Summary: The Ombudsman will not investigate Mr X’s complaint about the conduct of a member of staff at a council library. This is because there is not enough evidence of fault causing significant personal injustice. It is also unlikely we could add anything to the Council’s response, and we cannot achieve the outcome Mr X wants.

The complaint

1. The complainant, whom I shall call Mr X, complains about the way a member of staff at a council library spoke to him. Mr X wants the member of staff to apologise and explain their actions.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

2. 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’. 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, or
• it is unlikely we could add to any previous investigation by the Council, or
• it is unlikely further investigation will lead to a different outcome, or
• we cannot achieve the outcome someone wants. (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended)

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How I considered this complaint

3. I considered Mr X’s complaint to the Ombudsman and the information he provided. I also gave Mr X the opportunity to comment on a draft statement before reaching a final decision on his complaint.

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What I found

4. Mr X says he visited a council library to borrow a specific book. Mr X says he arrived at the library and spoke to a member of staff at the entrance. The council officer said the library was not open despite signs to the contrary. Mr X says he was told he would need to telephone to find out if a specific book was available. Mr X says the member of staff eventually went into the library and a colleague said the book was out on loan. The original member of staff told Mr X they did not know how he could find out when the book would be returned or how he could reserve it.
5. Mr X complained to the Council. He said he wanted the member of staff to contact him and to “explain her conduct and apologise personally”. Mr X also said he wanted to know how be could borrow the book he originally wanted without having to go back to the library.
6. In its responses to Mr X’s complaints the Council said:
• Staff are restricted to certain roles and the officer Mr X spoke to could not leave their position at the entrance.
• A senior manager had spoken to the member of staff Mr X had complained about.
• It was sorry Mr X was dissatisfied with his visit to the library.
• Requests for specific books which are out on loan, or in another branch, are not currently available in any Derbyshire library due to the restrictions imposed by Covid-19. When the request service becomes available again this will be publicised.
7. The Ombudsman is publicly funded and must use its resources carefully. We do not investigate all the complaints we receive. In deciding whether to investigate we need to consider if the person complaining has suffered significant personal injustice as a direct result of the actions or inactions of the Council. We also need to decide what more an investigation could achieve.
8. It is clear Mr X is unhappy with the way he was spoken to. But I do not consider there to be enough evidence of fault causing significant personal injustice to warrant an investigation by the Ombudsman. Also, I was not there at the time, and so it would be difficult to reach a safe conclusion about how Mr X was spoken to.
9. The Council has responded to Mr X’s complaints, spoken to the member of staff concerned, offered an apology, and explained that it will publicise its request service when it becomes available. This would allow Mr X to reserve the book he wants to borrow. Mr X would like the member of staff to personally apologise. But the Ombudsman investigates complaints about councils as corporate entities. We do not investigate the actions of individual council officers and we have no powers to instruct an employee to apologise. I do not therefore see what more an investigation by the Ombudsman could achieve, and we cannot give Mr X the outcome he wants.

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Final decision

10. The Ombudsman will not investigate Mr X’s complaint. This is because there is not enough evidence of fault causing significant personal injustice. It is also unlikely we could add anything to the Council’s response, and we cannot achieve the outcome Mr X wants.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman