6 October 2008

Mr T Nunn

Via email ([FOI #2920 email])

Our ref: CS/08/0064/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 Nunn

Request for information

In your email of 8 September, you asked for the percentage of complaints identified as potentially involving a criminal act and/or infringement of the complainant's civil rights. You asked for percentages of complaints out of the total of complaints submitted during the last reporting year for criminal, legal and human rights.

First, as I am only able to give you figures where the complaint has been decided, I am giving you percentages of complaints out of the total decided in the last reporting year, not of the total submitted. I hope that is acceptable. (Some complaints decided in a particular year will have been received before the start of that year, and some complaints submitted in a particular year will not be decided until after the end of that year.)

The Ombudsmen cannot investigate complaints about “Action taken by or on behalf of any police authority in connection with the investigation or prevention of crime” (Local Government Act 1974, Sch 5.2). In 2007/08, there were 14 complaints concluded with this as the reason why the Ombudsman could not investigate. Out of the total concluded of 18,442 that is 0.075%.

The Ombudsman cannot investigate complaints about “the commencement or conduct of civil or criminal proceedings before a court of law” (Local Government Act 1974, Sch 5.1). In 2007/08, there were 108 complaints concluded with this as the reason why the Ombudsman could not investigate. Out of the total concluded of 18,442 that is 0.58%. We do not record whether the proceedings were civil or criminal.

/…

The only way we can record cases which have involved the infringement of the complainant's human rights is by applying a `keyword' to the computer record of the complaint. This is not totally accurate, as the investigator has to remember to assign the keyword to the case, but I have done a search on this keyword and there were nine complaints where it had been recorded - ie 0.049% of all complaints decided in 2007/08. Two of these cases resulted in reports finding maladministration causing injustice to the complainant.

You went on to ask how many times the Ombudsmen sought advice from a more appropriate agency/body or court. The Ombudsmen do not seek advice from courts. We do not keep a separate record of how many times advice is sought from other bodies. This information would only be on the paper complaint file. To find this information I would have to search through in the region of 18,000 records. Under the Freedom of Information Act there is a limit on the amount of time an authority is obliged to spend in dealing with an information request. This is currently set at £450 which is equivalent to 18 hours of officer time. The amount of work involved in meeting your request would clearly cost more than this cost limit. Therefore I am unable to provide the information you request.

And you asked how many times the Ombudsmen asked a more appropriate agency/body or court to deal with a complaint, and how many times they referred the complaint back to the complainants informing them of a more appropriate agency/body or court to deal with their complaint. The Ombudsmen don't ask other bodies to deal with complaints, they can only terminate their investigation of the complaint and inform the complainant of a more appropriate body to go to.

In 2007/08, there were 682 complaints (3.7%) concluded because the complainant had a right of appeal to a tribunal (Local Government Act 1974, s.26(6)(a)). Only one of these cases seems to have involved the complainant's human rights. There were 236 complaints (1.3%) concluded because the complainant had a right of appeal to a Minister of the Crown (Local Government Act 1974, s.26(6)(b)), and 558 complaints (3.0%) concluded because the complainant had a remedy by way of proceedings in a court of law (Local Government Act 1974, s.26(6)(c)). A right of appeal to a tribunal or a Minister will not be about a criminal matter, the right referred to in s.26(6)(c) would not cover criminal proceedings. None of the latter two categories involved any cases concerned with the complainant's human rights.

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)