THURROCK Council has declined to give details about its senior officers and contact details for them following a Freedom of Information request.

A request was made of the council to give details of members of staff, many of them earning more than £100,000 a year by a questioner, who wanted to know how the council is structured and who holds what responsibilities. And also a direct line of contact to them via email.

However, the council has simply issued a structure plan giving job titles and says it is not allowed to give out more information and the request does not meet the criteria whereby public could be given out in the public interest.

Some information is available through the council's website, where the council offers details of salaries and titles but in response to a specific question which reads....: "Please would you forward me the staffing structure, including names, direct lines and email addresses, of your following departments:

• Legal & Governance Department
• Human Resources Department
• Policy & Communications Department
• Finance & Accounting Department
• Payroll Department"

...the council says:" Unfortunately we are unable to provide in full the information you have requested. We do hold the information but an absolute exemption applies. Personal data of any other person (third party data) is exempt under section 40(2) if disclosure would breach one of the data protection principles. This aspect of Section 40 is an Absolute Exemption and is therefore not subject to the Public Interest Test."

Nub News can confirm that 15 members of staff, on 1 April 2020 were paid £100,000 or more and in total 226 members of staff earned more than £50,000. A number of non-directly consultants were also paid six figure salaries.

The questioner also wanted to know what the council's total spend on temporary or interim staff has been in the last 12 months but the council has simple referred the question back to its website where it lists spending over the previous two full financial years, ending in March 2021.

In the 2020-21 financial year it spent £7,718,851 and the year before £8,945,025.