Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about the Council’s decision on which publications it makes available in its public libraries. We are unlikely to find fault and there is no evidence of a personal injustice to Mrs X. In any case we could not achieve the outcome she is seeking.

The complaint

1. Mrs X was unhappy with the Council’s decision to allow free access to what she believed were books and other publications that had harmful content in its libraries. Mrs X believed; therefore, the Council were not adequately safeguarding children.

Back to top

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
• any fault has not caused injustice to the person who complained, or
• we cannot achieve the outcome someone wants.

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

Back to top

How I considered this complaint

3. I considered information provided by Mrs X and the Council.
4. I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.

Back to top

My assessment

5. Mrs X complained to the Council saying she had identified a category of books, available in the Council’s libraries, which she believed were harmful to children. Mrs X set out her reasons for why she believed this to be the case.
6. The Council considered Mrs X’s complaint and gave her an explanation for why it disagreed with her; this included a consideration of its public sector equality duty and reference to other guiding principles.
7. We will not investigate here, because it is unlikely we would find fault in the Council’s decision about the material it makes available in its libraries.
8. Nor is there any evidence the Council’s actions have caused Mrs X a personal injustice. We will normally only investigate a complaint where the complainant has suffered serious loss, harm, or distress as a direct result of faults or failures by an organisation. In addition, we will not normally investigate a complaint where the complainant is using their enquiry as a way of raising a wider community campaign about something of general concern but where they have not suffered injustice.
9. In any case, Mrs X wants the Council to remove this material and that is not something we could direct the Council to do.

Back to top

Final decision

10. We will not investigate Mrs X’s complaint because there is no worthwhile outcome we can achieve.

Back to top

Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman