Cyngor Gwynedd Council - Handling Of FOI Requests Under The Law.

Browsing through Freedom of Information requests made to Cyngor Gwynedd council makes for some interesting reading...

In 2018/19, an FOI request with regard to the Education department titled 'Additional Learning Needs and Inclusion Service' brought about an interesting interchange which included -
Perhaps you would like to explain why it is that you have told me that 1507 children are currently on the register yet in response to the same question being asked less than a month later by another interested party they claim not only to have received the information before I did but that the information given to them was that there are in fact 2621 children on the ALN register.
The request for an Internal review appears to have been ignored.

More recent requests include - 'Council Expenditure or Payment to Suppliers from January to June 2021' with regard to Health and Social Care. Now this was first asked for in August but was not responded to correctly and the information officer has now stated the information will be made available on the 25th of November. We shall see....

Other requests include - 'FOI Request For Vacant Crofts In Gwynedd Council Area'. The Information officer replied that the council did not hold this information. The requester replied - 'I find it difficult to understand that the council down(sic) not have information on the small holdings or crofts it owns in its own council area. If the council does not know what it owns then who would know?'
The requester then asked for an Internal Review but the account is now suspended so presumably the review will not now be undertaken.

How many more FOI requests are not being treated according to law - and more importantly why ?

WhatDoTheyKnow helps you make a Freedom of Information request. It also publishes all requests online. The link to the website where you can browse all requests made through the website can be found here -
https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/

 

 

Application For Indemnity Refused - Cyngor Gwynedd Council.

With regard to the article, dated 20th October, in which a councillor asked Cyngor Gwynedd council for indemnity under the council's policy. 

The Standards Committee published a decision notice on the 26th October declining the request - 

Having looked very carefully at the application, and considering Gwynedd Council's Indemnity Policy attached as Appendix 1 to the report submitted to the committee, the Chair should write to inform the member that the Standards Committee is not in a position to offer him indemnity in relation to legal representation at a hearing of the Standards Committee.
The case the councillor is defending deals entirely with his role as a Town Council Councillor. Any decision would impact on that role only, and would not have any affect on the councillor's role as a member of Gwynedd Council. 

 https://democracy.gwynedd.llyw.cymru/documents/g4500/Decisions%2026th-Oct-2021%2010.00%20Standards%20Committee.pdf?T=2

Does this relate to the discarded file of various documents ? One of the councillors named has previously made a complaint against a fellow councillor which was upheld. 

That case involved a councillor who wrote in his blog that a local person “intended to retire soon...and stand for election to the council in a seat held by another councillor”.

The Appeals Tribunal, found these allegations to be “factually untrue and unfounded” and the councillor was then suspended from Gwynedd council for three months.

The local person then stood for council and was elected....
So what on earth is going on now....?

'Technical Difficulties...' Cyngor Gwynedd Council.

Two years have passed since Cyngor Gwynedd council agreed to implement the recommendations of an Ombudsman for Wales investigation yet the council remain in non compliance...

The last CEO of the council had told councillors that all recommendations had been met 'bar a nuance' - this was not correct.

The present CEO was meant to have had a meeting with the Ombudsman in which he was to provide the Ombudsman with an update and discuss issues around compliance. Unfortunately.... 'technical difficulties' meant the meeting had to be abandoned. Why the CEO could not update the Ombudsman by telephone or email remains unclear.

It has also been over two years since the Ombudsman for Wales sent two of his officers to North Wales to take a complaint in relation to non compliance with yet another Ombudsman's investigation.

                                 
The officer's explained they could not take this complaint as the Ombudsman's office had already signed off compliance without really understanding what was required of the council. The Ombudsman has apologised for the actions of the officer who signed it off.

The Ombudsman's investigator also refused to take a complaint against the social worker involved in the Stage 2 complaint investigation that senior managers of the council interfered with as the SW may have forgotten what happened....and may deny the charge..!!!

Instead, the Ombudsman wished to focus on the assessment undertaken by Gwynedd council in response to a recommendation from his previous investigation.

Concerns had been raised with the Ombudsman that the council would not treat the assessment fairly and we asked that an independent social worker be assigned. The request was refused and the council then tasked Sharon and Barry with conducting the assessment. It has come to light that Barry was not there for the assessment and one can only wonder why he was involved in the process.

The assessment carried out ended up an exercise in parent blaming...

Questions remain of who was actually in charge of the assessment. The assessor visited the parents to inform the assessment was complete before flying off to holiday in Florida the next day. Yet comments made after this have found their way into the file. Which manager in the SS department was responsible for the handling of this assessment ? A SAR (subject access request) was requested but Gwynedd council's information manager has heavily redacted the information to the extent it is unreadable. Sshh...

Something is very wrong within Gwynedd council...

Cyngor Gwynedd Council - Adjudication Panel Of Wales.

 It was a surprise to many when the CEO of Cyngor Gwynedd council retired earlier this year during the Covid19 pandemic. Now the council are advertising for a Head of Finance...

The council are also looking to employ a solicitor or barrister to head their legal team...

In other news a person has reported finding a discarded file of various documents -  a data breach ?
One relates to a recent 'code of conduct' complaint made to the Ombudsman by one Gwynedd  Council member about another. It appears to show that the Ombudsman has passed the matter on to the Adjudication Panel of Wales - so that will be an interesting report...

Something is very wrong within Gwynedd council...
 

ICO Update On The Holden Report - Betsi Cadwaladr University Health Board.

 ICO Disclosure Log – Response IC-132080-Q6Y0
“What is happening with the Holden Report please?”

Your request has been handled under the Freedom of Information
Act 2000 (the FOIA). As you are probably aware, this legislation provides public access to recorded information held by a public authority unless an appropriate exemption applies.

Our response
We do hold information with the scope of your request. As you may be aware the ICO issued a Decision Notice under the reference FS50882004 in June 2020 in which the Commissioner decided that
Betsi Cadwaladr University Health Board was not entitled, under section 21 or section 41 of the FOIA to withhold the requested

information which was contained within the Holden Report, and required that it be disclosed, with personal data redacted.

The Health Board subsequently raised an appeal against the Commissioner’s decision which is now before the First-Tier Tribunal.

As the matter is now the subject of an appeal the Health Board is not required to disclose the report until the Tribunal issues its decision and depending on whether the Tribunal upholds the appeal
or not.

FOI review procedure

If you are dissatisfied and wish to request a review of our decision
or make a complaint about how your request has been handled you should write to the Information Access Team at the address below or e-mail icoaccessinformation@ico.org.uk.
Your request for internal review should be submitted to us within 40
working days of receipt by you of this response. Any such request
received after this time will only be considered at the discretion of
the Commissioner.
If having exhausted the review process you are not content that your request or review has been dealt with correctly, you have a further right of appeal to this office in our capacity as the statutory complaint handler under the legislation.
To make such an application, please write to our Customer Contact Team at the address given or visit our website if you wish to make a complaint under the FOIA.