Summary: We will not investigate this complaint that Ms X wrongly received letters from the Council’s enforcement agents about someone else’s council tax debt as any alleged Council fault did not cause Ms X a level of injustice that would justify our further involvement.

The complaint

1. Ms X complains letters were sent to her address by the Council’s enforcement agent (EA) about someone else’s council tax debt, even after the Council had advised her such contact would cease. Ms X feels the behaviour constituted harassment and was unnecessary as she considers the Council should have known the debt was not connected to her. Ms X also feels there has been a breach of her privacy as she considers her personal information was wrongly passed to the EA.

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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 alleged fault has not caused significant injustice to the person who complained (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended, section 34(B))
3. We normally expect someone to refer the matter to the Information Commissioner if they have a complaint about data protection. However, we may decide to investigate if we think there are good reasons. (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended)

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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. I recognise that Ms X remains dissatisfied with what took place, particularly as she explains she received a further letter from the EA after the Council had told her such contact would cease. Information the Council sent to us indicates that two days after this, the EA provided its complaint response to Ms X, explaining why it had sent letters to her address and to confirm that no further contact would be made. I appreciate Ms X remains upset but we have limited resources and must direct them to the most serious cases. I do not consider this to be such a case; no further issues have been reported to us, and we will not investigate.
7. The Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) is the UK’s independent regulator in respect of data protection matters and is best placed to respond to any concerns Ms X has about how the Council/its EA handled and processed her personal data. As such, we will not investigate this aspect of the complaint.

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Final decision

8. We will not investigate Ms X’s complaint because there is insufficient remaining injustice caused to her from any alleged Council fault and the data protection matters are best dealt with by the ICO.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman