Under the Freedom of Information Act I would like information on the annual spend for mobility equipment and aids of daily living for community services in the last four years please. Equipment such as walking frames, walking sticks, commodes, shower stools etc.
If possible broken down for each item.
| 2013/14 | 2014/15 | 2015/16 | 2016/17 | |
| Simple Aids for Disability Living | £375,327 | £476,005 | £458,397 | £531,042 |
| Complex Aids for Disability Living | £2,422,964 | £2,583,146 | £1,957,909 | £1,958,276 |
| Prescriptions (includes both above) | £1,218,109 | £982,714 | £937,485 | £1,060,663 |
| £4,016,400 | £4,041,865 | £3,353,791 | £3,549,981 |
The figures above do not include refurbishment, repairs or delivery charges.
Devon County Council is unable to provide information in relation to spend for each item under Section 12 of the Freedom of Information Act. Under the Freedom of Information Act public authorities are not obliged to comply with requests which exceed the cost limit of £450 (equating to 18 hours of time).
The computer systems are not set up to easily provide us with a breakdown of figures for different items. There are literally thousands of pieces of equipment ordered annually and in order to find and extract the requested information, DCC would need to review 1000s of files. On the basis of 10 minutes per file, we deem that this would well exceed the 18 hours public authorities are required to spend responding to FOI requests.