Disabled Claimants in the Employment Tribunal

The request was partially successful.

Dear Her Majesty’s Courts and the Tribunals Service,

Please would you provide, broken out by year, details of the following:

1. Number of claims brought in Employment Tribunals (England and Wales) where the Claimant indicated disability, either by filling in Section 12 of the ET1 form or otherwise.

Please also say for each claim:

2. Whether there was any offer by HMCTS to implement reasonable adjustments;
3. Whether any adjustments were actually implemented;
4. How well adjustments removed or reduced disadvantage faced by the Claimant(s).

Thanks in advance,
Kate.

Kate Breed

Weston, Bob (Gloucester), HM Courts and Tribunals Service

1 Attachment

Hello Ms Breed.

Please find attached an acknowledgement of the above request.

 

Bob Weston

 

Knowledge Information Liaison Officer

 

HMCTS - Analysis and Performance Division, Finance, Governance and
Performance Directorate.

 

Tel: 01452 334448 or 0203 3345511

 

E [1][email address]

 

1st Floor | Twyver House | Bruton Way | Gloucester | GL1 1PE

 

" I am not authorised to bind the Ministry of Justice contractually, nor
to make representation or other statements which may bind the Ministry of
Justice in any way via electronic means".

 

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Weston, Bob (Gloucester), HM Courts and Tribunals Service

1 Attachment

Please find attached a response to the above request

 

Bob Weston

 

Knowledge Information Liaison Officer

 

HMCTS - Analysis and Performance Division, Finance, Governance and
Performance Directorate.

 

Tel: 01452 334448 or 0203 3345511

 

E [1][email address]

 

1st Floor | Twyver House | Bruton Way | Gloucester | GL1 1PE

 

" I am not authorised to bind the Ministry of Justice contractually, nor
to make representation or other statements which may bind the Ministry of
Justice in any way via electronic means".

 

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Dear Her Majesty’s Courts and the Tribunals Service,

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

I am writing to request an internal review of Her Majesty’s Courts and the Tribunals Service's handling of my FOI request 'Disabled Claimants in the Employment Tribunal'.

You asked for me to narrow my request then refused it anyway. I think you're time wasting. You have not said how you have calculated how long the task would take, nor what that amount of time even is.
You have not told me what information that you do have that could be provided to me within the £600 limit - so it is impossible for me to know how to narrow my request.

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

Yours faithfully,

Kate

Midlands (RSU) KILO, HM Courts and Tribunals Service

1 Attachment

Dear Ms Breed

 

Please find attached the acknowledgement of receipt of your request for an
internal review of the Freedom of Information Act response.

 

Yours sincerely

 

Knowledge and Information Liaison Officer (KILO)

Midlands Regional Support Unit
email: [1][email address]
HMCTS Midlands Region -Working together to support the delivery of a First
Class Justice System

 

For information on how HMCTS uses personal data about you please see:
[2]https://www.gov.uk/government/organisati...

 

 

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Midlands (RSU) KILO, HM Courts and Tribunals Service

1 Attachment

Dear Ms Breed

 

Please find attached the outcome of your request for a review of the
Freedom of Information Act response.

Yours sincerely

 

Knowledge and Information Liaison Officer (KILO)

Midlands Regional Support Unit
email: [1][email address]
HMCTS Midlands Region -Working together to support the delivery of a First
Class Justice System

 

For information on how HMCTS uses personal data about you please see:
[2]https://www.gov.uk/government/organisati...

 

 

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Dear Her Majesty's Courts and Tribunals Service,

I would like to refine this request per your suggestion.

Please could you tell me:
(a) The number of Ground Rules Hearings that were held; and
(b) The number of claims that relate (in full or in part) to disability discrimination?

Yours faithfully,

Kate

Disclosure Team, HM Courts and Tribunals Service

Dear Kate,

Please note, under section 8(1) of FOIA, a request for information must comply with three requirements. It must:

(a) be in writing,
(b) state the name of the applicant and an address for correspondence, and
(c) describes the information requested.

After initial consideration, this request appears to comply with requirements (a) and (c) but it does not comply with requirement (b) because you have not provided your full name.
I am therefore not required to process your request without information that can later be referred to, as per Section 8(1)(b) FOIA. The information we require is your name.
As your request has been deemed invalid, I am not obliged to disclose the requested information at this point and I would like to take this opportunity to recommend that any future FOI submissions adhere to Section 8 of the FOIA.
To enable us to meet your request, please resubmit your application in accordance with the above requirements. We will consider your resubmitted request upon receipt as long as it meets the requirements stated above.
You will then receive the information requested within the statutory timescale of 20 working days as defined by the Act, subject to the information not being exempt.
You can find out more about Section 8 by reading the extract from the Act available at the attached link:
http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2000...
Kind regards,

Disclosure Team

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Dear Disclosure Team,

This is a refinement of a previous request ergo you must have the information that you require (or you would have refused the last one on that ground, which you didn't).

My surname is Breed. I'm not about to put my postal address on the internet - you may use this site for correspondence, which is what it is for.

Yours sincerely,

Kate

Weston, Bob (Gloucester), HM Courts and Tribunals Service

1 Attachment

Please find attached an acknowledgement of the above request

 

Bob Weston

 

Knowledge Information Liaison Officer

 

HMCTS - Analysis and Performance Division, Finance, Governance and
Performance Directorate.

 

Tel: 01452 334448 or 0203 3345511

 

E [1][email address]

 

1st Floor | Twyver House | Bruton Way | Gloucester | GL1 1PE

 

" I am not authorised to bind the Ministry of Justice contractually, nor
to make representation or other statements which may bind the Ministry of
Justice in any way via electronic means".

 

show quoted sections

Weston, Bob (Gloucester), HM Courts and Tribunals Service

1 Attachment

Please find attached a response to the above request.

 

Bob Weston

 

Knowledge Information Liaison Officer

 

HMCTS - Analysis and Performance Division, Finance, Governance and
Performance Directorate.

 

Tel: 01452 334448 or 0203 3345511

 

E [1][email address]

 

1st Floor | Twyver House | Bruton Way | Gloucester | GL1 1PE

 

" I am not authorised to bind the Ministry of Justice contractually, nor
to make representation or other statements which may bind the Ministry of
Justice in any way via electronic means".

 

show quoted sections

Dear Weston, Bob (Gloucester),

Thanks for your response. You have asked that I "explain what types of ET Hearings [I] am referring to".

Information about the function of Ground Rules Hearings (GRH) can be found online, including within the Equal Treatment Bench Book (https://www.judiciary.uk/wp-content/uplo...) and the Advocates Gateway (https://www.theadvocatesgateway.org/tool...).

The Tribunal may refer to "Preliminary" or "Case Management" hearings as opposed to GHR but it is HMCTS' approach to the function in which I am interested, not nomenclature.

An except from the ETBB reads as follows:

"Adjustments during case preparation might include: clarity in lay-out and wording of correspondence; increased face-to-face case management preliminary hearings or, if preferred, by telephone; staggering any orders or instructions plus longer timescales for compliance; giving explicit instructions; expediting the final hearing and advance planning." [2019. ETBB, 4-3]

Perhaps it would be better to start by locating any HMCTS' policies and procedures that describe how It caters for disabled people (for example, how it meets the Public Sector Equality Duty)? I could then be more specific about my request using language and terms that are more likely to be familiar to HMCTS. For instance - taking the above excerpt - HMCTS may have a document that lays out how It will ensure "clarity ... of correspondence"; It may also have some mechanism for "expediting the final hearing and advance planning"?

Alternatively, you could tell me the number of cases where HMCTS made 'reasonable adjustments'. (I know that many standard letters sent by HMCTS contain a generic paragraph along the lines of "please let [HMCTS] know if you require reasonable adjustments" but I am *not* interested in those letters - I am interested in adjustments actually made in practice.) Please break the numbers down in the same way as when reporting case volumes (so that I can compare with the number of cases where a claim of disability discrimination was brought). If available, please include the number of cases where adjustments were refused by HMCTS.

Is this request now more manageable?

Yours sincerely,

Kate

Dear Her Majesty's Courts and Tribunals Service,

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

I am writing to request an internal review of Her Majesty's Courts and Tribunals Service's handling of my FOI request 'Disabled Claimants in the Employment Tribunal'.

You've not done anything since my correspondence dated 12 August. Please update.

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

Yours faithfully,

Kate

Disclosure Team, HM Courts and Tribunals Service

Dear Kate,

Thank you for your email.

I can confirm that your request of the 12 August is being handled with a statutory deadline of 16 September 2019. I apologise that you have not received an acknowledgement letter confirming this.

Kind regards,

Disclosure Team, Information Services

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Weston, Bob (Gloucester), HM Courts and Tribunals Service

1 Attachment

Hello Ms Breed.

Please find attached an acknowledgement of the above request.

 

Bob Weston

 

Knowledge Information Liaison Officer

 

HMCTS - Analysis and Performance Division, Finance, Governance and
Performance Directorate.

 

Tel: 01452 334448 or 0203 3345511

 

E [1][email address]

 

1st Floor | Twyver House | Bruton Way | Gloucester | GL1 1PE

 

" I am not authorised to bind the Ministry of Justice contractually, nor
to make representation or other statements which may bind the Ministry of
Justice in any way via electronic means".

 

show quoted sections

Weston, Bob (Gloucester), HM Courts and Tribunals Service

1 Attachment

Please find attached a response to the above request.

 

Bob Weston

 

Knowledge Information Liaison Officer

 

HMCTS - Analysis and Performance Division, Finance, Governance and
Performance Directorate.

 

Tel: 01452 334448 or 0203 3345511

 

E [1][email address]

 

1st Floor | Twyver House | Bruton Way | Gloucester | GL1 1PE

 

" I am not authorised to bind the Ministry of Justice contractually, nor
to make representation or other statements which may bind the Ministry of
Justice in any way via electronic means".

 

show quoted sections

Dear Her Majesty's Courts and Tribunals Service,

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

I am writing to request an internal review of Her Majesty's Courts and Tribunals Service's handling of my FOI request 'Disabled Claimants in the Employment Tribunal'.

Thank you for your response dated 12 September; however, it does not deal with my entire request.

Please refer to the detailed information and suggestions that I have previously submitted and address the full scope of my original request.

You asked that I "explain what types of ET Hearings [I] am referring to" which I did; despite this, you do not appear to have revisited my original request.

Further, I requested specific detail not generic policies that I could (and already) have obtained online. For example, I asked for material that "lays out how [HMCTS] will ensure "clarity ... of correspondence";" but you just redirected me back to generic policy.

I am, and have always been, interested in the practical / operational detail. You may not frustrate that request by claiming that you don't understand, requesting clarity (which I sought to give) and then answering a different question.

Where is the detail - for example - of the process that staff must (presumably) follow for 'registering' into system or systems requests for adjustments (logically this must happen otherwise you wouldn't have been able to tell me that you received 6506 requests in 2018)? What policy or procedure gives authority to a role or roles to take decisions about whether adjustments are granted or refused? What policy or procedure gives effect to any decision (to grant an adjustment) by identifying the person or persons responsible for implementing it, and the mechanism by which they may be held to account for not doing so?

Whilst you've given adjustment totals for 2018 you have not mapped these to cases (I said: "Please break the numbers down in the same way as when reporting case volumes (so that I can compare with the number of cases where a claim of disability discrimination was brought).") - why not?

Please go back and review everything that I've asked for and *do not treat this as a new request* because it isn't one.

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

Yours faithfully,

Kate

Mondesir, Albie, HM Courts and Tribunals Service

2 Attachments

Please find attached acknowledgment to your request for an Internal
Review.

 

Kind regards

Albie Mondesir

Performance Reporting Officer

Analysis and Reporting Team | HMCTS | 5^th Floor | Post Points 5.21 to
5.23 | 102 Petty France | London | SW1H 9AJ

Phone: 0203 334 3929  [mobile number]

DX: MoJ, DX15380, Westminster 8

 

[1]cid:image001.jpg@01D30AD4.31C69A00

For statistical enquiries please contact the Analysis and Performance Team
e-mail account [2][email address]

 

Any Management Information supplied is for internal use only. If you wish
to share information with others, please contact
[3][email address]

 

 

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Mondesir, Albie, HM Courts and Tribunals Service

3 Attachments

 

Please find attached a response to the above request for an Internal
Review.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

Kind regards

Albie Mondesir

Performance Reporting Officer

Analysis and Reporting Team | HMCTS | 5^th Floor | Post Points 5.21 to
5.23 | 102 Petty France | London | SW1H 9AJ

Phone: 0203 334 3929  [mobile number]

DX: MoJ, DX15380, Westminster 8

 

[1]cid:image001.jpg@01D30AD4.31C69A00

For statistical enquiries please contact the Analysis and Performance Team
e-mail account [2][email address]

 

Any Management Information supplied is for internal use only. If you wish
to share information with others, please contact
[3][email address]

 

 

show quoted sections

Dear Mondesir, Albie,

Thank you for your response and sorry for taking so long to acknowledge it. I would like to know the costs of the adjustments that were made - should I submit a new request or can it be dealt with under this reference number?

Yours sincerely,

Kate