Summary: We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint about a penalty notice. This is because we have not seen enough evidence of significant injustice to warrant our involvement.

The complaint

1. Mr X complains the Council issued a penalty notice for his child’s absence from school. He said the penalty notice letter did not include the grounds for when the penalty may be withdrawn.
2. Mr X also complains the Council unlawfully issued penalty notices to other people. He said these penalty notices also did not contain the grounds for when they could be withdrawn.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

3. The Local Government Act 1974 sets out our powers but also imposes restrictions on what we can investigate.
4. 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 any injustice is not significant enough to justify our involvement (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended, section 34(B))

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How I considered this complaint

5. I considered information provided by Mr X and the Council.
6. I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.

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My assessment

7. The Council issued a penalty notice due to Mr X’s child’s absence from school. However, Mr X complained and the Council accepted the penalty notice did not include the wording of the grounds on which the penalty could be withdrawn.
8. The Council agreed to cancel the penalty notice.
9. We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint as we do not consider he has suffered significant personal injustice that justifies a further investigation. This is because the Council has already accepted the penalty notice did not include the required wording and agreed to withdraw it.
10. We note Mr X’s comments about penalty notices incorrectly issued by the Council to other people. We cannot investigate other people’s penalty notices as part of Mr X’s complaint because any other affected person can complain to us separately.

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Final decision

11. We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint because we have not seen enough evidence of significant injustice to justify a further investigation by us.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman