Summary: The Ombudsman will not investigate Mr X’s complaint that he has not been able to borrow a from a Council library he wants to read. There is insufficient personal injustice caused to Mr X by the matter to justify an Ombudsman investigation.

The complaint

1. Mr X complains he cannot borrow a book from the Council library. He says the book is in a prison library, so the Council says it cannot get it for him.
2. Mr X says he should be able to borrow and read the book. He wants the Council to get the book for him.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

3. 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’.
4. 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 the injustice is not significant enough to justify our involvement. (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended)

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How I considered this complaint

5. As part of my assessment I have:
• considered the complaint and the documents provided by Mr X;
• issued a draft decision, inviting Mr X to reply.

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What I found

6. The Ombudsman will not investigate Mr X’s complaint. I say this because the matter has not caused Mr X a significant personal injustice.
7. Mr X’s claimed injustice is that he cannot read the book he wants from the Council’s library service. Mr X could remove that injustice by buying a copy of the book, which would cost him a small sum. I consider it is not a proportionate or appropriate use of the Ombudsman’s limited resources for him to investigate Mr X’s complaint.
8. I note the Council initially advised Mr X the book would be available to him. Once it realised this error, it explained to Mr X how the error had happened, explained why the book was unavailable to Council library users, and said it would provide staff training so the error would be less likely in future.
9. I recognise it would have been annoying for Mr X to be told he could order the book, to be told later it could not be ordered as it was bought for and belonged to the prison library scheme. But that annoyance is not sufficient injustice to warrant an Ombudsman investigation.

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Final decision

10. The Ombudsman should not investigate this complaint. This is because there is insufficient personal injustice to Mr X to warrant an Ombudsman investigation.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman