Summary: We will not investigate Mr B’s complaint about the Council’s decision to reduce the number of computers available at libraries. This is because Mr B may complain to the Secretary of State, who is in the best position to consider this matter.

The complaint

1. Mr B complains the Council has reduced the number of computers available at libraries across the Council’s area including his local library. Mr B says the Council did not do a comprehensive assessment of computer usage and did not meet the legal requirement to undertake a full consultation process when making this decision.

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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 an investigation if we decide there is another body better placed to consider this complaint.

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

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How I considered this complaint

3. I considered information provided by Mr B.
4. I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.

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My assessment

5. Library authorities have a statutory duty under the Public Libraries and Museums Act 1964 to provide a comprehensive and efficient library service for all persons who live, work or study in the area.
6. We do not normally investigate complaints about cuts to a library service or inadequate resources. This is because it is up to each council to decide the level of funding it puts into its library service and it is not our role to tell a council how it should operate such a service.
7. Also, if a person considers that changes to a council’s library service mean it is no longer ‘comprehensive or efficient’, a person may make an official complaint to the Secretary of State at the Department for Culture, Media, and Sport.
8. The Secretary of State is in the best position to consider a complaint about a change made by a council to its library service as a whole. This includes complaints about whether a council followed the correct decision-making process before implementing the change.
9. Mr B may make this complaint, including his concerns about whether the Council met relevant legal requirements when making this decision, to the Secretary of State.
10. The Secretary of State is better placed to consider this complaint. So, we will not investigate Mr B’s complaint.

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Final decision

11. We will not investigate Mr B’s complaint because there is another body better placed to consider this complaint.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman