Release of reports regarding complaints about UK Government departments.

phsothefacts Pressure Group made this Freedom of Information request to Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman This request has been closed to new correspondence. Contact us if you think it should be reopened.

The request was refused by Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman.

phsothefacts Pressure Group

Dear Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman,

I have been informed by ICO that it is standard practice for PHSO to release their report on complaints about UK Government departments at the same time as the annual PACAC review.

The 2019/20 PACAC review was held in November 2020. No specific mention was made at that review on the issue of complaints handled about Government departments.

Can PHSO confirm;

1. That the data report concerning complaints made about Government departments was provided to PACAC in time for the annual scrutiny meeting in November 2020?

2. That this report was subsequently made available to the public on the PHSO website?

Please provide a link to this report for the year 2019/20 as it is not possible to find it on your website.

Yours faithfully,

Della Reynolds

phsothefacts Pressure Group

InformationRights, Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman

Thank you for contacting the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman’s
(PHSO) Freedom of Information and Data Protection Team. This is to confirm
we have received your request. If you have made a request for information
under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 or Environment Information
Regulations 2004, we aim to respond to your request within 20 working days
in accordance with the statutory time frames set out in both Acts. If you
have made a request for personal information held by the PHSO, your
request will be processed as a Subject Access Request under the provisions
of the Data Protection Act 2018 and we aim to respond within one calendar
month in accordance with the statutory time frame set out in the Act. We
may contact you before this time if we require further clarification or if
we need to extend the time required to complete your request.

Please note that we are currently experiencing a high demand, and might
not be able to comply with the statutory deadline for your request. Any
late responses can be referred to the Information Commissioner’s Office:

https://ico.org.uk/

For Subject Access Requests, we will send any personal information via
secure email, unless you instruct us differently. To access the
information on the email we send, you will need to sign up to our secure
email service. Details can be found on our website using the link below:
https://www.ombudsman.org.uk/about-us/co...
If you require us to post your personal information to you instead you
will need to inform us of this and confirm your current address as soon as
possible. Angharad Jackson Data Protection Officer & Assistant Director
Information Assurance Office of the Parliamentary and Health Service
Ombudsman PHSO CityGate 47-51 Mosley Street Manchester M2 3HQ
[email address]

InformationRights, Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman

Dear Della Reynolds

Thank you for submitting a request for information to PHSO.

Please note that the Information Rights Team is currently experiencing a high demand for its services, and is not able to comply with the statutory deadline for your request. Please accept our apologies for this. We will respond to your request as soon as we can.

We have notified the Information Commissioner’s Office about this issue. However, should you wish you may refer your own request to the Information Commissioner’s Office. Details on how to do so can be found at the following website:

https://ico.org.uk/

Regards,

Freedom of Information/Data Protection Team
Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman
E: [email address]
W: www.ombudsman.org.uk

phsothefacts Pressure Group

Dear Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman,

Please pass this on to the person who conducts Freedom of Information reviews.

I am writing to request an internal review of Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman's handling of my FOI request 'Release of reports regarding complaints about UK Government departments.'.

The information requested is held by PHSO and it should be a matter of minutes to release it into the public domain.

A full history of my FOI request and all correspondence is available on the Internet at this address: https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/r...

Yours faithfully,

Della Reynolds

phsothefacts Pressure Group

phsothefacts Pressure Group

Dear InformationRights,

The whole system of FOI is completely broken. In August 2019 I asked for the release of the parliamentary complaint data for 2018/19. https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/c...

This data was withheld under section 22 - to be released at a later date. The parliamentary data was not released until March 2020 - it was then withdrawn as it contained personal information. A new report was finally released on the PHSO website in November 2020. Over a year after the original request.

This matter was taken to ICO. They didn't even begin to look at the complaint for six months. They then upheld the defence of PHSO who stated that they have a set schedule for release of the parliamentary data. It is sent to PACAC in time for the annual scrutiny meeting and then put into the public domain on their website.

In March 2021 I asked for the release of the parliamentary data for 2019/20 on the basis that the PACAC review was held in November 2020 so according to ICO, the report would have been released to PACAC and made available on the PHSO website.

PHSO have refused to respond to this request citing - long delays - staff shortage. They refuse to respond to a request for an internal review. Just no acknowledgment at all. If ICO were correct in their assessment this report should be easily available and could be linked to the request in a matter of moments. I have been advised by Whatdotheyknow staff that if I am dissatisfied I should make a complaint to ICO - and go round the circle again. What is the point?

PHSO are also sitting on 2020 staff survey using Section 22 exclusion. https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/p...

PHSO are also sitting on their meeting minutes https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/r...

This body is totally unaccountable, lacking in transparency and protected by the state. We will all suffer the consequences as unaccountable public bodies act with impunity. The whole system is completely broken with one unaccountable body (PHSO) being protected by another (ICO) yet we all play the democracy game and think we live in a free and fair society. We are slipping into a dystopian, dictatorship run by nameless data controllers. The writing is on the wall. Surely I can't be the only person who is able to see it?

Yours sincerely,

phsothefacts Pressure Group

phsothefacts Pressure Group

Dear InformationRights,

Now reported to ICO. I will keep an update here for those who wish to know just how tardy the ICO service is.

Yours sincerely,

phsothefacts Pressure Group

J Roberts left an annotation ()

Your request seems like one that could be dealt with quite easily. Unfortunately for requesters, public authorities can delay responding to information requests secure in the knowledge that nothing much will happen. The ICO might tell delinquent authorities to do better next time.

An egregious example of delay:

'As a consequence of these delays the MOD has breached section 17(5) as it failed to provide the complainant with refusal notice citing section 14(1) within 20 working days of his request; indeed it took the MOD 464 working days to issue a substantive [sic] to this response'.

https://ico.org.uk/media/action-weve-tak...

phsothefacts Pressure Group left an annotation ()

The whole system is broken. It has been for a long time but the pressure caused by the pandemic has shown it to be broken. Broken and corrupt.

InformationRights, Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman

Dear Della Reynolds

 

Our reference: FOI 181

Your request for information

 

Thank you for your email of 15 March 2021 in which you requested
information from the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman. Your
request has been handled in accordance with the Freedom of Information Act
2000. We apologise for the delay in providing a response to your request.

 

Your request:

 

I have been informed by ICO that it is standard practice for PHSO to
release their report on complaints about UK Government departments at the
same time as the annual PACAC review.

 

The 2019/20 PACAC review was held in November 2020. No specific mention
was made at that review on the issue of complaints handled about
Government departments.

 

Can PHSO confirm;

 

1.  That the data report concerning complaints made about Government
departments was provided to PACAC in time for the annual scrutiny meeting
in November 2020?

 

2. That this report was subsequently made available to the public on the
PHSO website?

 

Please provide a link to this report for the year 2019/20 as it is not
possible to find it on your website.

 

Our response:

 

In the past we have published detailed annual data about the complaints we
handle in relation to Government departments. This data is not usually
published at the same time as the PACAC scrutiny inquiry, as the timing of
the inquiry is determined by the committee and can change from year to
year.

We did, however, inform PACAC that we are reviewing the data we publish
about our casework to ensure it is easy for the public and the committee
to understand and that it meets the needs of those who wants to use our
data, such as academics and researchers. We are carrying out this review
in response to a) feedback from the committee about how we present data
and b) learning from a data breach that occurred last year. Our
correspondence with PACAC on this matter is published on the committee’s
webpage. (link [1]here)

This review is still in progress and as such no formal decision has been
made as to the timing or format of publishing data about the complaints we
handled in relation to Government departments in 2019-20. However, we
understand that several external parties find this data useful and as such
we expect that we will publish this data in due course.

The Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman annual report and accounts
2019/20 was published in July 2020 and therefore predates the November
2020 PACAC scrutiny meeting the annual report is available on our website.
(link [2]here)

 

If you believe we have made an error in the way we have processed your
information request, it is open to you to request an internal review. You
can do this by writing to us by post or by email to
[3][PHSO request email]. You will need to specify what the
nature of the issue is and we can consider the matter further. Beyond
that, it is open to you to complain to the Information Commissioner’s
Office ([4]www.ico.org.uk).

 

Yours sincerely

 

Freedom of Information/Data Protection Team

Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman

E: [5][PHSO request email]

W: [6]www.ombudsman.org.uk

 

References

Visible links
1. https://committees.parliament.uk/publica...
2. https://www.ombudsman.org.uk/sites/defau...
3. mailto:[PHSO request email]
4. http://www.ico.org.uk/
5. mailto:[PHSO request email]
6. http://www.ombudsman.org.uk/
http://www.ombudsman.org.uk/

phsothefacts Pressure Group

Dear InformationRights,

The parliamentary complaint handling data for 2019/20 has now been delayed for over a year. According to your response no report has been written and the data has not been shared with PACAC. Nobody but PHSO know how many parliamentary complaints were investigated or upheld last year.

There was a similar difficulty in obtaining the data for 2018/19, which is well before your 'review'. Once released it could be seen that just 0.6% of parliamentary complaints had been upheld. Not even 1%.

No doubt the 2019/20 data shows a similar downward trend in investigations and upholds. You will be releasing the data in due course. When you get around to it. Doesn't really matter as PACAC haven't asked to see it. So who cares if the Ombudsman bins all the complaints. Absolutely nobody apparently.

Well done PHSO you excel yourself at providing an appalling service to the public.

Yours sincerely,

Della Reynolds

phsothefacts Pressure Group

J Roberts left an annotation ()

phsothefacts Pressure Group left an annotation ()

Thank you J Roberts. If PHSO data handlers were being remotely helpful they would have supplied me with the information they already held.

This data set is incomplete as far more people could have made parliamentary complaints than represented in the 5,420 figure of 'cases handled'. Even so, with an uphold rate of 46 just 0.8% of those complaints received any remedy at all. What is the point of the Ombudsman?

M Boyce left an annotation ()

You ask what is the point of the Ombudsman?

It is to provide an exceptionally large salary to Mr Rob Behrens as reward for delivering an exemplary service.

It is good to know that our tax pounds are being spent well.

Sleep tight and don't have nightmares.

J Roberts left an annotation ()

The year 2020/21 has passed, yet the PHSO cannot provide you with basic statistical data for the year 2019/20.

The PHSO lectures other public bodies on openness and transparency, but falls at the first fence when it comes to itself:

'Public administration should be transparent and information should be handled as openly as the law allows. Public bodies should give people information and, if appropriate, advice that is clear, accurate, complete, relevant and timely.
...

Public bodies should take responsibility for the actions of their staff.'

https://www.ombudsman.org.uk/about-us/ou...

phsothefacts Pressure Group left an annotation ()

It's becoming increasingly difficult for Rob Behrens to say that anything about his service is 'exemplary'.

The stats are continuing to fall. More and more information is hidden from the public such as the staff survey results, the parliamentary report and meeting minutes. Is he just going to hide away until he can take his pension and retire in 2022?