12 February 2010

Mr George Cant

Via email ([FOI #17826 email])

Your ref:

Our ref: CS-09-094/NJK/act

(Please quote our reference when contacting and, if using email,

please put the reference number in the email subject header)

Dear Mr Cant

I refer to your request on 22 October for a review of Ms Pook's handling of your FOIA requests of 9 September and 13 October. I apologise for my considerable delay in dealing with this matter.

In her letter of 12 October Ms Pook accurately provided you with the information on the professional training requirements for posts in the Commission, which is the body that supports the work of the three Local Government Ombudsmen. In your subsequent email (supplemented by a telephone conversation) you asked for the information in relation to each office.

As Ms Pook explained, although the majority of the corporate services staff are based in London, they support the work of all three investigative offices. All the corporate staff hold the professional qualifications required for their posts (some may have qualifications that exceed that requirement).

There is no particular professional qualification requirement for staff in the investigation teams. Although, as Ms Pook advised in her 12 October letter, it is `desirable' but not `essential' that Deputy Ombudsmen are qualified as solicitors or have a law degree.

It is not the Commission's policy to publish information on the individual qualifications of its staff. As Ms Pook set out in her letter of 14 October and explained on the telephone, section 40(2) of the FOIA exempts disclosure of personal data of individual members of staff if disclosure would contravene any of the eight data protection principles set out in the Data Protection Act 1998. The Commission obtains and holds information about qualifications of its staff for the specific purpose of establishing that they meet the requirements for their posts; it expressly states when gathering this information from staff that it will not process (eg publish) this personal information for some other purpose. In relying on this exemption, Ms Pook considered the public interest in disclosure. I agree with her view that the public interest in this matter is adequately met by the confirmation that all our postholders hold the qualifications that are required for their posts and publishing those requirements. This provides the assurance to the public that the LGOs are properly advised.

You refer to the `Vale of Glamorgan' decision. Without further information on what case you are referring to it is difficult for me to comment on its relevance. If it concerns the release of information on qualifications then I consider it likely that it was only concerning the Council's most senior staff. If you wish to have the details of my own qualifications then I would have no objection to Ms Pook disclosing these to you.
 

If you are not content with my decision on this matter you may raise a complaint with the Information Commissioner. His contact details are on the website www.ico.gov.uk.

Yours sincerely

Deputy Chief Executive & Secretary

The official title of the Local Government Ombudsman service is

the Commission for Local Administration in England.

LGO 02 (03/09)