Conservative led KCC /CEO Peter Gilroy /Conflict of Interests?

Mr B Gerrish made this Freedom of Information request to Kent County Council This request has been closed to new correspondence. Contact us if you think it should be reopened.

The request was successful.

Dear Sir or Madam,

Can you please confirm that is acceptable that Peter Gilroy could
be allowed,

Quote from Peter Gilroy's letter to Lord Laming:

'to write a piece for the Conservative Shadow
Government' especially when Kent county council is Conservative
led?

Are not ceo staff supposed to be 'a' political in their duties?

This letter shows a clear conflict of interest as well as bad taste
in touting for additional or future work; whilst being on first
name terms with Lord Laming could be considered some what
convenient.

Yours faithfully,

Mr B Gerrish

Dear Paul Carter Conservative Leader/Geoff Wild Head of Legal ,

Please state whether or not a timely response can be expected?

Yours faithfully,

Mr B Gerrish

Mrs Barden (Account suspended) left an annotation ()

How interesting has this public servant been on a Common Purpose course?

Kent County Council

2 Attachments

Dear Mr Gerrish

Thank you for your request for information.

As well as advise Lord Laming that he was "intending to write a piece for
the Conservative Shadow Government", Kent County Council's Chief
Executive, Mr Gilroy did in fact correspond with the Rt. Hon Ed Balls, the
Secretary of State, on the same subject at around the same time.
This clearly indicates that there is no conflict of interests, and that Mr
Gilroy has no political leanings. Mr Gilroy was simply offering not
only his considerable expertise in the field of Children's Social
Services but also his assistance to BOTH of the major political parties at
what was a very difficult time. A copy of the Secretary of State's
response is attached for your information.

The original request submitted by another user of the whatdotheyknow
website
[1]http://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/lo... only
asked for details of Mr Gilroy's communications specifically with Lord
Laming, which is why only limited information was provided to S Smith. The
subsequent request for review on 31st May (which I note you have copied
word for word) simply jumped to the incorrect conclusion that Lord Laming
was the ONLY person Mr Gilroy had communicated with regarding Haringey and
the resulting Child Protection Review. As you can see, this is not the
case.

If you are unhappy with this response, and believe KCC has not complied
with legislation, please ask for a review by following our complaints
process; details can be found at this link
[2]http://www.kent.gov.uk/council-and-democ...
on our website. Please quote reference FOI/09/831.

If you still remain dissatisfied following an internal review, you can
appeal to the Information Commissioner, who oversees compliance with the
Freedom of Information Act 2000. Details of what you need to do, should
you wish to pursue this course of action, are available from the
Information Commissioner's website
[3]http://www.ico.gov.uk/complaints/freedom...

Best regards

Caroline Dodge
Corporate Access to Information Coordinator, Chief Executive's Department
Kent County Council, Legal & Democratic Services, Room 1.94, Sessions
House, County Hall, Maidstone. ME14 1XQ.
Tel: 01622 221652 - Fax: 01622 694383
[4]http://www.kent.gov.uk/council-and-democ...

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Dear Caroline Dodge,

Thank you for your reply and supplying a letter from Ed Balls, could you therefore also supply the letter written by Peter Gilroy CEO to Ed Balls.

Many thanks for your time and trouble.

Yours faithfully,

Mr B Gerrish

Susan Web (Account suspended) left an annotation ()

It would be interesting to find out whether or not he also wrote to all the other parties ?

Dear Caroline Dodge,

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

Although you have confirmed there is no political agenda involvement,you have also failed to produce any evidence of a letter to Ed Balls; please also confirm if all political parties were consulted.

I am writing to request an internal review of Kent County Council's handling of my FOI request 'Conservative led KCC /CEO Peter Gilroy /Conflict of Interests?'.

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

Yours faithfully,

Mr B Gerrish

Kent County Council

2 Attachments

Dear Mr Gerrish

Thank you for your emails.

In Ed Balls' reply to Mr Gilroy (a copy of which we have already given
you), Ed Balls quotes "thank you for your letter of 11 December 2008"
which is surely evidence that Mr Gilroy wrote to him.

However, I have attached a copy of the 11th December letter that Mr Gilroy
sent to Ed Balls for your information and a copy of the article "a life in
social work" that accompanied it. This article was also published on the
MJ (Municipal Journal)'s website and in an edited version in that week's
MJ magazine.

Yes, Mr Gilroy also sent a similar letter around the same time with a copy
of this article to the Lib Dems spokesman (Shadow Secretary) on
Children, Schools and Families - David Laws MP.

If you are unhappy with this response, you can appeal to the Information
Commissioner, who oversees compliance with the Freedom of Information Act
2000. Details of what you need to do, should you wish to pursue this
course of action, are available from the Information Commissioner's
website [1]http://www.ico.gov.uk/complaints/freedom...

Best regards

Caroline Dodge
Corporate Access to Information Coordinator, Chief Executive's Department
Kent County Council, Legal & Democratic Services, Room 1.94, Sessions
House, County Hall, Maidstone. ME14 1XQ.
Tel: 01622 221652 - Fax: 01622 694383
[2]http://www.kent.gov.uk/council-and-democ...

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Dear Caroline Dodge,

Thank you for your reply.

Why is there no mention in Peter Gilroy CEO letter to Ed Balls, of any reference to his intention to write an article for the Conservative Party.

Did he in fact write to all Political Parties and if so please supply the letters; did he make a reference of his intention to all Political Parties.

Or was this information elusively for Lord Laming and the Conservative Party.

Yours faithfully,

Mr B Gerrish

Kent County Council

Dear Mr Gerrish

Thank you for your emails dated 7th September (which we had
until yesterday to provide a response to - my apologies that we failed to
comply with statutory timescales) and 3rd October.

Kent County Council does not hold information to explain or justify why
the Chief Executive did not mention in his letter to Ed Balls that he had
already written to Lord Laming. Nor does KCC hold the information to
explain why he didn't mention to Lord Laming that he was intending to
offer the same advice and assistance to Ed Balls and the leaders of other
political parties.

Yes, the Chief Executive did sent a version of the "Ed Balls" letter to
all other political parties, but copies of these letters have not been
retained as there is no statutory requirement or business need to do
so. However, the text was standard for all letters and read as follows:-

Dear

I enclose a copy of an article on Child Protection I have written for the
Municipal Journal. I hope that in the current debate following the
Haringey case you may find that it contains some helpful proposals.

Yours sincerely

If you are unhappy with this response, and believe KCC has not complied
with legislation, please ask for a review by following our complaints
process; details can be found at this link
[1]http://www.kent.gov.uk/council-and-democ...
on our website. Please quote reference FOI/09/1040.

If you still remain dissatisfied following an internal review, you can
appeal to the Information Commissioner, who oversees compliance with the
Freedom of Information Act 2000. Details of what you need to do, should
you wish to pursue this course of action, are available from the
Information Commissioner's website
[2]http://www.ico.gov.uk/complaints/freedom...

Best regards

Caroline Dodge
Corporate Access to Information Coordinator, Chief Executive's Department
Kent County Council, Legal & Democratic Services, Room 1.94, Sessions
House, County Hall, Maidstone. ME14 1XQ.
Tel: 01622 221652 - Fax: 01622 694383
[3]http://www.kent.gov.uk/council-and-democ...

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Dear Caroline Dodge,

Thank you for stating that Kent County Council does not hold
information to explain or justify why the Chief Executive did not
mention in his letter to Ed Balls that he had already written to
Lord Laming. Nor does KCC hold the information to explain why he
didn't mention to Lord Laming that he was intending to
offer the same advice and assistance to Ed Balls and the leaders of
other political parties.

1) Has the Chief Executive Officer broken his employment code of
conduct, please provide which section(s) have been broken.

2) What discussion and disciplinary action(s) has been taken, if it
is considered that he has in fact broken his employment code of
conduct.

3) Please provide all information that relates to any actions or
inaction taken.

4) Can you say why the letters to Lord Laming were recorded and
retained and not others, was there a statutory requirement or
business need to do so.

Yours faithfully,

Mr Brian Gerrish

Kent County Council

1 Attachment

Dear Mr Gerrish

Thank you for your request for information.

The Chief Executive has not broken his employment code of conduct at any
time, either by writing to all political leaders to offer his expertise in
relation to the "Baby P" situation, or for any other reason. Consequently
no disciplinary action has been discussed or taken, so no information is
held in this regard.

Whether a record should be retained or not and how long for depends on the
content of the information contained within; please see the attached
guidance.
The Chief Executive retained a copy of correspondence with Lord Laming &
Ed Balls for information although there was no statutory requirement for
him to do so. As I stated in my previous response, the text of the letters
sent to the other parties was identical to the letter sent to Ed Balls, so
there is clearly no need to save many versions of what is essentially the
same letter.

If you are unhappy with this response, and believe KCC has not complied
with legislation, please ask for a review by following our complaints
process; details can be found at this link
[1]http://www.kent.gov.uk/council-and-democ...
on our website. Please quote reference FOI/09/1144.

If you still remain dissatisfied following an internal review, you can
appeal to the Information Commissioner, who oversees compliance with the
Freedom of Information Act 2000. Details of what you need to do, should
you wish to pursue this course of action, are available from the
Information Commissioner's website
[2]http://www.ico.gov.uk/complaints/freedom...

Best regards

Caroline Dodge
Corporate Access to Information Coordinator, Chief Executive's Department
Kent County Council, Legal & Democratic Services, Room 1.94, Sessions
House, County Hall, Maidstone. ME14 1XQ.
Tel: 01622 221652 - Fax: 01622 694383
[3]http://www.kent.gov.uk/council-and-democ...

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