Summary: We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint about an incident involving a Council employee. An investigation would be unlikely to lead to a different outcome.

The complaint

1. Mr X complains the Council has failed to uphold his complaint about the conduct of a Council employee during an incident. He says the matter has caused him distress.

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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 further investigation would not lead to a different outcome.

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

3. We consider whether there was fault in the way an organisation made its decision. If 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. Mr X states a Council employee was aggressive and verbally abusive towards him during an incident. He says he provided video evidence of the incident to the Council, but the Council failed to uphold his complaint or take any action.
7. In its complaint response, the Council states it has reviewed the video evidence Mr X provided. It said the footage did not show that the incident happened as Mr X had described and there was no audio on the recording, and so it was not able to substantiate his claims or uphold his complaint.
8. We will not investigate this complaint. I am satisfied the Council has appropriately considered his complaint and reviewed the footage before reaching its decision. Although I accept Mr X disagrees with the Council’s conclusions, as it has appropriately considered the matter, it is unlikely an investigation would lead to a different outcome.
9. Mr X also complains about delays responding to his complaint. We will not investigate this as it is not a good use of our resources to investigate complaints handling, where we decide not to investigate the substantive matter.

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Final decision

10. We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint because it is unlikely an investigation would lead to a different outcome.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman