Dear Jon Baylis

Thank you for your request which has been assigned reference FOI/2929

Freedom of Information request - West Sussex County Council - Staff
disciplined due to absence

If you have submitted a request under the Freedom of Information Act
(FOIA) or the Environmental Information Regulations (EIR), we aim to
respond within the statutory timescale of 20 working days, i.e. by or on
05/11/2021. However please be aware that many of our services continue to
experience pressures due to the Covid-19 pandemic so your response may be
delayed beyond that timescale.

Should you have any further enquiries concerning this request, please
reply to this email leaving the subject line unchanged.

Yours sincerely,
West Sussex County Council

Did you make your request via our online form at
[1]https://foi.infreemation.co.uk/westsusse... not, why not use it
in future for a simple and convenient way to make FOI requests.

References

Visible links
1. https://foi.infreemation.co.uk/westsusse...

Dear Jon Baylis

Thank you for your request which has been assigned reference FOI/3115

Internal review of Freedom of Information request - West Sussex County
Council - Staff disciplined due to absence

If you have submitted a request under the Freedom of Information Act
(FOIA) or the Environmental Information Regulations (EIR), we aim to
respond within the statutory timescale of 20 working days, i.e. by or on
21/12/2021. However please be aware that many of our services continue to
experience pressures due to the Covid-19 pandemic so your response may be
delayed beyond that timescale.

Should you have any further enquiries concerning this request, please
reply to this email leaving the subject line unchanged.

Yours sincerely,
West Sussex County Council

Did you make your request via our online form at
[1]https://foi.infreemation.co.uk/westsusse... not, why not use it
in future for a simple and convenient way to make FOI requests.

References

Visible links
1. https://foi.infreemation.co.uk/westsusse...

Dear Mr Baylis 

Thank you for your email. 

I have checked your original request FOI 2929 and can see although the
response was issued on 01/11/2021, it does not show on your WhatDoTheyKnow
page. I will closed this new request down and reissue the response from
FOI2929. 

Kind Regards 

Helen Atkinson 

Customer Relations Officer 

Dear ***** *****,

Our Ref: FOI/2929

On 11/10/2021 you made the following request for information, which has
been dealt with in accordance with the provisions of the Freedom of
Information Act 2000.

FOI Re: West Sussex County Council - Staff disciplined due to absence

We have now completed a search for the information which you requested and
confirm that this Authority does not hold data relevant to your request.

Re your Question: I would like to know the number of staff who have
formally or informally disciplined due to sickness absence in the period
September 2019 to September 2021.

WSCC does not formally or informally discipline staff due to sickness
absence. Sickness absence is managed in accordance with our Sickness
Absence Policy

If you have any queries about any of this information please contact me
 by responding to this email. Please do not amend the Subject line.

If you are unhappy with the way your request has been handled, you may
wish to ask for a review of our decision  by responding to this email.
Please do not amend the Subject line.

If you are not content with the outcome of the internal review, you may
apply directly to the Information Commissioner for a decision. Generally,
the ICO cannot make a decision unless you have exhausted our internal
review procedure. The Information Commissioner can be contacted at:

[1]www.ico.org.uk; or

The Information Commissioner's Office,
Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow, Cheshire SK9 5AF.

Please remember to quote the reference number above in any future
communications.

Yours sincerely,

BSD FOI Liaison Officers

References

Visible links
1. http://www.ico.org.uk/

Dear Jon Baylis

We acknowledge receipt of your email to West Sussex County Council

We will pass your email on to the team handling your case FOI/2929.

If your email requires a response it will be issued within twenty working
days. If that is not possible then we will contact you again.

Yours sincerely,

FOI Team

Dear Mr Baylis

Thank you for your email, please could you confirm that your email is a
new Freedom Of Information request? 

Kind Regards 

Helen Atkinson 

Customer Relations Officer 

Dear Jon Baylis

We acknowledge receipt of your email to West Sussex County Council

We will pass your email on to the team handling your case FOI/2929.

If your email requires a response it will be issued within twenty working
days. If that is not possible then we will contact you again.

Yours sincerely,

FOI Team

Good morning, and thank you for your clarification.

I will pass this to the Team for response.

Kind regards,

Helen Thompson

Customer Relations Officer.

Dear Jon Baylis,

Our Ref: FOI/2929

On 11/10/2021 you made the following request for information, which has
been dealt with in accordance with the provisions of the Freedom of
Information Act 2000.

FOI Re: West Sussex County Council - Staff disciplined due to absence

Following the response sent to you on 01/11/2021 and re-sent to you on
24/11/2021, subsequently on 29/12/2021 you requested a copy of
the Sickness Absence Policy.

Please find a copy of the policy attached.

The information supplied to you continues to be protected by the
Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. You are free to use it for your
own purposes, including any non-commercial research you are doing and for
the purposes of news reporting. Any other reuse, for example commercial
publication, would require the permission of the copyright holder. Most
documents supplied by us will be copyright of West Sussex County Council.

Information you receive which is not subject to WSCC continues to be
protected by the copyright of the person, or organisation, from which the
information originated. You must ensure that you gain their permission
before reproducing any third party (non WSCC) information.

If you have any queries about any of this information please contact me by
responding to this email. Please do not amend the Subject line.

If you are unhappy with the way your request has been handled, you may
wish to ask for a review of our decision by responding to this email.
Please do not amend the Subject line.

If you are not content with the outcome of the internal review, you may
apply directly to the Information Commissioner for a decision. Generally,
the ICO cannot make a decision unless you have exhausted our internal
review procedure. The Information Commissioner can be contacted at:

[1]www.ico.org.uk; or

The Information Commissioner's Office,
Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow, Cheshire SK9 5AF.

Please remember to quote the reference number above in any future
communications.

Yours sincerely,

BSD Information Liaison Officers

References

Visible links
1. http://www.ico.org.uk/

Dear Jon Baylis

Thank you for your request which has been assigned reference FOI/3761

Internal review of Freedom of Information request - West Sussex County
Council - Staff disciplined due to absence

If you have submitted a request under the Freedom of Information Act
(FOIA) or the Environmental Information Regulations (EIR), we aim to
respond within the statutory timescale of 20 working days, i.e. by or on
06/06/2022. However please be aware that many of our services continue to
experience pressures due to the Covid-19 pandemic so your response may be
delayed beyond that timescale.

Should you have any further enquiries concerning this request, please
reply to this email leaving the subject line unchanged.

Yours sincerely,
West Sussex County Council

Did you make your request via our online form at
[1]https://foi.infreemation.co.uk/westsusse... not, why not use it
in future for a simple and convenient way to make FOI requests.

References

Visible links
1. https://foi.infreemation.co.uk/westsusse...

Dear Jon Baylis

Our ref: FOI/3761

Thank you for your request for a review of the council's response to your
recent request for information.

The review will now be initiated. The timescale for the review is twenty
working days.

Yours sincerely,

Helen Thompson

Customer Relations Officer

Dear Jon Baylis

Our ref: FOI/3761 and FOI 2929

As you requested I have reviewed the council's response to your request
for information. My findings are as follows:

On 10th October 2021 the council received your request:

I would like to know the number of staff who have formally or informally
disciplined due to sickness absence in the period September 2019 to
September 2021.

On 1st November 2021 the council sent the response for the first time,
confirming that it did not hold data relevant to your request and
explaining that:

WSCC does not formally or informally discipline staff due to sickness
absence. Sickness absence is managed in accordance with our Sickness
Absence Policy

On 23rd November you contacted the council saying that we had failed to
respond to your request in the allotted time. On 24th November we
responded explaining that although the response had been sent on 1st
November we could see that it did not show on your What Do They Know page
and that we would resend it, which we did.

On this occasion the response did appear on your What Do They Know page
and it is still there, dated 24th November 2021.

It is evident that you read the response because on 29th December 2021 you
responded asking for a copy of the Sickness Absence Policy.

A copy of the Sickness Absence Policy was sent on 11th January 2022 and
appears on your What Do They Know page.

On 6th May 2022 you asked for a review of your request, saying:

You have ignored my FOI request and instead supplied me with a copy of
your Sickness Absence Policy.

It is my conclusion that the initial response from the council was
reasonable and proportionate and answered the question you asked. The
council did not ignore your request. The Sickness Absence Policy was not
sent in response to your initial request, it was sent in response to a
direct request from you, which followed the response initially given to
you.

If you remain dissatisfied, you have the right to appeal to the
Information Commissioner as explained in the initial response.

Yours sincerely,

Yours sincerely,

Dave Loveman