Complaints against Oxford City Councillors
Dear Oxford City Council,
1. Please can you provide information on how many complaints have been made against Oxford City Councillors since 2013?
2. If any complaints were made against an Oxford City Councilor, please provide details of the complaint.
3. If any complaints were upheld against an Oxford City Councilor please detail the individual outcomes and disciplinary action taken.
Yours faithfully,
Jon Baylis
Dear Mr Baylis,
Thank you for your email below. Your request was received on 10th October 2021, and you will be sent a response within 20 working days (of receipt) in accordance with the Freedom of Information Act 2000/ Environmental Information Regulations 2004 (EIR), subject to the information not being exempt or containing reference to a third party.
The Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) recognises the unprecedented challenges all are facing during the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.
In particular they understand that resources, whether they are finances or people, may be diverted away from usual compliance or information rights work. Whilst the ICO can’t extend statutory timescales, they will not be penalising public authorities for prioritising other areas or adapting their usual approach during this extraordinary period.
Therefore while the Council will make every effort to comply with the Statutory Requirements you may experience understandable delays when making information rights requests during the pandemic.
Yours sincerely,
Joyce Fagan
Information Governance Requests Officer
Joyce Fagan | Information Governance Requests Officer | Oxford City Council | Law and Governance | St. Aldate's Chambers | Oxford | OX1 1DS |
Email: [email address]
Stop the virus from spreading. Keep Oxford safe.
Follow the guidance: Clean hands. Wear a face mask. Keep your distance. Get tested if you have symptoms.
Dear Mr Baylis,
Oxford City Council Reference: 10477
Further to the acknowledgement below, I can respond to your Freedom of
Information Act 2000 request received on 10^th October 2021 as follows:
There have been 19 separate complaints since 2018 relating to Oxford City
Councillors and the table below answers the 3 questions.
Date IKEN Outcome
ref
1. May 2018 0014273 Sept 2018
Formal
Investigation
Decision: No
Breach
2. May 2019 0015202 Aug 2019;
informal
resolution /
letter of
apology
3. Oct 2020 0016312 Nov 2020
No further
action / not
in the public
interest
4. Feb 2021 0016819 March 2021
No further
action / not
in the public
interest
5. Mar 2021 0016813 March 2021
No further
action / not
official
capacity
6. Mar 2021 0016889 April 2021
No further
action / not
official
capacity
7. Mar 2021 0016893 April 2021
No further
action / not
official
capacity
8. April 0016957 May 2021
2021
No further
action / not
official
capacity
9. April 0016978 May 2021
2021
No further
action / not
official
capacity
10. April 0016979 May 2021
2021
No further
action / not
official
capacity
11. April 0016980 May 2021
2021
No further
action / not
official
capacity
12. April 0016981 May 2021
2021
No further
action / not
official
capacity
13. April 0016982 May 2021
2021
No further
action / not
official
capacity
14. April 0016983 May 2021
2021
No further
action / not
in public
interest
15. April 0016984 May 2021
2021
No further
action / not
official
capacity
16. May 2021 0017033 June 2021
No further
action / not
official
capacity
17. July 0017257 Sept 2021
2021
No further
action / not
official
capacity
18. July/Aug 0017324 Sept 2021
2021
Informal
Resolution
19. 15 Sept Current
2021
Year No. of complaints Reference Outcome
2013 1 Cllr A Investigation & Hearing. Censured and
decision reported to Council .
2014 4 Cllr J No investigation / No further action
Cllr P No investigation / No further action
Cllr M No investigation / No further action
Cllr C No investigation / No further action
2015 0
2016 3 Cllr D No investigation / No further action
Cllr T No investigation / No further action
Cllr R Informal resolution – apology / No
further action
2017 1 Cllr T Informal resolution – apology / No
further action
If you disagree with any part of the response to your request, you are
entitled to ask the Council for an internal review of the decision(s)
made. You may do this by writing to the Monitoring Officer, by either
email – [1][email address] – or by post to Monitoring Officer, Oxford
City Council, St Aldate’s Chambers, St Aldate’s, Oxford, OX1 1DS. After
the result of the internal review, if you remain dissatisfied, you may ask
the Information Commissioner to intervene on your behalf. You may do this
by writing to the Information Commissioner's Office, Wycliffe Lane,
Wilmslow, Cheshire, SK9 5AF.
Yours sincerely,
Joyce Fagan
Information Governance Requests Officer
Joyce Fagan | Information Governance Requests Officer | Oxford City
Council | Law and Governance | St. Aldate's Chambers | Oxford | OX1 1DS |
Email: [2][email address]
Stop the virus from spreading. Keep Oxford safe.
Follow the guidance: Clean hands. Wear a face mask. Keep your distance.
Get tested if you have symptoms.
Dear freedomofinformation,
Hello, is it possible for members of the public to view the complaints and the evidence submitted in support of the complaints? Also, is it possible for the public to view material related to the investigation and the documentation relating to the outcome?
Yours sincerely,
Jon Baylis
Dear Mr Baylis
I am writing in response to a follow on question that you posed. Please see below:
In regards to the complaints listed at the bottom of this thread only one resulted in a formal investigation.
That was case 0014273 in September 2018. The decision notice, which includes the name of the subject councillor, was published on the Standards Committee pages of the Council website at the following location:
https://mycouncil.oxford.gov.uk/ieListDo...
Please be advised that the information relating to the other complaints would be exempt from disclosure.
As the subject member's reasonable expectation of privacy at assessment stage override the public interest in disclosure.
It is then the subject member's data rights that are being protected.
This includes the two complaints in the separate FOI from the Oxford Mail, neither of which have progressed beyond the initial assessment stage.
Yours sincerely,
Joyce Fagan
Information Governance Requests Officer
Joyce Fagan | Information Governance Requests Officer | Oxford City Council | Law and Governance | St. Aldate's Chambers | Oxford | OX1 1DS |
Stop the virus from spreading. Keep Oxford safe.
Follow the guidance: Clean hands. Wear a face mask. Keep your distance. Get tested if you have symptoms.
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