My staff and I treat all enquiries, whether they are made by letter, phone or by email the same:

• you will always be treated with courtesy and fairness - we expect that you will always be courteous and fair in your dealings with us.

• we will treat your issue or request for help in confidence within the office

• we will deal with your request promptly and in a timely manner in accordance with the issue or assistance requested.  

• we will where possible keep you updated on the progress of your case and may need to request additional information from you.

• we often must liaise with a third party or another agency to help resolve the issue which may cause delays to my office being able to respond to your initial request. 

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However, I will not tolerate threatening, inappropriate or offensive behaviour towards my staff by any constituent or any stakeholder.  This includes behaviour or language (written or spoken) that could cause me or my staff to feel afraid, threatened or abused. This includes threatening emails, telephone calls, meetings, and comments on social media or elsewhere. 

 

For example, this could include, 

• Swearing or using insulting language on the telephone

• Using abusive or foul language face to face.

• Making racist, sexist, ageist, homophobic or transphobic remarks

• Inappropriate or offensive comments relating to disability, gender, religion, belief, or any other personal characteristic. 

• Any form of intimidating or threatening behaviour

• Sending an excessive number of emails

• Leaving an excessive number of voicemails​

 

Harassment  

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Examples include: 

• Recording telephone calls without permission.

• Contacting staff using their personal details or social media presence including Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, or other social media channels.

• Publishing personal, sensitive, or private information about staff online or on noticeboards or newsletters. 

 

Unreasonable demands 

 

A demand becomes unreasonable when it starts to (or when complying with the demand would) impact substantially on the work my staff carry out on my behalf.  An example of such impact would be that the demand takes up an excessive amount of time and in doing so disadvantages other constituents by preventing their own issue from being dealt with quickly. 

 

Unreasonable demands may include: 

• Repeatedly demanding a response within an unreasonable timescale. 

• Insisting on, or refusing to, speak to a particular member of staff, when that is not possible. 

• Demanding repeated advice surgery appointments. 

• Making repeated and unnecessary contact during the time we are handling a case, whilst we are waiting for a reply from a third party or carrying out an investigation. 

• Continuously raising or rewording the same issue when we have already helped you or we have told you that we cannot help further. 

• Refusing to accept a decision when it relates to issues where I have no direct authority, or it would be inappropriate for me to be involved (e.g. court decisions, planning applications, parking tickets). 

 

Unacceptable or persistent levels of contact may include: 

• Repeated telephone calls over a short period, for example, a high number of calls in one day or week repeating the same points. 

• Repeated emails about the same subject where my team or I have already provided a response. 

• High volumes of repetitive correspondence by email or post. 

 

 It is not acceptable to knowingly provide me or my staff with incorrect, false, or knowingly omitting important information and doing so prevents my office from successfully dealing with your case.  

 

How we will respond to unacceptable behaviour 

 

Because I do not expect my staff to tolerate unacceptable behaviour when communicating with constituents,  they have the right to: 

• Place callers on hold. 

• End the call. 

• Not reply to abusive or repetitive correspondence after a warning has been issued. 

 

I will always act to protect my staff from such behaviour. 

 

We will initially issue a warning and a request that the behaviour changes. Should there be continued inappropriate behaviour it will result in my staff ceasing speaking directly with you and further correspondence will be in writing. We will also remove threatening or offensive social media posts and where necessary block individuals. 

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If unacceptable behaviour continues towards my staff, then we will cease all correspondence for a time limited period.  In extreme cases, depending on the severity of the unreasonable or vexatious behaviour it will be reported to the police.