provide the partner authorities involved.
3. Legal Department Resourcing
Please provide the annual budget allocated to the legal services department (or equivalent) and the number of staff within the authority’s legal services department (full-time equivalent) for the following financial years:
Year Budget Staffing
2016/17 -£2,178,400
2017/18 -£2,303,030
2018/19 £2,759,050
2019/20 £2,894,600
2020/21 £3,083,940
2021/22 £2,786,760
2022/23 £2,870,390
2023/24 £3,236,000
2024/25 £3,617,000
2026/27 £3,680,000
4. Locum / Agency Legal Staff
Since 1 January 2016, please confirm:
4.1 Engagement of temporary legal staff
The total number of locum, agency, or temporary lawyers engaged by the authority’s legal services department. Leeds City Council does not hold the figures in this format, please see below FTE figures.
2016/17 96.79 FTE
2017/18 93.79 FTE
2018/19 84.4 FTE
2019/20 86.45 FTE
2020/21 106.46 FTE
2021/22 106.46 FTE
2022/23 99.79 FTE
2023/24 102 FTE
2024/25 104.97 FTE
2026/27 101.95 FTE
4.2 Annual expenditure
The total annual expenditure on locum or agency legal staff for the following financial years:
Year Budget
2016/17 £50,853
2017/18 £61,978
2018/19 £154,181
2019/20 £78,303
2020/21 £193,618
2021/22 £73,014
2022/23 £272,391
2023/24 £307,242
2024/25 £337,515
2026/27 £ N/A
5. Monitoring Officer Vacancy and Interim Arrangements
Since 1 January 2020, please confirm whether the Monitoring Officer role has at any time been:
• vacant No
• held by an interim Monitoring Officer No
If yes, please provide:
• approximate dates N/A
• whether the role was covered by:
o interim appointment N/A
o Deputy Monitoring Officer acting up N/A
o another officer N/A
6. Governance Reporting
Since 1 January 2015, how many Monitoring Officer reports under section 5 of the Local Government and Housing Act 1989 have been issued by the authority?
If available, please provide copies of the reports or links to where they are publicly available. None
7. Organisational Documents
Please provide:
• a copy of the current organisational chart showing the Monitoring Officer role and legal services structure Please see attached. Please note: some information has been withheld from disclosure. This is because the information is considered to be personal information of other individuals, and as such is excepted from release under Section 40 of the Freedom of Information Act 2000, thus preventing a contravention of Article 5 (1)(a) of UK GDPR which requires that personal data shall be processed lawfully, fairly and in a transparent manner in relation to individuals.
• if available, the organisational charts, job descriptions and person specifications since 2016 showing the Monitoring Officer role Please see attached job description.
