Could you provide full information on 2018/ 2019 grievance procedure results please

The request was partially successful.

Dear British Council,

I asked for data in 2019 and received the following reply.

"In terms of concerns raised under this policy our data does not break the
information down further. Since January, when we started to collect
global data, we have received 34 grievances, 4 of which have been upheld
and 21 of which are still under investigation. We do not collect
information detailing as to whether those individuals against whom a
grievance has been raised are still employed by The British Council. " Tom Walker

Have these remaining 21 cases now been investigated, and if so, what were the results? Since I raised this issue, have you begun collecting information detailing whether the people whose grievances are not upheld still work for the British Council? If so, please could I have this information.

Yours faithfully,

Stuart Wiffin

IG_Disclosures, British Council

Case Reference FOI_2021_05

 

Dear Stuart,

 

Thank you for your request for information. It is being dealt with under
the terms of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 and will be answered
within 20 working days.

 

I can also confirm that we have kept your name confidential when
approaching the business with your request in both 2019 and 2020. I have
done the same with your request today.  

 

If you have any further queries please do not hesitate to contact me.

 

Yours Sincerely,    

 

Stephen

 

Stephen Witkowski Information Governance Advisor (Archives and Disclosure)
| Information Governance and Risk Management Team

 

[1][email address]

 

[2]https://www.britishcouncil.org/organisat...

 

 

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Dear IG_Disclosures,

Thanks for this reply. I've already asked the British Council for this information and they said they would only give it to me through an foi request. Hence the request.

Yours sincerely,

Stuart Wiffin

IG_Disclosures, British Council

Case Reference: FOI_2021_05

 

10 February 2021

 

Dear Stuart

 

Thank you for your request for information dated 24 January concerning
2019 data on grievances.  Your request has been handled under the terms of
the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) 2000 and has been passed to me for
reply.

 

For your ease of reference, I have restated your questions/request below
in bold and have provided our response beneath.

 

I asked for data in 2019 and received the following reply.

 

"In terms of concerns raised under this policy our data does not break the
information down further.  Since January, when we started to collect
global data, we have received 34 grievances, 4 of which have been upheld
and 21 of which are still under investigation.  We do not collect
information detailing as to whether those individuals against whom a
grievance has been raised are still employed by The British Council. " Tom
Walker

 

Have these remaining 21 cases now been investigated, and if so, what were
the results? Since I raised this issue, have you begun collecting
information detailing whether the people whose grievances are not upheld
still work for the British Council? If so, please could I have this
information.

 

When the original request was received for 2019. The British Council had
only just started collating data and a manual count was undertaken based
on individual spreadsheets.  The British Council has since cleaned up the
data and the corrected numbers are as follows.

 

In 2019 the British Council received 39 Grievances. Five were upheld and
one is still undergoing investigation.

 

Data is still not collected on whether the person continues to work for
the British Council, so this information is not available.

 

I hope the information provided has been useful.

 

If you are dissatisfied with the handling of your request, you have the
right to ask for an internal review. Internal review requests should be
submitted within two months of the date of receipt of the response to your
original letter and should be addressed to:

 

Information Governance Advisor (Disclosures)

Information Governance and Risk Management

British Council

Bridgewater House

58 Whitworth Street

Manchester

M1 6BB

Email: [1][email address]

 

 

If you are not content with the outcome of the internal review, you have a
right to appeal to the Information Commissioner for a decision at:

 

The Information Commissioner’s Office

Wycliffe House

Water Lane

Wilmslow

Cheshire

SK9 5AF

 

Phone: 0303 123 1113

Website: [2]www.ico.org.uk

 

Yours sincerely

 

Stephen

 

Stephen Witkowski Information Governance Advisor (Archives and Disclosure)
| Information Governance and Risk Management Team

 

[3][email address]

 

[4]https://www.britishcouncil.org/organisat...

 

 

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Dear IG_Disclosures,

Could you explain what "cleaned up the data" means in this context? As I understand the term in data science, it usually means to remove 'noise' and concentrate on the 'signal'. What 'noise' has been removed and why, or do you simple mean the person responding last time didn't count correctly?

Yours sincerely,

Stuart Wiffin

IG_Disclosures, British Council

Dear Stuart,

 

To answer your question.

 

Yes, there may have been an error in counting or it may be that cases were
captured in subsequent months that have now been included. It was a new
process and was (and is) a manual one.  

 

By ‘cleaning the data’ we mean removing duplicate entries or seeking more
information on incomplete returns.

 

I hope this information has been useful.

 

Kind regards,

 

Stephen

 

Stephen Witkowski Information Governance Advisor (Archives and Disclosure)
| Information Governance and Risk Management Team

 

[1][email address]

 

[2]https://www.britishcouncil.org/organisat...

 

 

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Dear IG_Disclosures,

My problem really is the opacity of the grievance procedure in general at the British Council (compared with, say, the BBC where the information is supplied promptly and with extra details such as whether that person is still employed by the organization). With the idea of giving transparency to the entire process, do you think that miscounting grievances should be described in future as "cleaning the data" or is this just another way of ensuring the non-arrival of the signal?

Yours sincerely,

Stuart Wiffin

IG_Disclosures, British Council

Dear Stuart,

 

Thank you for your comments.

 

As we have now answered your FOI requests and provided the information
asked for we consider this correspondence closed. You will appreciate that
whilst we are responsible for administering responses to requests for
information, we are unable to comment on your wider concerns relating to
the British Council’s grievance procedure generally.  

 

That said, if you are dissatisfied with the handling of your request, you
have the right to ask for an internal review. Internal review requests
should be submitted within

two months of the date of receipt of the response to your original letter
and should be addressed to:

 

Information Governance Advisor (Disclosures)

Information Governance and Risk Management

British Council

Bridgewater House

58 Whitworth Street

Manchester

M1 6BB

Email: [1][email address]

 

If you are not content with the outcome of the internal review, you have a
right to appeal to the Information Commissioner for a decision at:

 

The Information Commissioner’s Office

Wycliffe House

Water Lane

Wilmslow

Cheshire

SK9 5AF

 

Phone: 0303 123 1113

Website: [2]www.ico.org.uk

 

Yours sincerely,

 

Stephen

 

Stephen Witkowski Information Governance Advisor (Archives and Disclosure)
| Information Governance and Risk Management Team

 

[3][email address]

 

[4]https://www.britishcouncil.org/organisat...

 

 

show quoted sections