Summary: The Ombudsman will not investigate this complaint about the fees charged by a third party to access Council records on the Internet. He is unlikely to find fault by the Council has caused the complainant significant injustice.

The complaint

1. The complainant, who I refer to here as Mr B, has complained about the fee charged by a third party to use various Internet services to access historic records. These are provided to it by the Council and many other bodies. He says the fees are discriminatory and breach the Equality Act 2010.

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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’.
3. We provide a free service but must use public money carefully. We may decide not to start an investigation if, for example, we believe:

• it is unlikely we would find fault;
• the fault has not caused injustice to the person who complained; or
• any 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

4. I have considered what Mr B said in his complaint. Mr B commented on a draft before I made this decision.

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What I found

5. The Council has a duty to make certain historic records freely available to the public at its offices. There is no suggestion the Council is breach of this duty.
6. A third party pays the Council a fee for to access its records and, in turn, charge a fee to their customers to access them on the Internet. It is not providing a service on behalf of the Council.
7. Mr B has complained about the fee structure of the third party which provides several Internet services. He considers it is unfair because he does not qualify for a discount the third party offers to certain people.
8. Mr B has argued the Council’s contract with the third party requires it not to discriminate. He believes the Council should enforce the contract to end the alleged discrimination.

Analysis

9. If Mr B’s contention was correct and the Council did require the third party to end the discount, this would have no material effect on him. He would still need to pay the same fee to the third party. I do not therefore consider any fault by the Council can have caused him injustice that would justify our involvement.
10. Further, we cannot determine if a third party is in breach of the law. If Mr B believes this is the case, he should seek his own legal advice or contact the Equalities and Human Rights Commission.

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Final decision

11. I have decided we will not investigate this complaint for the reasons set out in paragraphs 9 and 10.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman