Summary: The Ombudsman will not investigate this complaint that the District Council gave incorrect advice to a Parish Council clerk about how freedom of information responses should be sent. This is because the complainant has not suffered a significant personal injustice as a result of the alleged fault by the Council.

The complaint

1. The complainant, whom I refer to as Mr B, says a District Council officer incorrectly told a Parish Council clerk that freedom of information (FoI) responses should be sent via recorded delivery.

Back to top

The Ombudsman’s role and powers

2. The Local Government Act 1974 sets out our powers but also imposes restrictions on what we can investigate.
3. We can 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 alleged fault has not caused injustice to the person who complained, or
• the injustice is not significant enough to justify our involvement.

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

4. And we cannot investigate the actions of bodies such as Parish Councils. (Local Government Act 1974, sections 25 and 34A, as amended)

Back to top

How I considered this complaint

5. I have considered:
• Mr B’s complaint to the Ombudsman;
• The complaint correspondence between Mr B and the District Council.
6. I also gave Mr B the opportunity to comment on a draft version of this statement.

Back to top

What I found

Summary of what happened

7. Mr B submitted an FoI request to a Parish Council on 4 November, and the Parish Council clerk posted its response to him via recorded delivery on 26 November. Mr B says the clerk told him that he had been advised by the Information Officer at the District Council that FoI responses should be sent via recorded delivery. Mr B says the advice given to the clerk was incorrect, so he pursued a complaint with the District Council.

Assessment

8. I appreciate Mr B thinks the clerk was given incorrect advice by the District Council about how the Parish Council should respond to FoI requests. But I do not see that this alleged fault has caused Mr B a significant personal injustice.
9. With reference to paragraph 3 above, I therefore do not consider the Ombudsman should investigate Mr B’s complaint.

Back to top

Final decision

10. The Ombudsman will not investigate Mr B’s complaint. This is because he has not suffered a significant personal injustice as a result of the alleged fault by the Council.

Back to top

Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman