Bullying in Lancaster City Council

The request was successful.

Dear Lancaster City Council,

This request is being made to make the public at large and people in each authority aware of which councils are the worst offenders or the better examples when it comes to bullying in the workplace. All councils have very similar anti-bullying / dignity at work policies, but there seems to be a difference in the level of bullying. This is intended to statistically show those differences.

Please reply to the first two questions first as they are the most important:

a) Please inform me of the cost of dealing with this request.

1) How many official complaints of harassment and bullying at work did you receive between the 1st April 2009 and the 31st December 2015?

2) How many of these complaints were upheld in favour of the
complainant?

Please reply to these questions if the £450 limit is not exceeded or in order of the questions up to the limit should the limit be surpassed somewhere within these questions:

3) How many of those which were not upheld in favour of the
complainant went on to Appeal?

4) How many of those that went to Appeal were found to favour the
complainant?

5) How many complaints went on to an Employment Tribunal?

6) How many of these were found to uphold the complaint?

7) Out of how many of those allegations (the number given to question 1) did the complainant of
bullying claim that the bullies were telling lies?

8) How many staff does your authority have and what is the current population within your authority's area?

Yours faithfully

Mr Lewis

yabootoyou

info, Lancaster City Council

Dear Mr. Lewis

I write to confirm receipt of your request for information, which was received on 16/06/2016 and is now being processed under the Freedom of Information Act 2000. Your request has been given the unique reference number as stated in the subject header above and you should quote this reference number in all correspondence. You should receive the information requested within 20 working days; this means that you can expect to receive the requested information by 14/07/2016. If we are unable to deal with your request within that time limit or the Council does not hold the information or there is a reason for it to be withheld, we will promptly advise you in writing.

If you have any queries or concerns then please do not hesitate to contact me. Please remember to quote the reference number above in any future communications.

Kind regards,

Dawn

Dawn Allen
Assistant Auditor
Lancaster City Council

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Thank you.

info, Lancaster City Council

Dear Mr Lewis

 

Freedom of Information Request – Ref: FOI 0344

 

Thank you for your emailed request received on 16^th June 2016 in which
you asked for the following information from the City Council:

 

a) Please inform me of the cost of dealing with this request.

1) How many official complaints of harassment and bullying at work did you
receive between the 1st April 2009 and the 31st December 2015?

2) How many of these complaints were upheld in favour of the  complainant?

3) How many of those which were not upheld in favour of the  complainant
went on to Appeal?

4) How many of those that went to Appeal were found to favour the 
complainant?

5) How many complaints went on to an Employment Tribunal?

6) How many of these were found to uphold the complaint?

7) Out of how many of those allegations (the number given to question 1)
did the complainant of  bullying claim that the bullies were telling lies?

8) How many staff does your authority have and what is the current
population within your authority's area?

 

Your request has been handled under the Freedom of Information Act 2000
(FOIA).

 

Response

 

With respect to your first question, we do not keep track of the actual
cost to the authority of dealing with FOIA requests. If you are requesting
the cost as it would be calculated under the terms of The Freedom of
Information and Data Protection (Appropriate Limit and Fees) Regulations
2004 (which allows staff time to be charged at £25 per hour), then as this
request took 2 hours off staff time it could be said to have cost £50.

 

In the period specified, there were two complaints of bullying. One of
these was settled at tribunal, and the allegations of bullying only formed
a part of the tribunal. The other was dropped before it could be taken
further due to the dismissal of the alleged bully.

 

The authority currently has 763 employees. Population estimates by local
authority area can be found through the Office for National Statistics.
[1]Here is link to the relevant dataset.

 

 

If this response is unsatisfactory to you, please contact this office. For
details of how to appeal a decision we have made, see below.

 

 

How to Appeal

 

Internal Review

If you are not satisfied with this response, you have the right to an
internal review.  The handling of your request will be looked at by
someone who was not responsible for the original case, and they will make
a decision as to whether we answered your request correctly.

 

If you would like to request a review, please write or send an email to
the Council, within two months of the date of this email, at the following
address:

 

Internal Audit & Assurance Manager (Resources)

Lancaster City Council

Town Hall

Dalton Square

Lancaster

LA1 1PJ

 

Email:  [2][Lancaster City Council request email]

 

Information Commissioner’s Office

 

If you remain dissatisfied after an internal review decision, you have the
right to apply to the Information Commissioner’s Office.  The Commissioner
is an independent regulator who has the power to direct us to respond to
your request differently if he considers that we have handled it
incorrectly.

 

You can contact the Information Commissioner’s Office at the following
address:

 

Information Commissioner’s Office

Wycliffe House

Water Lane

Wilmslow

Cheshire

SK9 5AF

 

Tel: 0303 123 1113 (local rate) or 01625 545 745 if you prefer to use a
national rate number

Website:  [3]https://ico.org.uk/global/contact-us/

 

 

Re-use of Public-Sector Information

 

Some of the information that we provide in response to FOIA requests will
be subject to copyright protection. In most cases the copyright will be
owned by Lancaster City Council. The copyright in other information may be
owned by another person or organisation, as indicated on the information
itself.

 

You are free to use any information supplied for your own non-commercial
research or private study purposes. The information may also be used for
any other purpose allowed by a limitation or exception in copyright law,
such as news reporting. However, any other type of re-use, for example by
publishing the information in analogue or digital form, including on the
internet, will require the permission of the copyright owner.

 

For information where the copyright is owned by Lancaster City Council,
please contact this office if you would like to request permission.

 

For information where the copyright is owned by another person or
organisation you must apply to the copyright owner to obtain their
permission.

 

 

Yours sincerely

 

 

Clay Garland

Information Governance Assistant

Lancaster City Council

Town Hall, Dalton Square, LA1 1PJ

 

 

 

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Dear info,

Thank you for the reply. It would be helpful if you could put a figure against each question number - I wouldn't want to misinterpret what you have said.

Yours sincerely,

Yabootoyou

Garland, Clay, Lancaster City Council

Dear Mr. Lewis,

Here is the clarified response to your request:

1. 2
2. 0
3. 0
4. 0
5. 1
6. 0
7. 0

Yours sincerely,

Clay Garland
Information Governance Assistant
Lancaster City Council
Town Hall, Dalton Square, LA1 1PJ

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