Complaints against Dumfries and Galloway Council.

Roedd y cais yn rhannol lwyddiannus.

Dear Scottish Public Services Ombudsman,

Please provide information for each of the last 5 years on the following:

1) How many complaints were referred to you concerning Dumfries and Galloway Council?

2) How many of these were upheld?

3) Dumfries and Galloway Council has a policy of failing to respond to complaints made to it under their Complaints Procedure. This appears to be in cases where they choose to behave in this manner for vexatious reasons. It also appears to apply when the strong influence of Freemasonry within the council operates against the public interest. This is unlawful but nevertheless, it is how this council treats people. Is it possible to refer such cases to the SPSO given the council isn't conducting itself lawfully?

Yours faithfully,

Richard Page

Scottish Public Services Ombudsman

This is an automated receipt from SPSO to let you know that we have
received your email. Please do not reply to this.

 

If you have emailed a new complaint, we will register it and acknowledge
it in writing within three working days. We provide you with a reference
number which should be used in any future correspondence with us.

 

If your email was not a new complaint, it will be forwarded to the
appropriate colleague who will reply to you in due course.

 

If we have been copied into this email, we will not respond or take action
on this matter.

 

dangos adrannau a ddyfynnir

Scottish Public Services Ombudsman

1 Atodiad

Dear Mr Page

Your request for information

I refer to your email of 07 June 2019.  In your correspondence you ask “1)
How many complaints were referred to you concerning Dumfries and Galloway
Council? 2) How many of these were upheld?”.

We will be dealing with your request in line with the Freedom of
Information (Scotland) Act 2002, which provides a right to request access
to information we hold.  The Act states that we must reply to you within
20 working days of us receiving your request.  This means we will reply to
you by 04 July 2019 at the latest.  We will, of course, reply sooner if we
are able to do so.

Your third question has been forwarded to our Assessment and Guidance Team
who will contact you separately about it.

If you have any queries in the meantime, please do not hesitate to contact
us.

Yours sincerely

Elena Carrara | Team Assistant | Scottish Public Services Ombudsman

SPSO, Bridgeside House, 99 McDonald Road, Edinburgh, EH7 4NS | Tel: 0800
377 7330 | [1][email address] | [2]http://www.spso.org.uk 

 

We also have a Freepost address: FREEPOST SPSO

If you would like to visit us in person, please call 0800 377 7330
to arrange an appointment.

 

[3]SPSO LOGO SMALL

Correspondence with the SPSO may contain personal and sensitive personal
data and information that is confidential and should be kept private.  If
you want to know more about how we handle your own personal information,
you can read our Privacy Notice on our website at
[4]https://www.spso.org.uk/privacy-notice-a... or ask us for a
copy.  Please note:  Email security cannot always be guaranteed.  If you
choose this method of contact, you are confirming that you accept that
risk.

 

 

 

dangos adrannau a ddyfynnir

References

Visible links
1. mailto:[email address]
2. http://www.spso.org.uk/
4. https://www.spso.org.uk/privacy-notice-a...

Scottish Public Services Ombudsman

1 Atodiad

Dear Mr Page

Thank you for emailing the SPSO.  We are sorry to hear that you are
experiencing delays in progressing your complaint.

 

Whilst we understand your frustration we do require you to wait for their
final reply. The SPSO is unable to consider the substance of your
complaint until you have the final response.

 

We would advise that you follow the steps below:

 

o Contact the organisation to confirm that the matter is being dealt
with as a complaint (and not as an enquiry or a request for services).
o Once you have ensured that the matter is going through the
organisation's formal complaints procedure, you can ask for an update
on the progress of your complaint, and an estimated timescale of when
they expect to respond.
o If you have received a stage 1 response and you remain unhappy, you
should follow the instructions at the end of your stage 1 response and
request that your complaint is escalated to stage 2

 

We should be able to consider any complaints handling issues that you have
experienced as part of a larger complaint investigation, if you decide to
escalate the complaint to us after the council have provided their final
response.

We hope this information is helpful.

Yours sincerely

Assessment and Guidance Team

Scottish Public Services Ombudsman

SPSO, Bridgeside House, 99 McDonald Road, Edinburgh, EH7 4NS

Tel: [1]0800 377 7330 | [2]http://www.spso.org.uk

 

We also have a Freepost address: FREEPOST SPSO

If you would like to visit us in person, please call 0800 377 7330
to arrange an appointment.

 

[3]SPSO LOGO SMALL

Correspondence with the SPSO may contain personal and sensitive personal
data and information that is confidential and should be kept private.  If
you want to know more about how we handle your own personal information,
you can read our Privacy Notice on our website at
[4]https://www.spso.org.uk/privacy-notice-a... or ask us for a
copy.  Please note:  Email security cannot always be guaranteed.  If you
choose this method of contact, you are confirming that you accept that
risk.

dangos adrannau a ddyfynnir

Dear Scottish Public Services Ombudsman,

Thank you for your reply dated 11 June 2019.

Please provide the information requested at items (1) and (2) of my request to you.

The information at Item (3) can also be supplied as it is clear Dumfries and Galloway Council is acting vexatiously in failing to comply with its own Complaints Procedure. I would refer you to this:

https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/d...

This is a council which has a history of unlawful conduct and cannot be relied on to act with integrity.

Yours faithfully,

Richard Page

Scottish Public Services Ombudsman

This is an automated receipt from SPSO to let you know that we have
received your email. Please do not reply to this.

 

If you have emailed a new complaint, we will register it and acknowledge
it in writing within three working days. We provide you with a reference
number which should be used in any future correspondence with us.

 

If your email was not a new complaint, it will be forwarded to the
appropriate colleague who will reply to you in due course.

 

If we have been copied into this email, we will not respond or take action
on this matter.

 

dangos adrannau a ddyfynnir

Scottish Public Services Ombudsman

3 Atodiad

Dear Mr Page,

Further to the email sent to you on 07 June 2019, here attached, we would
like to confirm that your request for information - for 1) How many
complaints were referred to you concerning Dumfries and Galloway Council?
2) How many of these were upheld? - is currently been considered and will
be replied by 04 July 2019 at the latest.

We are not sure what you refer to when you say "The information at Item
(3) can also be supplied", if you wish to make a new information request
we would appreciate if you could please email [email address]
with more details. I have attached a leaflet about your information
rights.

Kind regards

Elena Carrara | Team Assistant | Scottish Public Services Ombudsman
SPSO, Bridgeside House, 99 McDonald Road, Edinburgh, EH7 4NS | Tel: 0800
377 7330 | [email address] | [1]http://www.spso.org.uk 

Our email address domain has changed to @spso.gov.scot.  Please update any
contact information with this new email address.  Our website remains
www.spso.org.uk.”

We also have a Freepost address: FREEPOST SPSO
If you would like to visit us in person, please call 0800 377 7330
to arrange an appointment.

Correspondence with the SPSO may contain personal and sensitive personal
data and information that is confidential and should be kept private.  If
you want to know more about how we handle your own personal information,
you can read our Privacy Notice on our website at
[2]https://www.spso.org.uk/privacy-notice-a... or ask us for a
copy.  Please note:  Email security cannot always be guaranteed.  If you
choose this method of contact, you are confirming that you accept that
risk.

dangos adrannau a ddyfynnir

Dear Scottish Public Services Ombudsman,

Thank you for your response dated 24 June 2019.

I shall await the information requested at items (1) and (2) of the original request.

As far as item (3) is concerned, I am baffled by your statement that a new request would be necessary. The FOI request made to you on 7 June 2019 asked for your policy in a situation where a complaint has been made to the council but they refuse to deal with this. They fail to comply with their own Complaints Procedure in relation to complaints made by one individual. This person has attempted to communicate with them but they fail to reply to anything at all. An example is of a complaint made on 11 May 2019 to which the council has failed to reply. A subsequent complaint was made about the failure some 2 weeks later and they fail to deal with this either. There is evidence that this council is engaging in a vendetta against this person which is unlawful. You were asked if it is possible to refer such cases to the SPSO given the unlawful conduct of the council. The council appears to commit the crime of Misconduct in Public Office in relation to this. I shall appreciate your reply to this point in due course.

Yours faithfully,

Richard Page

Scottish Public Services Ombudsman

This is an automated receipt from SPSO to let you know that we have
received your email. Please do not reply to this.

 

If you have emailed a new complaint, we will register it and acknowledge
it in writing within three working days. We provide you with a reference
number which should be used in any future correspondence with us.

 

If your email was not a new complaint, it will be forwarded to the
appropriate colleague who will reply to you in due course.

 

If we have been copied into this email, we will not respond or take action
on this matter.

 

dangos adrannau a ddyfynnir

Scottish Public Services Ombudsman

1 Atodiad

Dear Mr Page

I refer to your email of 7 June 2019. In your correspondence you ask “1)
How many complaints were referred to you concerning Dumfries and Galloway
Council? 2) How many of these were upheld?”. Your request has been
processed in line with the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002
(FOISA) and I can now respond as follows.

Our official complaints statistics are reported on our website once a year
at [1]https://www.spso.org.uk/statistics. Here you will find tables for
complaints received by authority, and determined by authority and outcome.
Information that is reasonably accessible by other means, such as on our
website, is exempt information under section 25 of the FOISA.

You also asked “is it possible to refer such cases to the SPSO” in respect
of a council’s “policy of failing to respond to complaints”. In your email
of 29 June you clarified that you are asking for our policy in a situation
where a complaint has been made to a council but they refuse to deal with
this.  In line with section 17 of the FOISA, I must confirm that a policy
document does not exist. The information is not held.

Section 7(9) and 7(10) of the Scottish Public Services Ombudsman Act 2002
([2]https://www.legislation.gov.uk/asp/2002/...) detail the
restrictions in respect of the matters which may be investigated by the
Ombudsman with regards to exhausting an organisation’s complaints
procedure.

Further to the advice provided to you by our Assessment and Guidance Team,
there is information on our website about making a complaint
([3]https://www.spso.org.uk/making-a-complaint), and in particular about
difficulties and delays in the complaints process
([4]https://www.spso.org.uk/difficulties-and...).
If individuals continued to experience difficulty getting a response they
can contact our Assessment and Guidance Team on 0800 377 7330 for further
support. The Assessment and Guidance Team would either contact the
organisation on their behalf - to enquire why there is a delay, or we have
a postcard that we can issue for complainants to send into the
organisation, requesting a response to their letter/email that has not
been responded to.

As already noted above, information that is reasonably accessible by other
means is exempt information under section 25 of the FOISA.
Your Right to Request a Review and of Appeal
You have a right under the FOISA to request a review of any part of this
decision, or of the handling of your request, and of appeal to the
Scottish Information Commissioner if you remain dissatisfied. Details
about requesting a review and appealing to the Commissioner are set out on
page 3 of the attached information leaflet 'Your Information Rights &
SPSO'.

Yours sincerely

Helen Littlemore
Corporate Information Governance Officer

Scottish Public Services Ombudsman
Bridgeside House, 99 McDonald Road, Edinburgh EH7 4NS

We also have a Freepost address: FREEPOST SPSO
If you would like to visit us in person, please call 0800 377 7330 to
arrange an appointment.

 

dangos adrannau a ddyfynnir

References

Visible links
1. https://www.spso.org.uk/statistics
2. https://www.legislation.gov.uk/asp/2002/...
3. https://www.spso.org.uk/making-a-complaint
4. https://www.spso.org.uk/difficulties-and...

Dear Scottish Public Services Ombudsman,

I acknowledge receipt of your communication of 4 July 2019.

This is an unhelpful response from you in my opinion. Whilst you state you do not have a policy document to give information to respond to item (3), you do have the power to obtain this information. It is clear there is an obstructive approach judging from your comments in the communications of 11 and 24 June 2019.

I have been advised the SPSO is a waste of time and space which is supported by your responses here.

Yours faithfully,

Richard Page

Scottish Public Services Ombudsman

This is an automated receipt from SPSO to let you know that we have
received your email. Please do not reply to this.

 

If you have emailed a new complaint, we will register it and acknowledge
it in writing within three working days. We provide you with a reference
number which should be used in any future correspondence with us.

 

If your email was not a new complaint, it will be forwarded to the
appropriate colleague who will reply to you in due course.

 

If we have been copied into this email, we will not respond or take action
on this matter.

 

dangos adrannau a ddyfynnir

Gadawodd Richard Page anodiad ()

Since the SPSO decided to be awkward I shall sift through their statistical reports and post the details of complaints against Dumfries and Galloway Council received by the SPSO with the numbers that were upheld.