14 August 2008

Mr S Hardwicke Carruthers

Via email ([FOI #1441 email])

Our ref: CS/08/0029/HJP

(Please quote our reference when contacting us)

If telephoning contact Hilary Pook on 020 7217 4734

or if using email send to: [email address]

Dear Mr Hardwicke Carruthers

Request for information

In your email of 25 July you suggest the investigation into 05/C/11921 was initiated by Mrs Thomas, the previous Ombudsman based at York, before Mrs Seex became Ombudsman in October 2005. This is not the case. This complaint was not received by the Ombudsman until November 2005.

You asked for a copy of the Commission meeting paper CLA 1572, identified in the minutes of the Commission meeting held on 13 February 2007. I sent this paper with my letter reference CS/08/0022 at the same time as I sent the extract from the minutes.

You state that the minutes say that Anne Seex was to become responsible for Lancaster because Mr White had links with Mrs Thomas. This is not correct. Mrs Thomas had had personal links with Lancaster and therefore she was not responsible for that authority when she was Ombudsman. Because she was no longer Ombudsman, there was no longer any reason why Mrs Seex should not deal with it, as it is within her overall geographical area. However, at the following Commission meeting in March 2007, it was decided not to transfer Lancaster after all, because the York office had a heavier workload than the Coventry office at that time. An extract from the minutes of that meeting are attached.

You asked the Commission to identify when Anne Seex first made them aware of her personal connection with Trafford Council. Mrs Seex did not make the Commission aware of her relative's past connection with Trafford Council when she took up her post as Ombudsman because it was not a connection she needed to declare in terms of the Commission's policy and guidance on these matters. (You have already received a copy of the Commissioners' Code of Conduct.)

/…

However, after some experience of dealing with the Council she came to feel that some Councillors may have their view of her findings coloured by their knowledge that a relative had served as a Councillor in the Borough many years previously and that the public interest and the interests of complainants would be better served if Trafford were transferred to the jurisdiction of another Ombudsman. She made the Commission aware of this in the autumn of 2006. The decision to change the Ombudsmen's areas was taken in the interests of ensuring that the integrity and impartiality of the Commission was maintained.

You asked for all documentation related to why Mrs Thomas's investigation against Trafford was completed by Mrs Seex and not Mr White. As stated above, it was never Mrs Thomas's investigation.

You asked the Commission to “transparently identify which LGO should have been responsible for the issue of the Ombudsman reports of 26 July 2007 and 3 January 2008 (Ref: 05/C/11921) following the CLAE's decision of 13 February 2007.” The decision was taken to transfer complaints against Trafford from Anne Seex' office to Jerry White's office with effect from 1 April 2007 - but this related to complaints received from that date. So any complaints already in hand, including 05/C/11921, continued to be dealt with by Anne Seex' staff.

Finally, you asked for any documentation held from Government departments, ministers, MPs etc requesting that the Ombudsmen should seek to change the councils for which they are responsible. My response is that there is no such documentation.

That concludes my response and I hope you find the information useful. If you feel I have not dealt properly with your request, you have the right to appeal and, should you wish to do so, I can supply a copy our internal complaints procedure. You also have the right to apply to the Information Commissioner to determine whether your request has been properly dealt with. You should note however that the Commissioner will not consider any complaint where you have not first exhausted our internal complaints process or where there has been undue delay in contacting him. You will be able to obtain further details of the Information Commissioner's role from the website on www.ico.gov.uk.

Yours sincerely

Hilary Pook (Ms)

Communications and Records Manager

Enc: Extract from minutes of Commission meeting of 27 March 2007

LGO 01 (03/08)