A HOMELESSNESS campaigner is angry at a council’s decision not to release the findings of an internal review into a rough sleeper’s death.

Worcester City Council told Hugo Sugg his Freedom of Information request for the report into the unidentified person who apparently died after falling ill and being taken to hospital, would breach data protection.

No personal information or anything else surrounding their death – understood to have taken place since fellow homeless man Cardon Banfield died in 2016 – has been released.

Mr Sugg, founder of Hugo’s Earthquake Campaign, said there is a concern with proposed changes to homeless services, that this review may be “brushed under the carpet”.

Last summer, the results of an independent review into Mr Banfield’s death were released and revealed several “missed opportunities” on the part of the authorities that may have kept him on the streets unnecessarily.

The decision to release the findings of that first independent review set a precedent, but the council has refused to repeat this 12 months on.

“It begs the question – what changes have the council brought in [since the Mr Banfield review]? Without the review [being released] you could ask why haven't we learnt lessons from Cardon's death?” said Mr Sugg.

READ MORE: Opportunities missed to keep Cardon Banfield off the streets, report says

Worcestershire Safeguarding Adults Board is currently undertaking a thematic review of deaths of rough sleepers in the city and Malvern – which also includes two men who died in the latter in October and December.

The deaths of Remigiusz Boczarski and Paul ‘Joby’ Sparrey led to Mr Sugg, a former University of Worcester student, successfully calling for the safeguarding board to launch its investigation.

The council has submitted its findings regarding the unidentified death to the board to help inform their review and has said some details will come out as a result of that.

John Stolton, of the corporate policy and strategy team, told Mr Sugg via email the council does not currently have consent of “living individuals identified” in its review to release personal information.

While any details “relating to the deceased may reasonably be regarded as confidential”, he added.

Mr Stolton said the board will publish its own findings in due course, while some of the results of the council’s review “may become publicly available at a later date”.

In response, Mr Sugg told the Worcester News the reasoning “sounds dubious” – with information regarding the deaths of Mr Banfield, Mr Boczarski and Mr Sparrey all already in the public domain.

READ MORE: Tributes to bus shelter dwelling homeless man who has died

“What are Worcester City Council trying to hide? Someone else has died. There's a huge issue.”

He said the council “revealed to the press” that Mr Banfield had died and gave out various pieces of personal information, but questioned why they have been keeping this latest death “under wraps” prior to the safeguarding review even being launched.

Mr Sugg said he was told by a third party that the person had died and was then told by the council: “Yeah, there has been another death, but we are not releasing it.”

The county council has cut funding into homeless prevention services and is relying on the six district council’s to stump up the rest of the £530,000 needed.

A total of 933 homelessness cases were reported in Worcester between April 2016 and March 2018 - more than 70 per cent of the 1,310 cases of homelessness reported across the county.

The county council said it would contribute £100,000 a year to the service for the next two years leaving a £165,000-a-year gap in funding to be made up by the district councils.

The high demand in Worcester means the city council will make the biggest contribution of £234,300 across the length of the contract.

READ MORE: Council set to put aside £533,000 to recommission homeless prevention service in Worcestershire

The city council’s policy and resources committee was last night expected to recommend the council uses £265,000 from an affordable housing fund to pay for the homeless prevention service from October this year to the end of September 2021. That includes an additional £30,000 buffer.

The current service - which is a county-wide service commissioned by the city council on behalf of the other district councils responsible for housing including Malvern Hills and Wychavon District Council - ran out in March.

The city council agreed to extend the contract until the end of September to allow for a new service to be found and eventually commissioned.

Mr Sugg, who previously spent time living on the street, sent off his FOI on April 9, asking for “all internal Worcester City Council reviews into rough sleeper or homeless deaths since Cardon Banfield’s death in 2016”.

A city council spokesman said yesterday: “An internal review of this FOI response has been requested and will be carried out in line with the service standards published at www.worcester.gov.uk/commonly-requested-information.”