Applications for S28 assistance
Doug Paulley made this Freedom of Information request to Equality and Human Rights Commission This request has been closed to new correspondence. Contact us if you think it should be reopened.
Dear Equality and Human Rights Commission,
I'm writing to ask for information about applications for assistance made to the EHRC under S28 of the Equality Act.
Please can you provide information on each and every application made Uber S28 since the Equality Act came into force. Please tell me:
1) to which protected characteristic the application related
2) what the alleged discrimination was I.e. the subject of the case that the applicant was requesting assistance for
3) whether assistance was granted or not
4) where known, the result of the case (not pursued, out of court settlement, judgment for the claimant, judgment for the defendant, awaiting appeal etc.)
5) the remedies awarded where relevant, including the damages.
Thank you
Doug Paulley
Yours faithfully,
Doug Paulley
Thank you for your email to the Equality and Human Rights Commission, this
return email shows that we have received your correspondence.
The appropriate department will contact you within the next 5 working
days.
[1]EHRC_logo_grey
Doug Paulley Our ref: FOI936
Email: [FOI #292900 email] Date: 24 September
2015
Dear Mr Paulley
Subject: Freedom of Information Request
Thank you for your email dated 17 September 2015, in which you made the
following request for information;
'' I'm writing to ask for information about applications for assistance
made to the EHRC under S28 of the Equality Act.
Please can you provide information on each and every application made Uber
S28 since the Equality Act came into force. Please tell me:
1) to which protected characteristic the application related
2) what the alleged discrimination was I.e. the subject of the case that
the applicant was requesting assistance for
3) whether assistance was granted or not
4) where known, the result of the case (not pursued, out of court
settlement, judgment for the claimant, judgment for the defendant,
awaiting appeal etc.)
5) the remedies awarded where relevant, including the damages.''
[Ends]
As your email amounts to a request for information that the Commission may
hold, in accordance with the requirements of section 10 of the Freedom of
Information Act 2000, we will respond promptly and in any event no later
than 20 working days. In this instance a response will be with you no
later than 15 October 2015. If for any reason we are not able to meet this
deadline, we will notify you and give you an indication of when we will
send you a full response.
If you have any queries please contact us using the details below.
Yours sincerely
Oliver Varney
Corporate Communications Officer
Equality and Human Rights Commission
2nd Floor
Arndale House
Arndale Centre
Manchester
M4 3AQ
Email:[Equality and Human Rights Commission request email]
Tel: 0161 829 8324
Dear Mr Paulley
Please find attached our response to your email dated 17 September 2015.
Kind regards
Oliver
Oliver Varney
Corporate Communications Officer
Correspondence Unit
Equality and Human Rights Commission
Arndale House
The Arndale Centre
Manchester
M4 3AQ
Telephone: 0161 829 8324
Email: [1][Equality and Human Rights Commission request email]
[2]http://www.equalityhumanrights.com/
Dear Freedom of Information,
Thank you for your email.
To narrow the scope of my request, I amend my request to the following.
For each case submitted to the EHRC’s Regulatory Decision Making Pathway meetings (RDMP) to determine whether S28 assistance can be granted on a case:
1) to which protected characteristic the application related
2) what the alleged discrimination was I.e. the subject of the case that the applicant was requesting assistance for
3) whether assistance was granted or not
4) where known, the result of the case (not pursued, out of court settlement, judgment for the claimant, judgment for the defendant, awaiting appeal etc.)
5) the remedies awarded where relevant, including the damages.
Thank you
Doug Paulley
Thank you for your email to the Equality and Human Rights Commission, this
return email shows that we have received your correspondence.
The appropriate department will contact you within the next 5 working
days.
[1]EHRC_logo_grey
Doug Paulley Our ref: FOI936
(Refined)
Email: [FOI #292900 email]
Date: 13 October 2015
Dear Doug
Subject: Freedom of Information Request
Thank you for your email dated 06 October 2015 in which you have submitted
the following revised information request:
‘’To narrow the scope of my request, I amend my request to the following.
For each case submitted to the EHRC’s Regulatory Decision Making Pathway
meetings (RDMP) to determine whether S28 assistance can be granted on a
case:
1) to which protected characteristic the application related
2) what the alleged discrimination was I.e. the subject of the case that
the applicant was requesting assistance for
3) whether assistance was granted or not
4) where known, the result of the case (not pursued, out of court
settlement, judgment for the claimant, judgment for the defendant,
awaiting appeal etc.)
5) the remedies awarded where relevant, including the damages’’.
[ENDS]
As your email amounts to a request for information that the Commission may
hold, in accordance with the requirements of section 10 of the Freedom of
Information Act 2000, we will respond promptly and in any event no later
than 20 working days. In this instance a response will be with you no
later than 03 November 2015. If for any reason we are not able to meet
this deadline, we will notify you and give you an indication of when we
will send you a full response.
If you have any queries please contact us using the details below.
Yours sincerely
Oliver Varney
Corporate Communications Officer
Equality and Human Rights Commission
Arndale House
The Arndale Centre
Manchester
M4 3AQ
Tel: 0161 829 8324
Textphone: 020 7832 7880
Email: [2][Equality and Human Rights Commission request email]
Website: [3]http://www.equalityhumanrights.com/
Dear Mr Paulley
Please find attached our response to your email dated 06 October 2015.
Kind regards
Oliver Varney
Corporate Communications Officer
DDI: 0161 829 8324
Email: [1][Equality and Human Rights Commission request email]
Arndale Centre, Arndale House, Manchester, M4 3AQ
[2]cid:image001.png@01D104DE.D0EB56F0[3]cid:image002.png@01D104DE.D0EB56F0[4]cid:image003.png@01D104DE.D0EB56F0[5]cid:image004.png@01D104DE.D0EB56F0
Dear Freedom of Information,
Thank you for this.
I wonder if you could please clarify. Please bear with me, I am not entirely au fait with the EHRC's terminology and so on.
Could you confirm please, in the spreadsheets, S28 assistance was approved and provided where "Submitted to RDMP / Chair For What Action?" was "RDMP Approval" and "For Legal Reporting" was "S28"?
What does "Final WH / MH Approv" mean? (the WH and the MH?)
What does "Submitted to RDMP / Chair For What Action?" - "Chair's Action", "No Action" or "For Action" mean?
What does "For Legal Reporting" "Compliance", "SMT" etc. mean?
How can I know which of the cases in the RDMP spreadsheets relate to which of the outcomes of litigation in the separate spreadsheet?
I just need a bit of context to understand the information you have provided.
Thank you
Yours sincerely,
Doug Paulley
Thank you for your email to the Equality and Human Rights Commission, this
return email shows that we have received your correspondence.
The appropriate department will contact you within the next 5 working
days.
Dear Mr Paulley
Thank you for your email dated 03 November 2015, in which you have asked
for some further contextual information.
The spreadsheets disclosed with our response of 03 November (attached to
this cover email for your ease of reference) contain acronyms as you
rightly identify and my apologies for not making this clearer.
I have provided a key below which list the acronyms/ initials and their
respective meaning which I hope will be helpful.
Key:
'WH' are the initials for Wendy Hewitt, the EHRC's Legal Director.
'MH' are the initials for our previous Chief Executive - Mark Hammond who
left the Commission in August 2015
‘Submitted to RDMP / Chair For What Action’ means cases that went to the
EHRC Regulatory Decision Making Panel or the Commission’s Chair and the
resulting recommendation either to ‘Take action’ or ‘No action’
‘Chair's Action’ means: Action determined by the Chair of the Commission
‘No Action’ means a recommendation to take no action
‘For Action’ means a recommendation to take action
‘For Legal Reporting’ means for the purposes of gathering information for
intelligence purposes.
‘Compliance’ means a recommendation that the Legal team explore possible
further compliance action
‘SMT’ means the EHRC ‘Senior Management Team’
Finally, with regards to knowing which of the cases submitted to ‘RDMP’
relate to the ones listed in the separate 's.28ConcludedLitigation2013-15'
spreadsheet, given the wording of your request we have had to be careful
not to disclose personal information which could identify specific
claimants and could be matched to their respective protected equality
characteristics. We have determined to withhold personal information which
might identify specific individuals who would not have an expectation when
contacting the EHRC, that their personal information, which may also
include sensitive personal data, would be readily disclosed into the
public domain.
We note that you asked for the ‘subject of the case’ and not the names of
claimants. We must take steps to ensure we do not disclose personal
information which could be ‘matched up’ with other information already in
the public domain to reveal the identities of specific individuals.
For your ease of reference, there are some named cases identified in the
's.28 ConcludedLitigation2013-15’ spreadsheet which can be accessed via
the internet, which are already in the public domain.
Our reasoning for withholding personal data is set out in the Annex.
I hope this helps.
Kind regards
Oliver Varney
Corporate Communications Officer
DDI: 0161 829 8324
Email: [1][Equality and Human Rights Commission request email]
Arndale Centre, Arndale House, Manchester, M4 3AQ
[2]cid:image001.png@01D104DE.D0EB56F0[3]cid:image002.png@01D104DE.D0EB56F0[4]cid:image003.png@01D104DE.D0EB56F0[5]cid:image004.png@01D104DE.D0EB56F0
Dear Freedom of Information,
Thank you for the clarification / explanation, I appreciate it.
I worry about the integrity of the results. For example, this case says in the description it was about Disability discrimination, but you have selected Race in the column declaring which protected characteristic:
http://puu.sh/le7Qk/48c6e3d42c.jpg
Yours sincerely,
Doug Paulley
Thank you for your email to the Equality and Human Rights Commission, this
return email shows that we have received your correspondence.
The appropriate department will contact you within the next 5 working
days.
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