“I would like to know how many claims have been made to Devon County Council in the years; 2016, 2017, 2018 and 2019 relating to pothole damage on your roads.
I would like the information to be broken down by:
- The date the claim was made
- What the damage was to, i.e. a car, a bicycle, a lorry etc.
- How much the claim was for
Please see the claims spreadsheet provided for the date the claim was made (where recorded) and the value of the claim. For 2019, we only have data up to 30/06/19.
We do not centrally record the type of vehicle that may have been damaged, only the fact that it was a vehicle. To identify this information would require reviewing each claim record individually. On the basis of 5 minutes per claim for the 2000 claims in the time period specified this would take in the region of 166 hours. This is well in excess of the 18 hours public authorities are required to spend responding to requests under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 Section 12 Cost of Compliance.
Zero claims may be where the claimant did not specify a clear amount on the claim form, therefore one was not recorded, a request to them to specify an amount may not have been responded to, meaning the claim was not progressed.
Secondly, in accordance with insurance law, I would like to know for all the claims,
1. How many of the claims were acknowledged within 21 days of being received AND if the pothole was one you were aware of.
Details of claims acknowledged within 21 days are provided below:-
2019 – 227 pothole claims – 204 acknowledged – 201 within 21 days
2018 – 923 pothole claims – 852 acknowledged – 455 within 21 days
2017 – 413 pothole claims – 390 acknowledged – 334 within 21 days
2016 – 456 pothole claims – 403 acknowledged – 141 within 21 days
Please note, all of the above data is based on the incident date of the claim, rather than the date the claim was received, or entered on to the system, as this is the way our records are held.
Not all claims are acknowledged, but all claims received are responded to. Requests for further information may be made before the claim can be acknowledged and progressed, and this is not always forthcoming thus never leads to an acknowledgement.
To determine if each individual pothole reported was one we were already aware of we would need to cross reference each claim record with our database of recorded potholes. We estimate this would take 166 hours.
2. How many claims received a decision within three months AND what that decision was.
To locate, extract and retrieve this information we estimate would take up to 100 hours. The records specify decisions reached within six months – figures provided below. To identify those where a decision was reached within three months would mean a manual review of each claim individually, each one taking several minutes.
3. For those which did not receive a decision within three months, how many received a decision within six months AND what was the decision.
Please see below a list of decisions made within six months. This is from the time the claim was entered on to the insurance database until the claim was closed:-
2016 = 359
2017 = 323
2018 = 740
2019 = 150
To locate, extract and retrieve information about decisions would mean a manual review of 1500 claims, each taking at least five minutes, a total of 131 hours, well in excess of the 18 hours public authorities are required to spend responding to requests under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 Section 12 – Cost of Compliance.
4. How many are still awaiting a decision longer than six months.”
To locate ,extract and retrieve this information we estimate would take up to 100 hours. The records held specify decisions reached within six months – figures provided above. To identify those where a decision was reached in more than six months would mean reviewing each record individually.
Details of successful and unsuccessful claim percentages are online :
This data is not broken down by claim cause.