Local Government Ombudsman

Stuart Hardwicke CARRUTHERS made this Freedom of Information request to Lancaster City Council

The request was successful.

From: Stuart Hardwicke CARRUTHERS

30 July 2008

Dear Sir or Madam,

Many thanks for your prompt reply to the previous FoI request.

On 13 February 2007 the Commission for Local Administration England
('CLAE') (responsible for allocating Local Government Ombudsmen to
Council's) made a decision that Jerry WHITE should cease to be the
Local Government Ombudsman for Lancaster. It was further decided
that Anne SEEX should assume this role.

Please forward copies of all correspondence between the Lancaster
City Council and the Local Government Ombudsman (WHITE and / or
SEEX and / or the CLAE) identifying that this change has taken
place.

Further would you please confirm that complainants to the Council
have been informed of the change of Ombudsman, and that the change
in Ombudsman has been identified on the Council's Web Site, and
that the Council's complaint procedure has been updated to take
account of the change in jurisdiction.

Obviously, based on your previous response I anticipate that Jerry
WHITE, Anne SEEX and the CLAE have failed to make you aware of the
change in jurisdiction - would this in the opinion of Lancaster
City Council be maladministration - as it would effectively deny
complainants about the Council a right to an inquiry by an
independent Ombudsman. The CLAE identified that this was the case
on 13 February 2007.

Yours faithfully,

Stuart HARDWICKE CARRUTHERS

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From: info
Lancaster City Council

30 July 2008

Thank you for contacting Lancaster City Council.

Your email will be forwarded to the appropriate team, who aim to respond
within 5 working days.

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From: Thompson, Caroline
Lancaster City Council

31 July 2008

Dear Mr Hardwicke Carruthers

Further to your E mail eariler today I confirm that as stated in my
previous reply to you, there is no correspondence between the this Council
and the Local Government Ombudsman regarding a change of Ombudsman for
this Council. Accordingly complainants have not been informed, and neither
the website nor the Council's complaints procedure updated to reflect a
change since there has been no change of Ombudsman for this Council.

I note that the final paragraph of your request seeks the opinion of the
Council on this matter and I have to inform you that our opinion on a
matter is not considered to be 'information held' under FOIA legislation.

I trust this information satisfies your request.

If you are not happy with this response please contact me in the first
instance. If you are still not satisfied you have the right to ask for an
internal review of the decision. This will be dealt with by the Head of
Legal and Human Resources. If your appeal is not resolved you would then
have the further right to appeal to the Information Commissioner for an
independent review.

Yours sincerely

Caroline S Thompson
Information Management Officer
Information & Customer Services

Lancaster City Council
Tel: 01524 582192
E Mail:[1][email address]

UK businesses use up 2 million tonnes of paper each year. Think before you
print this email - do you really need to? Thank you.

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From: Thompson, Caroline
Lancaster City Council

20 August 2008

Dear Mr Hardwicke Carruthers

I refer to your request of 28th July.

With regard to the staffing element of your request we estimate that 31%
of staff employed by Lancaster City Council on 1.4.2007 were
employed on 1.4.2000. Unfortunately as I explained to you previously we do
not have an electronic system for managing staffing records and
therefore I am unable to provide you with a figure as at 13.02.07.

If you are not happy with this response please contact me in the first
instance. If you are still not satisfied you have the right to ask for an
internal review of the decision. This will be dealt with by the Head of
Legal and Human Resources. If your appeal is not resolved you would then
have the further right to appeal to the Information Commissioner for an
independent review.

Yours sincerely

Caroline S Thompson
Information Management Officer
Information & Customer Services

Lancaster City Council
Tel: 01524 582192
E Mail:[1][email address]

UK businesses use up 2 million tonnes of paper each year. Think before you
print this email - do you really need to? Thank you.

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Trevor R Nunn left an annotation ( 1 April 2010)

For more accurate figures of staff and members still in post since Anne Seex left Lancaster City Council

http://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/pe...

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Trevor R Nunn left an annotation (21 April 2010)

Complaining about Lancaster City Council?

http://lgowatcher.blogspot.com/2010/04/c...

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