Summary: Mr X complains the Council’s Community Governance Review was flawed and has put local democracy at risk. The Ombudsman will not investigate this complaint as he considers Mr X has not suffered any significant personal injustice.

The complaint

1. Mr X complains the Council’s Community Governance Review of a local parish was flawed. He also complains the Council breached data protection regulations by publishing information which could identify him.

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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:

• it is unlikely we would find fault
• the fault has not caused injustice to the person who complained
• the injustice is not significant enough to justify our involvement
• it is unlikely we could add to any previous investigation by the Council
• it is unlikely further investigation will lead to a different outcome

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

3. We normally expect someone to refer the matter to the Information Commissioner if they have a complaint about data protection. However, we may decide to investigate if we think there are good reasons. (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A (6), as amended)

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How I considered this complaint

4. I considered the information provided by Mr X and the Council. This includes his responses to the Council’s consultation, requests to and responses from the Council under the Freedom of Information Act and the Community Governance Review report.
5. Mr X commented on the draft version of this decision.

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What I found

6. Mr X complains the Council review of the community governance of a local parish was flawed in many ways. This includes renaming the parish council which he says was already correctly named and prosing to reduce the number of parish councillors. He says this has out local democracy at risk. He also says he has suffered personal injustice because the Council’s report does not address any of the points he made in response to the consultation. And because he can be identified he has been has opened public ridicule.
7. The Ombudsman will not normally investigate a complaint unless there is good reason to believe the complainant has suffered a significant personal injustice as a direct result of the actions or inactions of the Council. This means that we will normally only investigate a complaint where the service user has suffered serious loss, harm, or distress as a direct result of faults or failures by the Council.
8. We will not normally investigate a complaint where the complainant is using their enquiry to raise a wider political or community campaign. In these cases, their concerns may be better addressed to their local councillor.
9. Despite Mr X’s assertions, I do not consider that Mr X has suffered significant personal injustice because of the way the Council conducted the review. It is not obliged to address all the points he made in its report.
10. Turning to Mr X’s complaints about data protection. The Information Commissioner’s Officer (ICO) is the independent authority set up to uphold information rights. It deals with complaints about public authorities’ failures to comply with data protection legislation, this includes unauthorised disclosure of personal information.
11. Where someone has a complaint about data protection the Ombudsman usually expects them to complain to the ICO. The ICO was created by Parliament to deal with such concerns. It has wider powers than the Ombudsman to deal with public authorities which breach data protection laws and regulations.

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Final decision

12. I will not investigate this complaint. This is because I do not consider that he has suffered significant personal injustice as a direct result of the alleged flaws in the Council’s community governance review. Also, he can complain to the ICO if he considers the Council has breached the data protection regulations.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman