Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about the Council’s use of the complainant’s personal information. Our intervention would not add anything significant to the response the Council has already made, and the complainant can bring her concerns about the misuse of her information to the attention of the Information Commissioner’s Office.

The complaint

1. The complainant, Miss X, complains that the Council obtained and viewed her personal material without her consent.

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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:

• we could not add to any previous investigation by the organisation, or
• there is another body better placed to consider the complaint.

(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.
4. I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.

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My assessment

5. Miss X complains about the actions of a social worker during the consideration of a safeguarding matter. Miss X says pictures and videos she had made were mentioned by a third party as being relevant, and she offered to show them to the social worker. He declined.
6. Miss X says the material was subsequently provided to the social worker by the third party. Miss X complains that the social worker obtained and viewed it without her knowledge or consent.
7. In response to Miss X’s complaint, the Council accepts that the social worker should have accepted the material when Miss X initially offered it, but denies that it was at fault in obtaining or viewing it. It says the material has not been retained on its files.
8. The Ombudsman will not investigate this complaint. The Council has made a reasonable and proportionate response, and it is unlikely investigation would add anything significant. It is not for us to say whether the material was confidential, as Miss X states, and her permission was required to view it. If Miss X believes her personal information was wrongly obtained or used, she may bring her concerns to the attention of the Information Commissioner’s Office, which is better placed than the Ombudsman to consider them.

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Final decision

9. We will not investigate Miss X’s complaint because our intervention would not add anything significant to the response the Council has already made.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman