Isle of Man Government Out of Court Settlements

Summary

The requester asked for total out-of-court settlement payments by government departments and internal disciplinary case details for the Attorney General's Chambers (AGC) over five years. The AGC disclosed that it paid zero settlements on its own behalf and confirmed at least four disciplinary cases were contemplated, but refused to provide departmental breakdowns or specific disciplinary outcomes as this information is not held centrally.

Key Facts

• The Attorney General's Chambers paid Nil (0) in out-of-court settlements on its own behalf in the last five years.
• The AGC does not hold consolidated information regarding settlement payments made by other government departments.
• Some litigation claims are settled directly by departments without AGC involvement.
• The AGC does not maintain a comprehensive list of all disciplinary actions or their specific outcomes.
• At least four cases of formal discipline were contemplated, investigated, or taken against AGC staff in the last five years.

Data Disclosed

• Nil (0)
• last five years
• 2021-09-27
• 2021-10-22
• at least four cases

Exemptions Cited

• s11(3)(a) of the Freedom of Information Act 2015 (information not held)
• s11(3)(b) of the Freedom of Information Act 2015 (compliance would require creating new information)

Original Request

Dear Sirs. I would be obliged if the Attourney Generals Chambers can advise the total amount they paid in out of court settlements over the last 5 years to date. I ask for the figures to be broken down by Government Department, for example DOI, DEFA and include the old Government Department DHSS in the response. As it is a total amount for each department , there can be no case for non disclosure as no single case can be identified. I would ask how many disciplinary cases were taken against staff in the Attourney Generals Chambers internally and the result of the findings in each case ie gross misconduct, verbal warning ect.

Data Tables (1)

Full Response Text

Attorney General's Chambers 2nd floor Belgravia House Circular Road, Douglas Isle of Man, IM1 1AE Telephone: (01624) 685452 E-mail: attgen@gov.im

Our ref: 2009761 22 October 2021

Dear ###

We write further to your request which was received on 27 September 2021, which states:

"Dear Sirs. I would be obliged if the Attorney Generals Chambers can advise the total amount they paid in out of court settlements over the last 5 years to date. I ask for the figures to be broken down by Government Department, for example DOI, DEFA and include the old Government Department DHSS in the response. As it is a total amount for each department, there can be no case for non-disclosure as no single case can be identified. I would ask how many disciplinary cases were taken against staff in the Attorney Generals Chambers internally and the result of the findings in each case ie gross misconduct, verbal warning etc."

While our aim is to provide information whenever possible, in this instance the Attorney General’s Chambers does not hold or cannot, after taking reasonable steps to do so, find some of the information that you have requested. We do provide our response where some information is held in relation to the information you have requested: You Asked - Question 1: I would be obliged if the Attorney Generals Chambers can advise the total amount they paid in out of court settlements over the last 5 years to date. I ask for the figures to be broken down by Government Department, for example DOI, DEFA and include the old Government Department DHSS in the response. As it is a total amount for each department, there can be no case for non-disclosure as no single case can be identified. Our Response to Question 1: We can provide the part of this information which relates to amounts AGC has itself paid out on behalf of Her Majesty’s Attorney General regarding litigation contemplated or taken against his office and officers, which is Nil (0) in the last five years to date.

Therefore a practical refusal reason applies under s11(3)(a) of the Freedom of Information Act 2015 (“the Act”) as the AGCs does not hold or cannot, after taking reasonable steps to do so, find the information that you have requested. Furthermore, under s.11(3)(b) complying with your request for information would require the AGCs to do one or more of the matters mentioned in section 8(3) of the Act (things that the AGCs is not required to do by the Act.
In order to assist you further, I can confirm that the AGC does not create or hold consolidated information relating to payments made by Departments to settle litigation. Whilst your request concerned out of court settlements, I can also confirm the AGC similarly do not hold information relating financial awards paid pursuant to an Order of a competent Court or Tribunal. Not every damages claim made against a Department is referred to the AGCs. Some claims may be agreed and settled by Departments directly with a litigant, without our involvement. You may wish to contact the individual Departments who may be able to provide you with the information that you have requested, or the Treasury may be able to assist as a result of the its role in oversight of the financial affairs of public bodies. You Asked – Question 2: I would ask how many disciplinary cases were taken against staff in the Attorney Generals Chambers internally and the result of the findings in each case i.e. gross misconduct, verbal warning ect”. Our Response to Question 2: The AGC is unable to provide this information under s11(3)(a) of the Act as the AGCs does not hold or cannot, after taking reasonable steps to do so, find the information that the you have requested. Furthermore, under s11(3)(b) of the Act, complying with the request for information would require the AGCs to do one or more of the matters mentioned in section 8(3) (things the AGC is not required to do by the Act.). In this instance the AGCs does not hold a comprehensive list of all instances where taking discipline action has been contemplated by line managers or where discipline procedures have been progressed against members of staff and it does not keep a list of the outcomes. However, in order to assist you with your request, we do know that there have been at least four cases of formal discipline under the Civil Service Regulations being contemplated, investigated or taken against staff in the last five years. Line managers are responsible for this procedure and we would not keep the record of outcome unless the outcome of the case required a written warning or higher level of penalty, or was administered in line with the requirement to create a record for permanent preservation in line with the current retention schedule as agreed by the Public Records Officer which applies to certain discipline records at Director level position or above. More generally discipline records are not kept in AGC for any longer than is necessary which is in keeping with the Data Principles set out in Article 5 of the Applied General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR). Therefore, where a written warning is given, it would only remain on the person’s personnel file for the period of time it applies and in accordance with the Public Services Commission Disciplinary Procedures which are available online: https://hr.gov.im/media/1072/disciplinary-procedure-2020-october.pdf

Please quote the reference number 2009761 in any future communications. Your right to request a review

If you are unhappy with this response to your freedom of information request, you may ask us to carry out an internal review of the response, by completing a complaint form and submitting it electronically or by delivery/post.

An electronic version of our complaint form can be found by going to our website at https://services.gov.im/freedom-of-information/Review . If you would like a paper version of our complaint form to be sent to you by post, please contact me and I will be happy to arrange for this. Your review request should explain why you are dissatisfied with this response, and should be made as soon as practicable. We will respond as soon as the review has been concluded.

If you are not satisfied with the result of the review, you then have the right to appeal to the Information Commissioner for a decision on; 1. Whether we have responded to your request for information in accordance with Part 2 of the Freedom of Information Act 2015; or 2. Whether we are justified in refusing to give you the information requested.
In response to an application for review, the Information Commissioner may, at any time, attempt to resolve a matter by negotiation, conciliation, mediation or another form of alternative dispute resolution and will have regard to any outcome of this in making any subsequent decision. More detailed information on your right to a review can be found on the Information Commissioner’s website at www.inforights.im. Should you have any queries concerning this letter, please do not hesitate to contact me. Further information about freedom of information requests can be found at www.gov.im/foi.

I will now close your request as of this date.