Summary: We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint about the Council’s refusal to allow him to attend a training course. This is because there is not enough evidence of fault by the Council and the injustice Mr X claims is not significant enough to warrant investigation.

The complaint

1. The complainant, Mr X, complains the Council refused him entry to a training course for a private hire vehicle driver’s licence. He says he paid £40 for the course and should have been allowed to attend.

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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 effect 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 the tests set out in our Assessment Code are not met. (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended)

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How I considered this complaint

3. I considered information provided by Mr X and the Council.
4. I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.

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My assessment

5. The Council’s website states that when attending the course delegates must provide a printed or electronic copy of the email booking confirmation along with photographic identification. It says “Failure to produce the documents on request will lead to you being refused entry to the course.”
6. The Council says Mr X could not provide evidence of his email booking confirmation and the trainer therefore correctly refused him entry. It explained this policy exists to deal with instances of third parties booking places and selling them on at a higher cost.
7. The Council’s approach was consistent with its published policy and there is not enough evidence of fault in its actions to warrant further investigation. The amount he paid for the course is also not significant enough to justify investigating the matter further.
8. Mr X is also unhappy with what he describes as rude, unprofessional and arrogant behaviour by the trainer but we could not effectively investigate this issue. We cannot know exactly what was said or in what way and we canont therefore reach a view about whether their actions were offensive, as Mr X claims, or simply “firm”, as suggested by the Council. The Council has apologised if Mr X felt they were offensive but confirmed this was not the trainer’s intention.

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Final decision

9. We will not investigate this complaint. This is because there is not enough evidence of fault by the Council or to show its actions caused Mr X significant injustice.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman