10 February 2010

Ms T Ezekpo

Via email ([FOI #25107 email])

Our ref: CS/09/0144/NJK

(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 Ms Ezekpo

Request for information

In your email of 24 December, you asked for the number of complaints/messages we have received to date about or including Camden council officer telling lies or making/giving false allegations. Ms Pook refused to provide this information, on grounds of the s.44 exemption to the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA). You then asked for a review of her decision on 18 January, saying you would accept information for the period 2006 to 2009. Ms Pook sent a further email to you, explaining that the information you requested is not held on the computerised database of complaints made to the Ombudsmen. You again asked for a review of her decision.

I have reviewed Ms Pook's handling of your request, and I can confirm that there is no means of identifying complaints that fit the description `council officer telling lies or making/giving false allegations', other than by a manual search of files which would cost more than the £450 financial expenditure limits for dealing with requests in the FOIA. Furthermore we only keep paper records for 12 months after a case is closed, so we would not have complete paper records for the period you specified.

It is, however, possible to search our database for `keywords' and there is a keyword of `advice/information misleading/incorrect'. We have used this to search our database for complaints against the London Borough of Camden from 1 January 2006 to 31 December 2009, and there are 13 complaints identified.

That concludes my review and my decision is the final stage in the Commission's procedures. If you are dissatisfied with my reply you have the right to apply to the Information Commissioner to determine whether your request has been properly dealt with. You will be able to obtain further details of the Information Commissioner's role from the website on www.ico.gov.uk.

Yours sincerely

Nigel Karney

Nigel Karney

Deputy Chief Executive and Secretary to the Commission.

LGO 01 (03/08)