Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about Transport for London’s handling of Ms X’s private hire driver licence renewal. There is insufficient evidence of fault to justify investigating.

The complaint

1. Ms X complains about Transport for London’s (TfL) request that she provide updated identification documents which include her middle name, in order to renew her private hire driver licence. She is also unhappy with its handling of her complaint.

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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. We cannot investigate late complaints unless we decide there are good reasons. Late complaints are when someone takes more than 12 months to complain to us about something a council has done. (Local Government Act 1974, sections 26B and 34D, as amended)

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How I considered this complaint

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

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My assessment

6. Ms X says TfL issued her a license in 2021 which included her middle name, despite this not appearing on her supporting identification documents. I will not investigate any complaint about this because it is late and there is no good reason to exercise discretion.
7. Ms X recently provided TfL with identification documents to support her renewal application; these did not include her middle name.
8. TfL said it requires Ms X’s identification documents to contain her middle name to match her full name as noted on her renewal application. This request is in line with TfL’s published policy which explains that names on application and identification documents should match. I appreciate Ms X is unhappy, but there is insufficient evidence of fault by TfL to justify an investigation.
9. It is not good use of public resources to investigate TfL’s complaint handling in isolation when I will not investigate the substantive matter being complained about.

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Final decision

10. We will not investigate Ms X’s complaint because there is insufficient evidence of fault to justify investigating.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman