North Wales MS and Shadow Counsel General Mark Isherwood has questioned the Counsel General over the requirement for public bodies to provide Members of the Senedd with information when they are representing individual constituents and to allow constituents to choose who advocates for them, after claims to the contrary by ‘higher management’ in a North Wales Local Authority.
Although Mr Isherwood chose not to publicly name the Council involved, he outlined his frustration when speaking in yesterday’s meeting of the Welsh Parliament.
Raising the matter with the Counsel General, he said:
“Responsibilities you hold as Counsel General include matters relating to Legislation passed by the Senedd and accessibility of Welsh Law. As you will be aware, provided that a Member of the Senedd is acting within the expectations of a constituent, the Member has a legal basis to request information from a public body when representing the constituent. Section 24 of the Data Protection Act 2018 allows an elected representative to receive information from another data controller, including a local authority, in relation to an individual for the purpose of a casework matter where they're acting with authority.
“However, after I wrote to - I won't name it - a North Wales Local Authority regarding Social Services matters on behalf of neurodiverse parents, the response from the Local Authority's Social Services Chief Officer included, 'These appear to be issues raised by you as a Member of the Senedd about an individual case, and therefore outside of the parameters we would disclose to a third party'.
“What action can you therefore take within your remit to ensure that senior officers in such Local Authorities understand that responses regarding individual cases should be provided by Council departments when replying to correspondence sent by a Member of the Senedd—this Welsh Parliament—in a representative capacity?”
The Counsel General said they “want the maximum of co-operation between Members of the Senedd and any public bodies, and, indeed, private bodies as well, where they reflect upon Senedd matters and Senedd duties and constituency duties.”
Mr Isherwood added:
“In that context, the Social Services and Well-being (Wales) Act 2014 Part 10 Code of Practice, relating to Advocacy, states that ‘Local Authorities, when exercising their social services functions, must act in accordance with the requirements contained in this Code’, and that it is ‘open to any individual to exercise choice and to invite any advocate to support them in expressing their views, wishes and feelings’.
“However, after an Autistic adult recently asked me to attend a meeting with the same Local Authority, as an advocate for her - as I've done scores of times with constituents and public bodies, she received a message from the Local Authority this weekend stating, 'I am not able to invite Mark to the meeting as I have been informed by Higher Management that if Mark has any issues regarding yourself or your son, he needs to access Customer Services'.
“I hope you'll agree that these and other similar responses by a Local Authority's senior management are serious matters, with potentially damaging repercussions. So, again, what action can you take to ensure that repeat offenders, such as this Local Authority, both understand and operate within UK and Welsh law?”
The Counsel General replied:
“In respect of the particular circumstances that you raise, I think those are ones that could and probably should be referred to the Minister, who I'm sure would respond. There is of course another course of action, in terms of reference to the Ombudsman, in terms of the way in which the Local Authority that you refer to has acted.”