Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about an unsuccessful application for a Blue Badge. This is because the complaint does not meet the tests in our Assessment Code on how we decide which complaints to investigate. There is insufficient evidence of fault by the Council.

The complaint

1. Mr X, complains about the Council’s decision not to award a Blue Badge to his daughter, Y. He says the Council did not follow the guidance for processing Blue Badge applications.

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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.

(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 Mr X and the Council.
4. I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.

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My assessment

5. Mr X says it was not necessary for the Council to refer the application to an expert assessor as he had provided relevant information about Y’s medical diagnosis.
6. However, the guidance says:

“3.7 It is important that applicants, at the initial application stage are asked to provide detailed information about their condition and how it causes them to:

• be unable to walk
• experience very considerable difficulty whilst walking, which may include very considerable psychological distress
• be at risk of serious harm when walking; or pose, when walking, a risk of serious harm to any other person”

and

“4.26 People who may be issued with a badge after further assessment are those who are more than three years old and may be described as one or more of the following:

• a person who drives a vehicle regularly, has a severe disability in both arms and is unable to operate, or has considerable difficulty in operating, all, or some types of parking meter; or
• a person who has been certified” by an expert assessor as having an enduring and substantial disability which causes them, during the course of a journey, to be unable to walk, experience very considerable difficulty whilst walking, which may include very considerable psychological distress
• in addition, they may be at risk of serious harm when walking - or pose, when walking, a risk of serious harm to any other person

4.27 Persons needing such certification are those in whose case a local authority does not consider it self-evident that they fall within these descriptors. (See regulation 4 (3A) of the Disabled Persons (Badges for Motor Vehicles) (England) Regulations 2000. (S.I.2000 No.682) [footnote 14].

If it is not self-evident to a local authority on the basis of the information available to them, from the applicant and health or social care practitioners, whether the applicant falls within these descriptors, then a referral should be made to an expert assessor for certification.

7. In this case, Mr X provided information of Y’s medical diagnosis. But it was not obvious her disability caused her to experience “very considerable difficulty whilst walking, which may include very considerable psychological distress or be at risk of serious harm when walking - or pose, when walking, a risk of serious harm to any other person.” Therefore it followed the guidance by referring the application to an expert assessor.

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Final decision

8. We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint because there is insufficient evidence of fault in the way the Council processed Y’s Blue Badge application.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman