« Previous | Contents | Next »
Listen
Staffing and management
Our managers
The Chief Reporter/Director, Deputy Chief Reporters/Deputy Directors, and the Head of Administration are responsible for the day-to-day management of the Directorate. Strategic management issues and the professional development of reporters are resolved with the Directorate's four Principal Reporters.
Our organisation
Director & Chief Reporter - James McCulloch
Deputy Directors and Deputy Chief Reporters - Mike Culshaw; Oonagh Gil
Head of Administration - David Henderson
Personal Secretary - Jane Lewis
Principal Reporters - Tim Brian; Dave Gordon; Karen Heywood; David Russell
Reporters - Allison Coard, Trevor Croft; Scott Ferrie; Ian Hastie; Phil Hutchinson; Dan Jackman; Iain Lumsden; Malcolm Mahony; Janet McNair; Jill Moody; Michael Shiel; Dilwyn Thomas and, as self-employed reporters: Douglas Alexander; Hugh Begg; Richard Bowden; Clive Christopherson; Frank Cosgrove; Mike Croft; Michael Cunliffe; Richard Dent; Graham Duncan; Gerald Farrington; Lance Guilford; Donald Harris; John Henderson; Patrick Hetherington; Richard Hickman; Douglas Hope; Ron Jackson; Robert Loughridge; John Martin, Bob Maslin; Maurice O'Carroll; Bill Patterson; Michael Thomson; Alan Walker; Donald Watt; Roger Wilson
Administration Team
Section Leaders - Emma Butler; Carol-Anne Redpath
Specialised Caseworkers - Scott Mackenzie; Angela Reid
Caseworkers - Colin Bell; Marie Buchanan; Angie McClelland; Karen Fagan; Chris Kennedy; Jayne Hollas; Pauline Hendry
Administrative Assistants - Christine Brown; Jane Robertson; Kelly Sinclair; Gordon Neilson
IT/Finance Manager - Carol Totten
IT Liaison Officers - Gordon McDonaugh; Douglas Berry
Our administrators
The Directorate's administrative staff organise all of the casework from our office in Falkirk.
Administration Team
Our reporters
Reporters provide the professional input to the work of the Directorate, the core of whom are established civil servants. A group of self-employed reporters paid a daily fee is used to accommodate peaks in the appeals caseload, and to hold local plan inquiries. Both groups of reporters work from home.
Staff training and development
Monthly reporters' seminars are held to aid professional development and share best practice. The seminars are generally led by reporters, although external participation is adopted as a useful forum to hear from speakers from the organisations we deal with. Reporters' development is further assisted by attending externally organised conferences and seminars.
The administrative team meet on a regular basis to share good practice and have also utilised e-learning that is available in the Falkirk office.
Complaints
The Directorate records complaints about failings in the appeal process and in the way these were treated. This does not include representations made by people who are unhappy about the decision which has been made, or the reasoning contained in the decision letter, who have the right to apply to the Court of Session to have the decision overturned (see Table 7 later). During the business year to 31 March 2008 the Directorate received 12 letters of complaint, compared to 10 last year. Despite the increase this is a low number considering the number of appeals received each year. All complaints were investigated and responses issued. Most were found to have no justified basis relating, for example, to any failure of process or courtesy. In those cases where our work did not meet the expected standard an apology was sent together with an explanation of the circumstances and our working practices appraised against the issues raised within the complaint.
Requests for information
The Directorate received 16 formal requests under the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act or the Environmental Information Regulations during the business year. Most related to case documentation which is already publicly available as part of the appeal process, with the remainder being for statistical information. Progress on the Directorate's aim to e-enable the appeals process is continuing and it is hoped that our web site that will contain all information and documentation relevant to each appeal will go live in 2008. We continue to deal with large volumes of informal requests for information in the course of processing planning and other appeals.
Casework
In the course of the year the Directorate has responded to more than 100 official replies addressed to MSPs or MPs, contributed towards replies to questions raised in the Scottish Parliament, provided briefing for Scottish Ministers on a range of subjects and, in the day to day processing of our casework, issued more than 55,000 letters to parties.
« Previous | Contents | Next »