The SFE - Doc 66 Sudbury Fire Station
ANALYSIS OF DOC 65
To: ACFO Seager
Brigade Investigating Officer
The outward destination is specified as singular. No mention of carbon copies to other individuals are listed.
Date: 5/6/98
The date specified is after Divisional Officer Smith’s initial involvement and post Doc 61 and that letter’s absence of intent. Therefore, at initial involvement D O Graham Smith reserved any resort to invoke disciplinary action. Until?
SUBJECT: Near Miss Report – Sub O Wigglesworth
D O Smith is singular in choice of subject. He chooses or neglects to deal with Sub Officer Wigglesworth’s principal concern of harassment and bullying by his close colleague and line manager. He seems intent on victimising the victim?
At approximately 1330 on 4/6/98 I was paged by Fire Control.
Doc 58 records the transmission at 1.36.
…………asked ADO Fuller to deal…….
Therefore, time DO Smith called to control probably 1.45ish?
Within the near miss completion Wigglesworth makes reference to harassment by the DCFO.
That being the then Deputy Chief Fire Officer Simon Smith now (2005) Chief Fire Officer Smith North Wales Fire and Rescue Service.
See attached copy of letter SHD and print out of near miss details.
Doc 49 & Doc 58
My initial reaction was that this was inappropriate use of the near miss reporting procedure.
Reiterated from Doc 61 (drafted late afternoon?) of the previous day (4th June 1998).
With the assistance of Mr Cutmore the near miss was copied into a private datafile of mine and then deleted from the near miss datafile, thus removing it from the “public viewing access arena”.
In technical terms a conspiracy to interfere with the Brigades Health & Safety record set up to comply with civil legal obligation? Permission or higher authority instruction is envisaged to have been obtained to carry out this procedure?
The only motive mentioned for this act is to remove from “public viewing access arena” i.e. Brigade managers.
I then brought the matter to the attention of the DCFO.
DO Smith infers he has not been instructed to delete the Brigades Health & Safety record by the DCFO? So perhaps DO Smith undertook to delete the Brigades Health & Safety record on his own initiative, complete with technical support from Mr Cutmore?
A letter was drafted by myself and posted first class to Wigglesworth that afternoon.
Doc 61. By now it must have been late afternoon?
The letter was seen by the HRM and DCFO before being sent.
Very cosy.
I then contacted Normanshurst to see if Wigglesworth was on duty and had completed a near miss form.
After the letter Doc 61 had been drafted? Seems a bit “putting the Cart before the Horse”.
I spoke with Sub O Davey who confirmed that Wigglesworth was on duty and had filled the form in…………………….. He was aware of Wigglesworths actions stating that he had been consulted by Wigglesworth, but that Wigglesworth had ignored his advice.
The latter part of the statement as to advice seems unsubstantiated by the subsequent evidence and testimony of SubO Davey.
I received a call from Station Officer Parsons because Davey had asked him to remove the copy (presumably Davey did not wish to do this himself or on his own) and send to me under confidential cover. At this stage Parsons knew nothing about the near miss and had not been consulted by Wigglesworth before his actions. With ADO Hayden on A/L Parsons is Wigglesworth’s line manager.
Perhaps SubO Davey did not want any part in the deletion of the Brigades Health & Safety record? As for Staion officer parsons being unaware of the near miss that option had been conveyed to him on 3rd June 1998 (Doc 54).
I spoke further with Davey in response to a call from him. I gained the impression from him that the subject had not been treated confidentially at Normanshurst by Wigglesworth but have not investigated this aspect.
To be correct the subject was the current topic of discussion across the length and breadth of the Brigade. It was a particular source of humour for personnel at Lowestoft.
In addition to this I was told that Wigglesworth had already contacted Sarah Davies reference the letter sent to him and had received advice from her on how to progress the matter.
Told but no reference as to by who?
See attached E mail to DCFO from SHD.
Doc 55.
Perhaps DO Smith was told by the two above when he consulted with them in the afternoon 4th June 1998?
I am reporting this matter to you, in your capacity as the Brigade investigating Officer, as I believe that Sub O Wigglesworth, in failing to follow advice given him, failing to consult his line manager and misusing the near miss reporting procedure, may have committed an offence under the Fire Services (discipline) Regulations 1985.
And the instance of harassment and bullying reported to him. Attention to that seems absent?
My own letter to him informed him of the steps I had taken.
Doc 61
Enclosures
Letter from SHD to Wigglesworth
Doc 49
Near Miss details from datafile
Doc 58
Letter from DO Smith to Wigglesworth
Doc 61
E Mail from SHD to DCFO
Doc 55
Copies of original accident reports
Doc 41 & 43
Copy of HSF2 completed by Sub O Wigglesworth
Doc 58
To: ACFO Seager
Brigade Investigating Officer
The outward destination is specified as singular. No mention of carbon copies to other individuals are listed.
Date: 5/6/98
The date specified is after Divisional Officer Smith’s initial involvement and post Doc 61 and that letter’s absence of intent. Therefore, at initial involvement D O Graham Smith reserved any resort to invoke disciplinary action. Until?
SUBJECT: Near Miss Report – Sub O Wigglesworth
D O Smith is singular in choice of subject. He chooses or neglects to deal with Sub Officer Wigglesworth’s principal concern of harassment and bullying by his close colleague and line manager. He seems intent on victimising the victim?
At approximately 1330 on 4/6/98 I was paged by Fire Control.
Doc 58 records the transmission at 1.36.
…………asked ADO Fuller to deal…….
Therefore, time DO Smith called to control probably 1.45ish?
Within the near miss completion Wigglesworth makes reference to harassment by the DCFO.
That being the then Deputy Chief Fire Officer Simon Smith now (2005) Chief Fire Officer Smith North Wales Fire and Rescue Service.
See attached copy of letter SHD and print out of near miss details.
Doc 49 & Doc 58
My initial reaction was that this was inappropriate use of the near miss reporting procedure.
Reiterated from Doc 61 (drafted late afternoon?) of the previous day (4th June 1998).
With the assistance of Mr Cutmore the near miss was copied into a private datafile of mine and then deleted from the near miss datafile, thus removing it from the “public viewing access arena”.
In technical terms a conspiracy to interfere with the Brigades Health & Safety record set up to comply with civil legal obligation? Permission or higher authority instruction is envisaged to have been obtained to carry out this procedure?
The only motive mentioned for this act is to remove from “public viewing access arena” i.e. Brigade managers.
I then brought the matter to the attention of the DCFO.
DO Smith infers he has not been instructed to delete the Brigades Health & Safety record by the DCFO? So perhaps DO Smith undertook to delete the Brigades Health & Safety record on his own initiative, complete with technical support from Mr Cutmore?
A letter was drafted by myself and posted first class to Wigglesworth that afternoon.
Doc 61. By now it must have been late afternoon?
The letter was seen by the HRM and DCFO before being sent.
Very cosy.
I then contacted Normanshurst to see if Wigglesworth was on duty and had completed a near miss form.
After the letter Doc 61 had been drafted? Seems a bit “putting the Cart before the Horse”.
I spoke with Sub O Davey who confirmed that Wigglesworth was on duty and had filled the form in…………………….. He was aware of Wigglesworths actions stating that he had been consulted by Wigglesworth, but that Wigglesworth had ignored his advice.
The latter part of the statement as to advice seems unsubstantiated by the subsequent evidence and testimony of SubO Davey.
I received a call from Station Officer Parsons because Davey had asked him to remove the copy (presumably Davey did not wish to do this himself or on his own) and send to me under confidential cover. At this stage Parsons knew nothing about the near miss and had not been consulted by Wigglesworth before his actions. With ADO Hayden on A/L Parsons is Wigglesworth’s line manager.
Perhaps SubO Davey did not want any part in the deletion of the Brigades Health & Safety record? As for Staion officer parsons being unaware of the near miss that option had been conveyed to him on 3rd June 1998 (Doc 54).
I spoke further with Davey in response to a call from him. I gained the impression from him that the subject had not been treated confidentially at Normanshurst by Wigglesworth but have not investigated this aspect.
To be correct the subject was the current topic of discussion across the length and breadth of the Brigade. It was a particular source of humour for personnel at Lowestoft.
In addition to this I was told that Wigglesworth had already contacted Sarah Davies reference the letter sent to him and had received advice from her on how to progress the matter.
Told but no reference as to by who?
See attached E mail to DCFO from SHD.
Doc 55.
Perhaps DO Smith was told by the two above when he consulted with them in the afternoon 4th June 1998?
I am reporting this matter to you, in your capacity as the Brigade investigating Officer, as I believe that Sub O Wigglesworth, in failing to follow advice given him, failing to consult his line manager and misusing the near miss reporting procedure, may have committed an offence under the Fire Services (discipline) Regulations 1985.
And the instance of harassment and bullying reported to him. Attention to that seems absent?
My own letter to him informed him of the steps I had taken.
Doc 61
Enclosures
Letter from SHD to Wigglesworth
Doc 49
Near Miss details from datafile
Doc 58
Letter from DO Smith to Wigglesworth
Doc 61
E Mail from SHD to DCFO
Doc 55
Copies of original accident reports
Doc 41 & 43
Copy of HSF2 completed by Sub O Wigglesworth
Doc 58
posted by Bert Blythburgh at 11:43 PM
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