Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about the Council’s response to a request for information and social care assessment. The Information Commissioner’s Office is best placed to deal with complaints about how organisations handle requests for information. We could not achieve a worthwhile outcome for Mr X by investigating the other matters he complains about.

The complaint

1. Mr X complained the Council declined to share information with him relating to his mother (Mrs Y) and did not respond to his request for assessment. Mrs Y has since died. Mr X said the Council had a duty of care to Mrs Y, and he wanted answers about why it was not involved in her case. Mr X says the matter has caused distress, and could have had had a financial impact on him as a beneficiary in her estate. He also wanted compensation and apologies.

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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:

• 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
• there is another body better placed to consider this complaint, or
• there is no worthwhile outcome achievable by our investigation.

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

3. The Information Commissioner's Office considers complaints about freedom of information. Its decision notices may be appealed to the First Tier Tribunal (Information Rights). So where we receive complaints about freedom of information, we normally consider it reasonable to expect the person to refer the matter to the Information Commissioner.

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How I considered this complaint

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

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My assessment

Access to information

6. Mr X’s complaint about how the Council responded when he asked for information about his mother is best considered by the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO). The ICO is the body that deals with concerns about how organisations handle people’s data. There is not a good reason for us to consider the matter instead.
7. It is open to Mr Y to make a new request for information to the Council given that Mrs Y has since died. This is because the Council will have different factors to consider, given that Lasting Power of Attorney ceases to be in effect when a person has died.

Request for social care assessment

8. Mr X asked the Council in July 2024 to assess his mother, due to his concerns about her decision to move into residential care. His complaint included that the Council did not provide a response to him following his initial conversation with it.
9. The Council acknowledged in its complaint response to Mr X that it may have caused confusion for him about whether he should expect further contact after the initial telephone call with one of its staff. It apologised. We would be unlikely to achieve anything further in relation to this part of the complaint, even if we investigated the matter further, as the Council’s apology is sufficient for the impact of any fault in this respect.
10. It is also unlikely further investigation by us would lead to a different outcome in relation to Mr X’s request the Council assess Mrs Y. Any fault in this respect did not affect the outcome, because Mrs Y died a little over a month after Mr X’s request. Even had the Council decided to assess Mrs Y, it would not have completed the assessment by the time she died. The outcome would not have been any different and we could not therefore say any fault had caused an injustice.

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Final decision

11. We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint because the Information Commissioner’s Office is best placed to deal with complaints about how organisations handle requests for information, and we could not achieve a worthwhile outcome for Mr X by investigating the other matters he complains about.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman