Summary: We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint about the Council’s decision to redact information about him in a report. This is because there is another body better placed to consider this complaint.

The complaint

1. Mr X complains about the Council's handling of amendments made to a report concerning his family member. He says the Council previously accepted that the original report contained inaccurate information about him. However, when the amended report was provided, sections had been redacted without explanation.
2. Mr X also says the Council failed to respond adequately to his complaint and follow-up correspondence.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

3. 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 an investigation if we decide there is another body better placed to consider this complaint. (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended, section 34(B))
4. We will not usually investigate complaint handling if we are not investigating the rest of the complaint. This is because there is not usually enough injustice to justify us doing so. We collect information about particularly poor complaint handling practice and report this back to organisations. (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), section 34B(8))

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How I considered this complaint

5. I considered information provided by the complainant.
6. I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.

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My assessment

7. Mr X complained to the Council seeking explanations about the information about him that had been redacted. He asked the Council to confirm the reasons for redaction and if his personal information remained in the document.
8. We will not investigate. This is because the Information Commissioner is better placed to investigate. Parliament has established the Information Commissioner's Office as the regulator with powers and expertise to consider complaints about data protection including the appropriateness of redaction. The ICO can investigate how an organisation has handled personal information and decide if it has complied with data protection legislation.
9. While Mr X is also dissatisfied with the Council's complaint handling we would not investigate that as a separate issue when we are not looking at the core complaint. This is because we are unlikely to find sufficient evidence of injustice.

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Final decision

10. We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint as there is another body better placed to investigate.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman