COLWYN RESIDENT

Via email to

[FOI #3151 email]

Dear COLWYN RESIDENT

I am responding in my capacity as Director since any review cannot be carried out by the same person who initially dealt with the request. Therefore Mr Young has, in line with our procedures, asked that I carry out the review.

In your correspondence, you state that the point at issue is that Freedom of Information requests are applicant and motive blind, and therefore an individual does not have to supply their name.

I have reviewed your request with reference to the following point;

Mr. Young's response to your information request stated that the Ombudsman would require the name of the applicant to enable us to respond further, as this is the standard information required as stated in the Freedom of Information Act.

Mr Young also confirmed that the Ombudsman agrees with the statement that the Freedom of Information Act is applicant and motive blind, but that whilst the name of the applicant will have no influence on the response to the information request itself (therefore applicant blind), the Freedom of Information Act clearly states that an application does require the name of the applicant.

I have carefully considered your request and comments and have concluded the following;

Whilst I uphold Mr Young's decision not to treat your request under Freedom of Information legislation, in the spirit of the Act and of openness and transparency, I have requested Mr Young to provide the information requested where possible as an attachment to this letter.

Please note that whilst I am willing to provide the information, the information provided is not a response to your Freedom of Information request for the reasons stated above. In light of this decision the duty to provide you with the requested information within the Acts 20 day deadline is not applicable.

To conclude, I uphold the original decision that the information request was not supplied with the relevant information to enable us to treat it within the Freedom of Information Act, but in the spirit of openness I see no reason not to supply you with the requested information where possible.

Please note that if further requests for information are received by this office which does not contain the name of the requestor, we may attempt to provide the information where possible, but the rules relating to Freedom of Information Act will not apply in respect of any information provided. However we may also strictly interpret the Freedom of Information Act.

If you are not satisfied with this review response, then as stated in previous correspondence, it is open to you to appeal to the Information Commissioners' Office.

Yours sincerely

Andrew Walsh

Director of Investigations and Corporate Services

COLWYN RESIDENT

Via email to

[FOI #3151 email]

Dear COLWYN RESIDENT

This office was established on 1 April 2006 as a result of the Public Services Ombudsman (Wales) Act 2005. However, the PSOW database holds information back to the year 2005/06 when the office was operating in shadow form in 2005/06. It is from this point, therefore, that information has been provided.

Details of the complaints received against Conwy County Borough Council are:

The details of the outcomes of the complaints made against Conwy County Borough Council can be found from the Ombudsman's Annual Reports which are available in electronic form online at www.ombudsman-wales.org.uk . However, for your ease of reference a copy of the relevant pages are enclosed.

You will note that the Ombudsman does not make specific findings in relation to `breach of law' and we do not collect information on our database in this way. Rather, the Ombudsman, will either uphold a complaint or not. Further, the Ombudsman does not make `compensation awards'. The Ombudsman's approach is to put a person back in the situation they would have been in if the maladministration/service failure had not occurred. This, therefore, does not necessarily mean that the redress would take the form of a monetary payment. However, the Ombudsman may recommend that an authority should pay to the complaint a sum for their `time and trouble' in pursuing their complaint with the public body concerned, if this has been a particularly difficult and troublesome process.

In terms of the recommendations of financial redress made by the Ombudsman, we only began collecting this information on our database during the year 2007/08. The information recorded shows that (from June 2007 to March 2008) recommendations for financial redress were made in four cases that related to Conwy County Borough Council. The sums involved were: £150; £460; £500 and £11,000.

I trust this information is sufficient to satisfy your query, but if you do require further information then please let me know.

Yours sincerely

John Young

Corporate Services Manager