Failure to fully answer CEO Peter Gilroy /Conflict of Interests

Mr B Gerrish made this Freedom of Information request to Kent County Council This request has been closed to new correspondence. Contact us if you think it should be reopened.

Kent County Council did not have the information requested.

Dear Sir or Madam,

Another request has been placed due to the failure to fully comply with the FOI ACT by answering fully the question below, placed on 24th July 2009.

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

Why is there no mention in Peter Gilroy CEO letter to Ed Balls, of
any reference to his intention to write an article for the
Conservative Party.

Did he in fact write to all Political Parties and if so please
supply the letters; did he make a reference of his intention to all
Political Parties.

Or was this information elusively for Lord Laming and the
Conservative Party.

What discussion and disciplinary action has been taken, if any, if it is considered that he has in fact broken his employment code of conduct.

Please provide all information that relates to any actions or in action taken.

Yours faithfully,

Mr B Gerrish

Kent County Council

Dear Mr Gerrish

Thank you for your emails dated 7th September (which we had
until yesterday to provide a response to - my apologies that we failed to
comply with statutory timescales) and 3rd October.

Kent County Council does not hold information to explain or justify why
the Chief Executive did not mention in his letter to Ed Balls that he had
already written to Lord Laming. Nor does KCC hold the information to
explain why he didn't mention to Lord Laming that he was intending to
offer the same advice and assistance to Ed Balls and the leaders of other
political parties.

Yes, the Chief Executive did sent a version of the "Ed Balls" letter to
all other political parties, but copies of these letters have not been
retained as there is no statutory requirement or business need to do
so. However, the text was standard for all letters and read as follows:-

Dear

I enclose a copy of an article on Child Protection I have written for the
Municipal Journal. I hope that in the current debate following the
Haringey case you may find that it contains some helpful proposals.

Yours sincerely

If you are unhappy with this response, and believe KCC has not complied
with legislation, please ask for a review by following our complaints
process; details can be found at this link
[1]http://www.kent.gov.uk/council-and-democ...
on our website. Please quote reference FOI/09/1040.

If you still remain dissatisfied following an internal review, you can
appeal to the Information Commissioner, who oversees compliance with the
Freedom of Information Act 2000. Details of what you need to do, should
you wish to pursue this course of action, are available from the
Information Commissioner's website
[2]http://www.ico.gov.uk/complaints/freedom...

Best regards

Caroline Dodge
Corporate Access to Information Coordinator, Chief Executive's Department
Kent County Council, Legal & Democratic Services, Room 1.94, Sessions
House, County Hall, Maidstone. ME14 1XQ.
Tel: 01622 221652 - Fax: 01622 694383
[3]http://www.kent.gov.uk/council-and-democ...

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Dear Caroline Dodge,

Thank you for stating that Kent County Council does not hold information to explain or justify why the Chief Executive did not mention in his letter to Ed Balls that he had already written to Lord Laming. Nor does KCC hold the information to explain why he didn't mention to Lord Laming that he was intending to
offer the same advice and assistance to Ed Balls and the leaders of other political parties.

1) Has the Chief Executive Officer broken his employment code of conduct, please provide which section(s) have been broken.

2) What discussion and disciplinary action(s) has been taken, if it is considered that he has in fact broken his employment code of conduct.

3) Please provide all information that relates to any actions or inaction taken.

4) Can you say why the letters to Lord Laming were recorded and retained and not others, was there a statutory requirement or business need to do so.

Yours faithfully,

Mr Brian Gerrish

Kent County Council

1 Attachment

Dear Mr Gerrish

Thank you for your request for information.

The Chief Executive has not broken his employment code of conduct at any
time, either by writing to all political leaders to offer his expertise in
relation to the "Baby P" situation, or for any other reason. Consequently
no disciplinary action has been discussed or taken, so no information is
held in this regard.

Whether a record should be retained or not and how long for depends on the
content of the information contained within; please see the attached
guidance.
The Chief Executive retained a copy of correspondence with Lord Laming &
Ed Balls for information although there was no statutory requirement for
him to do so. As I stated in my previous response, the text of the letters
sent to the other parties was identical to the letter sent to Ed Balls, so
there is clearly no need to save many versions of what is essentially the
same letter.

If you are unhappy with this response, and believe KCC has not complied
with legislation, please ask for a review by following our complaints
process; details can be found at this link
[1]http://www.kent.gov.uk/council-and-democ...
on our website. Please quote reference FOI/09/1144.

If you still remain dissatisfied following an internal review, you can
appeal to the Information Commissioner, who oversees compliance with the
Freedom of Information Act 2000. Details of what you need to do, should
you wish to pursue this course of action, are available from the
Information Commissioner's website
[2]http://www.ico.gov.uk/complaints/freedom...

Best regards

Caroline Dodge
Corporate Access to Information Coordinator, Chief Executive's Department
Kent County Council, Legal & Democratic Services, Room 1.94, Sessions
House, County Hall, Maidstone. ME14 1XQ.
Tel: 01622 221652 - Fax: 01622 694383
[3]http://www.kent.gov.uk/council-and-democ...

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