Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about how the Council asked a business for information about an employee. There is not enough evidence of fault to justify investigating.

The complaint

1. Mr X owns a business. He complained the Council refused to pay him an administrative fee after it asked him to provide information about an employee. He said the Council bullied him into providing the information for free by threatening him with legal action. Mr X wants the Council to apologise and financially reimburse his business for costs it sustained in providing the information.
2. Mr X also complained the Council delayed in responding to his complaint.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

3. The Ombudsman investigates 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 may decide not to continue with an investigation if we decide:

• there is not enough evidence of fault to justify investigating, or
• any injustice is not significant enough to justify our involvement.

(Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6))

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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

6. The Council wrote to Mr X asking for information about an employee and under what legislation he was required to provide that information. In its complaint response, it said it would not pay him an administrative fee for that information as under data protection legislation he had an obligation to provide it for free. It said it was appropriate for officers to tell Mr X his refusal to provide the requested information amounted to an offence under legislation. It said that was not bullying.
7. Although Mr X is unhappy with the Council’s response, we will not investigate this complaint further. The Council has:
• set out the legislative grounds for its request for information; and
• confirmed why Mr X was required to provide that information free of charge.
8. We would not expect the Council to pay Mr X to provide information which he is obliged to provide for free. Therefore, there is not enough evidence of fault in the Council’s actions to justify our investigating. In addition, the cost to Mr X in providing the information is not significant enough to justify our involvement.
9. We will also not investigate Mr X’s complaint about delays in the Council’s complaint handling. The Council has already apologised and I am satisfied that remedies any injustice caused. In any event, it is not a good use of public resources to investigate complaints about complaint processes where we are not looking at the substantive manner.

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Final decision

10. We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint because there is not enough evidence of fault to justify our involvement.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman