Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about how the Council dealt with a report made to the Council’s Trading Standards service. This is because there is insufficient evidence of fault and we cannot achieve the outcome he wants.

The complaint

1. The complainant, who I will call Mr C, complains about how the Council’s Trading Standards service dealt with his report about a trader. Mr C says the Council should change its policy to ensure queries from the public are responded to and to allow reports to be made directly to the service.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

2. The Ombudsman investigates complaints about ‘maladministration’ and ‘service failure’, which we call ‘fault’. We must also consider whether any fault has had an adverse impact on the person making the complaint, which we call ‘injustice’. We provide a free service, but must use public money carefully. We do not start or may decide not to continue with an investigation if we decide:

• there is not enough evidence of fault to justify investigating, or
• we cannot achieve the outcome someone wants.

(Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6))

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How I considered this complaint

3. I considered information provided by the complainant and the Council.
4. I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.

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My assessment

Reports to Trading Standards

5. All consumer complaints are now dealt with via the Citizens Advice Consumer Service (CACS). This is a national Government-funded service run by the National Association of Citizens Advice Bureaux offering advice and guidance on consumer issues.
6. The Trading Standards integrated operating model says that, while authorities previously used a ‘complaint-led’ approach to enforcement, the National Trading Standards Board supported a move to use intelligence to make a bigger impact on problems identified.
7. The Authority’s website says consumers should contact the Citizens Advice consumer helpline to raise issue it also provides a link to the Citizens Advice website.
8. The Citizens Advice website explains how people can make a report to Trading Standards. It says that Trading Standards will then use the information to decide if they’ll investigate and they will only contact people if they need more information.

What happened

9. Mr C contacted the Council and said he wanted to report a trader who he suspected of breaching consumer regulation. Mr C had already successfully challenged the dispute with the trader through the courts.
10. The Council advised Mr C to report the matter through Citizens Advice. Mr C contacted the Council again by email and received information about how to report the matter to Citizens Advice.
11. The Council eventually accepted Mr C’s communication. The Council subsequently made the decision to refer the matter to another Local Authority, so that it could decide if any advice needed to be provided to the trader.
12. Mr C says the Council should change its policy to allow the public to communicate directly with Trading Standards, and that Trading Standards should keep the public up to date as to the progress of such reports.

Assessment

13. I will not investigate Mr C’s complaint. This is because there is no evidence of fault in how it dealt with Mr C’s report. The Council and it followed that policy in Mr C’s case.
14. Furthermore, I cannot achieve the outcome what Mr C wants, which is for the Council to change its policy. It is for the Council and not the Ombudsman to decide upon reports to Trading Standards are received and responded to.

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Final decision

15. We will not investigate Mr C’s complaint because there is insufficient evidence of fault, and we cannot achieve the outcome he wants.

Investigator’s decision on behalf of the Ombudsman

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman