Sick leave & staff suspensions

The request was partially successful.

Dear Ards and North Down Borough Council,

How many members of staff within the council have been on sick leave for more than 1 calendar month?

How many members of staff within the council are currently suspended from work for more than one calendar month?

How many members of staff within the council in total are currently suspended?

Yours faithfully,

R L Kenning

FOI, Ards and North Down Borough Council

Dear Mr Kenning,

We acknowledge receipt of your email and request for information of 14 September 2021 to Ards and North Down Borough Council, received on 15 September.

We confirm your request regarding staffing matters will be processed as a request under the Freedom of Information Act 2000. Accordingly, you will receive the information you have requested within 20 working days of the date of receipt of your request by the Council unless the Council does not hold the information or there is a reason to withhold all or part of the information requested. Council will write to you in any event.

For further information in relation to the Freedom of Information Act we would refer you to the Information Commissioner's Office website, www.ico.org.uk

If you wish to discuss the above, please do not hesitate to contact us.

Regards,

FOI Team
Ards and North Down Borough Council
Town Hall
The Castle
Bangor
BT20 4BT
Tel: 0300 013 3333

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FOI, Ards and North Down Borough Council

Dear Mr Kenning,

 

We refer to the above matter and write further to our acknowledgement
email of 16^th September 2021.

 

Your request has been processed in accordance with the Freedom of
Information Act 2000 and please see Ards and North Down Borough Council’s
response below.

 

 1. How many members of staff within the council have been on sick leave
for more than 1 calendar month?

 

In accordance with section 40(5B)(a)(i) of the Freedom of Information Act
the Council is neither confirming nor denying whether recorded information
is held relevant to your Question 1. To either confirm or deny whether
recorded information is held would be to provide public comment on matters
pertaining to the employment of Council staff. While Council staff have a
reasonable expectation that the average number of days absent through
sickness will be published, a confirmation or denial regarding this
question would be outside of the reasonable expectations of Council
employees as the reasonable expectation is that Council would not comment
publicly on internal staff matters to the public at large. To confirm or
deny would therefore be unfair and a breach of the first data protection
principle of lawful and fair processing. For this reason, the Council is
neither confirming nor denying whether recorded information is held
relevant to Question 1 in accordance with section 40(5B)(a)(i) of the
Freedom of Information Act. No inference should be drawn from this
response.

 

 2. How many members of staff within the council are currently suspended
from work for more than one calendar month?

 

For the reasons set-out in response to your first question, the Council is
neither confirming nor denying whether recorded information is held
relevant to your Question 2 in accordance with section 40(5B)(a)(i) of the
Freedom of Information Act. No inference should be drawn from this
response.

 

 3. How many members of staff within the council in total are currently
suspended?

 

For the reasons set-out in response to your first question, the Council is
neither confirming nor denying whether recorded information is held
relevant to your Question 3 in accordance with section 40(5B)(a)(i) of the
Freedom of Information Act. No inference should be drawn from this
response.

 

Should you require clarification on any part of this response, please do
not hesitate to contact us.

 

We are sorry we could not be of assistance in this matter. Should you be
unhappy with the response you may request an Internal Review by contacting
[1][Ards and North Down Borough Council request email]. Please note that requests for Internal
Reviews must be submitted within two months from the date of this
response. Further information on the Internal Review process is available
on the Council’s website.  In the event you are unhappy with the outcome
of any Internal Review conducted by Council you may apply to the
Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) for a review of our response.
Please note that the ICO generally expects Internal Reviews to be
completed prior to reviewing the decisions of public bodies.

 

Regards,

 

FOI Team

Ards and North Down Borough Council

Town Hall

The Castle

Bangor

BT20 4BT

Tel: 0300 013 3333

The information contained in or attached to this message is intended only
for the people to whom it is addressed. If you are not the intended
recipient, any use, storage, disclosure or copying of this information is
unauthorised and prohibited. This information may be confidential or
subject to legal privilege. If you have received this email in error
please notify the sender immediately by using the reply facility in your
email software and then delete the email from your inbox. The contents of
this message do not represent the expressed view of Ards and North Down
Borough Council unless that is clearly stated. The Council cannot accept
liability in the event that the onward transmission, opening, or use of
this message and/or any attachments adversely affects the recipient's
systems or data. Personal information contained in or attached to this
message will be processed in line with the Council’s obligations under the
Data Protection Act 2018, its Data Protection Policy and for the purpose
for which it was provided. If you have a data protection query, please put
your request in writing, stating clearly who you are and your query to:
Data Protection Officer, Ards and North Down Borough Council, Town Hall,
The Castle, Bangor, BT20 4BT, email:
[email address], tel: 0300 013 3333 or visit the
Council’s website at www.ardsandnorthdown.gov.uk/privacy-and-....

References

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1. mailto:[Ards and North Down Borough Council request email]

Dear Ards and North Down Borough Council,

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

I am writing to request an internal review of Ards and North Down Borough Council's handling of my FOI request 'Sick leave & staff suspensions'.

This information is well within the remit of public publication under the FOI legislation. I therefore request it prior to lodging a complaint to the information commissioner if refused again.

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

Yours faithfully,

ronald kenning

FOI, Ards and North Down Borough Council

Dear Mr Kenning,

We refer to the above and acknowledge receipt of your email of 13 October 2021 to Ards and North Down Borough Council’s FOI Team, received on 14 October.

Your request for an internal review of the response issued under FOI498/21-22/010 will be passed to the Council’s Director for Organisational Development and Administration, Mrs Wendy Swanston, and a response will be issued within twenty working days from the date of receipt of your request.

Regards,

FOI Team
Ards and North Down Borough Council
Town Hall
The Castle
Bangor
BT20 4BT
Tel: 0300 013 3333

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Swanston, Wendy, Ards and North Down Borough Council

To: Mr Ronald Kenning

Email: [1][FOI #791248 email]

 

Our Ref: FOI479/21-22/007 - Sick leave and staff suspensions

 

Dear Mr Kenning,

 

I am writing in response to your request for an internal review, which was
received by Ards and North Down Borough Council on 14^th October 2021.

 

An Internal Review Panel, which the undersigned chaired, met to review the
FOI Team’s response of 13^th October 2021 (FOI498/21-22/010) and the
decision to neither confirm nor deny whether recorded information was held
relevant to your request for information.

 

Your three questions are below in bold and the Internal Review response
thereafter.

 

1.    How many members of staff within the council have been on sick leave
for more than 1 calendar month?

 

2.    How many members of staff within the council are currently suspended
from work for more than one calendar month?

 

3.    How many members of staff within the council in total are currently
suspended?

 

It was noted that Question 1 did not specify a time period but the panel
proceeded on the basis that it, too, related to the number of staff
currently on sick leave. For the purposes of responding to this internal
review currently was deemed as being the date the original Freedom of
Information request was received, 15^th September 2021.

 

The panel considered that to either confirm or deny whether information
was held relevant to your three questions would lead to speculation on
matters pertaining to the employment of identifiable individuals, and
therefore would constitute the disclosure of personal data relating to
identifiable individuals.

 

The panel went on to consider whether providing a confirmation or denial
would contravene the Data Protection Principle of lawful, fair and
transparent processing. It was felt that while employees are aware
sickness statistics will be reported annually, they would hold a
reasonable expectation that the number of employees sick for longer than
one month at a specific point in time would not be disclosed to the world
at large. Similarly, the panel agreed that employees would have a
reasonable expectation that the number of staff suspended at a specific
point in time would not be disclosed to the public at large.

The general interest in transparency and accountability was recognised by
the panel, which noted that annual statistics are published regarding days
lost to absences due to sickness expressed as how many days were lost due
to sickness per employee. Therefore, it was agreed that it was not
necessary to confirm or deny the number of staff off sick for more than
one calendar month at a specific date as the legitimate interest is met by
the publication of annual statistics.

Regarding Questions 2 and 3, the panel noted that suspensions would relate
to instances when the Council has engaged its employee disciplinary
process. Employees would have a reasonable expectation that the
disciplinary process would be dealt with on a confidential basis and that
information would not be divulged to the wider public. It was deemed that
any legitimate interest in confirming or denying whether information was
held regarding Questions 2 and 3 would not override the interests and
fundamental freedoms contained within the Data Protection Act in respect
of Council employees.

 

The panel was content that it had been appropriate to engage the section
40(5B)(a)(i) exemption to neither confirm nor deny whether information is
held regarding your request for information.

 

Nothing in this internal review response should be construed as confirming
or denying that the Council holds the requested information.

 

If you are not satisfied with the way in which your internal review
request has been handled, or with this response, you may contact the
Information Commissioner’s Office at:

 

The ICO – Northern Ireland

3rd Floor

14 Cromac Place,

Belfast

BT7 2JB

Telephone: 0303 123 1114

Email: [2][email address]

 

Yours sincerely,

 

 

 

 

Wendy Swanston

Director of Organisational Development and Administration

 

The information contained in or attached to this message is intended only
for the people to whom it is addressed. If you are not the intended
recipient, any use, storage, disclosure or copying of this information is
unauthorised and prohibited. This information may be confidential or
subject to legal privilege. If you have received this email in error
please notify the sender immediately by using the reply facility in your
email software and then delete the email from your inbox. The contents of
this message do not represent the expressed view of Ards and North Down
Borough Council unless that is clearly stated. The Council cannot accept
liability in the event that the onward transmission, opening, or use of
this message and/or any attachments adversely affects the recipient's
systems or data. Personal information contained in or attached to this
message will be processed in line with the Council’s obligations under the
Data Protection Act 2018, its Data Protection Policy and for the purpose
for which it was provided. If you have a data protection query, please put
your request in writing, stating clearly who you are and your query to:
Data Protection Officer, Ards and North Down Borough Council, Town Hall,
The Castle, Bangor, BT20 4BT, email:
[email address], tel: 0300 013 3333 or visit the
Council’s website at www.ardsandnorthdown.gov.uk/privacy-and-....

References

Visible links
1. mailto:[FOI #791248 email]
2. mailto:[email address]