Freedom of information (FOI) releases from South Derbyshire District Council

This is a disclosure log of South Derbyshire District Council's responses to freedom of information (FOI) or environmental information regulations (EIR) requests that might be of wider public interest.

If you can't find the information you're looking for, you can make a new FOI request.

Filters

Clear filters

  • Keywords filters

  • Year filters

  • Month filters

90 disclosures

  1. FOI – Use of PSPOs and CPNs

    Under the Freedom of Information Act 2000, I am requesting the following information relating to use of PSPO’s and CPN powers in your local area between 1 January 2020 and 31 December 2024:

    1. Public Spaces Protection Orders (PSPOs):

    a. How many PSPOs are currently active in your local area?

    b. How many were introduced in each year 2020–2024?

    c. If available, what behaviours do these PSPOs restrict (e.g. busking, begging, loitering, amplification, rough sleeping/sleeping in vehicle, feeding birds/animals, car cruising, making noise, swearing or foul/abusive language, gatherings outside abortion clinics)

    d. How many Fixed Penalty Notices were issued for breach of PSPOs in this period?

    e. If available, disaggregated data on race, ethnicity, gender, socio-economic status and disability status for PSPOs issued in this period.

    2. Community Protection Notices (CPNs):

    a. How many CPN warnings and full CPNs were issued annually between 2020–2024?

    b. If available, what were the most common reasons for issuing CPNs (e.g. bird feeding, barking dogs, begging, shouting/swearing, messy/overgrown gardens, neighbour disputes, repairing vehicles on the road, loitering, bonfires, breach of PSPO, drug use, sex work)

    c. How many breaches of CPNs resulted in prosecution or further enforcement?

    d. If available, disaggregated data on race, ethnicity, gender, socio-economic status and disability status for CPNs issued in this period.

    If possible, please also briefly outline how this data is typically stored and retained (e.g. database system, format, retention period).

    Published: 9 September 2025

  2. FOI Request - Compulsory Purchase Orders

    Can you advise if any properties or areas of land within the Local Authority are affected by a live Compulsory Purchase Order? If so, can you provide a list/map of the affected areas?

    Published: 8 September 2025

  3. Freedom of Information Act 2000 Request: HMO Data by LSOA and local authority

    Under the Freedom of Information Act 2000, I am requesting data regarding Houses in Multiple Occupation (HMOs) and residential dwelling stock within your council's administrative area. Please provide the following information, correct as of the date you process this request. I would be grateful if you could state the date for which the data is provided in your response.

    The total number of HMOs within the council's boundary.

    The total number of residential dwellings within the council's boundary.

    A list of all Lower Layer Super Output Areas (LSOAs) within the council's boundary, with a corresponding count of the number of HMOs located within each LSOA.

    A list of all LSOAs within the council's boundary, with a corresponding count of the total number of residential dwellings within each LSOA.

    I request that this information be provided in a machine-readable format, such as a Microsoft Excel (.xlsx) or comma-separated values (.csv) file, to allow for analysis.

    Published: 3 September 2025

  4. Freedom of Information request - Workplace investigations

    Please provide information under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 about your use of external or independent investigators for workplace matters involving employees, such as grievances, disciplinaries, and bullying or harassment complaints.

    Please exclude:

    - Investigations into elected members

    - Internal-only investigations (e.g. handled by HR)

    The financial year is from 1 April to 31 March.

    For the financial years:

    - 2022/23

    - 2023/24

    - 2024/25

    For each *individual investigation*, provide:

    1. Financial year

    2. Total cost paid to the investigator (£)

    3. Hours charged (if known)

    4. Type of investigator: - Freelancer - Specialist workplace practice - Employer's organisation - Private solicitor/law firm - Other (please specify)

    Published: 27 August 2025

  5. Freedom of Information Request

    I am writing to request information under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 regarding homelessness among refugees in your local authority area. Specifically, I would like to receive the following information: Annual data, for the past six financial years, 2019 to 2025 (to date) on the number of individuals recognised as refugees who have been assessed or recorded by your authority as homeless. If it would exceed the section 12 limit to provide six years of data, please explain why that is and instead provide data for the time period that you are able to provide within the limit.

    For the relevant period, please provide the following information, broken down by financial year (or calendar year, if more appropriate):

    1. The total number of individuals who have approached your authority seeking assistance as homeless.

    2. Of those who approached your authority as homeless, how many were recognised as refugees - i.e., individuals granted refugee status or humanitarian protection with leave to remain.

    3. Of the homeless individuals recognised as refugees, how many were granted their refugee status and leave to remain by a different local authority.

    4. Total annual spending on homelessness for each of the past six financial years (or as many as you are able to provide within the s.12 limit). This should cover:

    a. Support provided under statutory homelessness duties;

    b. Support for individuals presenting informally or via referral who do not qualify for statutory assistance.

    5. Of the total homelessness spend, how much was spent on homeless individuals with refugee status.

    Published: 27 August 2025

  6. FOI request - use of hotels for temporary acccommodation

    I would like to ask for information about the use of hotel accommodation by the local authority for individuals you have a statutory or other duty to accommodate. Please do not include the use of hotels for department business or staff in any capacity, for example work travel or conferences etc. Please provide, broken down by month between January 2019 (or as far back as you can go up to that point) and the latest available month:

    • The number of individuals

    • The number of hotel sites used (for example, individual hotels that are part of a chain, independent hotels, B&Bs etc)

    • Total amount spent

    • Please also provide a broad description of the different groups of people accommodated in hotels and the reasons for using hotels

    If the data is only available as households, please provide this and state clearly that this is what has been provided. If the data is not available by individual month, please provide it by financial year (1 April to 31 March) starting from 2019-20.

    Published: 27 August 2025

  7. FOI Request – Chewing Gum Removal Costs, Area Covered, and External Funding (2019–2024)

    Under the Freedom of Information Act 2000, I would like to request the following information regarding chewing gum removal for the financial years 2019/20 to 2023/24 inclusive:

    1. Chewing Gum Removal Costs

    a. The total cost incurred by the council for chewing gum removal in each of these years.

    2. Area Covered

    a. If recorded, the approximate area cleaned (in square metres) for each year.

    3. External Funding

    a. Has the council received any external funding (e.g. from DEFRA or Keep Britain Tidy) specifically for chewing gum removal during this period?

    b. If yes, please provide the amount received and year awarded.

    If Cost Data Is Not Held Separately: If your authority does not hold chewing gum removal costs separately from general street cleansing budgets, please confirm:

    1. Whether chewing gum removal is carried out at all, and

    2. If so, whether it is delivered as part of broader cleansing operations. Format & Scope

    Please provide the data in spreadsheet or tabular format if possible. If any part of this request is likely to exceed the FOI cost threshold, please advise on how it may be refined to stay within the limit.

    Published: 26 August 2025

  8. Housing IT software

    Please could I have the following information provided to me, about software that may be procured by the council.

    Housing Register / Choice Based Lettings software

    Who is the current supplier of the council's Housing Register?

    What was the start date of the contract?

    What is the duration of the contract including any extensions?

    When does the contract formally expire (before any extension period)?

    Who is the senior Officer (outside of procurement) responsible for this contract?

    Homelessness Case Management software

    Who is the current supplier of the council's Homelessness Case Management software?

    What was the start date of the contract?

    What is the duration of the contract including any extensions?

    When does the contract formally expire (before any extension period)?

    Who is the senior Officer (outside of procurement) responsible for this contract?

    Published: 22 August 2025

  9. Applications made under Paragraph 84 NPPF

    I am writing to request information under the Freedom of Information Act 2000. Please could you provide the following information regarding planning applications made under Paragraph 84 (formerly 80, 79 and 55) of the National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF), which permits isolated homes in the countryside where the design is of exceptional quality. This would contribute to a research project on housing.

    I would be grateful if you could provide the following details of all applications made under this paragraph between the beginning of 2020 and July 2025:

    1. Application Reference Number

    2. Decision (Approved, Withdrawn, Refused. To Be Determined)

    Furthermore, I am aware that under the Self-build and Custom Housebuilding Act 2015, local authorities are required to maintain a self-build and custom housebuilding register. Would you be able to provide me with this register or point me in the direction of where I could access it as this would also be relevant information for this research.

    Published: 22 August 2025

  10. Freedom of Information request - Code of Conduct Investigations

    Under the Freedom of Information Act 2000, I am requesting information on your council’s Code of Conduct investigations into councillors, for the financial years 2022/23, 2023/24, and 2024/25 (taking the financial year from 1 April to 31 March.)

    1. Published Reports or Online Links Please provide the URLs or copies of any annual or quarterly reports published on your website that summarise Code of Conduct complaints, outcomes, and investigations for the above years. This may include Standards Committee reports, Monitoring Officer updates, or local governance summaries. (For this request, I am not interested in any Parish Council investigations / complaints).

    2. Case-Level Investigation Data For each individual complaint that was formally investigated (not just referred or dismissed at initial filter stage), please provide this data in a spreadsheet or CSV, one row per case:

    • Financial Year

    • Investigator Type

    • Total Cost of case (£)

    • Hours Charged in the case

    • Outcome Type

    • Investigator Type should be one of:

    • Internal officer (e.g. MO/DMO)

    • Reciprocal arrangement with another Council o Independent freelancer

    • Specialist agency (e.g. Hoey Ainscough)

    • Law firm or solicitor (e.g. VWV, Wilkin Chapman Rollits, etc.)

    • Other (please specify)

    • Outcome Codes Please include a basic outcome classification, such as:

    • no breach

    • informal resolution

    • breach found

    • referred to full Standards Committee, etc.

    3. Nil responses

    Please indicate if there is a nil response in any year, i.e. if there were no formal investigations.

    4. Parishes or Town Councils – out of scope Details of Parish / Town Council complaints which are referred to a District / Borough Council Monitoring Officer are not requested as part of this Freedom of Information Act request.

    Confidentiality

    Please do not disclose personal names of members, complainants, officers or investigators. Simply code anonymised cases for analysis.

    This request is designed to enable analysis of who performs Code of Conduct investigations in practice, when external expertise is used, and at what cost. If any part of this request exceeds cost limits, please advise how it could be refined and I’d be happy to refine the scope.

    Published: 22 August 2025