26 February 2009

Mr T Thomas

Via email ([FOI #7588 email])

Our ref: CS/09/013/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 Thomas

Request for information

In your email of 3 February, you asked - from a set of statistics to which you referred relating to complaints about cemeteries and crematoria between January 2007 and December 2008 - what the six local settlements cost the particular council.

For local settlements, we only hold information on what action the council agreed with the Ombudsman that it would take. So we do not know, for example where a council has agreed to a particular course of action, what the cost of that course of action is to the council. We do record amounts of money where the council have agreed to pay the complainant compensation, but none of the six local settlements you asked about included the payment of compensation.

Two of the local settlements involved reviewing policy or procedure. In one case the council agreed to apologise and dedicate a bench in the cemetery to the deceased person. In another two cases the council put the matter right that had been complained about. And in the final case, an administrative fee of £360 was waived.

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.

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Yours sincerely

Hilary Pook

Hilary Pook (Ms)

Communications and Records Manager

LGO 01 (03/08)