Summary: We will not investigate Miss X’s complaint about the Council’s handling of council tax arrears. This is because the matter is subject to court proceedings. The Information Commissioner is better placed to consider how the Council has dealt with Miss X’s requests for information.

The complaint

1. Miss X complains about how the Council has dealt with council tax arrears. She says she does not consider that she should be liable to pay council tax, that a fake court summons has been issued, and that the Council has failed to provide information that she has requested about how council tax is spent.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

2. The Local Government Act 1974 sets out our powers but also imposes restrictions on what we can investigate.
3. We cannot investigate a complaint about the start of court action or what happened in court. (Local Government Act 1974, Schedule 5/5A, paragraph 1/3, as amended)
4. 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

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

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My assessment

7. The Council issued Miss X a summons for council tax arrears. Miss X says she is not liable for the arrears and that the summons sent to her was fake. She has asked the Council to provide information about how council tax is spent and has submitted a freedom of information (FoI) request to the Council.
8. The Council has provided Miss X with a spreadsheet showing how it spends council tax and a copy of a precept showing how much council tax is requested from other Councils. The Council has told Miss X what legislation governs council tax liability and has given her details about how the summons was issued.
9. I cannot investigate Miss X’s complaint about council tax liability or the issuing of the summons. The law prevents us from investigating any matter that forms part of legal proceedings.
10. I will not investigate how the Council dealt with Miss X’s requests for information. If Miss X is dissatisfied with the Council’s handling of her FoI request or if she feels the Council is withholding information which she is entitled to see, it is reasonable for her to raise this with the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO). The ICO are best placed to deal with complaints about how bodies respond to information requests.

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Final decision

11. We will not investigate Miss X’s complaint because the matter is subject to court proceedings and the ICO are better placed to deal with her complaint about how the Council dealt with her requests for information.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman