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. The Lancashire Combined Fire Authority (“CFA”) policy for dealing with and responding to these situations is set out herein below.
1.1 The term habitual means ‘done repeatedly or as a habit.’
1.2 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.’
1.3 This policy intends to assist in identifying and managing persons who seek to be disruptive to the CFA or the Lancashire Fire and Rescue Service (LFRS) by pursuing an unreasonable course of conduct.
1.4 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.
1.5 Habitual or vexatious complaints can be a problem for CFA staff and Members. The difficulty in handling such complainants and their complaints is that they are time consuming and wasteful of resources in terms of Officer and Member time. While the CFA endeavours to respond with patience and sympathy to the needs of all complainants, there are occasions when there is nothing further which can be reasonably done to assist or to rectify a real or perceived problem.
1.6 Raising 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 unreasonable 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.
1.7 The aim of the 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 definitions of habitual or vexatious complainants will be used. The repeated and/or obsessive pursuit of:
(a.) Unreasonable complaints and/or unrealistic outcomes and/or
(b.) Reasonable complaints in an unreasonable manner.
Prior to considering its implementation the CFA will warn an individual and will send a summary 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 in accordance with the criteria set out in section 3, the Clerk, in consultation with the Chief Fire Officer will seek agreement to treat the complainant as a habitual or vexatious complainant for the appropriate course of action to be taken. Section 4 details the options available for dealing with habitual or vexatious complaints.
The Clerk, on behalf of the CFA, will notify complainants in writing of the reasons why their complaint has been treated as habitual or vexatious and the action that will be taken.
The status of the complaint will be kept under review. If a complainant subsequently demonstrates a more reasonable approach, then their status will be reviewed.
The CFA will be advised that a person or their supporter or co-complainant involved in any joint complaint or joint enterprise has been declared vexatious.
3. Definitions
The CFA defines unreasonably persistent and vexatious complainants as those complainants who, because of their or other peoples’ complaints interfere with or impede the operation of LFRS. The description ‘unreasonably persistent’ and ‘vexatious’ may apply jointly or separately to a particular complainant.
Examples include the way in which, or frequency with which, complainants raise their complaints with staff or how complainants respond when informed of the CFA decision about the complaint.
Features of an unreasonably persistent and/or vexatious complainant include but are not limited to 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:
· Have insufficient or no grounds for their complaint and be making the complaint only to annoy (or for the reasons that he or she does not admit or make obvious);
· Refuse to specify the grounds of a complaint despite offers of assistance;
· Refuse to co-operate with the complaint’s investigation process while still wishing their complaint to be resolved;
· Refuse to accept that issues are not within the remit of the complaints policy and procedure despite having been provided with information about the scope of the policy and procedure;
· Refuse to accept that issues are not within the powers of the CFA to investigate, change or influence;
· Insist on the complaint being dealt with in ways which are incompatible with the complaints procedure or with good practice (e.g. insisting that there must not be any written record of this complaint);
· Make what appear to be groundless complaints about the staff dealing with the complaints, and seek to have them dismissed or replaced;
· Make an unreasonable number of contacts with LFRS by any means in relation to a specific complaint or complaints;
· Make persistent and unreasonable demands or expectations of staff and/or the complaints process after the unreasonableness has been explained to the complainant (an example of this could be a complainant who insists on an immediate response to questions, frequent and/or complex letters, faxes, telephone calls or emails;
· Harass or verbally abuse or otherwise seek to intimidate staff dealing with their complaint by use of foul or inappropriate language or by the use of offensive and racist language or publish their complaints in other forms of media;
· Raise subsidiary or new issues whilst a complaint is being addressed that were not part of the original complaint at the start of the process;
· Introduce trivial or irrelevant information whilst the complaint is being investigated and expect this to be taken in to account and commented on;
· Change the substance or basis of the complaint without reasonable justification whist the complaint is being addressed;
· Deny a statement he or she made at an earlier stage in the complaint process;
· Are known to have covertly electronically recorded meetings and conversations without the knowledge or consent of the other party or parties involved;
· Adopts a ‘scattergun’ approach, for example by pursuing a complaint or complaints not only with the CFA with, for example, a Member of Parliament, other Authorities, elected Members of this and other Authorities, CFA Independent Auditor, the Police, other public bodies or solicitors’ firms.
· Refuse to accept the outcome of the complaint process after its conclusion, repeatedly arguing the point, complaining about the outcome, and/or denying that an adequate response has been given;
· Make the complaint repeatedly, perhaps with minor differences, after the complaints procedure has been concluded and insist that any minor differences make these ‘new complaints’ which should be put through the full complaints procedure;
· Persistently approach the CFA through different routes or other persons about the same issue;
· Persist in seeking an outcome which the CFA has explained is unrealistic for legal, policy or other valid reasons;
· Refuse to accept documented evidence as factual;
· Complain about or challenge an issue based on an historic and/or irreversible decision or incident;
· Combine some or all of these features.
4. Imposing Restrictions
The CFA will ensure that the complaint is being or has been investigated properly according to the adopted complaints procedure.
In the first instance the Clerk, in consultation with the Chief Fire Officer will, prior to issuing a warning to the complainant, contact the complainant in writing, or by email, to explain why this behaviour is causing concern and ask them to change this behaviour and outline the actions that the CFA may take if they do not comply.
If the disruptive behaviour continues, the Clerk will issue a CFA letter to the complainant advising them that the way in which they will be allowed to contact the CFA in future will be restricted. The Clerk will then make this decision in consultation with the Chief Fire Officer 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 CFA will be appropriate and proportionate and the complainant will be advised of the period of time over which the restriction will be put in place. The restrictions would be reviewed on a quarterly basis.
Restrictions will be tailored to deal with the individual circumstances of the complaint and may include:
· Banning the complainant from attending or approaching all CFA or LFRS premises, in circumstances where Members’ or Officers’ safety may be at risk;
· Banning the complainant from making contact by telephone except through a third party, e.g.: a solicitor, a spouse or family member, or a friend acting on their behalf;
· Banning the complainant from sending emails to individuals and/or all CFA Officers and insisting they only correspond by post;
· Requiring contact to take place with one named member of staff only;
· Restricting telephone calls to specified days and or times or duration, requiring any personal contact to take place in the presence of an appropriate witness;
· Letting the complainant know that Lancashire Combined Fire Authority will not respond to or acknowledge any further contact from them on the specified topic of that complaint (in this case, a designated person will be identified to read future correspondence).
When the decision has been taken to apply this policy to a complainant, the Clerk will contact the complainant in writing to explain:
· Why the decision has been taken;
· What action has been taken.
The Clerk will enclose a copy of this policy in the letter to the complainant.
Where a complainant continues to behave in a way that is unacceptable, the Clerk, in consultation with the Chairman and/or Chief Fire Officer 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, 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 treated as Abusive, Vexatious or Persistent
New complaints from people to whom this policy has already been applied will be treated on their own merits. The Clerk in consultation with the Chief Fire Officer will decide whether any 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 complaint is judged to be unreasonably persistent or vexatious and any restrictions imposed on Lancashire Combined Fire Authority’s contact with him or her, will be recorded and notified to those who need to know within the CFA.
6. Review
The status of the complainant who is judged to be unreasonably persistent or vexatious will be reviewed by the Clerk and the Chief Fire Officer after twelve months and at the end of every subsequently twelve months within the period during which the policy is to apply and reported annually to the CFA.
The complainant will be informed of the result of this review if the decision to apply this policy has been changed.
7. Record Keeping
The responsibility for maintaining any time tabling records to trigger reviews will be that of the Clerk. The Clerk will retain adequate records of the details of the case and the action that has been taken. Records will be kept of:
· The name and address of each member of the public who is treated as abusive, vexatious or persistent, or any other person who so aids the complainant;
· When the restriction came into force ends;
· What the restrictions are;
· When the person and the CFA were advised.
The CFA will be provided with an annual report giving information about members of the public who have been treated vexatious/persistent as per this policy, and advised of individuals when those individuals have been declared vexatious.
8. Application and Responsibility
It is the responsibility of all staff to comply with this policy as directed by the Chief Fire Officer and guided by the Clerk.
9. Monitoring and Review
This policy will be reviewed annually by the Clerk to ensure that it is appropriate, proportionate and effective to the needs of the Members, Officers and staff of the CFA.