Summary: We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint about how the Council dealt with his concerns about health and safety at his workplace. This is because there is insufficient evidence of fault.

The complaint

1. Mr X complains about how the Council dealt with his concerns about health and safety at his workplace.

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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. (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended, section 34(B))
3. 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)

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How I considered this complaint

4. I considered information provided by the complainant.
5. I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.

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My assessment

6. Upon receiving Mr X’s concerns, the Council spoke to his employer to gain an understanding of the issue. The employer said that its health and safety department had considered the function that formed the basis of Mr X’s complaint but considered it to be low risk and therefore no risk assessment was needed. It did however make some changes to the onboarding process for new members of staff.
7. The Council also considered the issue to be low risk and therefore concluded that it would take no further action.
8. The Ombudsman does not act as an appeal body. Instead, we consider if there was any fault with how the decision was made.
9. I will not investigate Mr X’s complaint because I do not consider there to be any evidence of fault with how the Council has dealt with Mr X’s concerns. The Council fully considered Mr X’s concerns along with other relevant information before reaching its decision to take no further action. Mr X may strongly disagree with the Council’s approach, but that does not mean it has done anything wrong.

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Final decision

10. We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint because there is insufficient evidence of fault by the Council.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman