South Gloucestershire Council's Lying Policy

Arnold Layne made this Freedom of Information request to South Gloucestershire Council This request has been closed to new correspondence. Contact us if you think it should be reopened.

The request was refused by South Gloucestershire Council.

Dear South Gloucestershire Council,

I have good reason to believe South Gloucestershire Council lie
to members of the public who bring about complaints in regards the
council's bailiff contractor 'Rundles'.

I personally have evidence of a local authority requiring staff
dealing with queries and complaints to be obstructive, lie and
misinform residents about its contracted bailiff firm's
malpractice, and I have reason to believe South Gloucestershire council is no different.

By defending bailiff charges, council staff dealing with complaints
are abetting their contractors to thieve from the public.

Fraudulent gains, for which councils are responsible, could easily
run into millions for bailiff firms.

Aggrieved residents receive dismissive responses as a matter of
course. Issues raised are closed without further investigation,
based merely on the contractor's assurance that charges are set
down in statute and they are governed by National Standards for
Enforcement Agents.

Councils refute allegations of crime, simply on the grounds that
their bailiff firm is contracted to a level of standard and there
are statutory fees. This is clearly no guarantee they're put into
practice or adhered to.

The council's policy to lie in such circumstances makes it no
better than a mafia organisation, and serves to aid its contracted
enforcement firm to defraud £millions from the public.

Q.1. In regards South Gloucestershire Council's bailiff contractor, whose responsibility within the council is it to decide policy requiring staff dealing with queries and complaints to refute allegations of maladministration without first making preliminary investigations into their validity?

Q.2. If it is nobody's responsibility within South Gloucestershire Council to decide policy detailed in Q1, is this decided by central government? i.e., is the council given guidelines?

Q.3. With regards the council's hierarchy, what level (if any)
would an issue involving an allegation of bailiff malpractice need
escalating, before council's policy allowed staff to consider that
a complaint may be investigated, rather than dismissed?

Q.4. With regards the council's hierarchy, what level (if any)
would an issue involving an allegation of bailiff malpractice need
escalating, before council's policy allowed staff to uphold a
complaint?

Yours faithfully,

Arnold Layne

CorporateContactCentre, South Gloucestershire Council

Thank you for your e-mail received at South Gloucestershire Council this afternoon, which has been forwarded to our Freedom of Information department, the contact e-mail for which is:

[email address].

Thank you.

Ruth
Corporate Contact Centre

Customer & Revenues Department

South Gloucestershire Council

Castle Street

Thornbury

South Gloucestershire

BS35 1HF

01454 868009

[South Gloucestershire Council request email]

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Nick Mason, South Gloucestershire Council

Thank you for your request for information under the Freedom of Information Act received on 19th February 2013.

Your request will now be considered in accordance with the Act.

The 20 working day period for your request commenced on 19th February 2013.

In the event that the information you have requested is to be disclosed, it will be sent to you no later than 19th March 2013.

Your reference number is FIDP/002825-13

Regards,

Nick Mason
Admin Co-ordinator
Business Support Services
South Gloucestershire Council

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Louise Stevens, South Gloucestershire Council

Dear Mr Layne,

Thank you for your Freedom of Information request.

In answer to each of your questions:

Q.1. All Compliments, Suggestions & Complaints are allocated through the Council's Corporate Customer Relation team. They record & monitor the number received and follow up on any recommendations.
This team allocate the cases to be investigated and respond in the first instance to the customer to advice of the name of the investigating officer.
I would state that it is the responsibility of the Head of Section to ensure that a full investigation is carried out in all cases.

Q.2. As stated in Q.1.That as the responsibility is the Head of Section's, this question is not applicable.

Q.3. Senior Recovery Officers & the Compliance Officer at Rundles & Co would look at any claim of bailiff malpractice, all would be thoroughly investigated.

Q.4. The outcome of any allegation would depend on its investigation, but either the senior Recovery Officer or the Compliance Officer could uphold a complaint of proven malpractice.

Furthermore all complaints/allegations are recorded by the Customer Relations team, and they report these figures through to Department Heads of Service, as well as following up on any recommendations made as a result of all investigations.

I hope I have answered your questions fully, but if you require any further information please do not hesitate to re-submit your request.

Yours faithfully

Mrs L Stevens
Recovery Manager
South Gloucestershire Council


_________ ________ _________ _________ __________

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Dear South Gloucestershire Council,

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

I am writing to request an internal review of South Gloucestershire Council's handling of my FOI request 'South Gloucestershire Council's Lying Policy'.

Your answer to these questions may be the best way to determine whether or not South Gloucestershire Council has a policy described in my request for information.

A householder having alleged outstanding Council Tax is pursued by South Gloucestershire Council's bailiff contractor 'Rundles' for payment.

The account holder complains to the authority that the bailiff has imposed several spurious fees. These are discovered to be two visit fees, the first being £24.50 and the second £18, where there's no evidence of either visit taking place.

The council tax payer is also aggrieved by the fact that when a visit is actually made the charges in relation to that single visit approaches £200 where a van fee of £150 is specified.

Presented with all this, how would South Gloucestershire Council respond to the complainant?

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

Yours faithfully,

Arnold Layne

CorporateContactCentre, South Gloucestershire Council

Thank you for your e-mail received at South Gloucestershire Council on Friday, which has been forwarded to our Freedom of Information officer.

Corporate Contact Centre
Customer & Revenues Department
South Gloucestershire Council
Castle Street
Thornbury
South Gloucestershire
BS35 1HF
01454 868009
[South Gloucestershire Council request email]

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Nick Mason, South Gloucestershire Council

Good Afternoon Mr Layne,

 

Thank you for your request for information under the Freedom of
Information Act received on 22^nd March 2013.

 

Following the response we sent you on 18^th March 2013, you have requested
a review of your FOI request FIDP/002825-13.

 

Before we can start the internal review process we need to ask you to
clearly set out why you were dissatisfied with our original reply to you.

 

Do you believe that your request for information:

 

a.       Was not dealt with within the appropriate time limit.

b.       That you did not receive all of the information you requested.

c.       That we provided the wrong information or information that was
not at the level of detail requested.

d.       That information has not been included within the scheme, which
should be included.

e.       That the recorded information you've requested does exist and the
authority claims otherwise.

f.         That exemptions have been wrongly applied.

g.       That you did not receive reasons why your request has been
refused.

h.       Or feel that a fee has been wrongly charged.

i.         That we didn't provide "advice or assistance" if you needed it.

 

If you can let me know your dissatisfactions we aim to complete the
internal review of your FOI request as soon as possible. Reviews should be
completed with 20 days from receipt but in exceptional cases it may take
longer than 20 days but no later than 40 days and we will notify you if
this is the case.

 

Regards,

 

Nick Mason

Admin Co-ordinator

Business Support Services

South Gloucestershire Council

_______________________________________________________________
 
South Gloucestershire Council - rated April 2009 under the Comprehensive
Performance Assessment a maximum '4 star' council by the Audit Commission

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Dear Nick Mason,

It is clear to anyone who has needed to engage with South Gloucestershire Council over the issues raised in the request, that it has a policy which requires staff to fob-off members of the public.

This however, doesn't seem to have been reflected in the response.

Is the Council's lying policy being engaged in this FoI request also?

Yours sincerely,

Arnold Layne

Pete North left an annotation ()

Arnold Layne's experiences are not entirely dissimilar to my own. For background to this request, readers may be interested in reading this blog post...

http://southgloucestershirecouncilarecro...