You asked
Please could you provide me with the following:
How many people have made complaints that they suffered bullying by other members of staff in the last three calendar years (up to and including September 2018)? Please could you break this information down by year and gender.
How many members of staff have faced disciplinary investigations as a result of an accusation of bullying made against them in the last three calendar years (up to and including September 2018)? Please could you break this information down by year, gender. In each case, please could you state whether any misconduct was found and, if so, what type of disciplinary action was taken including verbal/written/final warnings, suspension, dismissal etc.
We said
Thank you for your request.
Unfortunately we are unable to provide you with the information you require as we estimate it would breach the cost limit in accordance with s.12(1) of the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) 2000.
Historically, accusations of bullying have been dealt with by line management across the organisation with appropriate input from our Human Resources department. In order for us to fulfil your request and provide exact figures, we would need to contact every employee and line manager to firstly confirm that a member of staff has had a complaint made against them, and then conduct searches for the appropriate documentation. We have 4385 members of staff within the organisation (as of 30 September 2018), and this figure does not include those who have left in the last three years.
For central government departments, the cost limit is set at £600 or 24 hours at £25 per hour. We conclude that even to provide an approximate figure would breach this limit.
We take such allegations of bullying extremely seriously. In line with our discipline procedures, ONS would follow up any formal allegation of bullying with an investigation. In April 2018, we moved over to a new tracking system so that we may centrally record all formal complaints. Since then we have received 12 of formal complaints each followed by investigatory proceedings. Because of the low numbers involved, there is the potential that individuals could be identified from the release of further information surrounding these cases. We therefore find that s.40(2) of FOIA applies, as this information would constitute personal data.