16 October 2009

Mr G Cant

Via email ([FOI #18427 email])

Our ref: CS/09/097/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 Cant

Request for information

In your email of 23 September you asked how many times we have a record of incidences of breaches of s29 of the Local Government Act. You also asked what our most common action is in response to such breaches, and how many times we have notified the complainant, the council, or the police of such breaches.

We keep no separate record of any of this information, so the only way to obtain it would be to examine each complaint file. The Freedom of Information Act (section 44) does not override any restriction on the release of information covered by an earlier law. Such a restriction applies to the Ombudsman's complaint files. Under the Local Government Act 1974 (section 32(2)), the Ombudsman is not permitted to disclose any information obtained in the course of, or for the purposes of, the investigation of a complaint, unless he or she considers it is necessary for the purposes of the investigation (or for other very limited reasons mostly related to legal proceedings). (This also means that the Ombudsmen are not able to inform the police of breaches of the law.)

I have decided that releasing this information to you is not necessary for the purposes of an investigation and so I am not able to comply with your request.

You also asked what our framework is for verifying documents provided by the council in relation to evidence of a complaint investigation. I am sending with this letter the section from our Investigation Handbook on Examining the local authority's files.

That concludes my response. 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. If you do request an internal review - can you please indicate why you are unhappy with my response. 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

Hilary Pook (Ms)

Communications and Records Manager

LGO 01 (03/08)