Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about the Council closing the gate to a cemetery early. The injustice arising from the alleged fault is not significant enough to warrant our continued involvement.

The complaint

1. Mrs X complains the Council locked the gates to a cemetery 50 minutes early, and gave conflicting explanations in its subsequent complaint responses as to what might have happened.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

2. We can 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:

• any fault has not caused injustice to the person who complained, or
• any injustice is not significant enough to justify our involvement.

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

3. With regard to the two bullet points above, 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.
4. And it is not a good use of public resources to investigate complaints about complaint procedures, if we are unable to deal with the substantive issue.

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How I considered this complaint

5. I considered information provided by Mrs X and the Council, which included their complaint correspondence.
6. I also considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.

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My assessment

7. I appreciate it may have been frustrating, inconvenient and upsetting for Mrs X when she could not access the cemetery to tend to a family grave.
8. But, on balance, I am not persuaded the injustice caused by this one-off alleged fault is significant enough to warrant the Ombudsman starting an investigation into the matter.
9. And as we are not investigating the substantive issue being complained about, it would not be a good use of our resources to pursue Mrs X’s concerns about the Council’s complaint handling in isolation.

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Final decision

10. We will not investigate Mrs X’s complaint because the injustice caused by the alleged fault is not significant enough to warrant our continued involvement in the matter.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman