5 September 2008

Ms T Ezekpo

Via email ([FOI #2776 email])

Our ref: CS/08/0052/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 Ms Ezekpo

Request for information

In your email of 3 September, you asked how many of the complaints against Camden Council that I gave you figures for in my previous letter were upheld by the Ombudsman. I set out a table below of all the outcomes of the complaints concerned.

Since 1 January 2001 the figures we have for harassment and discrimination complaints against Camden Council are as follows:

NM = No or insufficient evidence of maladministration (without report)

OD = Ombudsman's discretion not to pursue complaint

OJ = Outside the Ombudsman's jurisdiction

Premature = complaint passed to Council because complainant had not complained to the Council first.

There were no formal reports issued on any of the complaints, but you will see there were a number of local settlements, so the complainants will have received a remedy of some sort in those cases.

I said in my previous letter that we did not record the number of neighbour disputes. You asked for the reason for this. We categorise complaints in a certain way - primarily by council service area - and there is no category that equates to `neighbour disputes'. We have a category for `antisocial behaviour' which would include complaints where one neighbour is behaving in an antisocial way to another. Disputes between neighbours may also occur in other ways, for example over a planning issue. So some complaints we categorise as `planning' may involve neighbour disputes. We have no `keyword' for neighbour disputes, so we do not have any way of separating these types of complaints out from the rest which do not involve disputes with neighbours.

You also asked in your latest email for the total number of complaints the Ombudsmen had received against Camden between 2001 and 2008. From 1 January 2001 to 31 August 2008, the Ombudsmen have received 1,489 complaints against Camden. Deducting the 53 complaints noted above, that is 1,436.

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

LGO 01 (03/08)