Unreasonably persistent and abusive behaviour policy

This policy applies to all customers living within the borough, including tenants and leaseholders.

Effective Date:

July 2024

Review Date:

June 2027 (or sooner if there are changes to guidance and legislation)

Author:

Assistant Director (Customer Services and Transformation)

Policy Owned by:

Executive Director (Finance and Transformation)

Statute:

Not Applicable

National Standards and Guidance:

Not Applicable

Related Policies:

Complaints Policy

Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Strategy

Vulnerability and Reasonable Adaptations Policy

Introduction

1.1    Welwyn Hatfield Borough Council (‘the council’) is committed to investigating and responding to all complaints fairly, comprehensively, and in a timely manner. However, there are a minority of cases where a customer contacts us in a way that prevents staff from investigating the complaint; takes up a disproportionate level of resources; or is considered to be unacceptable.
1.2    We do not believe that raising legitimate queries, challenges or criticisms of our services or officers should in itself lead to contact being regarded as unreasonably persistent.
1.3    However, if a customer behaves in a way that is unreasonably persistent or abusive we will follow this policy. We do not expect our staff to tolerate unacceptable behaviour from customers and we will take firm action to protect them from this.