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TaxPayers' Alliance Bulletin - 10th June 2011 - Civil servants spending your money - TPA victory on Prevent - South Tyneside council monkey business - Catching Pilgrims - Health & Safety gone mad - Grassroots Profile: Liam Billington - Best of the Blogs Civil servants spending your money We piled the pressure on Government spending in a new area this week withbrand new research into how civil servants have been spending your money on government-issued credit cards. Over £25 million was spent on the cards, although the true figure could be higher as some departments did not respond within the time. Read the full findings here. No one’s really looked at how they’ve been used across Whitehall before, so we had a look at what was being purchased. We discovered that while the country was mired in a recession, civil servants were living the high-life staying in luxury hotels, dining in top restaurants and enjoying shopping sprees, all at the taxpayers’ expense. The story was front page of the Daily Telegraph and hit the headlines elsewhere too, including the Mail on Sunday, Daily Star, The Mirror, and The London Evening Standard. Particularly egregious items were £700,000+ spent on flights by the Department for Energy and Climate Change, the same chaps who are tasked with fighting climate change and ensuring we meet our carbon reduction targets. The Department of Health spent over £37,000 on just 34 trips to luxury hotels in 12 months alone. You can see a full breakdownhere. The TPA's Director Matthew Sinclair said: "Spending on credit cards has got way out of hand. We need more transparency and accountability and fewer civil servants running up extravagant bills and leaving them to taxpayers. Transparency is vital so that the spending can be properly scrutinised, and to stop a culture of excess building up in Whitehall. Civil servants have legitimate expenses, but there is no excuse for some of the lavish spending that has been uncovered. There is no practical obstacle to being open about credit card spending, so it is very worrying that some departments have refused to disclose this information. The TaxPayers' Alliance will keep fighting to ensure it is all published and the efficiency of the procurement cards can be combined with proper rigor to keep costs down." TPA victory on Prevent You may remember our report on 'Preventing Violent Extremism' grants. Well, the Government launched its new Prevent Strategy earlier in the week. The previous scheme was divisive, simultaneously frustrating and alienating different faith groups and entire communities. The Government also didn't have a clue where funds were going once they had been passed on to local authorities. Our research in 2009 was the first and only study detailing exactly how local authorities spent the money given to them by central government. Paul Goodman – in his previous role as a MP for Wycombe – asked the Department for Communities and Local Government for a breakdown of this spending in Parliament but was unable to get a full answer. But our research produced an itemised bill of how Prevent money was spent. There were also concerns that funds were going to extremist groups, so we called for the grants to be scrapped. The new Strategy says "responsibility for Prevent will lie with the Home Office...and responsibility for integration with DCLG", meaning that the grants have been scrapped, which is fantastic news. Matthew Sinclair said: "It was vital that the Government scrapped the old system of Prevent grants through local authorities, which too often saw the anti-extremism fund funding extremism. The national government has had enough trouble ensuring that funding to promote cohesion doesn't end up in the wrong hands, and hoping councils could avoid that with far less experience and ability to screen potential recipients was an expensive mistake. Letting them do that without proper monitoring of where the money went was downright reckless. We need to let the police and the intelligence services tackle radicalisation and terrorism, and take every precaution to avoid funding groups that undermine Britain's values and community cohesion." South Tyneside council monkey business It’s emerged that South Tyneside Council are using taxpayers' money to try and track down and gag a blogger who goes by the name of Mr Monkey. Matthew Sinclair blogged on the full story earlier this week. Since then it’s emerged that the council might actually be breaking the law too, councils cannot sue for defamation and there are rules against them paying for staff to sue for defamation. The Local Authorities (Indemnities for Members & Officers) Order 2004 says: "No indemnity may be provided under this order in relation to the making by the member or officer indemnified of any claim in relation to an alleged defamation of that member or officer". It looks like South Tyneside Council are sailing very close to the wind if they are funding a private defamation case to protect the reputations of their senior staff. The issue has even caught the attention of Simon Singh, prominent campaigner for libel reform and renowned science author. The local authority needs to find millions in savings in the coming years and should be spending money on frontline services, not chasing bloggers through the Californian courts. We’ve called for them to end this overreaction to online attacks and waste no more money on this monkey business. Catching Pilgrims This week we’re asking for your help to identify some of the thousands of public sector workers who spend their time doing union work, whilst you pay. We’ve started calling them Pilgrims after Jane Pilgrim, an NHS nurse who is in fact a full time union official, was first exposed by the Guido Fawkes blog. She is one of the equivalent of 2,493 full time public sector employees who are working for the unions to fight spending cuts rather than doing their day jobs. We showed just how much you pay for union activities in a report on union funding last year, and only today it was revealed that Bradford City Council are spending £300,000 a year on the wages and offices of trade union staff. If you feel that the taxpayer funding of union officials has to stop, here’s what you can do: Read our report to find out how many union representatives there are in your local council, NHS trust and fire service Write to your MP to insist that the taxpayer funding of union activists has to stop Any responses you get, please forward them on to us. We pay our taxes for legitimate government services, not for officials union members should be paying for themselves. Health & Safety gone mad A little-reported story this week but one that got the TPA’s Emma Boon riled was that of 85 year-old Charlotte Cubitt, who wanted to get rid of her old TV. Even though she was happy to pay to have it taken away, she was told health and safety rules meant council workers couldn't do it for her because they might injure themselves. The Essex pensioner would have to get the old set outside her home herself before the council would remove it. Emma Boon told ITV Anglia it’s another example of health and safety gone mad. Watch here There is a happy ending though, after her plight was featured on television, a number of viewers went to help her. Grassroots profile: Liam Billington Each month we profile one of our grassroots activists. This week it's Liam Billington. Liam is the grassroots co-ordinator for Tameside, a small metropolitan borough near Manchester. He has lived across areas in Tameside for the past 22 years. Liam started as a TPA activist just under a year ago after an FOI request revealed Tameside Council spent over £36,000 of taxpayers' money on a virtual town hall, museum and statues in the game Second Life. The story went national, with the council being branded barmy by The Sun. Since then, Liam has revealed other digital disasters, such as the £182 per week Tameside spent on producing a YouTube video called "60 Second News" and the £5,000 they spent on an iPhone app. And it’s not just technology that he’s interested in, Liam also uncovered that Tameside Council had spent a total of £30,000 on keeping staff healthy with 17 "wellbeing champions". After pressure from the TPA, they were forced into scrapping the scheme. Liam's currently campaigning for the council to scrap taxpayer funded union staff; Tameside has the fourth highest union spend in the country. Union staff at the council earn an average of £40,000 per year, whereas the average Tamesider in a full time job earns below the national average at £22,000. Liam says: "I would strongly encourage anyone to become an activist or co-ordinator for The TaxPayers' Alliance. When putting articles forward, you are doing your bit to put the case for lower taxes. The TPA is the strongest pressure group in the UK and is read by the national media and politicians alike. The support you get from Andrew Allison and the rest of the team is really great, you feel that you're not alone and they give you some real motivation and drive to carry forward. You feel as if you are part of a team." Best of the Blogs Grassroots: Council clash of interests - Tim Newark looks at some of the problems created by Bath council's property empire 2020 Tax Commission: UK competitiveness weakened by rising tax burden - Rory Meakin looks at how high taxes are leaving the British economy less competitive Grassroots: Southampton taxpayers being taken for a ride - Employees at Southampton city council respond to a reduction in mileage rates by refusing to use their own cars and instead taking taxis everywhere Economics 101: The Government must get out of the way to let entrepreneurship flourish- Duncan Bannatyne is right to call for less regulation and bureaucracy, but should be wary of government interference in driving entrepreneurship Grassroots: Cardiff taxpayers forced to move home - Lee Canning on how Cardiff council are failing residents to the extent that they're moving away Better Government: Bradford City council spend £300,000 on trade union Pilgrims - Chris Daniel reveals that Bradford council is spending £300,000 a year on the wages and offices of trade union staff 2020 Tax Commission: Keep cutting spending, says IMD. And cut taxes, too - Rory Meakin on the preliminary findings from the IMF's recent visit to the UK