Employment Tribunals

Simon Smith made this Freedom of Information request to Kent County Council

The request was successful.

From: Simon Smith

15 March 2010

Dear Kent County Council,

Under the Freedom of Information Act, I would be grateful if you
could provide me with the following information:

1. How many members of staff have taken KCC to an Employment
Tribunal for reasons of discrimination (race, sex, disability,
etc.) - Broken down by department and type of discrimination.

2. Of these Employment Tribunals, how many did KCC win, lose or
settle - again broken down by department and type of
discrimination.

3. Of those Tribunals settled by KCC, please can you provide
details of the amount of cash provided to each settled case - again
broken down by department and type of discrimination.

Yours faithfully,

Simon Smith

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Kent County Council

16 March 2010

Dear Mr Smith

Thank you for your email below.

I acknowledge your request for information under the Freedom of
Information Act 2000. Assuming we hold this information, I will endeavour
to supply the data to you as soon as possible but no later than 15th April
2010 (20 working days from date of receipt).

I will advise you as soon as possible if we do not hold this information
or if there are exemptions to be considered and/or any costs for providing
the information. Please quote our reference - FOI/10/0305 in any
communication regarding this particular request.

Best regards

Corporate Access to Information Team, Chief Executive's Department
Kent County Council, Legal & Democratic Services, Room B.48, Sessions
House, County Hall, Maidstone. ME14 1XQ.
Tel: 01622 696265 or 01622 694261 - Fax: 01622 696075
[1]http://www.kent.gov.uk/your_council/have...

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Kent County Council

17 March 2010

Dear Mr Smith

Further to my colleague's email below, can you please confirm the
timescale that you want the information for (i.e.: last calendar year or
last financial year). Please bear in mind that the longer the time frame
specified, the more likely that your request may exceed the appropriate
limit. The 20-working day "FOI clock" also stops whilst we are awaiting
clarification; as soon as we receive this from you, we will contact you
again to advise you of the latest date you can expect a response by.

Best regards

Caroline Dodge
Corporate Access to Information Coordinator, Chief Executive's Department
Kent County Council, Legal & Democratic Services, Room B.48, Sessions
House, County Hall, Maidstone. ME14 1XQ.
Tel: 01622 221652 - Fax: 01622 696075
[1]http://www.kent.gov.uk/your_council/have...

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From: Freedom of Information - CED
Sent: 16 March 2010 11:39
To: 'Simon Smith'
Subject: FOI/10/0305 ACKNOWLEDGEMENT TO FOI REQUEST RECEIVED 16th MARCH
2010
Importance: High
Dear Mr Smith

Thank you for your email below.

I acknowledge your request for information under the Freedom of
Information Act 2000. Assuming we hold this information, I will endeavour
to supply the data to you as soon as possible but no later than 15th April
2010 (20 working days from date of receipt).

I will advise you as soon as possible if we do not hold this information
or if there are exemptions to be considered and/or any costs for providing
the information. Please quote our reference - FOI/10/0305 in any
communication regarding this particular request.

Best regards

Corporate Access to Information Team, Chief Executive's Department
Kent County Council, Legal & Democratic Services, Room B.48, Sessions
House, County Hall, Maidstone. ME14 1XQ.
Tel: 01622 696265 or 01622 694261 - Fax: 01622 696075
[2]http://www.kent.gov.uk/your_council/have...

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From: Simon Smith

21 March 2010

Dear Ms Dodge,

Thank you for your email, I apologise for not being more specific
in my original request.

I would be grateful if your could provide me with the details
covering the last three full calendar years, i.e. 2007, 2008, 2009.

Yours faithfully,

Simon Smith

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From: Simon Smith

13 April 2010

Dear Ms Dodge,

Further to my previous emails, please can you advise on any
progress in answering my queries, and any indication of when a
response might be received.

Many thanks.

Yours faithfully,

Simon Smith

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Kent County Council

14 April 2010

Attachment Re FOI 10 0305 FOI REQUEST RECEIVED 16th MARCH 2010 CLARIFICATION REQUIRED.html
7K Download

Dear Mr Smith

My apologies for not replying sooner.

As you know we sought clarification from yourself on 17th March 2010 and
you replied on the 22nd March 2010 (please see attached).

I would like to inform you that the latest date that you can expect a
response by is the 19th April 2010.

Best regards

Corporate Access to Information Team, Chief Executive's Department
Kent County Council, Legal & Democratic Services, Room B.48, Sessions
House, County Hall, Maidstone. ME14 1XQ.
Tel: 01622 696265 or 01622 694261 - Fax: 01622 696075
[1]http://www.kent.gov.uk/your_council/have...

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From: Simon Smith

28 April 2010

Dear Ms Dodge,

Further to my previous emails, please can you advise on any
progress in answering my queries, and any indication of when a
response might be received.

In your last email, you said I could expect a response by 19 April.

Thank you

Simon Smith

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Kent County Council

29 April 2010

Dear Mr Smith

Thank you for your request for information regarding employment tribunals
and your subsequent reminders. Kent County Council is now finally able to
provide its response to your request and I would like to offer my sincere
apologies for the delay in replying to you. I appreciate that the Council
has not complied with statutory timescales on this occasion.

Kent County Council is a very large local authority; our employee
headcount is over 44,000. KCC is split into five directorates, each with
their own devolved powers and financial management so consequently, very
few records are centralised making our ability to answer authority-wide
requests for information very difficult within the appropriate
limit. There is no requirement for information on Employment Tribunals to
be collated and monitored by KCC, so neither directorate personnel
officers nor Legal Services are obliged to report the existence of
employment tribunal cases to one central point. However, I have managed to
collate the following information from KCC's Corporate Personnel
Team who collect limited statistics in order to capture a wide indication
of activity. I hope these meet some of your requirements*

Total Total Discrimination
ETs Discrimination Issue How Resolved Directorate Cost
ETs
2007 10 0 0 0 0 0
Kent Adult
2008 10 1 Age Not Upheld Social 0
Services
Kent Adult
2008 1 Disability Not Upheld Social 0
Services
Kent Adult
2008 1 Gender Withdrawn Social 0
Services
COT3
agreement Chief
2008 1 Gender with ACAS; Executive's £30,000
never Department
reached ET
Kent Adult
2009 5 1 Racial Not Upheld Social 0
Services

I must point out that the number of employment tribunal cases reported
corporately (and shown in the table above) is not the same thing as the
number of employment tribunal cases that have been brought against or
dealt with Kent County Council over the same period. Although clearly KCC
does hold information about all employment tribunals against it, it would
take in excess of the appropriate limit to compile accurate
information (which would have to be manually extrapolated by reviewing
individual files held by both Legal and directorate personnel units) and
therefore KCC is relying on section 12 of the Freedom of Information Act
2000 to refuse to comply with your request in detail.

However, the Bury St. Edmunds office of the Employment Tribunal Service
holds public registers of applications and employment tribunal decisions
for England and may be able to provide you with details of all employment
tribunal decisions made against individual organisations
[1]http://www.employmenttribunals.gov.uk/Ge...

If you are unhappy with this response, and believe KCC has not complied
with legislation, please ask for a review by following our complaints
process; details can be found at this link
[2]http://www.kent.gov.uk/your_council/have...
on our website. Please quote reference FOI/10/0305.

If you still remain dissatisfied following an internal review, you can
appeal to the Information Commissioner, who oversees compliance with the
Freedom of Information Act 2000. Details of what you need to do, should
you wish to pursue this course of action, are available from the
Information Commissioner*s website
[3]http://www.ico.gov.uk/complaints/freedom...

Best regards

Caroline Dodge
Corporate Access to Information Coordinator, Chief Executive's Department
Kent County Council, Legal & Democratic Services, Room B.48, Sessions
House, County Hall, Maidstone. ME14 1XQ.
Tel: 01622 221652 - Fax: 01622 696075
[4]http://www.kent.gov.uk/your_council/have...

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