2009 triannual review

Dear Sir or Madam,

Please provide copies of all documents on which the LGO has
consulted in relation to its proposed 2009 trianual review... and
all working documents...

Please also provide a copy of the Counsel's opinion referred to in
the 2003 triannual review identifying that Local Settlements should
be changed

Yours faithfully,

Stuart Hardwicke Carruthers

Dear Sir or Madam,

Please pass this on to the person who conducts Freedom of
Information reviews.

I am writing to request an internal review of Local Government
Ombudsmen's handling of my FOI request '2009 triannual review'.

A full history of my FOI request and all correspondence is
available on the Internet at this address:
http://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/20...

The section on Decisions by letter and local settlements in the
2003 triannual review states:

4.1 Section 30(1) requires that, in any case where an Ombudsman
conducts an investigation, a report on the results of that
investigation shall be issued. In practice, however, on many
occasions during the course of investigating a complaint the local
authority may take, or agree to take, some action which the
Ombudsman considers to be a satisfactory response to the complaint
(this is known as a `local settlement'). In other cases, during the
course of the investigation it may become clear that there was no
maladministration, or no consequential injustice, or insufficient
injustice to justify continuing the investigation. In such cases
the Ombudsman decides to discontinue the investigation by letter
and without publishing a report.

4.2 The Commission has Counsel's Advice that it is proper for
Ombudsmen to do this because Section 26(10) gives the Ombudsmen
discretion to initiate, continue or discontinue an investigation.
However, the Commission recommends that the 1974 Act should be
amended to give express statutory recognition to the current
practice of discontinuing investigations by letter as outlined in
paragraph 4.1.

It seems very odd that the LGO would seek to change the law (and as
far as Ican determine succceed) without having at least a file on
its reasons.

Yours sincerely,

Stuart Hardwicke CARRUTHERS