Neil Wilby Media

Earlier this week, beleaguered Oldham Metropolitan Borough Council was served with legal proceedings over a breach of the Data Protection Act, 2018 and General Data Protection Regulations.

The claimant is the author of this article, Neil Wilby, and the matter in issue is non-delivery by the Council of a data subject access request made on 9th June, 2023 (read in full here).

The Pre-action Action Protocol Letter before Claim (LbC) was explicit in what the court expects a defendant to do in such circumstances: Acknowledge receipt of the LbC promptly and provide a substantive response within 14 days.

There is nothing draconian in such edicts, common courtesy and respect demand just the same – as do the Government’s Seven Principles of Public Life (also widely known as the Nolan Principles) which can be viewed in full here.

But in Oldham Council, complete with its small army of lawyers, eighteen of them including the Borough Solicitor, Paul Entwistle, there is, on ample evidence, little or no regard to the law or Government mandates. They just do as they please, when they feel like it.

Unsurprisingly, there has been no acknowledgement of receipt of the subject LbC and the very great likelihood is there will be no substantive response within the stipulated period.

An example, regrettably, set by the Leader of the Council, Cllr Arooj Shah, who regards responding to emails, carrying strong public interest messages or requests, as very much an optional extra. Similarly, her soon to depart, contract-breaking chief executive, Harry Catherall.

It is a leadership, ethical and professional deficit that just has to change in ‘Odious Oldham’ (as the Council was described within the past year by one television news channel), either by Central Government or Labour Party HQ intervention, or at the ballot box, and now the smart money is on that happening before, or just after the end, of this municipal year.

The Council Leader and Chief Executive have both been offered right of reply via their press office. Predictably, almost 24 hours later, that email had not been acknowledged, either, by any of the twelve officers working in the Communications and Strategy Department at OMBC.

Follow Neil Wilby on Twitter (here) and Neil Wilby Media on Facebook (here) for signposts to any updates.

Page last updated: Friday 15th September, 2023 at 15h25

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