Complaints of inappropriate behaviour (2017)
Request
- How many complaints of inappropriate behaviour (harassment, sexual harassment, bullying, assault, etc.) have been made to the House of Commons in the last 5 years?
- Please provide a breakdown of the nature or category of the alleged behaviour or offence
- Please provide details of the complainant and/or the alleged perpetrator
- Please provide details of all actions taken as a result of these complaints
Response
In the first instance, it may help you to know that there are three main routes to complain about inappropriate behaviour in the House of Commons. These routes are:
- The Respect Policy – This is for staff of the House of Commons complaining about the behaviour of Members or their staff
- The Valuing Others Policy – For staff to complain about the inappropriate behaviour of other House staff
- The police – For any individual to make a complaint about criminal behaviour by another person
In addition, it may help you to know that Members’ staff are employed by the Members themselves and, as with any employer/employee situation, Members may be required to deal with complaints from their staff from time to time. This information will be held by Members themselves and not by the House of Commons. However, Members may choose to consult the House of Commons Members’ HR Advice Service, which provides confidential advice to Members of Parliament in their role as employers, including how to deal with complaints about inappropriate behaviour. As a result, Members’ HR may hold small amounts of information related to these grievances.
Under the Respect Policy:
We hold records of the total number of complaints made under this policy, but this is not split into categories based on the nature of the complaint. We also hold records of the complainants and alleged perpetrators, but this information is personal data and therefore exempted from release in accordance with section 40 of the Freedom of Information Act 2000.
The House does not take disciplinary action against Members’ staff or Members, as this is a matter for the Member who employs the staff or their political party respectively. Any allegations of a breach of the rules of conduct, found in the House of Commons’ Code of Conduct for Members may be referred to the Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards who may launch an investigation into the matter. Further details of the work of the Commissioner may be found on the parliamentary website.
Under the Valuing Others Policy:
We hold records of the total number of complaints made under this policy, but neither the complaints made nor the action taken are split into categories based on the nature of the complaint.
We also hold records of any complainants and alleged perpetrators, but this information is personal data and therefore exempted from release in accordance with section 40 of the Freedom of Information Act 2000.
Complaints made under this policy are investigated and actioned in accordance with the procedures laid down in the House of Commons Staff Handbook which is available to view on the parliamentary webpages.
The House holds the number of complaints managed formally under each of the above policies, but because the number of cases under each policy is mostly very small (fewer than 5 cases), the disclosure of this separate information would allow individual cases and the personal data of staff and/or Members concerned to be revealed, and is therefore exempted under section 40 of the FOIA. However, an aggregated number of complaints made under both policies is reported annually, which allows us to return some data. The number of complaints made under both the Respect AND Valuing Others policies are:
- 2011 [REDACTED, fewer than 5]
- 2012 [REDACTED, fewer than 5]
- 2013 [REDACTED, fewer than 5]
- 2014 6
- 2015 5
- 2016 [REDACTED, fewer than 5]
- 2017(January - October) 7
Complaints made to the Police:
Allegations of criminal behaviour are referred to the police. On behalf of the House, the Metropolitan Police Service publish quarterly details of notifiable offences committed on the parliamentary estate on their website.
No other information, such as the names of those involved or any resultant action taken by the police, is held by the House of Commons.
Information held by the Members’ HR Advice Service:
The House of Commons holds records from January 2014 relating to grievances about which the service has been consulted by Members. However, as there is no obligation for Members to contact the service, records may be incomplete. Between January 2014 and October 2017, the service provided advice about 28 grievances, which break down as follows:
- 2014: [REDACTED, fewer than 5 grievances]
- 2015: 7 grievances
- 2016: 6 grievances
- 2017: 13 grievances