Destroying the Evidence

Here's an example of a local newspaper, The Nottingham Post, and a local MP giving a County Council a hard time for destroying files relating to allegations of child sex abuse.

Now the issues and time frames are very different, but I would still expect local politicians in to be demanding answers from North Lanarkshire Council in relation to job evaluation and equal pay.

Because the Council has apparently destroyed important evidence relating to the evaluation and grading of people's jobs - even while an Employment Tribunal dealing with these vital matters was still underway.  

Yet this took place at a time when computer files have replaced bulky paper files, when important documents can be easily 'backed up' and secured for future reference.

So North Lanarkshire's behaviour looks decidedly dodgy if you ask me, not just incompetent and inept, yet so far as I know not one senior official has been held to account for presiding over this terrible mess.  


Nottinghamshire MP claims county council has destroyed files relating to child sex abuse

By Ellie Curren - The Nottingham Post


John Mann MP claims the county council has destroyed files relating to child sex abuse

An MP is demanding an inquiry after claiming that Nottinghamshire County Council had routinely destroyed files into child sex abuse.

John Mann says six constituents have come to him over the past year claiming they had been abused as children.

When the MP looked into the cases, he says he was told by the council that the social services files had been destroyed.

The Government has announced a major inquiry into child abuse after it was revealed that 114 Home Office files relating to claims of abuse had disappeared from Government records.

Mr Mann said: “Six constituents this year have come to me all alleging child abuse against a number of different, unconnected alleged perpetrators.

“No prosecutions were brought, despite them reporting the alleged abuse. I’ve found that in some cases, social services files have been destroyed by the county council.

“The council said after a period of time they destroy their files. I find that unacceptable. On what basis? Who determines that policy to destroy the files? Why were they destroyed?

“I do not see how the social services department can make a decision like that.”

Mr Mann raised the issue in the House of Commons on Monday, after Home Secretary Theresa May had announced the major inquiry into child sex abuse.

He said: “This year in Bassetlaw, six people have come forward and made allegations of historical child abuse, but there have been no prosecutions, Nottinghamshire Police have lost files and Nottinghamshire social services have destroyed files. Will that be in the remit of one of these investigations now taking place?”

Mrs May replied: “The whole point of the inquiry panel is to look at lessons learned as a result of these various reviews of historical allegations that have taken place. Obviously, I would expect it to be wide ranging in ensuring that it is indeed identifying all the lessons that need to be learned and the actions that need to be taken.”

Mr Mann told the Post he had also written to the CPS and police demanding his constituents' cases be reopened.

He added: “I can’t comment on any of the individual cases, but don’t anyone try and tell me that if six people come forward, that they are all making it up.

“I believe my constituents and I believe they are victims.

“They want action and prosecutions – and they deserve action.”

Nottinghamshire County Council’s service director for children’s social care, Steve Edwards, said: “We are aware of the question that was raised in the House of Commons by John Mann MP.

“We are contacting Mr Mann to seek further clarification about his comments relating to this matter. Until this point, we will not be able to provide any further comment.

“We treat all allegations of abuse seriously whether current or historic and we will of course co-operate with any request for information.”

Nottinghamshire Police said they would also be making contact with Mr Mann to discuss his concerns.

Last year the Post reported on the case of Michael Summers, who claimed he had been abused at care homes in Nottinghamshire.

He had asked both Nottingham City Council and Nottinghamshire County Council for the release of his files to help his case.

But the records, kept by the county council on behalf of the city, were not found.

The county council said there was a note on their records from 1978 saying the files had been destroyed.

Destroying the Evidence (22 June 2014)

I'm told by a highly reliable source that one of the many revelations to emerge from the ongoing Employment Tribunal against North Lanarkshire Council is that senior managers ordered the destruction of important paperwork about the Council's job evaluation scheme (JES).

Now this is shocking on a whole number of counts.

First of all, the new JES was the most significant human resource issue to be dealt with in a generation and senior officials within the Council were well aware of the importance of keeping efficient and accurate records detailing how different jobs were scored and graded by the JES process.

Secondly, the outcomes of the Council's JES was already being vigorously challenged in the Employment Tribunal and so to destroy vital evidence when litigation was underway looks to be a deliberate act - an attempt to bury the evidence, if you like.

Thirdly, in this modern day and age absolutely no one, especially one of Scotland's largest councils, would be dumb enough not to 'back up' important records on a hard disk to keep them safe and secure for future reference.

So the big questions for senior officials within North Lanarkshire to answer are:

1. Exactly which records have been destroyed?
2. Which jobs have been affected?      
3. When was this instruction issued and by whom?
4. Why were the paper records not backed up?
5. Who is being held accountable and in what way for this shocking mess?

And you would think that local politicians would take these points up, on a cross party and all party basis, and help get to the bottom of exactly what has been going on.