Lancashire PEEL Legitimacy Fact Check & Info Re Complaint Handling

The request was successful.

Dear Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary,

1. Was Lancashire Constabulary and/or the Lancashire PCC given the opportunity to conduct a ‘factual accuracy check’ of the HMIC PEEL 2015 Legitimacy Report prior to publication?

2. If yes please provide a copy of all information held relating to the same.

3. Who was present at the meetings at Lancashire Police HQ between HMIC Mr Cunningham and PCC Mr Grunshaw on 11th March 2015 and 2nd November 2015.

4. Please provide any meeting minutes or notes to these meetings.

5. Mr Cunningham attended a round table presentation at Lancashire Constabulary HQ as part of HMIC’s PEEL Inspection on 13th April 2015. Please provide a copy of any information held by the HMIC relating to this presentation that relates to complaint and misconduct matters.

6. Any information you hold which relate to the HMIC raising any issues with Lancashire Constabulary in 2015/16 in relation to their handling of complaints and misconduct issues.

7. Lancashire Constabulary’s produced a Professional Standards Reactive Project Overview report dated 14th September 2015. Please can you tell me if the HMIC was provided with a copy and if yes, the date it was provided.

Many thanks

Carol Lingard

Have Your Say,

**This is an automated message, please do not respond to this message**

Thank you for your email.

HMIC aims to respond to all correspondence within 20 working days.

If your email is a complaint against a police force, police officer or
PCC, please be advised HMIC has no remit to investigate individual
complaints.

All complaints/queries regarding a police force or officer should be
directed to the chief constable, or the Professional Standards Department
for that force. If your complaint is regarding a chief constable, please
direct to the police and crime commissioner (PCC) for the force.

The Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC) considers appeals from
people who are dissatisfied with the way a police force has dealt with
their complaint.

If you have submitted a Freedom of Information request, please be advised
that this has been forwarded to the FOI team who will aim to respond
within 20 working days, as per the Freedom of Information Act 2000.

Thank you
Her Majesty's Inspectorate of Constabulary.

 

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Good afternoon, thank you for your email.

Your request is being handled as a request for information under the Freedom of Information Act 2000.

We will aim to send you a full response by the 8th of November 2016, which is 20 working days from the date we received your request.

Yours sincerely

FOI Team
Her Majesty's Inspectorate of Constabulary

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3 Attachments

Dear Mrs Lingard,

Please find attached a letter plus accompanying attachments, in response to your recent Freedom of Information request on behalf of Her Majesty's Inspectorate of Constabulary.

Thank you

On behalf of,

FoI Team
Her Majesty's Inspectorate of Constabulary

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Dear Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary,

Thanks very much for your response.

I have some queries and would be grateful if you could treat this as a request for an internal review with regards to the following points

Re 1. You have stated;

“I can confirm HMIC did not receive a response from Lancashire Constabulary during the factual accuracy check period.”

Please can you advise if one was provided after the check period set out in your letter to the Chief Constable and if yes provide any information held relating to the same. I believe any such information is covered by the scope of my request.

Re 6. You have stated;

“HMIC reported all issues that were identified relating to Lancashire Constabulary’s handling of complaints and/or misconduct, in the 2015 Legitimacy report. Apart from that which is shown in the report, HMIC holds no further information”.

I recently obtained the IPCC meeting notes from the IPCC to a meeting between IPCC Commissioner Mr Gumsley and Deputy Chief Constable A Rhodes which took place in June 2015, at Lancashire Police HQ. The notes were produced by the IPCC.

They state;

“CG [IPCC Carl Gumsley] advised that the most concerning area so far as he is concerned is that only 5% of cases are being dealt with by a way of local investigation whereas the national average is 50%. He added that he therefore has concerns whether the correct test is being applied. CG advised that for local resolution it has to be established that even if proved the complaint would not justify bringing any criminal or disciplinary proceedings against the person whose conduct is complained about and would not, even if proved, involve the infringement of a person's rights under article 2 or 3 of the Convention. AR [Dep Chief Constable A Rhodes] advised that this was something that HMIC had picked up on. AR acknowledged that this figure was extremely low.”

This meeting was 2 months after the HMIC inspection relating to complaint/misconduct matters. Whilst I am aware that the use of local resolution was subsequently raised in other Constabulary Legitimacy reports (Sussex and Humberside), it was not raised in Lancashire’s. They were praised for their increased use of local resolution.

I would be grateful if you could revisit your response to point 6 of my request. Your response appears to be at odds with the information in the IPCC meeting notes.

Many thanks

Carol Lingard

Have Your Say,

**This is an automated message, please do not respond to this message**

Thank you for your email.

HMIC aims to respond to all correspondence within 20 working days.

If your email is a complaint against a police force, police officer or
PCC, please be advised HMIC has no remit to investigate individual
complaints.

All complaints/queries regarding a police force or officer should be
directed to the chief constable, or the Professional Standards Department
for that force. If your complaint is regarding a chief constable, please
direct to the police and crime commissioner (PCC) for the force.

The Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC) considers appeals from
people who are dissatisfied with the way a police force has dealt with
their complaint.

If you have submitted a Freedom of Information request, please be advised
that this has been forwarded to the FOI team who will aim to respond
within 20 working days, as per the Freedom of Information Act 2000.

Thank you
Her Majesty's Inspectorate of Constabulary.

 

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Dear Mrs Lingard,

Thank you for your email.

Before we continue, I would be grateful if you could confirm if it is an internal review that you require. Her Majesty's Inspectorate of Constabulary understands that you have some questions around the information that we have provided, and is more than happy to cooperate and respond to these. However, a valid internal review would be around the handling of your request i.e. if the response was not handled within the required time, or if you believe HMIC had used the incorrect exemption or non-confirm-nor-deny decision etc. If you are questioning the information in the response, rather than the process, it may be more beneficial to handle as standard correspondence.

If HMIC begins its internal review process, your original request will be sent to a delegated 'internal reviewer'. Instead of responding to your questions in your email, the reviewer will have to go back to your original FoI question and handle as if it were a new request, going through the same processes of locating information through the various teams in HMIC. This process could also result, depending on what, if any, new information is found, a consideration of absolute or qualified exemptions, including possible public interest tests. The reviewer is expected to make a decision on whether to overturn the original response. If the reviewer makes the decision not to overturn the response, you may not receive a direct answer to your questions.

If you are happy for HMIC to respond to your questions as per our standard correspondence policy, we will commission HMIC's legitimacy team to answer your questions as soon as possible, with a response returned within 20 working days. The FoI team and the legitimacy team will work together to ensure that a full and detailed response is sent, providing as much information as possible to your questions.

Her Majesty's Inspectorate of Constabulary will act on your decision, if you wish for an internal review we will be happy to begin this process straight away.

If you have any questions on the two options, please feel free to email.

Thank you

On behalf of,

FOI Team
Her Majesty's Inspectorate of Constabulary

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Dear HMICFoI,

Thanks for your reply - it is very interesting to read.

It seems sensible to treat my recent email as per your standard correspondence policy. I am happy with the handling of this request and am simply seeking an answer on those two points.

Many thanks

Carol Lingard

Good morning,

Thank you for your email.

I confirm that HMIC will now handle as per our standard correspondence policy, and a formal commission for information will be sent to the legitimacy team today.

Thank you

On behalf of,

FOI Team
Her Majesty's Inspectorate of Constabulary

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Dear HMICFoI,

You said I would receive a reply withing 20 working days.

I haven't which is disappointing.

Can you provide me with a response?

Yours sincerely,

Carol Lingard

Dear Mrs Lingard,

I apologise that a response to your query has not been sent.

I am aware that the information is ready to be released, however, due to our strict correspondence policy a senior civil servant (SCS) must sign the information/data off before it is sent. This is standard practice throughout the civil service. Unfortunately, the legitimacy SCS is on annual leave and an alternative is being sourced. This information should have been passed on to you.

Please leave this with me. Our office is open until 5pm tomorrow, so either an update or the full response (we will aim for the full response) will be with you before then.

Once again, apologies on behalf of HMIC for the delay.

Thank you

On behalf of,

FOI Team
Her Majesty's Inspectorate of Constabulary

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Dear HMICFoI,

Many thanks for your recent replies;

https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/l...

https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/l...

This request is closed.

Carol Lingard