Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about the Council sharing personal data, a Council officer breaching the Equality Act 2010, and the Council’s failure to address the officer’s conduct. This is because the ICO is better placed to consider complaints about personal data handling, only the courts can decide if there has been a breach of the Equalities Act, there is insufficient evidence of Council fault, and we cannot investigate personnel issues. We cannot therefore achieve the result the complainant is seeking.

The complaint

1. Miss X complains about the Council unlawfully sharing her personal data, a Council officer’s conduct breaching the Equality Act 2010, and the Council’s failure to address the officer’s conduct.

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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, or
• we could not add to any previous investigation by the organisation, or
• further investigation would not lead to a different outcome, or
• there is another body better placed to consider this complaint.

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

3. The law says we cannot normally investigate a complaint when someone could take the matter to court. However, we may decide to investigate if we consider it would be unreasonable to expect the person to go to court. (Local Government Act 1974, section 26(6)(c), as amended)
4. We cannot investigate a complaint if it is about a personnel issue.

(Local Government Act 1974, Schedule 5/5a, paragraph 4, as amended.)

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How I considered this complaint

5. I considered information provided by Miss X including the Council’s responses to her complaint, and the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.

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My assessment

6. Miss X says a Council officer’s conduct when visiting her home breached the Equalities Act 2010. The Council says the officer visited to investigate a report about animal welfare received from a third party. The Council reviewed the doorbell camera footage provided by Miss X but was satisfied it did not show the officer behaving unacceptably or unprofessionally. Any other exchange between the officer and Miss X is not recorded, so we could not reach any conclusions about it.
7. We cannot decide if an organisation has breached the Act as this can only be done by the courts.
8. The Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) is the UK’s independent regulator in respect of data protection matters. It is best placed to determine if a data breach took place and if so, what action the Council should take in response.
9. I recognise Miss X may disagree with the Council’s conclusion on her complaint, but our role is not to act as an appeal body or overrule Council decisions. Instead, we look at the processes an organisation followed to make its decision. If we consider it followed those processes correctly, we cannot question whether the decision was right or wrong. There is insufficient evidence of fault in the Council’s approach to warrant further investigation.
10. We cannot investigate personnel issues and so cannot recommend disciplinary action.

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Final decision

11. We will not investigate this complaint. This is because:
• Only the courts can decide if there has been a breach of the Equality Act 2010;
• the ICO is better placed to consider personal data handling;
• we cannot investigate personnel issues or recommend disciplinary action; and
• there is insufficient evidence of Council fault so the matter does not warrant us investigating.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman