Summary: The Ombudsman will not investigate Mr X’s complaint about the Council’s low emission taxi incentive scheme. The scheme was approved by the Secretary of State and the Council has properly applied it in Mr X’s case. It is unlikely we would find fault by the Council or that we could achieve anything for Mr X by investigating further.

The complaint

1. The complainant, Mr X, complains his new vehicle does not qualify for the Council’s low emission taxi incentive scheme. As a result he is not entitled to a grant of £1,500 towards its cost.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

2. 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:

• it is unlikely we would find fault, or
• the fault has not caused injustice to the person who complained, or
• the injustice is not significant enough to justify our involvement, or
• it is unlikely we could add to any previous investigation by the Council, or
• it is unlikely further investigation will lead to a different outcome, or
• we cannot achieve the outcome someone wants.

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

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How I considered this complaint

3. I reviewed Mr X’s complaint and the Council’s response. I shared my draft decision with Mr X and considered his comments.

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What I found

4. The Council operates a low emission taxi incentive scheme which provides cashback on licensing fees towards the cost of a new vehicle. Eligible vehicles include those which are fully electric, plug-in hybrid electric, full hybrid electric and vehicles which meet ‘Euro 5’ or ‘Euro 6’ emissions standards and seat between five and eight passengers, or are wheelchair accessible.
5. Mr X purchased a new ‘Euro 6’ diesel saloon car in 2019. The vehicle seats four passengers so does not quality for the scheme. Mr X is unhappy with this and complains the Council’s scheme is wrong and should include his new vehicle. He would like the Council to pay him £1,500 which is the amount operators would receive for larger Euro 5 and Euro 6 vehicles.
6. The Ombudsman will not investigate this complaint. The Council has explained to Mr X that its scheme was approved by the Secretary of State and it is not for us to say the decision to approve the scheme was wrong. The Council is entitled to set its criteria as it has done here and Mr X’s vehicle does not meet them. The information on the Council's website is clear about which vehicles are eligible and if Mr X wanted to claim the incentive it was for him to check his new vehicle was one of them. We cannot now force the Council to change its scheme and to issue Mr X the incentive retrospectively and it is therefore unlikely we could achieve anything for him.
7. Mr X is also unhappy with the way the Council has dealt with his complaint. But it is not a good use of public resources to look at the Council’s complaints handling if we are not going to look at the substantive issue complained about. We will not therefore investigate this issue separately.

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Final decision

8. The Ombudsman will not investigate this complaint. This is because it is unlikely we would find fault by the Council or that we could achieve any worthwhile outcome for Mr X.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman