Summary: We will not investigate Miss X’s complaint about the Council’s decision to refuse her application for a Blue Badge. This is because there is not enough evidence of fault by the Council.

The complaint

1. Miss X complains about the Council’s decision to refuse her application for a Blue Badge. She says the Council has failed to properly assess her eligibility for a badge and her consultant supports her application.

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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 do not start an investigation if we decide the tests set out in our Assessment Code are not met. (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended)
3. We do not start 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))
4. We consider whether there was fault in the way an organisation made its decision. If there was no fault in how the organisation made its decision, we cannot question the outcome. (Local Government Act 1974, section 34(3), as amended)

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How I considered this complaint

5. I considered information provided by Miss X and the Council.
6. I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.

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My assessment

7. Miss X applied to the Council for a Blue Badge. She provided evidence in support of her application.
8. The Department for Transport’s (DfT) Blue Badge Scheme helps people with severe physical mobility problems, or other conditions affecting their mobility, to access goods and services. The guidance says councils must make sure they only issue badges to residents who satisfy one or more of the criteria set out in legislation.
9. There are two types of eligibility criteria:
• where a person is eligible without further assessment, they will receive a Blue Badge.
• where a person is eligible subject to further assessment, they have to fulfil one or more of three criteria to qualify for a badge. They must:
• drive a vehicle regularly, have a severe disability in both arms and be unable to operate, or have considerable difficulty operating all or some types of parking meter; or
• have been certified by an expert assessor as having an enduring or substantial disability, which causes them, during the course of a journey, to be unable to walk or experience very considerable difficulty walking, which may include very considerable psychological distress; or
• be at risk of serious harm when walking or pose a serious risk of harm to any other person.
10. The Council refused Miss X’s application. It considered the information she provided but said these did not show Miss X currently meets the mobility eligibility criteria for issuing of a Blue Badge.
11. Miss X appealed the Council’s decision. The Council considered the additional information Miss X provided, but it did not cause it to alter its decision that she is not currently eligible for a Blue Badge.
12. We will not investigate Miss X’s complaint. This is because there is insufficient evidence of fault by the Council here to warrant an investigation. It has assessed and decided Miss X’s application in line with the relevant DfT guidance, the in-person assessment and the information Miss X provided. Whilst I note Miss X says her consultant supported the application, the decision on eligibility is for the Council to make via the information provided and the expert assessor.
13. We are not an appeal body. This means we do not take a second look at the Council’s decision to decide if it was wrong. Instead, we look at the processes the Council followed to make its decision. If we consider, as here, that it followed those processes correctly we cannot question whether the decision was right or wrong, regardless of whether Miss X disagrees with it.

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Final decision

14. We will not investigate Miss X’s complaint because insufficient evidence of fault in the way the Council considered her application for a Blue Badge.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman