Essex Legal Services

New Bridge House

60-68 New London Road

Chelmsford

Essex CM2 0PD

Dear Mr Nunn

Freedom of Information request: Local Government Ombudsman Investigations

Further to your request for information regarding Local Government Ombudsman investigations in which you asked:

During the last five years how many times has the Local Government Ombudsman (as a result of investigating a complaint against Essex County Council) brought to the attention of the Council the fact that a member of Essex County Council staff had misled them, lied to them or done anything else to hinder their investigation. If they have what disciplinary action was taken against the individual(s) concerned by the Council.

 As you may be aware the Information Commissioner has been communicating with the authority with the above matter and the advice that he has given has been followed.  We have reviewed the files for the years in which we have a readily accessible record.  These number 120.  In none of those files was there evidence of any finding that a member of staff had misled, lied or done anything else to hinder the investigation.  In addition I confirm that I have spoken to the Monitoring Officer for the time preceding the keeping of that record and he does not recall any such instance either. 

We will also be interrogating our case management system manually to identify further cases and ensure that the authority has met the statutory financial limit for the supply of information as set out in section 12 of the Act. I will write to you in respect of those files when the work has been completed next week.

Please contact me if you would like further advice or assistance about your request or your right to access information held by Essex County Council.

If you are not satisfied with my response to your request, please let me know. If I am unable to resolve the issue immediately I will explain our complaints procedure.

If after following our complaints procedure you are still not satisfied, you are entitled to ask the Information Commissioner to review our decision. You can contact him at Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow, Cheshire SK9 5AF. Telephone: 01625 545700.

Yours sincerely

Alex Hallam

Deputy County Solicitor

DX: 155940 Chelmsford 18

Telephone: 01245 506790

Fax: 01245 357335

Internet: www.essex.gov.uk

Email: [email address]