Was the 5 Term Consultation Rigged? (Updated 9/1/12)

Nottingham NUT has had a number of concerns about the way the public consultation on the 5 term year was carried out by Nottingham City Council.  We already knew that the information provided with the survey was very biased and the timing was calculated to lower responses from school based employees.

We had also heard unsubstantiated rumours that Nottingham City employees had been sent out into Nottingham to canvas responses from the public during the summer.  Obviously the way in which this was done might be critical to the final balanced outcome of the consultation exercise.

To try and find out more, we lodged a freedom of information request on 25th November to see how many parent responses had been collected in different ways.  This is what was asked:

Of those responses to the consultation provided by parents/carers

how many were:

• Made on-line?
• Received by post?
• Handed in at formal consultation meetings?
• Collected as a result of proactive contact by City Council

employees with parents? (e.g. approaching parents in public

places.)

• Collected in other ways? (Please specify the other methods)

The City Council did not respond within the statutory period but eventually a response was received on 5th January.  The City Council has written to say it is unable to provide this information as follows.

“…responses were not analysed or recorded in this way, and once paper information had been converted into electronic form it was destroyed, therefore in accordance with section 1 of this act this information cannot be provided as it is not held by this authority.”

This raises a number of issues:

• Why was the paper verification of responses destroyed so quickly? (Surely such evidence should be kept for at least the duration of the official consultation with the trade unions which is still ongoing.)
• If authorities are free to destroy information of this kind it is an easy way of circumventing the Freedom of Information legislation.
• Without validating paperwork, how can we be sure the consultation exercise was genuine?
• Why haven’t the City Council at least advised us about the different ways in which information was collected?  Have they something to hide?

We have followed up on the Freedom of Information request to ask for further information.

Formal consultation with the trade unions is due to start soon.  We will provide future updates when we have more news.

If you haven’t already signed the joint trade union petition please do so before 12th January.  You can find it here