Inverclyde Council depute leader defends email response rate

A Freedom of Information request submitted by Lesley Roberts in December 2021 sparked a saga which has only just reached its conclusion following what the Greenock woman has termed 'disingenuous' excuses and efforts to avoid accountability.

Ms Roberts asked the local authority to provide figures for the total number of emails received by Inverclyde South's Labour representative Natasha McGuire since being elected in May 2017, together with the number of emails responded to by the councillor.

Councillor Natasha McGuire (Image: Inverclyde Council)

The statistics, eventually released after a successful appeal, showed that Councillor McGuire had received 15,374 emails over the time period, including emails she had been copied into and those sent directly to her. The depute leader sent just 1,577 emails from May 2017 to Boxing Day 2021, around ten per cent of those received, with no distinction between automatic replies and direct responses.

After the council initially issued a refusal notice in January 2022, citing a legislative exemption and claiming that elected members and political parties were 'not subject to' FOI Act requests and it therefore did not hold the information being sought, a subsequent review upheld that judgement.

But Ms Roberts took the matter further and won her argument through a successful appeal to the Scottish Information Commissioner.

Their investigation - the results of which have recently been published, two-and-a-half years on from the original request - prompted the council to 'revise its position' and disclose the information to the applicant.

Municipal Buildings (Image: NQ)

The commissioner found that Inverclyde Council had 'misinterpreted' the request and had 'failed to comply' with the legislation.

Ms Roberts, a former South West Community Council member, told the Telegraph: "[Cllr McGuire] had been my constituency councillor and I had been raising issues with her, mainly about potholes, and she had just failed to respond completely.

"At that point the council said they weren't giving me that information, they said they didn't have it. I went to the Scottish Information Commissioner and then the council gave me the information.

"I thought that was really disingenuous. It suddenly fell out of nowhere.

"Goodness only knows how many emails that councillor has actually answered. That is what a councillor is there for.

"It is really quite shocking.

"After they realised the numbers involved, the council were trying to cover it up, that's my opinion."

Providing further context to the FOI stats, Cllr McGuire said the ten per cent figure was 'subjective' as many emails are read but do not require a response.

She told the Tele: "For example, last week I received 41 emails and only three required an email response. The week before I received 34 emails and two required an email response.

"Throughout the time period in particular I was balancing council commitments with personal circumstances including losing two grandparents and my dad after going through palliative care with each of them amongst other personal pressures.

"I am of course human and at times may miss the occasional email but I have implemented systems to minimise the risk of this occurring.

"I am a reflective person and had reflected, at that time, on how I manage and maintain my mailbox. This led to me introducing a holding message to set expectations on when I will respond but also to allow people to know my mailbox has their message.

"Constituents can be reassured that I read all constituent emails and follow up as appropriate. I am honoured to serve residents in my area as a ward councillor and the wider Inverclyde area as depute leader."

The information commissioner's notice stated that it was satisfied with the council's response in overturning the original refusal and no further action was needed.

An Inverclyde Council spokesperson said: “We note the decision by the commissioner.

“Following clarification of the information being sought, we were happy to provide the information to the applicant.

“Email is one of many different forms of communication, elected members engage with constituents in a variety of ways and it is a matter for individual councillors to manage how they communicate.”