MP referrals 2019/20 and 20220/21 - board report - ICO secondment offer

The request was partially successful.

Dear Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman,

1. Please provide the names of all MPs who made referrals during (i) 2019/20 and (ii) 2020/21 together with the number of referrals each made.

Minute 11.1 of the board minutes of 17/12/20 records:

'The Board received a report from the Ombudsman covering the recent scrutiny session before the Public Administration and Constitutional Affairs Committee (PACAC); engagement with staff during the pandemic; and recent casework issues including the issue of the Insight Report on Continuing Healthcare. The report also included the Ombudsman’s current SWOT analysis of the organisation’s strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats.'

2. Please provide a copy of the report.

The ICO has disclosed your offer of a secondment:

'I will refer your offer of a secondment to our HR Dept who may be in contact with you to obtain further details.'

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

3. Please provide (i) a copy of the information contained in the offer you made; (ii) confirmation of whether the ICO accepted your offer (if it was, please provide the start date) and (iii) any other information related to the secondment such as the 'further details' referred to in the information disclosed by the ICO.

Yours faithfully,

D Moore

InformationRights, Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman

Thank you for contacting the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman’s
(PHSO) Freedom of Information and Data Protection Team. This is to confirm
we have received your request. If you have made a request for information
under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 or Environment Information
Regulations 2004, we aim to respond to your request within 20 working days
in accordance with the statutory time frames set out in both Acts. If you
have made a request for personal information held by the PHSO, your
request will be processed as a Subject Access Request under the provisions
of the Data Protection Act 2018 and we aim to respond within one calendar
month in accordance with the statutory time frame set out in the Act. We
may contact you before this time if we require further clarification or if
we need to extend the time required to complete your request.

Please note that we are currently experiencing a high demand, and might
not be able to comply with the statutory deadline for your request. Any
late responses can be referred to the Information Commissioner’s Office:

https://ico.org.uk/

For Subject Access Requests, we will send any personal information via
secure email, unless you instruct us differently. To access the
information on the email we send, you will need to sign up to our secure
email service. Details can be found on our website using the link below:
https://www.ombudsman.org.uk/about-us/co...
If you require us to post your personal information to you instead you
will need to inform us of this and confirm your current address as soon as
possible. Angharad Jackson Data Protection Officer & Assistant Director
Information Assurance Office of the Parliamentary and Health Service
Ombudsman PHSO CityGate 47-51 Mosley Street Manchester M2 3HQ
[email address]

J Roberts left an annotation ()

MP referrals 2017/18:

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

MP referrals 2018/19:

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

'Parliamentary complaints for 2018/19:

3 upheld and 35 partly upheld (38)

Parliamentary complaints for 2019/20:

11 upheld and 35 partly upheld (46)'

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

J Roberts left an annotation ()

It is interesting that in response to a request for similar information relating to 2016/17, the following represented the initial view of the PHSO:

'I can confirm the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman does hold the information you have requested, however it is exempt from disclosure under sections 40(2) and 44(1)(a) of the Freedom of Information Act 2000.

I am aware, that we have in the past released data for previous years, this was because we considered that complainants and details of individuals complaints could not be identified from the information. However the data for the business year 2016/17, aggregated with information already in the public domain, does identify complaints referred to the Ombudsman. As a result, disclosure would breach the privacy rights of complainants under the Data Protection Act 1998, and the information disclosure restriction at section 11(2) of the Parliamentary Commissioner Act 1967. Information obtained during the course or for the purposes of an investigation is exempt from disclosure unless one of the purposes under section 11(2) PCA is met. As your request does not meet any of the purposes, I am prevented by law from releasing the information.'

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

J Roberts left an annotation ()

I have requested information from the ICO regarding the secondment offer:

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

Dear Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman,

Please provide me with an update.

I have no wish to contact the ICO unnecessarily; however, if I receive no satisfactory response by Friday 23 July I will.

Yours faithfully,

D. Moore

InformationRights, Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman

Dear D Moore,

Thank you for your email and we apologise that you have had to chase us for the information you requested. This is due to the current high demand of work we are receiving.

We can confirm that the information you requested has been collected and is currently being worked. We aim to respond in full by the end of next week at the latest.

Thank you for remaining patient and once again we apologise for the delays you have received.

Yours sincerely

Freedom of Information & Data Protection Team
Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman
E: [PHSO request email]
W: www.ombudsman.org.uk

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InformationRights, Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman

2 Attachments

Dear D Moore,

 

RE: Your information request: FOI189

 

I write in response to your email to the Parliamentary and Health Service
Ombudsman (PHSO) dated 1 May 2021 requesting information under the Freedom
of Information (FOI) Act 2000.

 

Request:

1.  Please provide the names of all MPs who made referrals during (i)
2019/20 and (ii) 2020/21 together with the number of referrals each made.

 

Minute 11.1 of the board minutes of 17/12/20 records:

 

'The Board received a report from the Ombudsman covering the recent
scrutiny session before the Public Administration and Constitutional
Affairs Committee (PACAC); engagement with staff during the pandemic; and
recent casework issues including the issue of the Insight Report on
Continuing Healthcare. The report also included the Ombudsman’s current
SWOT analysis of the organisation’s strengths, weaknesses, opportunities
and threats.'

 

2.  Please provide a copy of the report.

 

The ICO has disclosed your offer of a secondment:

 

'I will refer your offer of a secondment to our HR Dept who may be in
contact with you to obtain further details.'

 

[1]https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url...

 

3.  Please provide (i) a copy of the information contained in the offer
you made; (ii) confirmation of whether the ICO accepted your offer (if it
was, please provide the start date) and (iii) any other information
related to the secondment such as the 'further details' referred to in the
information disclosed by the ICO.  

 

Response:

Let me send our sincere apologises for the delayed response to your
request, which is due to the current high demand we are receiving.  We
also need to apologise further as this is only a part response to your
request so there will be a further delay to part 2 of your request.

 

 1. Please find attached.
 2. As mentioned above, there will be a further delay to this part of your
request.  
 3. No offer was made, so there is no further information held other than
what the ICO has already provided.

 

If you believe we have made an error in the way I have processed your
information request, it is open to you to request an internal review. You
can do this by writing to us by post or by email to
[2][PHSO request email] . You will need to specify that the
nature of the issue is and we can consider the matter further. Beyond
that, it is open to you to complain to the Information Commissioner’s
Office ([3]www.ico.org.uk ) or seek a judicial remedy.

 

Yours sincerely

 

Freedom of Information/Data Protection Team

Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman

W: [4]www.ombudsman.org.uk

 

References

Visible links
1. https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url...
2. mailto:[PHSO request email]
3. http://www.ico.org.uk/
4. http://www.ombudsman.org.uk/
http://www.ombudsman.org.uk/

J Roberts left an annotation ()

A fall of over 1000 (38%) in the number of MP referrals:

2019/20 – 2669

2020/21 – 1645

The following MPs made double digit referrals in 2020/21:

William Wragg 17
Tulip Siddiq 12
Neil Coyle 11
Lyn Brown 10
Fiona Bruce 10
Ellie Reeves 10

The following MPs made double digit* referrals in 2019/20:

Apsana Begum 11
Bernard Jenkin 12
Craig Whittaker 10
David Lammy 10
David Warburton 11
Florence Eshalomi 13
Ian Murray 128
Imran Khan 10
Julian Knight 12
Kemi Badenoch 10
Kirsten Oswald 32
Kirsty Blackman 15
Lisa Cameron 34
Margaret Ferrier 11
Margaret Hodge 13
Mary Glindon 14
Matthew Offord 10
Mhairi Black 16
Nickie Aiken 11
Ranil Jayawardena 11
Rosie Duffield 10
Sarah Owen 12
Steve Reed 10
Tom Pursglove 12
Tulip Siddiq 11
Vicky Foxcroft 10

* The figure of 128 for Ian Murray is very high.

Dear InformationRights,

FOI189

Thank you for the information you provided in response to 1. I have one query concerning it.

The figure provided in relation to Ian Murray is 128. Can you confirm that this figure is correct?

I also wish to query your responses to 2 and 3.

With regard to 2, on what date am I likely to receive a copy of the report?

With regard to 3, you responded:

'3. No offer was made, so there is no further information held other than what the ICO has already provided.'

However, the email disclosed by the ICO quite clearly states that an offer of a secondment was made:

'I will refer your offer of a secondment to our HR Dept who may be in contact with you to obtain further details.'

The ICO email was sent by a Group Leader to a named PHSO employee on 4 December 2020 at 13:07 hours:

https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/7...

Given that your response is contradicted by the information contained in the ICO email, could you please double-check. Perhaps no formal offer was made, or perhaps the Group Leader's email contains inaccurate information.

Yours sincerely,

D. Moore

Dear InformationRights,

Can I please have an update?

Yours sincerely,

D. Moore

J Roberts left an annotation ()

A fall of over 1000 (38%) in the number of MP referrals:

2019/20 – 2669

2020/21 – 1645

But consider the figures for complaints received:

'Complaints about UK Government Departments and other Public Organisations 2019-20'

2019/20 Total - 5623

https://www.ombudsman.org.uk/sites/defau...

'Complaints about UK Government Departments and other Public Organisations 2020-21'

2020/21 Grand Total - 5330

https://www.ombudsman.org.uk/sites/defau...

Do a lot of the complaints received refer to a call-handler telling the enquirer to contact their MP?

J Roberts left an annotation ()

Or it may be that the MP referral figures represent the number of complainants. In response to a question from William Wragg (Q6), Amanda Amroliwala disclosed:

''We can have up to 80 or 90 separate issues within one single complaint, so we might investigate and uphold a large number of those individual issues, but not some of them. That is still counted as partly upheld in the same way that another report that might only uphold one very small aspect is also counted. It is very difficult to distinguish between the two. That is why we are trying to pull the figures apart and think about what the public would like to understand from our investigations and how we make sure we give that.'

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

I don't thnk the PHSO has succeeded in giving 'what the public would like to understand from our investigations'.

InformationRights, Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman

Dear D Moore,

Your information request: FOI189

Thank you for your email and we apologise for the delay to your request.

We had hoped to issue you our response this week, but due to circumstances outside of our control, this has not been possible. We aim to issue you our response by next week, 8 October 2021.

We again apologise for our delayed response, and thank you for remaining patient.

Yours sincerely

Angharad Jackson
Data Protection Officer
Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman
PHSO CityGate
47-51 Mosley Street
Manchester
M2 3HQ

E: [email address]
W: www.ombudsman.org.uk

For information rights enquiries, please contact [PHSO request email]
Want to know more about your information rights? Read our privacy notice”

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InformationRights, Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman

Dear D Moore,

Your information request: FOI189

As mentioned in our email to you last week, we had hoped to have issued your full response in regards to your FOI request this week. However, unfortunately we shall not be able to do this until next week which we apologise for.

Previously, you asked if the figures we provided in relation to Ian Murray (MP) were correct. I can confirm that they were.

You also queried our response concerning a secondment offer and the ICO. The only made was a general enquiry as to whether the ICO would be open to a secondment for one or two of their staff at PHSO. There was never any formal offer made to any individual as the idea was raised by PHSO in a telephone conversation and then referred in the email from the ICO that you have quoted. Nothing further has happened.

We again apologise for our delayed response, and thank you for remaining patient.

Yours sincerely

Angharad Jackson
Data Protection Officer
Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman PHSO CityGate
47-51 Mosley Street
Manchester
M2 3HQ

E: [email address]
W: www.ombudsman.org.uk

For information rights enquiries, please contact [PHSO request email]
Want to know more about your information rights? Read our privacy notice”

show quoted sections

InformationRights, Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman

1 Attachment

Dear D Moore,

 

RE: Your information request: FOI189

 

Thank you for your patience whilst we completed your FOI in full and again
I can only reiterate our apologies for the delay in providing a response
to the final point of your request.

 

Outstanding aspect of your request:

The last part of your request:

 

Minute 11.1 of the board minutes of 17/12/20 records:

 

'The Board received a report from the Ombudsman covering the recent 
scrutiny session before the Public Administration and Constitutional 
Affairs Committee (PACAC); engagement with staff during the pandemic;
and recent casework issues including the issue of the Insight Report on 
Continuing Healthcare. The report also included the Ombudsman’s current 
SWOT analysis of the organisation’s strengths, weaknesses, opportunities 
and threats.'

 

2.  Please provide a copy of the report.

 

Response:

 

As requested, please find attached the report.  Redactions have been made
where the report contains personal information relating to a third party. 
This is exempt under section 40 of the FOIA.

 

I can confirm that whilst we hold the information relating to the SWOT
analysis in the attached report, this has been redacted as it is
considered exempt from disclosure on the basis of sections 36(2)(b)(i) and
36(2)(b)(ii) of the FOIA.  Section 36(2) of the FOIA states that:

“Information to which this section applies is exempt information if, in
the reasonable opinion of a qualified person, disclosure of the
information –

(b) would, or would be likely to, inhibit –

(i)            the free and frank provision of advice, or

(ii)           the free and frank exchange of views for the purposes of
deliberation, or

(c) would otherwise prejudice, or would be likely otherwise to prejudice,
the effective conduct of public affairs.”

 

Having considered the information in question, PHSO’s qualified person has
opined that taking into account all relevant information and having
applied the public interest test, disclosure of the SWOT analysis falls
under this section and thus cannot be disclosed to you.

 

If you believe we have made an error in the way we have processed your
information request, it is open to you to request an internal review. You
can do this by writing to us by post or by email to
[1][PHSO request email] . You will need to specify that the
nature of the issue is and we can consider the matter further. Beyond
that, it is open to you to complain to the Information Commissioner’s
Office ([2]www.ico.org.uk ) or seek a judicial remedy.

 

Yours sincerely

 

Angharad Jackson

Data Protection Officer

Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman

PHSO CityGate

47-51 Mosley Street

Manchester

M2 3HQ

E: [3][email address]

W: [4]www.ombudsman.org.uk

For information rights enquiries, please contact
[5][PHSO request email]

Want to know more about your information rights? Read our [6]privacy
notice

 

 

 

 

 

References

Visible links
1. mailto:[PHSO request email]
2. http://www.ico.org.uk/
3. mailto:[email address]
4. https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url...
5. mailto:[PHSO request email]
6. https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url...

Dear Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman,

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

I am writing to request an internal review of Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman's handling of my FOI request 'MP referrals 2019/20 and 20220/21 - board report - ICO secondment offer'.

I disagree with your decision to engage sections 36(2)(b)(i) and 36(2)(b)(ii) of the FOIA to withhold the SWOT analysis, apart from:

'Annex A: SWOT analysis of PHSO, end 2020

“You are doing an amazing job. That wasn’t always the case. But you have done a fantastic job in turning it round.”

Minister of State DHSC, Nadine Dorries MP, December 7, 2020.

“I spoke with an absolutely marvellous chap called . I can only describe him as an asset to your organisation. He listened to what I had to say, explained things very clearly and was obviously committed to providing an outstanding service. I cannot praise him highly enough for his compassion at this difficult time.”

Complainant, December 8, 2020'

You have included nothing in your response to convince me that the opinion of the qualified person is substantively reasonable. If you are doing such an 'amazing job' how would releasing the information throw a spanner in the works? Your performance is a matter of great public interest and there is much in the public domain to challenge the claims of Nadine Dorries and the complainant who spoke to a 'marvellous chap'. Trustpilot reveals a very different story:

https://uk.trustpilot.com/review/www.omb...

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

Yours faithfully,

D. Moore

J Roberts left an annotation ()

PACAC 14/12/21:

https://committees.parliament.uk/event/6...

Questions were asked about the MP filter. Mr Behrens expressed the view that it could put some people off bringing complaints to the Ombudsman. The Committee chairman, William Wragg, said that he never expressed a view advocating the removal of the MP filter.

Lloyd Russel-Moyle questioned the Ombudsman on the possibility of an an institutional link being established between MPs and health cases. He also suggested that the link between MPs and parliamentary cases could be made more accessible rather than removed (an expansion of the power of referral to people other than MPs).

J Roberts left an annotation ()

Public Administration and Constitutional Affairs Committee

Oral evidence: Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman Scrutiny 2020-21, HC 721

Tuesday 14 December 2021

https://committees.parliament.uk/oralevi...

D. Moore left an annotation ()

ICO contacted.

J Roberts left an annotation ()

PHSO wants the MP filter removed.

3 February 2022, PHSO response to MoJ Victims' Bill consultation

'The MP filter is a barrier to achieving justice for members of the public when they have been failed by the public services that should be supporting them. We think the low number of cases we currently receive about the Victims’ Code may be linked to the MP filter.

In a well-functioning democracy, there must be accountability when things go wrong in public services. In order for this to happen, the citizen must have free and open access when making a complaint. The Government has made it clear its aspirations to see a public sector
that is more receptive to the citizen. The MP filter is directly contradictory to this policy objective.'

https://www.ombudsman.org.uk/sites/defau...

J Roberts left an annotation ()

PHSO’s written submission to pre-legislative scrutiny of the draft Victims Bill

30 June 2022

'In PHSO’s consultation response to the Victims’ Code consultation on 28 May 2021 and in PHSO’s consultation response to the Victims’ Bill on 3 February 2022, we explained why it is vital to remove the MP filter. The Victims’ Bill provides the opportunity to do this, for complaints brought to PHSO under the Victims’ Code and for complaints brought to us by victims of crime, as currently proposed, but also for all other complaints in our parliamentary jurisdiction.

Issues with the MP filter for both MPs and members of the public include:

It can cause extra work for already stretched MPs offices...
Inconsistency across the four nations of the union...
It is outdated....
It is burdensome and confusing for members of the public...
It causes additional delay...
MPs can choose not to refer a complaint...'

There is a useful bar chart on page 9 showing the number of referrals from MPs in 2020/21 - 71 MPs did not refer a single complaint.

https://www.ombudsman.org.uk/publication...

D. Moore left an annotation ()

Bad news from the ICO: "undue delay". Here is what they said:

"Thank you for your complaint about the above public authority’s handling of your request for information which you made on 01 May 2021.

We would like to apologise for the delay in replying to your complaint of 04 February 2022 about PHSO’s failure to respond to your request for an internal review. We are very sorry that we did not manage to reply within 30 days, as set out in our service standards, and would like to assure you that the delay was not related to the nature or content of your complaint in any way.

From the information provided, we consider that, as of 04 February 2022, there was an undue delay in bringing your complaint to us.

Although section 50 of FOIA provides a right to complain to the Information Commissioner, section 50(2)(b) of FOIA states:

“On receiving an application under this section, the Commissioner shall make a decision unless it appears... that there has been undue delay in making the application”

We expect complaints to be made to us within THREE [bold in the original] months of a public authority either refusing or failing to respond to an information request. We consider more than three months to be an undue delay. As your request for an internal review was made to PHSO on 23 October 2021, we would expect you to have contacted us by 23 January 2022 with any complaints.

We may still consider a complaint, where there has been a delay of more
than three months, if:

the public authority did not tell you that you could complain to us (and you would not have known otherwise), or, there were circumstances, beyond your control, which prevented you from complaining to us sooner.

If either of the above conditions apply, please contact us by Monday 12 September 2022 with an explanation of the circumstances. We will then decide whether to accept your complaint. Please be aware that complaints are more likely to be declined where the delay is significant.

NEXT STEPS (bold in the original)

If none of the above conditions apply, the Commissioner is able to consider your complaint further if you follow the steps below.

Please contact the public authority again and make a new formal request for the information. They will be obliged to respond within 20 working days. This means that the new request is within our three month threshold. If the public authority does not reply to your new request within 20 working days then we are able to intervene.

Should the public authority issue a refusal of your request, or, if you are unsatisfied with their response, you should ask them for an internal review, outlining any arguments you wish to make to the contrary. If the public authority does not reply to your request for an internal review within 40 days, please contact us and we will intervene.

Following an internal review you may also bring a new complaint to us. Supply copies of the request, initial response, request for review and the internal review outcome. A case officer will then be able to reach a judgement based on the available evidence."