Effectively, Efficiently, and to Total Investor Satisfaction, Dealing with vast numbers of Backlogged , formerly Noted and Filed, Complaints regarding HOCS

AIDAN QUINN made this Freedom of Information request to Executive Office (Northern Ireland) This request has been closed to new correspondence. Contact us if you think it should be reopened.

Waiting for an internal review by Executive Office (Northern Ireland) of their handling of this request.

Dear Executive Office (Northern Ireland),

Can I please have a copy of any and all correspondence relating to the Scottish Government decision to withdraw from its role in determining Complaints regarding HOCS, and without, as earlier FOI Queries reveal , despite much correspondence, ever having succeeded in determining a single such Complaint?

Given the vast vast volumes , built up of scores of years of Noting and Filing of both yet-to-be- made and already made Complaints, has a new, properly qualified, staffed, trained empowered, mentally robust and Investor Approved Body, formally and in writing freed from overall Note and File Restrictions, and skilled in Stress Management, perhaps been found to fill the role formerly filled by the Scottish Government?

Good Luck. I wish you well. Rest assured no one judges. We just need the facts. That is what FOI Legislation is about.

Yours faithfully,

AIDAN QUINN

Dear Executive Office (Northern Ireland),
Hey we’re a little overdue. Inevitable, I suppose in Note and File Only cases.

In the circumstances I really don’t like to complain but there is a widely held view that Organisations everywhere devoted solely to proudly, officially and in perpetuity Noting and Filing everything, eternally saying No, Not and Inch, not actually doing anything at all , by definition and intent achieve nothing and get nowhere. We’ve all, sadly, seen it. Stasis is proudly and openly and officially regarded as an end in itself. There is no product, no purpose.

Such Organisations everywhere are in danger of rendering themselves irrelevant, leaking credibility and direction , looking inward and backward, prone to fraud, bullying, malpractice, not displaying the basic, leadership, integrity and functionality necessary to retain staff, press, public and international respect.

Leaving the general aside and turning now to the case of N Ireland, I think we all know that International Observers look at NICS and wonder if the phenomenon described above could, possibly, just possibly, be happening here. No one of course likes to in any way judge for fear of making things even worse.

However, increasingly, endlessly, staff attitude surveys, online blogs, and newspaper editorial pieces are indicating NICS as an Organisation may long already have been in this position, and it really is not a good place to be. It really isn’t. Psychiatric admission level in the province would tend to confirm.

We really need to get things turned around and timely responses to crucially important FOI Queries might be a good place to start, publicly and openly displaying on a hugely internationally influential website like the wonderful WhatDoTheyKnow, that NICS is at least aware of the importance of fulfilling its legislative obligations to release Information that might increase public confidence and understanding.

On this basis I think it’s maybe best if we move on to Internal Review stage. Don’t you?

Good Luck. I wish you well. Indeed I do. We all do.

Yours faithfully,

AIDAN QUINN

Dear Executive Office (Northern Ireland),

Hey, we're a little overdue.

As follow-up can I please point out that we have long known , NICS has from the outset been more than happy to share, that when NICS its CEO and Board of Directors formally sit down to discuss and approve career-ending, life-changing, life-long Note and File Only Orders it does so absolutely unanimously with no quibbles raised, no abstentions and no votes against. Similarly of course in the case of Order reviews.

Little mention has however so far been made of the actual discussions and considerations, of the necessary Equality Impact assessments, Psychiatric Risk Assessments, Cost Benefit Analyses etc taken into account before, in the usual way, eventual approval and adoption into Policy. It is of course everywhere essential that proper records are taken and retained of such life changing decisions and I would now be grateful please, as follow-up FOI Query, for a copy? Thank you.

We also know that eg the Establishment Office was totally and completely happy and content to fully endorse these Orders and that the NICS Commissioners were, following hugely protracted discussions, doubtless all, ( as befits a Body of such Eminence) fully and properly minuted , absolutely happy that Note and File Only Orders were entirely Ethical.

Could I please, also as follow up query, have a copy of all such Assessments, minutes, etc?

Is a record perhaps kept of the average number of professional hours necessarily worked and number of calendar years taken to identify and bring to book on-the- run Appraisal fraudsters, in the Note and File context? Finally, how many people on average face action for colluding in the prevention of Appraisal fraudster detection? Investors etc really do need to know these kinds of information in order that they can in turn make proper balanced and Informed decisions.

Rest assured it was for purposes such as this that FOI Legislation was invented, regularising matters, building Investor confidence, working exactly as Parliament intended.

Good Luck I wish you well. Perpetual Official insistence on merely Noting and Filing absolutely everything really does lead to enormous inefficiency, delays , use of Professional Time, but presumably we can all be sure these these costs were all taken account of at initial Planning stage, factored into the Cost Benefit and other detailed analyses. If this is not the case, if there is evidence costs are over running, skewing the analysis and maybe leading to a review of the entire Note and File Only question, do be sure, again as FOI Query to let us all know. Whatever the situation, rest assured all involved are keen to help NICS get its self back on track, legal, regularised, efficient and, finally, Good to Go.

Yours faithfully,

AIDAN QUINN

Dear Executive Office (Northern Ireland),

Hey, we're still overdue.

As follow up, I respectfully wondered if, leaving aside the ethical and moral considerations, there was perhaps a record of anyone, Investors perhaps, ever at any time gently pointing out the gross inefficiency, unacceptability to Investors, and pointlessness of traditional Ulster Note and File Only Orders?

Has anyone perhaps ever respectfully pointed out that abandoning unhelpful old policies of Noting and Filing Only, ( however traditional, deeply held and culturally important) replacing them with policies of listening to people, all people, respecting the right of men women, children and families from all traditions to a peaceful co existence, considering evidence that people provide, forensically establishing the facts and acting upon these facts could save millions of pages of documentation, tens of thousands of hours of professional time, avoid blocked corridors, overloaded servers and avoid alienating much needed International Investors?

Should such records exist can we please perhaps as FOI Query have copies, if that’s all right? In the event that such records did at one time exist but, like a lot of records apparently, have since been destroyed, can we please have a copy of the relevant Evidence Destruction or Data Cleansing Order, and a note of the date and place of its implementation?

Rest assured, nobody in any way judges. Everybody has long suspected, perhaps even subconsciously known, that processes of ending seemingly eternal N Ireland stasis were, more than likely, complex and challenging. They were never going to be simple. Investors understand that. Nothing worthwhile, like the Good Friday Agreement itself, or like overcoming Alcoholic or other Addiction Is never straightforward, never simple. The important thing is not to judge.

It may be helpful to think in terms of addiction to Noting and Filing targeted people as amenable to proven programmes for overcoming other addictions. It may well be that American Conflict Resolution Schools are working on this as we speak, trying in their own way to help. If so, we salute them.

Whatever, the key to anything, as ever, is to make a start. That’s what Leadership is about.

Facts are there to be faced, challenges there to be overcome. This is the basis of all progress, it is what life is about- making a difference.

Good Luck. I wish you well. As we go through life it is important to enjoy the journey. The basis of all psychology, no words are truer.

Yours faithfully,

AIDAN QUINN