Summary: The Ombudsman will not investigate Mrs B’s complaint that the Council has made a false allegation against her. This is because we cannot achieve the outcome Mrs B is seeking.

The complaint

1. The complainant, who I will refer to as Mrs B, complains that the Council has made a false allegation against her and has refused to either provide evidence for it or remove it from its records.

Back to top

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 it is unlikely further investigation will lead to a different outcome, or we cannot achieve the outcome someone wants.(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)

Back to top

How I considered this complaint

4. I have considered what Mrs B has said in support of her complaint and the correspondence she has provided. I have also considered her response to my draft decision.

Back to top

What I found

5. Mrs B’s grandson is in the Council’s care. Mrs B says social workers accused her of making a derogatory comment about the Council to her grandson during a contact telephone call. Mrs B denies making such a comment.
6. Mrs B says the Council initially said her grandson reported the comment, but later said his foster carer had done so. Mrs B wants the Council to provided evidence that she made the comment, or remove it from her grandson’s records. The Council has declined to take any further action on the matter but has offered to add a statement of Mrs B’s views to the file. Mrs B regards this as insufficient and wants the matter investigated further.
7. The Ombudsman will not investigate Mrs B’s complaint because it is unlikely we would achieve anything significant by doing so. It is not for us to establish whether the comment was made, so our involvement would not lead to a different outcome. Our role is to consider the Council’s actions, not those of a third party.
8. The Council’s case files set out the Council’s understanding at the point at which they were made. Therefore, even if it was established that the statement was never made, we would not ask a Council to delete part of its records. The most we would be likely to ask for in the circumstances is for the Council to add a statement from Mrs B to the case file. The Council has already offered to do so and there is nothing further to be gained by our involvement.
9. If Mrs B believes the Council holds false information about her which she wants rectified, she may bring the matter to the attention of the Information Commissioner. The Information Commissioner is better placed than the Ombudsman to consider the matter. We will not intervene.

Back to top

Final decision

10. The Ombudsman will not investigate this complaint. This is because we cannot achieve the outcome Mrs B is seeking.

Back to top

Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman