Complaints of inappropriate behaviour (2017)
Request
Since the formation of the house following the general election of 2017, how many times a report of harassment in any form has been recorded by staff directly employed by the house itself?
Furthermore could you detail just the total and what type of harassment was reported?
Response
This information is held by the House of Commons.
However, the number of cases is very small (fewer than 5 cases) and so the disclosure of this information would allow the personal data of the individuals concerned to be revealed. This information is therefore exempt by virtue of section 40 (2) of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 (FOIA), as disclosure of this information to the public generally, in the House’s view, would not be consistent with data protection principles in the Data Protection Act 1998 (DPA). This is an absolute exemption and the public interest test does not apply.