Summary: The Ombudsman will not investigate Ms X’s complaint the Council failed to provide her with the documents it holds about her family. The Information Commissioner’s Office is better placed.

The complaint

1. The complainant, whom I shall call Ms X, says the Council has failed to provide documents and information she requested.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

2. We investigate complaints about ‘maladministration’ and ‘service failure’. In this statement, I have used the word 'fault' to refer to these. We must also consider whether any fault has had an adverse impact on the person making the complaint. I refer to this as ‘injustice’. We provide a free service, but must use public money carefully. We may decide not to start or continue with an investigation if we believe there is another body better placed to consider this complaint. (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended)
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 the information Ms X provided with her complaint and another Council, Y’s, response to her. I considered Ms X’s comments on a draft version of this decision.

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What I found

5. Ms X asked this Council for documents and information it held about her family. She says the Council referred her to an agency which now holds all the documents on this Council’s behalf. Ms X contacted the agency. She also believes she found that another Council, Y, as the Council in which the agency is located, was responsible for that agency’s actions.
6. The agency works for several councils. When it does so, it is carrying out the Council’s legal duty on its behalf. The legal duties remain with the original Council. Here this Council, Richmond, was the Council who created some of the paperwork and for whom the agency carried out work.
7. Ms X has made a request to be provided with documents to comply with a duty to do so under the Data Protection Act. Parliament set up the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) to consider breaches of that Act. Whether a body has complied with a subject access request, which is the request Ms X made, is a decision the ICO can make. It is more appropriate for it to consider Ms X’s complaint.

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Final decision

8. The Ombudsman will not investigate this complaint. This is because the ICO is better placed.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman