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All information sent by Local Government Ombudsmen to A Johnson on 14 August 2008.
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Ombudsman's case load
A Freedom of Information request to Local Government Ombudsmen by T Thomas
Currently overdue a response from Local Government Ombudsmen. By law, the response had to be prompt but no later than 19 August 2008. They are 107 days late, you can complain by requesting an internal review.
T Thomas
19 July 2008
Dear Sir or Madam,
For each of the three Ombudsmen, how many different citizens
submitted complaints to them during the last reporting period.
Clarification: I am aware of the total number of complaints
submitted during the last reporting period. I am also aware that
many of them were counted more than once due to the way Ombudsmen
record their statistics. What I am looking for is the number of
individual citizens that submitted cases to the Ombudsmen during
the last reporting period irrespective of how many different
complaint numbers were assigned to their cases for statistical
purposes by the Ombudsmen.
Yours faithfully,
T Thomas
Hilary Pook
Local Government Ombudsmen
22 July 2008
Dear Mr Thomas
This is to acknowledge receipt of your email request, received on Monday
21 July.
I will respond to this as soon as possible. I will aim to reply within
the 20-working day target (which would be by 18 August). If I am unable
to do so, I will write to you again explaining why.
Yours sincerely
Hilary Pook
Communications & Records Manager
Local Government Ombudsman's Office
Tel: 020 7217 4734
www.lgo.org.uk
NOTICE - This message contains information intended only for the use of
the addressee named above. If you have received this message in error
please advise us at once and do not make any use of the information.
show quoted sections
Hilary Pook
Local Government Ombudsmen
24 July 2008
Dear Mr Thomas
Please find attached a letter in response to your email below.
Regards
Hilary Pook
Communications & Records Manager
Local Government Ombudsman's Office
Tel: 020 7217 4734
www.lgo.org.uk
NOTICE - This message contains information intended only for the use of
the addressee named above. If you have received this message in error
please advise us at once and do not make any use of the information.
show quoted sections
T Thomas
9 September 2008
Dear Hilary Pook,
Reference Mr Karney's recent response to me about his review of
your decision to refuse the information. Please supply me with full
and detailed costings to provide the information requested in my
freedom of information request.
T Thomas
Yours sincerely,
T Thomas left an annotation (9 September 2008)
I asked for the number of individual citizens that submitted cases to the Ombudsmen during the last reporting period.
This was initially refused so I asked for the decision to be reviewed. Their latest excuse, for not supplying the information, is that it would be too expensive to provide the information requested.
I am aware of the systems they use and it would be very easy and straight forward to provide the information requested. So why are they trying so hard to deny me the information? Just what have they got to hide?
This is an important lesson that all public authorities should learn. The more you try and avoid giving the information requested the more people think you have something to hide and the harder they will try to obtain the information. I am not asking for state secrets, all I am asking for is how many citizens used their services last year!
Thomas
T Thomas left an annotation (10 September 2008)
They appear keen to keep their responses off this website by sending me private emails.
Dear Mr Thomas
I am away from the office after today until Monday 22 September. However, I have asked a colleague to estimate how much it would cost to provide the information you require; so I should be able to let you know whether or not we can provide the information when I return. (I will not provide you with detailed costings - either it will be below the £450 limit, in which case we will provide the information, or it will be above that limit, in which case we won't).
Mr Karney has asked me to point out that I did not refuse your original request, and that was not the finding of his review, either.
Yours sincerely
Hilary Pook
Communications & Records Manager
Local Government Ombudsman's Office
T Thomas
10 September 2008
Dear Mrs Pook
Then why didn't you simply supply the information requested when I
originally requested it? Information that should already be
publically available and if you ran an efficient records office
would be available at the press of a button on your computer. Just
how difficult can it be for you to identify how many individual
citizens submitted complaints to you last year. Your reluctance to
provide the information and your attempts to keep your responses
out of the public domain will just lead people to believe that you
don't want the answer to my question becoming public knowledge.
Your sincerely
T Thomas
T Thomas left an annotation (23 September 2008)
The following was sent to me via a private email.
Request for information
Further to our email exchange on 10 September, my colleague has now been able to extract the information you requested concerning the number of individual complainants who had submitted complaints in the year 2007/08, within the cost limit of £450 for the time spent on this work.
As far as we are able to determine, given the limitations Mr Karney explained in his letter of 9 September, the number of complainants who submitted complaints to the three Ombudsmen between 1 April 2007 and 31 March 2008 was 15,586. This figure is understandably lower than the figure I gave you of 15,982 as some people will have made more than one complaint (other than resubmitting ‘premature’ complaints that my figure takes account of) during that period.
Yours sincerely
Hilary Pook (Ms)
Communications and Records Manager
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T Thomas left an annotation (31 August 2008)
Thomas
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