Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about the information the Council provided in response to a request by us. It is unlikely we would find fault in the Council’s actions.

The complaint

1. X complained the Council provided incorrect information in response to an enquiry request, we made about an earlier complaint X had registered with us. X said the Council’s actions meant they had their complaint closed on incorrect information and had to go to time and trouble to challenge our decision.

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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 there is not enough evidence of fault to justify investigating and there is no worthwhile outcome achievable by investigating. (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended, section 34(B))

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How I considered this complaint

3. I considered information provided by the complainant and I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.

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My assessment

4. X said the Council was at fault, because they believed it provided incorrect information to us, in response to an earlier complaint she had registered with us, that we were considering. They said because of this incorrect information, we decided we could not investigate their complaint because it was outside of our jurisdiction.
5. We had told X, in a separate letter, when we overturned our earlier decision, that the examination of the information the Council provided to us, was our responsibility and we had wrongly interpreted they had started court proceedings.
6. In the context of X’s new complaint made to us now, and having once again considered the information the Council provided to us for that earlier complaint, including copies of correspondence between the Council and X, the information it had provided was in line with our request. It is therefore unlikely we would find fault in the Council’s actions in complying with what we asked for, and I will not investigate X’s complaint.
7. X was unhappy the Council declined to consider a complaint about this matter. The evidence shows it signposted X to us. I will not investigate a complaint about complaint handling about this matter, because there is no worthwhile outcome achievable and it is not a good use of public money.

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Final decision

8. We will not investigate X’s complaint because it is unlikely we would find fault in the Council’s actions.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman