Staff complaints (2020)

Response

1. Please disclose the number of calls to the free confidential helpline provided by the House which is available for all members' staff in the years 2017, 2018 and 2019;
   We have interpreted your request to refer to the helpline run by Health Assured, the House's Employee Assistance Provider. Please note that programme provided by Health Assured supports staff of both Houses and PDS with personal or work-related issues, not just Members' staff. More information can be found in chapter 5 of the Staff Handbook which is publicly available on our parliamentary website.
   This information is held by the House of Commons.
   The number of calls to the above helpline is published by the House in our transparency publications and is available up to December 2019. As the information you request is reasonably accessible to you otherwise than under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 (FOIA), the House is exempting the information under the exemption set out in section 21(1) and (2)(a) of the FOIA.  This is an absolute exemption and the public interest test does not apply.
2. Please disclose the number of formal complaints made under the Respect policy in the years 2017, 2018 and 2019;
   &
3. Please disclose the number of complaints made under the Valuing Others policy in the years 2017, 2018 and 2019;
   Some information is held by the House of Commons, but is recorded by financial, rather than calendar, year. 
   Complaints made under the Valuing Others and Respect policies for financial years 2017/18, 2016/17 were reported and logged under one single category and cannot now be disaggregated from each other.  In addition, the two policies were both permanently suspended on 24 October 2018, so the figures for the financial year 2018/19 only contain the requested information up to that date. 
   With this in mind, the figures held.
   Please note that the number of complaints under the Respect Policy in 2018/19 are withheld from disclosure in this instance. This is because, owing to the low numbers of complaints involved (fewer than 5), disclosing this data may make it possible for individuals to be identified. This information is therefore exempt by virtue of section 40 (2) FOIA, as disclosure of this information to the public generally, in the House's view, would not be consistent with data protection principles in Article 5 of the General Data Protection Regulations. This is an absolute exemption and the public interest test does not apply.
4. If held, please disclose the number of complaints made to police in the above years.
   This information is not held by the House of Commons. Complaints of criminal behaviour are made directly to the police and so you may therefore wish to consider submitting your request to them. The contact details of the various police forces may be found online.