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Digest of cases

Each year from 2002/03 and 2008/09 we published an annual Digest of cases to illustrate the nature of our work, the type of complaints we received and the reasoning behind our decisions. We no longer do this because all reports we have published since 2005 are available here in the Complaint outcomes section, where you can find an advanced search facility. You can also sign up to our email alerts for reports published on specific topics – just click on the 'log in' at the top right of the banner above.

Highlighting human interest stories helps to explain the impact of our work in considering fault by councils and to increase understanding of our role. Cases in the Digest were selected from reports issued each year, plus some 'local settlements' where we discontinued an investigation because a council agreed to a remedy.

In the 2008/09 Digest we identified some common themes that featured in cases across different subject areas. These were:

  • Not taking into account the needs of service users
  • Ignorance of, or failure to follow, policies and guidance
  • Delays resulting in injustice
  • Making assumptions; not checking information 

You can find the full reports of the more recent cases in Complaint outcomes (and you can order older reports that are not on this website by using our publications order form) but we cannot disclose further details about the few cases where we approved a local settlement as these are confidential. To protect the privacy of complainants and others, the names used in the Digest  are not the real names.

Individual chapters are published in .pdf format below.

 2002/032003/042004/052005/062006/072007/082008/09
Antisocial behaviour    Antisocial behaviourAntisocial behaviourAntisocial behaviour
BenefitsBenefitsHousing benefitBenefitsBenefitsBenefitsBenefitsBenefits
CommercialCommercial Commercial   Commerical
EducationEducationEducationEducationEducationEducationEducationEducation
Environmental healthEnvironmental healthEnvironmental healthEnvironmental healthEnvironmental healthEnvironmental healthEnvironmental healthEnvironmental health
HousingHousingHousingHousingHousingHousingHousingHousing
LandLandLandLand Land Land
Leisure and cultureLeisure  LeisureLeisure and culture Leisure and culture
Local taxationLocal taxationLocal taxationLocal taxationLocal taxationLocal taxationLocal taxationLocal taxation
PlanningPlanningPlanningPlanningPlanningPlanningPlanningPlanning
Social servicesSocial servicesSocial servicesSocial servicesSocial servicesSocial servicesSocial careSocial care
Transport and highwaysHighwaysHighwaysHighwaysHighwaysTransport and highwaysTransport and highwaysTransport and highways
Other services    Other services