Social Workers, CAFCASS and professionals acting dishonest in an attempt to influence a court case. Is this a criminal offence?

S. Prichard made this Freedom of Information request to Kent Police This request has been closed to new correspondence. Contact us if you think it should be reopened.

The request was successful.

Dear Kent Police,

We have interviewed numerous parents that have raised similar issues against social services and the family courts. The common theme of concern raised is fraud and dishonesty. This subject has been in the media throughout the UK.

We would like to know the following.

1. Within civil family court, is it a criminal offence for any professional to:-
a) Tamper with records in an attempt influence the outcome of a family court case (private or public law)
b) Falsify, tamper, misled or alter medical or NHS documents in an attempt to influence the outcome of a family court case (private or family law)
c) Falsify, tamper, misled or alter other professionals documents in an attempt to influence the outcome of a family court case (private or family law)
d) Falsify, tamper, misled or alter, or conceal concerns of child abuse in an attempt to influence the outcome of a family court case (private or family law)
e) To intimidate professionals not to whistle blow in an attempt to influence the outcome of a family court case (private or family law)
f) To intimidate parents (I.e. stop them from reporting dishonestly to police, or their MP)
g) To entrap parents (i.e. social workers tell a parent to do something, then use it against them)
h) To knowingly place a child at significant risk of harm, for example place a child with a known pedophile (and conceal historic evidence / allegations from courts)
i) For professional(s) to knowingly conceal or cover for the dishonest actions of other professionals.
j) For a judge to knowingly ignore evidence that a professional has acted dishonest.

For the purpose of this request please assume that the records or statements (verbal and / or written) will or may be used by professionals within the family courts.

2. If the above is a criminal offence, which offence has been committed?

3. If the above is not a criminal offence, what can parents do to seek justice?

4. How many parents have reported dishonest professionals or local authorities to the police that have acted in a similar manor to what we have listed in Q1 (please go back 3 years)

5. How many investigations have been launched against a local authority, CAFCASS and any persons acting in a professional capacity within the family courts (please go back 3 years)

6. Out of these investigations how many have led to prosecutions. (please go back 3 years and list successful / unsuccessful prosecutions)

Yours faithfully,

S. Prichard

Freedom of Information Kent, Kent Police

2 Attachments

Dear S Prichard,

 

FREEDOM OF INFORMATION REQUEST 15/03/360

 

I acknowledge receipt of your request received by Kent Police on the 28
March 2015. 

 

At present questions 1,2 and 3 are not considered valid requests under the
Freedom of Information Act 2000. This is because they do not ask for
recorded information, rather they seek comment. Where an individual has a
query concerning the law then it is for that individual to conduct their
own research or seek their own legal advice. There is a vast amount of
legislation available online via: [1]http://www.legislation.gov.uk/

 

In addition, guidance on making requests under the Freedom of Information
Act 2000 is available via the following link:

[2]https://ico.org.uk/for-the-public/offici...

 

As well as this, questions 4, 5 and 6 are not specific enough for us to be
able to progress under the FOIA at present. Please be aware that Kent
Police records all allegations of crime however you would need to be
specific as to which offence/s you are interested in in order that we can
retrieve relevant information from our systems. In addition allegations
are recorded against individuals rather than organisations and there is no
way of automatically reporting whether a person who reported a crime is a
parent. Such detail would only likely be retrieved by reading the specific
detail of the case. Please be mindful that the Freedom of Information Act
2000 has a cost limit of 18 hours to retrieve information. The manual
review of individual cases risks exceeding the cost limit, in which case
an exemption at Section 12 would then be applicable.

 

I will place your request on hold whilst you consider how you might refine
your request.

 

In the meantime I enclose a sheet, which summarises your rights. Should
you have any further inquiries concerning this matter, please do not
hesitate to contact me.

 

Yours sincerely,

 

Charlotte Woolsey

Freedom of Information Team

Legal Services Department

Kent Police

 

This email and any other accompanying document(s) contain information from
Kent Police and/or Essex Police, which is confidential or privileged. The
information is intended to be for the exclusive use of the individual(s)
or bodies to whom it is addressed. The content, including any subsequent
replies, could be disclosable if relating to a criminal investigation or
civil proceedings. If you are not the intended recipient, be aware that
any disclosure, copying, distribution or other use of the contents of this
information is prohibited. If you have received this email in error,
please notify us immediately by contacting the sender or telephoning Kent
Police on 01622 690690 or Essex Police on 01245 491491, as appropriate.

References

Visible links
1. http://www.legislation.gov.uk/
2. https://ico.org.uk/for-the-public/offici...

Dear Freedom of Information Kent,

Thank you for your email - i refer to specificly in Q4-6 how many times has parents reported a professional misleading the courts - i.e tampering with evidence as set out in Q1

Yours sincerely,

S. Prichard

Freedom of Information Kent, Kent Police

1 Attachment

Dear S Prichard,

 

Unfortunately we are still unable to progress questions 4-6 since it is
not possible to automatically retrieve such detail from Kent Police
systems.

 

In order to retrieve such detail we would need to manually review every
report made to Kent Police in order to determine whether the allegation
related to a parent reporting any one of the allegations you have listed
at points 1(a) to 1(j). This would vastly exceed the FOI cost limit which
is 18 hours of work and as such your request (refined to be question 4, 5
and 6)  currently engages an exemption at Section 12(2) FOIA.

 

If there is a specific offence that you are interested in then we can
automatically report on notifiable offences (as determined by the Home
Office). A list of notifiable offences as at 2014/15 can be viewed via the
following link:

[1]https://www.google.co.uk/url?sa=t&rc...

 

Kind regards,

 

Charlotte Woolsey

Freedom of Information Team

Kent Police

This email and any other accompanying document(s) contain information from
Kent Police and/or Essex Police, which is confidential or privileged. The
information is intended to be for the exclusive use of the individual(s)
or bodies to whom it is addressed. The content, including any subsequent
replies, could be disclosable if relating to a criminal investigation or
civil proceedings. If you are not the intended recipient, be aware that
any disclosure, copying, distribution or other use of the contents of this
information is prohibited. If you have received this email in error,
please notify us immediately by contacting the sender or telephoning Kent
Police on 01622 690690 or Essex Police on 01245 491491, as appropriate.

References

Visible links
1. https://www.google.co.uk/url?sa=t&rc...

Dear Freedom of Information Kent,

We are assuming that Q1 would be classed as perverting the course of natural justice, misfeasance in public office misconduct in public office, and assume that Kent Police would record it as this, therefore, to simplify our request, please list crimes reported against an authority on any person acting within it in a professional compatibility using search terms that you may use i.e perverting the course of justice.

Yours sincerely,

S. Prichard

Freedom of Information Kent, Kent Police

2 Attachments

Dear S Prichard,

 

With reference to the Freedom of Information request that we received from
you on 28 March 2015, please find attached the response letter.

 

Should you have any queries relating to this then please do not hesitate
to contact us.

 

Yours sincerely,

 

Freedom of Information Team

Legal Services Department

Kent Police

 

This email and any other accompanying document(s) contain information from
Kent Police and/or Essex Police, which is confidential or privileged. The
information is intended to be for the exclusive use of the individual(s)
or bodies to whom it is addressed. The content, including any subsequent
replies, could be disclosable if relating to a criminal investigation or
civil proceedings. If you are not the intended recipient, be aware that
any disclosure, copying, distribution or other use of the contents of this
information is prohibited. If you have received this email in error,
please notify us immediately by contacting the sender or telephoning Kent
Police on 01622 690690 or Essex Police on 01245 491491, as appropriate.

Dear Freedom of Information Kent,

Thank you for this request 427 is quite a high number wow....

Yours sincerely,

S. Prichard

Sandra Jackson left an annotation ()

Kent ......Why am I not surprised ?? .......Oh yes, it could be that all of the Agencies involved are in collusion with each other and protect each others backs enabling all concerned to carry on acting unfairly, inappropriately and illegally in some cases - and I bet of those reports made, none have gone any further - that would be an interesting question!

Hollie left an annotation ()

What about naming individuals as in social workers etc in your request to see if any reports have been made if that's possible to do? As they will be recorded by names and would have to have been investigates or given a crime /incident referance number by the police at the point of initial contact.
IT would also be interesting to see how the criminal offences in the original question are recorded and under what category it's recorded under to simplify the searches under the FOI that is being asked