27 October 2014
Becky Saunder
Via email:
Our ref: 14/125/HJP
(Please quote our reference when contacting us)
Dear Ms Saunder
Request for information – Bristol City Council, LGO Decision 13 002 067
I refer to your email of 25 October in which you ask for the legislation the LGO referred to in the above decision on a complaint against Bristol City Council.
As I have explained in responses to previous requests you have made, I cannot provide information beyond what is disclosed in the published decision statement.
The information you have requested forms part of the contents of a complaint file. Although the public do have rights to see information held by public bodies under the Freedom of Information Act, this Act (section 44(1)(a)) does not override any restriction on the release of information covered by an earlier law.
Such a restriction applies to the Ombudsman’s complaint files. Under the Local Government Act 1974 (section 32(2)), the Ombudsman is not permitted to disclose any information obtained in the course of, or for the purposes of, the investigation of a complaint, unless he or she considers it is necessary for the purposes of the investigation (or for other very limited reasons mostly related to legal proceedings). As the information requested is not published as part of the statement, and as releasing this information to you is not necessary for the purposes of the investigation, I am not able to comply with your request.
You have the right to appeal against this decision and I enclose a copy of our internal complaints procedure. You can also ask the Information Commissioner to ensure that we have responded
/…
properly to you. You do, however, need to go through our internal complaints process first. You will be able to obtain further details of the Information Commissioner’s role from the website on www.ico.org.uk.
Yours sincerely
H J Pook
Hilary Pook
Information and Records Manager
Enc: complaint leaflet