Summary: We will not investigate Miss X’s complaint about the possibility that Transport for London will revoke her ‘nominee pass’. This is because the authority has not yet completed its investigation or made any decision about whether to revoke the pass. We could not therefore say its actions have caused Miss X significant injustice.

The complaint

1. The complainant, Miss X, complains Transport for London (TfL) has decided to revoke her ‘nominee’ travel pass as a result of an incident between her and frontline staff. She says TfL has failed to properly consider the circumstances around what happened and the revocation of the pass will affect her personally and financially.

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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 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 continue an investigation if we decide:

• there is not enough evidence of fault to justify investigating, or
• any fault has not caused injustice to the person who complained, or
• any injustice is not significant enough to justify our involvement, or
• further investigation would not lead to a different outcome, or
• we cannot achieve the outcome someone wants, or
• it would be reasonable for the person to ask for a council review or appeal; or
• there is no worthwhile outcome achievable by our investigation.

(Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended, section 34(B))

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How I considered this complaint

3. I considered information provided by Miss X and the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.

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My assessment

4. We do not investigate all the complaints we receive. In deciding whether to investigate we need to consider various tests. These include the alleged injustice to the person complaining. We only investigate the most serious complaints.
5. TfL has made no final decision about whether to revoke Miss X’s nominee pass. The investigator dealing with the case has recommended this course of action but the decision does not rest with them and the outcome may therefore be different. We could not therefore say the recommendation, or TfL’s investigation into what happened, caused her significant injustice.
6. TfL is entitled to investigate breaches of the terms and conditions of the pass and if it decides to revoke the pass, and if Miss X believes it has failed to properly consider her circumstances, she may raise a new complaint.

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Final decision

7. We will not investigate this complaint. This is because TfL has not yet reached any decision on whether to revoke Miss X’s nominee pass and we could not therefore say its actions have caused her significant injustice.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman