Summary: Mr X says the Council wrongly recorded him as a sex offender and failed to answer his Subject Access Request properly. We will not investigate. This is because it is reasonable for Mr X to complain to the Information Commissioner’s Office as it is better placed to deal with his information request. And there are no good reasons to look at the Council’s records on Mr X as it happened in 2016 outside our usual 12-month time frame for accepting complaints.

The complaint

1. Mr X says the Council wrongly recorded him as a sex offender in 2016 and this has caused him to be threatened with violence. He has put in a Subject Access Request for his records, but the Council has failed to respond properly

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

2. We investigate complaints about ‘maladministration’ and ‘service failure’. 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 cannot investigate late complaints unless we decide there are good reasons. Late complaints are when someone takes more than 12 months to complain to us about something a council has done. (Local Government Act 1974, sections 26B and 34D, as amended)

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How I considered this complaint

4. I considered information provided by the complainant. And I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.

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My assessment

5. We will not investigate this complaint. This is because it is reasonable for Mr X to refer the matter to the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO). This is because the ICO is the body with specific powers and expertise to investigate the Council’s information handling practices.
6. The Information Commissioner’s Officer has powers - which the Ombudsman does not - to require Councils to comply with its information rights obligations. So, it can consider how the Council responded to Mr X’s request.
7. We will not look at what happened with the Council’s records in 2016 concerning Mr X as it concerns events outside of our usual 12-month time frame for accepting complaints. I see no good reasons to investigate now especially given Mr X can pursue the issue of inaccurate records with the Information Commissioner’s office.

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Final decision

8. I will not investigate this complaint as the Information Commissioner is better placed.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman