Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about the way the Council is conducting a Trading Standards investigation. It does not meet the tests set out in our Assessment Code. The Council’s actions have not caused the complainant a significant personal injustice.

The complaint

1. The complainant, I shall call Mr B, complains the Council is failing to progress an investigation into a builder who he says is committing fraud on innocent families.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

2. We investigate complaints about ‘maladministration’ and ‘service failure’, which we call ‘fault’. We must also consider whether any fault has had an adverse effect on the person making the complaint, which we call ‘injustice’. We provide a free service but must use public money carefully. We may decide not to start an investigation if the tests set out in our Assessment Code are not met. (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended)

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How I considered this complaint

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

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My assessment

5. Mr B is unhappy with a lack of progress in trading standards investigation into a builder.
6. The Council’s Trading Standards service is intelligence-led, and its role is in law enforcement, not to act in civil disputes between citizens and businesses. The service has powers to prosecute traders but is under no obligation to do so, even when it is clear the trader has committed a criminal offence.
7. While Mr B is clearly concerned about the company’s practises the pace of an investigation is the matter for the Council and does not cause Mr B significant personal injustice. The injustice he describes is the result of the company’s actions rather than the way the Council is investigating it.

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Final decision

8. We will not investigate Mr B’s complaint because it does not meet the tests set out in our Assessment Code.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman