Advice to Council's

Dear Sir or Madam,

Please provide copies of any documents that the Local Government
Ombudsman and/or Commission for Local Administration England has
provided to local authorities or their representative organisations
in England in relation to management of the records that form part
of their complaint systems (particularly destruction of records). A
number identify that they are following advice provided by the
Local Government Ombudsman's Office / CLAE (and identify that only
the LGO/CLAE are able to provide access to the Council's own
records).

It is my understanding that the CLAE / LGO is independent of both
the Council's complained against and the complainants. Please
provide copies of any documents that the LGO / CLAE makes available
to complainants identifying that the LGO / CLAE is providing a
record management consultancy service and depositry for Council's.

If no advice has been provided to Council's on this issue by the
LGO / CLAE please state that this is the case.

Has the LGO / CLAE identified Council's destroying their records
now that complainants have an opportunity to access these through
FoI and are no longer dependent on the LGO's discretion to provide
access as an operational and strategic risk. If it has been
identified as an operational risk copies of the relevant register
entries are requested.

Have the LGO's / CLAE provided guidance to their investigators that
for instance any breech of FoI by a Council (i.e. destruction of
records in a Council complaint file) should lead to an automatic
finding in favour of a complainant. Please provide any guidance
that the LGO's have made available to their investigators on this
issue and/or any draft guidance.

Yours faithfully,

Stuart Hardwicke Carruthers