Bullying statistics

Dear Ms Eatock,

Request for information under the Freedom of Information Act 2000

We are writing to acknowledge receipt of your email dated 31^st October
2009, in which you request the disclosure of information under the
provisions of the above Act.

We have begun a search for the information you require and shall contact
you again when we are in a position to respond further. Should we envisage
any delays, or require more details from you, we will contact you
immediately. In the meantime, if you have any queries about the above,
please do not hesitate to contact us, quoting ref. RFI 764/2009.

Yours sincerely,

On behalf of the Freedom of Information Team

Freedom of Information | Access to Information Team

Lancashire County Council, PO Box 78,

County Hall, Preston, PR1 8XJ

Tel: 01772 533997 | Fax: 01772 530949

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Lancashire, a place where everyone matters

********************

Dear Ms Eatock

Request for information under the Freedom of Information Act 2000

Further to your email dated 31^st October 2009, in which you request the
disclosure of information under the provisions of the above Act, we are
now in a position to provide you with a response.

Please could you provide me with the number of Lancashire County Council
staff who have been formally disciplined and/or sacked for bullying, since
records began.

We can confirm that Lancashire County Council does not hold a centralised
record of disciplinary cases or outcomes relating to Bullying or other
matters. To provide you with this information, in an Authority with over
40,000 employees would require a cascaded questionnaire being sent to over
600 schools and over 300 Managers across all services throughout the
County with subsequent chase ups and checking/collation of the returns.
Where this has been attempted in the past, the time taken has
significantly exceeded that set out in the relevant FOI exemption and
additionally the results have been viewed as incomplete and unreliable.

In light of this, we can confirm that to collate this information would
incur a commitment of resources far in excess of the limit of £450 set by
the Freedom of Information and Data Protection (Appropriate Limit and
Fees) Regulations 2004 (SI No. 3244 of 2004), which equates to 18 hours of
work. Section 12(1) of the Freedom of Information Act provides that a
public authority is not obliged to comply with a request where to do so
would exceed such a limit.

Please note however, this deficiency in information is proposed to be
addressed by the new HR /Payroll Information System which includes in the
specification a field for Heads/Managers to record disciplinaries and
outcomes. The new system will however not be in place until 2011/12 and
will be populated with data relating to disciplinaries effective from that
date i.e. there will be no prior historical information.

We are sorry that we have been unable to assist you on this occasion, in
the event that you wish to complain about the manner in which your enquiry
has been handled, you should write in the first instance to The Freedom of
Information Officer, Lancashire County Council, PO Box 78, County Hall,
Preston PR1 8XJ, or email [1][Lancashire County Council request email]

If, after this stage, you remain dissatisfied, you have the right to refer
the matter to the Information Commissioner, whose contact details are as
follows:

The Information Commissioner

Wycliffe House

Water Lane

Wilmslow

Cheshire

SK9 5AF

Tel: 01625 545700

Email: [2][email address]

Website: [3]http://www.ico.gov.uk

Your request will now be closed as of this date.

Yours sincerely,

Freedom of Information

Lancashire County Council

PO Box 78

County Hall

Preston

PR1 8XJ

Tel: (01772) 531116

Fax: (01772) 530949

Email: [4][Lancashire County Council request email]

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Lancashire, a place where everyone matters

********************

References

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1. mailto:[Lancashire County Council request email]
mailto:[Lancashire County Council request email]
2. mailto:[email address]
mailto:[email address]
3. http://www.ico.gov.uk/
http://www.ico.gov.uk/
4. mailto:[Lancashire County Council request email]
mailto:[Lancashire County Council request email]