Summary: The Ombudsman will not investigate Mr X’s complaint. He has not been caused any significant injustice by the Council using a single point of contact and the Information Commissioner’s Office is better placed to consider his information complaint.

The complaint

1. The complainant, whom I shall call Mr X, says the Council has unreasonably restricted his contact with it and has not properly replied to a request for information.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

2. 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)
3. 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 the injustice is not significant enough to justify the cost of our involvement. (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended)

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How I considered this complaint

4. I considered the information Mr X provided with his complaint. Mr X had the opportunity to comment on a draft version of this decision.

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What I found

5. Mr X says the Council told him it will only communicate with him through a single point of contact. The Council says this is because of the large amount of correspondence it says Mr X had sent it. Mr X says this is not necessary. He says this is not fair. He says it means he cannot correspond with the officers he wants to. He says it restricts him from asking legitimate questions.
6. Mr X says that in December 2019 he asked the Council to provide him with information it held about him. He says the Council has not properly replied to this. He says he has not even had a minimal response.

Analysis

7. Mr X has the right to apply to the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) about his information request. Parliament set up the ICO to deal with data protection requests, which includes the request for information. It is reasonable to expect Mr X to use the ICO and they are better placed to decide this issue.
8. The Council using a single point of contact does not prevent Mr X from asking any questions or seeking information. It does not cause Mr X any significant injustice.

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Final decision

9. The Ombudsman will not investigate this complaint. This is because he has not been caused any significant injustice by the use of a single point of contact and the ICO is better placed to consider his information complaint.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman