Sudden departure of former HBC Director of Community

The request was refused by Harrogate Borough Council.

Dear Harrogate Borough Council
This Freedom of Information request relates to the sudden and poorly-explained departure of a key member of Harrogate’s Council management board, Mr Paul Campbell.
It seems extraordinary that in the very week the Prime Minister declared a national emergency - which immediately placed increased responsibilities on local councils - that Mr Campbell should have chosen to resign. Even more extraordinary since one of his key responsibilities as Director of Community was emergency planning; and it’s difficult to think of any bigger emergency than the Coronavirus pandemic.
Mr Campbell was also in charge of nearly 500 council employees, many of them frontline staff –currently working in the most challenging of circumstances.
It’s on this basis that I would argue that the reason why Mr Campbell departed so suddenly is a matter of public interest; and I find it unacceptable that the Council should imagine its reluctantly- produced brief statement that Mr Campbell “chose to leave the Council on March 27 2020” will suffice.
I therefore seek responses to the following:
1. Will you please place in the public domain all correspondence relating to Mr Campbell’s departure including his letter of resignation and the response he received from Harrogate Council’s Chief Executive Wallace Sampson?
2. Will you please release details relating to the termination of Mr Campbell’s contract and the financial settlement that was agreed?
3. Will you place in the public domain all correspondence between Mr Campbell and HBC Chief Executive Wallace Sampson in relation to Mr Campbell being appointed by Mr Sampson to undertake a review into Mr Sampson’s decision to issue a final warning to a resident under HBC’s Unacceptable Behaviour Policy - i.e. Mr Campbell was asked to provide an “impartial” assessment relating to Mr Sampson’s actions and judgement. (Just three days before his departure Mr Campbell produced his review endorsing Mr Sampson’s decision.)
Yours sincerely
Peter Lilley

Foi, Harrogate Borough Council

Harrogate Borough Council confirm that your email has been received at
[Harrogate Borough Council request email]. Your request will now be considered under the
Freedom of Information Act 2000 or the Environmental Information
Regulations 2004 (if the subject matter relates to environmental
information), we may be in further contact with you in connection with
your request. However, if it is clear what information you are requesting
disclosure of then you should expect a full response within the next 20
working days, if exemptions are engaged that will be explained to you in
the response.

 

Harrogate Borough Council

Freedom of Information

 

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Foi, Harrogate Borough Council

Dear Mr Lilley,

Thank you for your email received by the Council on 21st April 2020 requesting information under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 ('FOIA') relating to Mr Campbell.

In response, please find below the information from Harrogate Borough Council:

1. Will you please place in the public domain all correspondence relating to Mr Campbell's departure including his letter of resignation and the response he received from Harrogate Council's Chief Executive Wallace Sampson?

Response: The information you request is exempt from disclosure by s40 of the FOIA because it constitutes third party personal data. Section 40(2) provides that personal data about third parties is exempt information if one of the conditions set out in section 40(3) is satisfied. Under the FOI Act disclosure of this information would breach the fair processing principle contained in the General Data Protection Regulations/Data Protection Act, where it would be unfair to that person/is confidential. We do not consider there to be any conditions met for the disclosure of this information.

2. Will you please release details relating to the termination of Mr Campbell's contract and the financial settlement that was agreed?

(a) Will you please release details relating to the termination of Mr Campbell's contract

Response: The information you request is exempt from disclosure by s40 of the FOIA because it constitutes third party personal data. Section 40(2) provides that personal data about third parties is exempt information if one of the conditions set out in section 40(3) is satisfied. Under the FOI Act disclosure of this information would breach the fair processing principle contained in the General Data Protection Regulations/Data Protection Act, where it would be unfair to that person/is confidential. We do not consider there to be any conditions met for the disclosure of this information.

(b) the financial settlement that was agreed?

Response: We are not obliged to confirm or deny whether we hold the information you have requested as if held, this would relate to information relating to personal information. The duty in Section 1(1)(a) of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 does not apply, by virtue of section 40 of the Act. Section 40(5B) of the Act provides that there is no duty to confirm or deny whether we hold the information. The fact section 40(5B) of the Act has been cited, should not be taken as an indication that the information you requested is or is not held by the Council. The terms of this exemption in the Freedom of Information Act mean that we do not have to consider whether or not it would be in the public interest for us to reveal whether or not the information is held.

3. Will you place in the public domain all correspondence between Mr Campbell and HBC Chief Executive Wallace Sampson in relation to Mr Campbell being appointed by Mr Sampson to undertake a review into Mr Sampson's decision to issue a final warning to a resident under HBC's Unacceptable Behaviour Policy - i.e. Mr Campbell was asked to provide an "impartial" assessment relating to Mr Sampson's actions and judgement. (Just three days before his departure Mr Campbell produced his review endorsing Mr Sampson's decision.)

Response: In order to identify the information you are requesting, please confirm the name and address of the resident you are referring to.

If you are not satisfied with the way your request has been handled, please contact -

Freedom of Information Officer, PO Box 787, Harrogate, HG1 9RW

or email [Harrogate Borough Council request email]

The Council has an internal review procedure. If your complaint is about the decision which has been made you will usually be entitled to have your case reviewed by a senior officer from a department which has not been involved in the decision previously. Your request for internal review must be received by the Council within 40 working days from the date that the response to your initial request is issued.

If, after their decision, you are still not happy, you may appeal to-

The Information Commissioner
Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow, Cheshire SK9 5AF
Tel: 0303 123 1113
website: https://ico.org.uk/

For the avoidance of doubt the provision of council (and other) officer names and contact details under FOI or EIR does not give consent to receive direct marketing via any media and expressly does not constitute a 'soft opt-in' under PECR.

Yours sincerely

The FOI Team

Harrogate Borough Council
P.O. Box 787
Harrogate
HG1 9RW

Tel: 01423 500600
Web: www.harrogate.gov.uk

The Council will endeavour to reply to your requests within the statutory deadlines, however please be aware that you may experience understandable delays when making information rights requests during the pandemic.

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Dear Freedom of Information Team
I acknowledge your response to my Freedom of Information request.
Can you please name the individual officer who dealt with this request?
Re your response to my third question asking that you place in the public domain all correspondence between Mr Campbell and HBC Chief Executive Wallace Sampson in relation to Mr Campbell being appointed by Mr Sampson to undertake a review into Mr Sampson's decision to issue a final warning to a resident under HBC's Unacceptable Behaviour Policy, it's completely disingenuous of you to ask me to identify the resident. You know full well that resident is myself - and therefore you are already in receipt of my name and address.
And indeed, even if you were genuinely unaware of the identity of the resident, there is absolutely no reason at all why you couldn't have checked this detail with me BEFORE you issued the Council's response. So one has to assume the FOI team is, quite deliberately, being obtuse and unhelpful.
Yours sincerely,
Peter Lilley

Foi, Harrogate Borough Council



Harrogate Borough Council confirm that your email has been received at
[Harrogate Borough Council request email]. Your request will now be considered under the
Freedom of Information Act 2000 or the Environmental Information
Regulations 2004 (if the subject matter relates to environmental
information), we may be in further contact with you in connection with
your request. However, if it is clear what information you are requesting
disclosure of then you should expect a full response within the next 20
working days, if exemptions are engaged that will be explained to you in
the response.

 

Harrogate Borough Council

Freedom of Information

 

“The Council will endeavor to reply to your requests within the statutory
deadlines, however please be aware that you may experience understandable
delays when making information rights requests during the pandemic”.

 

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Foi, Harrogate Borough Council

Dear Mr Lilley,

Thank you for your email received by the Council on 19th May 2020 requesting information under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 ('FOIA') relating to FOI response reference 2021-29:

Dear Freedom of Information Team
I acknowledge your response to my Freedom of Information request.
Can you please name the individual officer who dealt with this request?
Re your response to my third question asking that you place in the public domain all correspondence between Mr Campbell and HBC Chief Executive Wallace Sampson in relation to Mr Campbell being appointed by Mr Sampson to undertake a review into Mr Sampson's decision to issue a final warning to a resident under HBC's Unacceptable Behaviour Policy, it's completely disingenuous of you to ask me to identify the resident. You know full well that resident is myself - and therefore you are already in receipt of my name and address.
And indeed, even if you were genuinely unaware of the identity of the resident, there is absolutely no reason at all why you couldn't have checked this detail with me BEFORE you issued the Council's response. So one has to assume the FOI team is, quite deliberately, being obtuse and unhelpful.
Yours sincerely,
Peter Lilley

In response, please find below the information from Harrogate Borough Council:

You requested the following information:
Can you please name the individual officer who dealt with this request?
Response:
The information you request is exempt from disclosure by s40 of the FOIA because it constitutes third party personal data. Section 40(2) provides that personal data about third parties is exempt information if one of the conditions set out in section 40(3) is satisfied. Under the FOI Act disclosure of this information would breach the fair processing principle contained in the General Data Protection Regulations/Data Protection Act, where it would be unfair to that person/is confidential. We do not consider there to be any conditions met for the disclosure of this information.

Thank you for clarifying question 3.
Response:
Your request is for information which relates to you personally and will be dealt with as a Subject Access Request ('SAR') in accordance with General Data Protection Regulations under the Data Protection Act 2018. In order to process your request lawfully and fairly, please provide an email address for the Data Protection team to correspond with you.

If you are not satisfied with the way your request has been handled, please contact -

Freedom of Information Officer, PO Box 787, Harrogate, HG1 9RW

or email [Harrogate Borough Council request email]

The Council has an internal review procedure. If your complaint is about the decision which has been made you will usually be entitled to have your case reviewed by a senior officer from a department which has not been involved in the decision previously. Your request for internal review must be received by the Council within 40 working days from the date that the response to your initial request is issued.

If, after their decision, you are still not happy, you may appeal to-

The Information Commissioner
Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow, Cheshire SK9 5AF
Tel: 0303 123 1113
website: https://ico.org.uk/

For the avoidance of doubt the provision of council (and other) officer names and contact details under FOI or EIR does not give consent to receive direct marketing via any media and expressly does not constitute a 'soft opt-in' under PECR.

Yours sincerely,

The FOI Team

Harrogate Borough Council
P.O. Box 787
Harrogate
HG1 9RW

Tel: 01423 500600
Web: www.harrogate.gov.uk

The Council will endeavour to reply to your requests within the statutory deadlines, however please be aware that you may experience understandable delays when making information rights requests during the pandemic.

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Dear Harrogate Borough Council
Please pass this on to the person who conducts Freedom of Information reviews.
I am writing to request an internal review of HBC's handling of my FOI request 'Sudden departure of former HBC Director of Community'.
I am aware of HBC’s updated Freedom of Information policy which states that all internal reviews are now undertaken by HBC’s Chief Solicitor Mair Hill.
But since my FOI request was responded to by an officer working within the legal and governance department, it would seem entirely inappropriate for Ms Hill to undertake the internal review as it’s difficult to see how she could possibly be entirely impartial.
Moreover, since the response to my request was unsigned, it’s not impossible that Ms Hill could have provided the response herself and therefore, undertaking a review of the way she handled the request would, of course, be preposterous. I would therefore like the officer undertaking the review to have no connection with the legal and governance department.
I would like the officer to look closely at the reasons stated as to why the first two parts of my request were rejected on the grounds that the information was exempt from disclosure.
I would argue that these exemptions are outweighed by the argument that disclosure of this information is in the public interest; that the residents of this Borough are fully-entitled to know why in the very week that a national emergency was declared, that the HBC director responsible for the Council’s emergency planning and in charge of nearly 500 HBC employees (many of them frontline staff) should resign so suddenly. This not only placed an extra burden on colleagues but deprived Harrogate’s residents of Mr Campbell's experience and expertise at a critical time.
In relation to my third question, I would like the officer undertaking the review to consider why, after I sent my email address as requested on May 19, 2020, that ten days later the FOI team still hadn’t forwarded it to the relevant department which strikes me as being deliberately obstructive and unhelpful. Can the officer undertaking the review explain why the FOI team would adopt such an approach?
A full history of my FOI request and all correspondence is available on the What Do Know website.
Yours sincerely
Peter Lilley

Foi, Harrogate Borough Council

Dear Mr Lilley,

Your request for an internal review was received on 1st June 2020. The Council will endeavour to complete the review within 20 working days. The review will be carried out by a senior Council Officer who has not been involved with your original request. You will be informed of the decision of the review as soon as possible once the review has been completed. If you remain unsatisfied after the findings of the review you then have the right to complain to the Information Commissioners Office, details will be provided in the review response.

Yours sincerely,

The FOI Team

Harrogate Borough Council
P.O. Box 787
Harrogate
HG1 9RW

Tel: 01423 500600
Web: www.harrogate.gov.uk

The Council will endeavour to reply to your requests within the statutory deadlines, however please be aware that you may experience understandable delays when making information rights requests during the pandemic.

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Peter Atkinson, Harrogate Borough Council

1 Attachment

Please find attached my response to your request for an internal review.

 

 

Peter Atkinson

Acting Chief Solicitor (Regulatory)

Legal & Governance

Harrogate Borough Council

PO Box 787

Harrogate

HG1 9RW

[1][email address]

Telephone: 01423 500600

[2]www.harrogate.gov.uk

 

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Peter Lilley left an annotation ()

I was entirely dissatisfied with the so-called Internal Review. My complaint related to the way this FOI request was handled by Harrogate Council's legal department, so it strikes me as entirely inappropriate that the review should have been conducted by the Council's Acting Chief Solicitor. In other words, the legal department "investigating" a complaint about the legal department. I'm unclear as to how anyone could possibly claim that this is an entirely impartial procedure?
It therefore came as no surprise to me that the Acting Chief Solicitor appeared to skate over some of the points I'd made; trotted out the excuse that the information I sought was exempt from disclosure (or that HBC was not obliged to disclose it); and then found in favour of his legal department colleagues. I can see no point in Harrogate Borough Council offering the facility of internal reviews unless those reviews are conducted by entirely independent and impartial officers.