JACQUE COURTNAGE, DERBY COUNTY COUNCIL, THE INFORMATION COMMISSIONER AND LOCAL GOVERNMENT OMBUDSMAN

Motion Text

That this House notes that on 17 March 2011, Jacque Courtnage warned Derbyshire County Council about a number of issues relating to the safety of children in its care and actions by the employees of the county council; further notes that this letter was ignored; further notes that the Local Government Ombudsman (LGO) was then asked to intervene; further notes that the LGO found that the local authority should perform a stage two investigation, but that the local authority did not; further notes that the LGO has no proposals as to how it will ensure that Derbyshire County Council follows its instructions - more than one year later; further notes that a similar failure has occurred with a subject access request being sent on 4 January 2011 and being ignored; further notes that, even though on 8 April 2011 the Information Commissioner found against the Council, the data requested has not been provided and the Council continues to ignore the Information Commissioner; believes that there is no sense having watchdogs that Derbyshire County Council can ignore with impunity; and calls for the Government to put forward proposals to give these watchdogs some teeth.