Public money & privacy

New government, new openness.

That's the theory anyway - shame that spirit hasn't filtered down to some of our councils.

We've found out recently what the PM's special advisers earn, joining a long list of public servants whose salaries have been made public.

Cameron himself has set the benchmark for public sector pay at the top; plans are afoot for anyone who earns more than him to have it signed off by the Chancellor.

No one knows yet whether these rules will be retrospective though.

It seemed an apposite time then to revisit the pay-off made to Somerset County Council's Chief Executive, Alan Jones, when he departed the council in July 2009.

But the council won't play ball: a Freedom of Information request about the payments made and benefits accrued to Mr Jones when he left was rebutted.

"This information is exempt under section 40 (personal information) of the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), as the information constitutes third party data," a spokesperson told us.

"Under the FOI Act disclosure of this information would breach the fair processing principle contained in the Data Protection Act (DPA), where it would be unfair to that person as it is confidential."

The Information Commissioner has already upheld several judgements along these lines from other councils, according to Somerset.

That won't stop us going back to him, as it's hardly in the spirit of David Cameron's new open Government: particularly when Somerset CC has just had its grant cut by £3m, and will - like all councils - be looking to make savings soon.