West Midlands Fire Service (24 020 716)
Category : Environment and regulation > Health and safety
Decision : Closed after initial enquiries
Decision date : 10 Jun 2025
The Ombudsman's final decision:
Summary: We will not investigate this complaint the Fire Service has not taken enforcement action against a community venue. There is not enough evidence of fault to justify our involvement.
The complaint
- Mr X complained about the Fire Service’s decision not to take enforcement action against a community venue (the Venue). He said the Fire Service had completed an inspection and identified the Venue needed to improve its fire safety however the Venue had not taken the required action. He said the lack of enforcement action placed people using the Venue at risk.
The Ombudsman’s role and powers
- We investigate complaints of injustice caused by ‘maladministration’ and ‘service failure’. I have used the word fault to refer to these. We consider whether there was fault in the way an organisation made its decision. If there was no fault in how the organisation made its decision, we cannot question the outcome. (Local Government Act 1974, section 34(3), as amended)
- 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.
(Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended, section 34(B))
How I considered this complaint
- I considered information provided by the complainant and the Authority.
- I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.
My assessment
- In the Fire Service’s response to Mr X, it explained the issues identified by the inspecting officer were assessed to be minor in relation to risk. It said they did not meet the threshold for formal enforcement action. It confirmed a senior fire safety manager had completed a further visit to the venue and agreed with the initial assessment.
- We will not investigate this complaint. The Fire Service has completed two visits and made its decision not to enforce in line with its policy on enforcement. This states it will take non-statutory action where the assessed risk is low. It also confirmed it has had further contact with the Venue. There is not enough evidence of fault in how the Fire Service made its decision to justify our involvement.
Final decision
- We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint because there is not enough evidence off fault to justify our involvement.
Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman