Document Date
29/11/2024
Created by
Parish Clerk
Category
Policies
Wollaston Parish Council
Wollaston Parish Council
Document Date
29/11/2024
Created by
Parish Clerk
Category
Policies
WOLLASTON PARISH COUNCIL
ABUSIVE, PERSISTENT OR VEXATIOUS COMPLAINTS POLICY
1. Introduction
This policy identifies situations where a complainant, either individually or as part of a group, or a group of complainants, might be considered to be habitual or vexatious and ways of responding to these situations.
In this policy the term habitual means ‘done repeatedly or as a habit’. The term vexatious is recognised in law and means ‘denoting an action or the bringer of an action that is brought without sufficient grounds for winning, purely to cause annoyance to the defendant’.
This policy intends to assist in identifying and managing persons who seek to be disruptive to the Parish Council, elected Members and members of staff through pursuing an unreasonable course of conduct.
The term complaint in this policy includes requests made under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 and the Data Protection Act 1998 and reference to the Complaints Procedure is, where relevant, to be interpreted as meaning a request under those Acts. Habitual or vexatious complainants can be a problem for Council staff and members. The difficulty in handling such complainants is that they are time consuming and wasteful of resources in terms of Officer and Member time.
While the Council endeavours to respond with patience and sympathy to the needs of all complainants there are times when there is nothing further which can reasonably be done to assist or to rectify a real or perceived problem.
Raising of legitimate queries or criticisms of a complaints procedure as it progresses, for example if agreed timescales are not met, should not in itself lead to someone being regarded as a vexatious or an unreasonably persistent complainant.
Similarly, the fact that a complainant is unhappy with the outcome of a complaint and seeks to challenge it once, or more than once, should not necessarily cause him or her to be labelled vexatious or unreasonably persistent.
The aim of this policy is to contribute to the overall aim of dealing with all complainants in ways which are demonstrably consistent, fair and reasonable.
2. Habitual or Vexatious Complainants
For the purpose of this policy the following definition of habitual or vexatious complainants will be used:
The repeated and/or obsessive pursuit of:
Prior to considering its implementation the Council will send a summary of relevant points of this policy to the complainant to give them prior notification of its possible implementation.
Where complaints continue and have been identified as habitual or vexatious the council will treat the complainant as a habitual or vexatious complainant and appropriate course of action may be taken.
Section 4 details the options available for dealing with habitual or vexatious complaints. The Parish Clerk, as responsible officer, will notify, on behalf of the Parish Council complainants, in writing, of the reasons why their complaint has been treated as habitual or vexatious and the action that will be taken.
If a complainant subsequently demonstrates a more reasonable approach, then their status will be reviewed.
3. Definitions
Wollaston Parish Council defines unreasonably persistent and vexatious complainants as those complainants who, because of the frequency or nature of their contacts with the Parish Council, hinder the Parish Council’s consideration of their or other people’s complaints.
The description ‘unreasonably persistent’ and ‘vexatious’ may apply separately or jointly to a particular complainant.
Examples include the way in which, or frequency with which, complainants raise their complaint with staff/members or how complainants respond when informed of the Parish Council’s decision about the complaint.
Features of an unreasonably persistent and / or vexatious complainant include the following (the list is not exhaustive, nor does one single feature on its own necessarily imply that the person will be considered as being in this category):
An unreasonably persistent and/or vexatious complainant may:
4. Imposing Restrictions
The Council will ensure that the complaint is being, or has been, investigated properly according to the adopted complaints procedure. The Parish Clerk will contact the complainant in writing, or by email, to explain why this behaviour is Abusive, Persistent or Vexatious causing concern and ask them to change this behaviour and outline the actions that the council may take if they do not comply.
If the disruptive behaviour continues, the Parish Clerk will issue a reminder letter to the complainant advising them that the way in which they will be allowed to contact the Parish Council in future will be restricted.
The Parish Clerk will make this decision in consultation with the Council and inform the complainant in writing of what procedures have been put in place and for what period. Any restriction that is imposed on the complainant’s contact with the Council will be appropriate and proportionate and the complainant will be advised of the period of time that the restriction will be in place for. In most cases restrictions will apply for between 3 to 6 months, but in exceptional cases this may be extended.
In such cases the restrictions would be reviewed on a quarterly basis.
Restrictions will be tailored to deal with the individual circumstances of the complainant and may include:
Letting the complainant know that the Parish Council will not reply to, or acknowledge any further contact from them on the specific topic of that complaint. When the decision has been taken to apply this policy to a complainant, the Parish Clerk will contact the complainant in writing to explain:
Where a complainant continues to behave in a way that is unacceptable, the Parish Clerk, in consultation with the Council may decide to refuse all contact with the complainant and stop any investigation into his or her complaint.
Where the behaviour is so extreme or it threatens the immediate safety and welfare of staff/members, other options will be considered, e.g. the reporting of the matter to the police or taking legal action.
In such cases, the complainant may not be given prior warning of that action.
5. New Complaints (from complainants who are treated as abusive, vexatious or persistent)
New complaints from people who have come under this policy will be treated on their merits. The Parish Clerk and the Council will decide whether any Abusive, Persistent or Vexatious Complaints restrictions that have been applied before are still appropriate and necessary in relation to the new complaint.
A blanket policy is not supported, nor is ignoring genuine service requests or complaints where they are founded. The fact that a complainant is judged to be unreasonably persistent of vexatious and any restrictions imposed on Council’s contact with him or her, will be recorded and notified to those who need to know within the Council.
6. Review
The status of a complainant judged to be unreasonably persistent or vexatious will be reviewed by the Parish Clerk, after three months, and at the end of every subsequent three months within the period during which the policy is to apply.
The complainant will be informed of the result of this review if the decision to apply this policy has been changed or extended.
7. Record Keeping
The Parish Clerk will retain adequate records of the details of the case and the action that has been taken. Records will be kept of:
Signed ……………………………………………
Chair, Wollaston Parish Council
Date:……………………………………………….
Reviewed November 2024
Next Review November 2026