CONCERNS have been raised after an authority revised its response to a query over whether a staff member had taken legal action against the council.

In June last year Basingstoke and Deane Borough Council received a Freedom of Information (FoI) request asking if the authority had received any form of letter from or on behalf of its staff that could have led to legal action against the authority.

The response was that the council was ‘not aware’ of such a scenario.

However, this response was changed last month after the person who submitted the request asked for it to be reviewed.

The response now reads 'once'.

The matter was brought to the council's Scrutiny Committee on Tuesday, 22 January by panel chair Councillor David Potter.

The Labour representative has asked for a report to be prepared both on this individual FoI response and the system as a whole.

At the meeting, Cllr Potter said: "I think it raises an issue about just how Freedom of Information requests are dealt with in this council. I think there is a learning process there.

"In regard to the particular, I was concerned to read that the FoI request perhaps has led to some confusion in the first response which has been subsequently corrected and I'd like to know a little bit more how that happened."

Council spokeswoman Sara Shepherd said: “Freedom of Information enquiries are taken very seriously by the council, which aims to be as transparent as possible.

"There is a system in place to research the answers to sometimes complex questions with the departments most likely to have the records to answer them. To give some context, since the start of the year alone the council has received around 100 freedom of information enquiries.

“On this occasion the records did not show the information requested. When the answer given was challenged, further investigation revealed the error. The council is investigating how this happened and what action needs to be taken.”

The Gazette has seen documentation, dated from before June last year, which appears to suggest the possibility of legal action being taken against the authority by one of its own staff members was on the radar of senior figures.

The FoI request specifically asked “in the last 12 month period, on how many occasions has the council received a “letter before claim” or any other similar correspondence that could have lead (sic) to legal action that was from or originated from any of it’s own staff”.