Summary: Mr X is unhappy with how the Council handled his complaint after he raised concerns about events which took place during COVID-19. We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint. This is because there is not enough evidence Mr X has been caused significant personal injustice. Also, we will not investigate a council’s complaint handling as a standalone issue.

The complaint

1. The complainant, whom I shall call Mr X, raised various concerns with the Council during COVID-19. Mr X then complained because he was unhappy with the responses he received from councillors and officers. Mr X is unhappy with the way the Council dealt with his complaint.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

2. This complaint involves events that occurred during the COVID-19 pandemic. The Government introduced a range of new and frequently updated rules and guidance during this time. We can consider whether the council followed the relevant legislation, guidance and our published “Good Administrative Practice during the response to COVID-19”.
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 fault has not caused injustice to the person who complained, or
• the injustice is not significant enough to justify our involvement. (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended)

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How I considered this complaint

4. I considered Mr X’s complaint to the Ombudsman and the information he provided. I also gave Mr X the opportunity to comment on a draft statement before reaching a final decision on his complaint.

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What I found

What happened

5. I have briefly set out below the background to Mr X’s complaint. It is not meant to show everything that happened.
6. Mr X contacted the Council in April 2020 about relatives visiting households during national lockdown. Mr X chased a response in April and in July complained to the leader of the Council. In his complaint, Mr X said the councillor with responsibility for health had passed his concerns to the councillor with responsibility for housing. Mr X said he had not received a response.
7. The leader of the Council responded. Mr X was unhappy with the response and submitted a complaint to the Council about:
• the councillors with responsibility for health and housing;
• the Environmental Health team’s failure to respond to his original complaint; and
• the leader of the Council’s “persistent attempts to obfuscate everything” Mr X said.
8. In its responses to Mr X the Council said:
• The enforcement of COVID-19 regulations relating to visits during lockdown rested with the Police. The Council’s role was mainly around ensuring businesses complied with COVID-19 legislation.
• Mr X could contact the Housing Association responsible for the properties where the visits had taken place.
• The councillors Mr X dealt with had accurately described the Council’s powers.
• The Council has a specific procedure for considering complaints about councillors. It provided Mr X with details of the process.
9. Mr X complained to the Ombudsman. He says his complaint “is not about this council failing to act over its Covid responsibilities. It is absolutely about how they handled my complaint for failing to deal with my complaints about how they treated my complaint”.

Assessment

10. We do not investigate all the complaints we receive. In deciding whether to investigate we need to consider various tests. These include the alleged injustice to the person complaining. We only investigate the complaints we consider the most serious.
11. While Mr X says his complaint is not about the issues he first raised with the Council, but its handling of his complaint, we must consider the matter which gave rise to the original complaint. In this case, there is no evidence to show Mr X has been caused significant personal injustice by the matters he first complained about.
12. We will not separately investigate the Council’s handling of Mr X’s complaint – the main reason he contacted the Ombudsman. We do not investigate complaint handling as a standalone issue if we are not going to look at the issue which led to the original complaint. This is because any injustice from a council’s complaint handling is unlikely to be significant enough to warrant an investigation. This applies here.

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Final decision

13. We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint. This is because there is not enough evidence Mr X has been caused significant personal injustice and we will not investigate a council’s complaint handling as a standalone issue.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman