The Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) recently 'advised' Cyngor Gwynedd council to release information relating to a subject access request (SAR) from 2020. On the 14th July, 2022, the Information manager emailed in response to the ICO 'advice' - the original information asked for has not been provided...
The ICO has explained that if
the council refuse their advice then the next step would be a judicial
review - costs of such a review start at £25,000. The council's legal
team have access to unlimited public funds to fight the public in such
cases - joe public does not...
The original SAR was delayed in
part due to the council having to purchase specialist data redaction
software... When the information was finally provided it had been so
heavily redacted in places that it was unreadable. A complaint was
raised and a review was undertaken by the Information manager's line
manager, Emyr Edwards, who also informed that the software had destroyed
some data on retrieval. Hope the council got a refund. Mr Edward's
review did not release the information hence the ICO's involvement...
One
such example of heavy redaction is an email thread between the Senior
Safeguarding And Quality Officer and a Cabinet Member discussing a
possible corporate complaint. Concerns had been raised that the Annual
Complaints Handling report presented to the Care Scrutiny Committee was
not accurate. The report that year was authored by the Senior
Safeguarding officer, himself. A meeting was requested so the evidence
could be presented. The Member ignored the request. Both the officer and
Cabinet Member have refused to answer questions from Councillors of the
Scrutiny Committee in the past...
In 2020, a complaint was
raised with the council that the same officer had misled another Care
Scrutiny Committee. The officer had given a statement regarding the
Ombudsman for Wales. The Ombudsman was contacted and denied the words of
the officer...
Correspondence from the former Director of SS
raises more concerns. In it, she admits that she with the aid of the
legal team could not understand the Ombudsman's wording in one
report.The former CEO had claimed the same during his incumbency. The
present Head of Children's SS has stated in 'lessons learnt' a need to 'read and understand' reports....
The
Ombudsman has already raised concerns with the council's lack of
knowledge of procedures and law and dismissed one social worker's
evidence to his investigation as disingenuous...
In other
news, the council's information department has failed to comply with law
regarding the FOI Act. A question involving the number of officers
suspended from work and for how long has been awaiting an internal
review by the Monitoring Officer for over a year.
From a 2018 Wales Online article - 'Welsh councils have paid £9m to staff they have suspended'
Second was Gwynedd, totalling £1,327,117. They said £800,000 of that
referred to "police matters". The longest time a member of staff has
been on paid suspension at the authority is four years – the longest in
Wales...
“The other case involves the suspension of members of staff for the
duration of a statutory investigation by the police and social services
which lasted for approximately three years.
This process concluded with the CPS deciding not to proceed with any
prosecutions. The council is currently carrying out its own subsequent
internal investigation into the matter and as a result the individuals
remain suspended from their posts.”
The full article can be found here -
https://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/wales-news/welsh-councils-paid-9m-staff-14876849
So
the CPS dropped the case - issues with evidence? The council then began
its own internal investigation but since then radio silence... Has this
investigation been completed?
Or are the officer's still suspended from the council - after 8 years?
Something is very wrong within Gwynedd council...
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