Summary: We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint about the Council issuing him with a community protection warning. Mr X has not suffered an injustice significant enough to warrant our involvement.

The complaint

1. Mr X complains the Council issued him with a community protection warning (CPW) without explaining its reasons why or considering his submissions.
2. Mr X also complains the Council failed to properly respond to his complaint.
3. Mr X says the matter caused a negative impact to his mental health which led to him resigning from his job.

Back to top

The Ombudsman’s role and powers

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), section 34(B))
5. 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))

Back to top

How I considered this complaint

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

Back to top

My assessment

8. Mr X complained the Council issued him with a CPW but did not properly explain its reasons or consider his submissions. The CPW related to a dispute between neighbours.
9. Mr X said the matter impacted his mental health, and this led to him leaving his job.
10. Our role is to consider complaints where the person bringing the complaint has suffered significant personal injustice as a direct result of the actions or inactions of the organisation. This means we will normally only investigate a complaint where the complainant has suffered serious loss, harm, or distress as a direct result of faults or failures.
11. The available evidence does not suggest Mr X’s claimed injustice was caused by the fault he alleges. It appears Mr X’s injustice is caused mostly by the neighbour dispute.
12. I am not satisfied Mr X has suffered an injustice, which is attributable to the Council’s actions, significant enough to meet the threshold for our involvement. For this reason, we will not investigate this complaint.

Back to top

Final decision

13. We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint because he has not suffered a significant enough injustice to warrant our involvement.

Back to top

Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman