Thank you for contacting the Leeds City Council Information Management &
Governance Requests team. We confirm that we have received your
correspondence. 
 
If you have submitted a Freedom of Information or Environmental
Information Regulation request- we will respond to your request in
accordance with the appropriate legislation within 20 working days. While
you wait, you may wish to check information published by the Council on
the [1]Data Mill North to see if the information you have requested is
already available.
 
If you have submitted an access to information request or other
information rights request- we will respond to your request in accordance
with the GDPR and the Data Protection Act 2018. Please note in order to
process your request, we require confirmation of your identity via a
copy of one of the following forms:

• Driving Licence
• Passport
• Birth Certificate
• Council Tax bill
• Utility bill 

If we require further information from you before we are able to process
your request we will contact you directly to request this.  If you would
like more information on how Leeds City Council process these types of
requests, information is available on our [2]website  

If you are a healthcare or social work professional, or a member of the
police force making a request for disclosure of information for the
purpose of safeguarding or the prevention, investigation, detection or
prosecution of criminal offences – we will respond to your request as soon
as possible. Please note we are currently only able to offer viewings of
records on a Tuesday or a Thursday.

For all other queries – we will look into your request and respond as
appropriate.

For information about what we do with personal data please see our
[3]privacy notice.
 
Yours sincerely
 
Information Management & Governance – Requests Team

[]^

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Need help and advice around the cost of living?
For help and advice on household bills, health, employment, finances, and
more, or to find your local warm space. Visit
[4]www.leeds.gov.uk/costofliving.

══════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════

The information in this email (and any attachment) may be for the intended
recipient only. If you know you are not the intended recipient, please do
not use or disclose the information in any way and please delete this
email (and any attachment) from your system.

The Council does not accept service of legal documents by e-mail.

Legal notice: Leeds City Council contracts on the basis of a formal
letter, contract or order form. An e-mail from Leeds City Council will not
create a contract unless it clearly and expressly states otherwise. For
further information please refer to:
[5]https://www.leeds.gov.uk/councillors-and...

References

Visible links
1. https://datamillnorth.org/
2. http://www.leeds.gov.uk/privacy
3. https://www.leeds.gov.uk/privacy-and-dat...
4. file:///tmp/www.leeds.gov.uk/costofliving
5. https://www.leeds.gov.uk/councillors-and...

Dear Mrs E. Simpson,

Re: Freedom of Information Request M9BQTPUOM

I refer to your request to the council received on 27/03/2023 for the
following:

Please could you provide me with the following information: 1. Has Leeds
City Council applied any single sex exceptions to any of it’s policies or
services as permitted in the Equality Act 2010? 2. Do any of the agencies
commissioned by Leeds City Council that form the Leeds Domestic Violence
Service Consortium (LDVS) apply single sex exceptions as permitted in the
Equality Act 2010? 3. Do agencies that are commissioned by Leeds City
Council to provide services have the autonomy to apply single sex
exceptions (Equality Act 2010), if that is in line with their policies? 4.
If a safeguarding incident occurs within the LDVS consortium, is there an
investigation policy/procedure that should be followed? If so, is that
policy/procedure accessible to the electorate? 5. In September 2022, it
was discovered that a convicted paedophile had resided at a Leeds women
and children’s refuge for 71 days (a service commissioned by Leeds City
Council). Was an investigation into the incident conducted either by Leeds
City Council or LDVS? Where can the results of that investigation and its
recommendations be located by members of the electorate?.

We will respond to your request in accordance with the Freedom of
Information Act 2000, within 20 working days, from the day after your
request was received. We will therefore aim to respond to your request by
24/04/2023.

For reference, Leeds City Council publish a wealth of information which
you can access at: Welcome to LEEDS.GOV.UK - Leeds City Council  and Data
Mill North – Open Data for the North of England .

If your request for information is considered and deemed as a 'business as
usual' request, it will be responded to by the appropriate Service within
the Council.

If you have questions about this request, please contact us at
[Leeds City Council request email].

Yours sincerely,

Jennifer Milner

Information Management and Governance,
Integrated Digital Services

show quoted sections

Dear Mrs E. Simpson,

Re: Freedom of Information Request M9BQTPUOM. 

I refer to your correspondence to the council and your request for the
following:

1. Has Leeds City Council applied any single sex exceptions to any of it’s
policies or services as permitted in the Equality Act 2010?

I am unable to provide a response to your request as we estimate that it
would take us over 18 hours to retrieve and locate the information you
have requested. Therefore your request falls above the “appropriate
limit”. This limit is set by fees regulations at £450 (equally 18 hours)
for public authorities such as ours and is calculated using a rate of £25
per hour which is also prescribed under the same regulations.

As a result under Section 12(1) of the Freedom of Information Act we are
not obliged to provide the information which you have requested. We are
however, still obliged under Section 1(a) of the Act to inform you whether
or not the information in question exists. This information is not
recorded or held in one place and there are multiple policies across
services in the council. To respond to this question we would be required
to check in excess of 150 services in the Council to establish if it has
applied any single sex exemption. We estimate that it would take
approximately an hour for each to respond. This is in excess of 18 hours
and therefore we are unable to supply this information.

By way of advice and assistance, the council would be able to provide a
response to your request if you were able to narrow your request to one
specific service area or policy within the council. 

2. Do any of the agencies commissioned by Leeds City Council that form the
Leeds Domestic Violence Service Consortium (LDVS) apply single sex
exceptions as permitted in the Equality Act 2010?

We do not hold or record this information in the Council and would advise
that you contact the organisations directly.

3. Do agencies that are commissioned by Leeds City Council to provide
services have the autonomy to apply single sex exceptions (Equality Act
2010), if that is in line with their policies?

We require services to be compliant with the Equality Act which would mean
that they could apply single sex exceptions if they judged that this was
legal as part of delivering their services. 

4. If a safeguarding incident occurs within the LDVS consortium, is there
an investigation policy/procedure that should be followed? If so, is that
policy/procedure accessible to the electorate?

If there is a safeguarding incident, a safeguarding referral would be
made. Information on safeguarding is available to members of the public
and information on how to make safeguarding referrals can be found on the
Leeds Safeguarding Adults Board website.

The Leeds Safeguarding Adults Board is a partnership between the three
statutory agencies responsible for safeguarding adults who have or may
have care and support needs – these are the Council, West Yorkshire Police
and the Integrated Commissioning Board in Leeds. There are a range of
other partners involved in the Board and they oversee the arrangements set
out in the Care Act 2014.

Adults and Health are the lead authority for the implementation of the
safeguarding processes set out in the Care Act – Adults and Health are
required to accept alerts if anyone is concerned about the safety of
individuals who have, or may have care and support needs, to undertake an
enquiry and to support the individual to manage risk and to achieve their
outcomes.

There is a section in service specifications of this partnership regarding
safeguarding requirements.

5a. In September 2022, it was discovered that a convicted paedophile had
resided at a Leeds women and children’s refuge for 71 days (a service
commissioned by Leeds City Council). Was an investigation into the
incident conducted either by Leeds City Council or LDVS?

An investigation was conducted by LDVS and discussed with commissioners in
Leeds City Council 

5b. Where can the results of that investigation and its recommendations be
located by members of the electorate?

The results of this investigation are not publicly available. The council
consider the detail of this investigation to be exempt under section 40(2)
of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 (the FOIA) together with the
condition in section 40(3)(a)(i). This provides an absolute exemption if
disclosure of the personal data would breach any of the data protection
principles.

It is our view that the results of the investigation would be considered
primarily the personal data of those who the concerns relate to, and other
residents in this setting, and disclosure of their personal data would
contravene the first data protection principle that personal data shall be
processed fairly. This is on the basis that further details about the
individual, other residents, and any concerns raised would be considered
highly confidential information by all those involved. 

Further details of this incident which would be found as part of the
results of this investigation, could easily identify those involved would
be considered most private and any disclosure of this information would be
extremely intrusive. Furthermore, we consider it would be the reasonable
expectation of the data subjects that this information would not be
disclosed. In addition, if residents thought that potentially identifying
details about them may be disclosed in response to an FOI request, it
could jeopardise their security in the setting and thus further impact the
safeguarding of vulnerable individuals. 

In balancing this expectation, the level of intrusion, and the impact this
may have for the data subjects and others, against any right of access to
this information under FOI, the balance comes down in favour of protecting
the personal data of the individuals. Therefore, it is the Council’s view
that to disclose the results of this investigation would be a breach of
the first principle of the Data Protection Act and it is appropriate to
exempt it in accordance with section 40 of FOIA. 

However, we can confirm that the investigation looked in detail at the
referral process for the setting, and at whether anyone was put at risk or
harmed. The investigation confirmed that all relevant checks were made and
no-one was put at risk or harmed.

5c. If the investigation is still ongoing, what are the time scales for
completion and the publication date of any recommendations?

The investigation has been completed. A list of recommendations is not
held.

I trust that this response is satisfactory. If however you are
dissatisfied with this response you have a right to appeal to an
independent officer within the council. They will re-examine your request
and assess whether we have adhered to the requirements of the act. Should
you wish to follow this course of action please address your concerns in
writing to the above address.

You also have a right under Section 50 of the Freedom of Information Act
to ask the Information Commissioner to decide whether we have met with our
obligations under the act. The Commissioner has however made it clear that
they expect all applicants to exhaust internal appeals procedures prior to
making such an application. Should you wish to contact the Commissioner’s
office then you can contact the Commissioner via their website at
www.ico.org.uk

I trust that this is self-explanatory. If you have any queries please
contact me via email at [email address]. 

Yours sincerely, 

Olivia Knight

Principal Information Governance Officer 

show quoted sections

Thank you for contacting the Leeds City Council Information Management &
Governance Requests team. We confirm that we have received your
correspondence. 
 
If you have submitted a Freedom of Information or Environmental
Information Regulation request- we will respond to your request in
accordance with the appropriate legislation within 20 working days. While
you wait, you may wish to check information published by the Council on
the [1]Data Mill North to see if the information you have requested is
already available.
 
If you have submitted an access to information request or other
information rights request- we will respond to your request in accordance
with the GDPR and the Data Protection Act 2018. Please note in order to
process your request, we require confirmation of your identity via a
copy of one of the following forms:

• Driving Licence
• Passport
• Birth Certificate
• Council Tax bill
• Utility bill 

If we require further information from you before we are able to process
your request we will contact you directly to request this.  If you would
like more information on how Leeds City Council process these types of
requests, information is available on our [2]website  

If you are a healthcare or social work professional, or a member of the
police force making a request for disclosure of information for the
purpose of safeguarding or the prevention, investigation, detection or
prosecution of criminal offences – we will respond to your request as soon
as possible. Please note we are currently only able to offer viewings of
records on a Tuesday or a Thursday.

For all other queries – we will look into your request and respond as
appropriate.

For information about what we do with personal data please see our
[3]privacy notice.
 
Yours sincerely
 
Information Management & Governance – Requests Team

[]^

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SEND Next Choices 2023 - Getting ready for adult life - Thursday 29 June
at Leeds First Direct Arena
A great event for young people with SEND (Special Educational Needs and
Disabilities) and their parents and carers. Find out about jobs, training,
apprenticeships, college courses, voluntary work, leisure activities,
finances, benefits and more. Book your free ticket at:
[4]https://bit.ly/SEND2023.

══════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════

The information in this email (and any attachment) may be for the intended
recipient only. If you know you are not the intended recipient, please do
not use or disclose the information in any way and please delete this
email (and any attachment) from your system.

The Council does not accept service of legal documents by e-mail.

Legal notice: Leeds City Council contracts on the basis of a formal
letter, contract or order form. An e-mail from Leeds City Council will not
create a contract unless it clearly and expressly states otherwise. For
further information please refer to:
[5]https://www.leeds.gov.uk/councillors-and...

References

Visible links
1. https://datamillnorth.org/
2. http://www.leeds.gov.uk/privacy
3. https://www.leeds.gov.uk/privacy-and-dat...
4. https://bit.ly/SEND2023
5. https://www.leeds.gov.uk/councillors-and...

Dear Mrs E. Simpson,

Thank you for your email.

I will pass your request for clarification/ follow up onto the relevant service area and come back to you shortly.

Yours sincerely,

Olivia Knight
Principal Information Governance Officer
Information Management & Governance
Leeds City Council

Please note I do not work Wednesdays

show quoted sections

Dear Mrs E. Simpson,

The service have confirmed in response to your follow up question that no
recommendations were made and no policies were changed.

Yours sincerely,

Olivia Knight

Principal Information Governance Officer

Information Management & Governance

Leeds City Council

Please note I do not work Wednesdays

show quoted sections