MP Tom Watson hits out at refusal to give details of West Midlands Ambulance boss pay hike
An MP has accused an ambulance service of being 'outrageously arrogant' for refusing to disclose details of how a chief executive came to receive a £50,000 pay rise, taking his salary to £232,000 a year.
Tom Watson sent a request under the Freedom of Information Act to East of England Ambulance Service Trust (EEAST), where West Midlands Ambulance Service boss Anthony Marsh is also in charge.
But the service refused to give him copies of minutes and correspondence relating to the decision to give Mr Marsh the 'uplift' in pay, saying the details are confidential.
Mr Marsh has been asked to run EEAST alongside his existing duties in the West Midlands for up to two years after writing a scathing report on it.
West Midlands Ambulance Service says he is saving taxpayers £100,000 a year by doing the work of two chief executives but the salary has been criticised as 'obscene' by health minister Dan Poulter. Mr Marsh has also been staying in hotels on expenses and uses a taxi service costing £400 a week to take him between his two areas of responsibility, saying it is better value than driving himself because he works en route and answers all his own emails.
He spends on average two days a week in the West Midlands and three in the East of England. EEAST is invoiced £16,598 a month for him by West Midlands Ambulance Service.
Posting the response to his request on his blog, Mr Watson, MP for West Bromwich East, said: "When I get responses like the ones below it always hardens my resolve to get to the facts.
"Though outrageously arrogant, and lacking in any transparency or semblance of accountability, the response below has hardened my view that there is something wrong with the culture of this particular part of the NHS.
"You are entitled to see the deliberations of the remuneration committee, and an organisation that values public scrutiny would respond to the request to see the emails. I will appeal, of course."
The email from East of England Ambulance Service said: "The East of England Ambulance Service (EEAST) is invoiced by the West Midlands Ambulance Service for £16,598 per month.
"Regarding your request for the minutes and correspondence concerning this decision, unfortunately the trust is unable to provide you with this information.
"The minutes of the remuneration committee are confidential and cannot be released. While the correspondence is held in individuals' email accounts, many of those including the chair, human resources director and trust secretary have since left the trust and their accounts closed.
"As a result the trust has calculated that this would take longer than18 hours to extract and collate the information you require and therefore would exceed the appropriate limit as defined by the Freedom of Information and Data Protection (Appropriate Limit and Fees) Regulations 2004 and as such we are unable to answer this part of your request."
Last week Mr Watson surprised Mr Marsh by calling the studio while the ambulance boss was a guest on BBC Radio Suffolk and quizzing him about his pay.
Mr Marsh had told the programme: "The salaries for chief execs are not set by chief execs, they're set by boards and remuneration committees and our chairman so my salary's a matter for others to set and for others to determine. People will have a view about that."
