LGO investigations.

Dear Mr Nunn

I am writing in response to your Freedom of Information request below.

In answer to your query:
We are unable to easily interrogate our records a far back as the last 5 years for this information. However, in the last 2 years the LGO has not specifically commented in a decision that a member of staff at the London Borough of Hillingdon has hindered an Ombudsman investigation, for any of the reasons stated below.

If you have any queries regarding this matter, please do not hesitate to contact us.

Freedom of Information Team
Legal Services (3E 04)
London Borough of Hillingdon
Civic Centre
High Street
Uxbridge
UB8 1UW
01895 55(6923)

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Dear Sir or Madam,

During the last five years how many times has the Local Government
Ombudsman (as a result of investigating a complaint against
Hillingdon Borough Council) brought to the attention of the council
the fact that a member of Hillingdon Borough 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.

Yours faithfully,

Trevor R Nunn

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Dear Mr Nunn

Thank you for your email.

We apologise for the delay in responding but hope to revert to you shortly.

We thank you for your patience.

Yours faithfully

Freedom of Information Team
Legal Services (3E 04)
London Borough of Hillingdon
Civic Centre
High Street
Uxbridge
UB8 1UW
01895 55(6923)

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Dear Mr Nunn

I am writing in response to your request for internal review below. Please accept my sincere apologies for the delay in our response which is due to a current heavy workload.

As I understand it you were requesting to know:

During the last five years how many times has the Local Government Ombudsman (as a result of investigating a complaint against Hillingdon Borough Council) brought to the attention of the council the fact that a member of Hillingdon Borough 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.

In our initial response dated the 9th February 2009 we stated that:

We are unable to easily interrogate our records as far back as the last 5 years for this information. However, in the last 2 years the LGO has not specifically commented in a decision that a member of staff at the London Borough of Hillingdon has hindered an Ombudsman investigation, for any of the reasons stated below [sic].

I have now re-looked at this matter, having taken into account your further representations below and having discussed this matter further with our previous complaints officer who was in post for the period your request concerns and would respond as follows:

The basis of our original response was that in order to look at details of all LGO investigations going back 5 years would require a great deal of work and we would estimate that this would be over the appropriate limit pursuant to S12 of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 and the Freedom of Information and Data Protection (Fees and Appropriate Limit) Regulations 2004. Although you have not raised this as part of your complaint I would like to apologise for the deficiency of our original response/refusal notice which should have included this as the basis for our partial refusal of your request.

In your request for an internal review you also provided clarification as to the information you were requesting stating that "If it has happened the monitoring officer would have been statutory obliged [sic] to bring this to the attention of the council, therefore, they should have a record going back at least 5 years. You have no need to look at individual case files".

This clarification has the effect of narrowing down the information that you are seeking and indicates that you are looking for cases whereby the LGO has brought to the Councils attention that staff had misled them, lied to them or done anything else to hinder their investigation to the extent that it would require the monitoring officer to raise a report with the council.

On the basis of your clarification I can respond that we do not have a record of the LGO bringing to the attention of the Council that a member of staff had misled them, lied to them or done anything else to hinder their investigation that has required a report to be raised by the monitoring officer to the council on this basis.

Once again please accept my apologies for the delay in our response. If you have any queries regarding this matter please do not hesitate to contact me. If you are still unhappy with our response then you have the right to complain to the Information Commissioners Office.

Freedom of Information Team
Legal Services (3E 04)
London Borough of Hillingdon
Civic Centre
High Street
Uxbridge
UB8 1UW
01895 55(6923)

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Dear Sir or Madam,

If it has happened the monitoring officer would have been statutory
obliged to bring this to the attention of the council, therefore,
they should have a record going back at least 5 years. You have no
need to look at individual case files.

Therefore,

Please pass this on to the person who conducts Freedom of
Information reviews.

I am writing to request an internal review of Hillingdon Borough
Council's handling of my FOI request 'LGO investigations.'.

A full history of my FOI request and all correspondence is
available on the Internet at this address:
http://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/lg...

Yours sincerely,

Trevor R Nunn

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