Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about the Council’s handling of the Fixed Penalty Notice issued to Ms X for littering. This is because the tests in our Assessment Code are not met and there are insufficient grounds to warrant an investigation.

The complaint

1. Ms X complains about the Council’s handling of the Fixed Penalty Notice (FPN) issued to her for littering. She says the Council made errors in the FPN and did not check her ID as required and that when she tried the Council’s website to appeal against the issuing of the FPN it did not work.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

2. 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:

• there is not enough evidence of fault to justify investigating, or
• any fault has not caused injustice to the person who complained, or
• any injustice is not significant enough to justify our involvement, or
• we could not add to any previous investigation by the organisation, or
• further investigation would not lead to a different outcome, or
• we cannot achieve the outcome someone wants, or
• there is no worthwhile outcome achievable by our investigation.

(Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended, section 34(B))

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How I considered this complaint

3. I considered information provided by the complainant, including the Council’s response to her complaint.
4. I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.

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My assessment

5. We do not investigate every complaint we receive and we will not investigate when the tests in our Assessment Code are not met.
6. While the Council has acknowledged there were some errors in the FPN issued to Ms X, she has accepted she did litter. Ms X says she tried the website to appeal and that as it did not work she paid the fine. However, had the website not been working, Ms X could have contacted the Council by other means to register her appeal had she wanted to challenge the issuing of the FPN.

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Final decision

7. We will not investigate Ms X’s complaint because the tests in our Assessment Code are not met and there are insufficient grounds to warrant an investigation.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman