Summary: We cannot investigate Mr X’s complaint about lost revenue from a property not on the council tax list as this impacts all or most of the people in the Council’s area and so is not within our remit. Mr X is not caused a level of personal injustice from how the Council communicated with him about this to justify our further involvement.

The complaint

1. Mr X complained the Council failed to act on a potential fraud he reported to it whereby a property that had been deleted from the council tax list was being lived in. Mr X says this was unfair to taxpayers and resulted in a loss of public revenue, from unpaid council tax. Mr X complains the Council failed to provide him with information he requested about this matter and that he has spent a large amount of time on the case.

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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 something that affects all or most of the people in a council’s area. (Local Government Act 1974, section 26(7), as amended)
4. 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 fault has not caused injustice to the person who complained (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended, section 34(B))
5. 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

6. I considered information provided by the complainant.
7. I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.

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My assessment

8. We cannot investigate the Council’s administration of council tax on the property in question, as the injustice arising from this, potential loss of public revenue, impacts all or most of the people in the Council’s area. As per paragraph two, we cannot investigate such matters.
9. I recognise Mr X’s frustration, but he is not impacted to any greater degree from any lost revenue than any other taxpayer in the area. I also note that Mr X has spent time pursuing this matter, but this has been his own choice to do this and so I do not consider any Council fault in its communications with Mr X has directly caused him a significant injustice.
10. If Mr X believes he is entitled to the information he has requested from the Council, then he is best placed to make a complaint to the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO). It is the UK’s independent regulator of data protection matters and can determine if the Council has responded correctly to Mr X’s information requests.
11. For these reasons, we will not investigate.

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Final decision

12. We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint because the alleged substantive injustice impacts all or most of the people in the Council area and so the matter is not within our legal remit. Mr X is not directly caused a significant injustice from the alleged Council fault in how it has communicated with him about this issue and the ICO is best placed to decide if Mr X is entitled to the information he has requested.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman