Buckinghamshire Council (21 012 239)
Category : Other Categories > Other
Decision : Closed after initial enquiries
Decision date : 22 Dec 2021
The Ombudsman's final decision:
Summary: We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint about the Council imposing restrictions on his contacts with it. This is because the complaint does not meet the tests in our Assessment Code on how we decide which complaints to investigate. There is not enough evidence of fault by the Council, nor of significant injustice to Mr X which would warrant our involvement.
The complaint
- Mr X complained the Council has wrongly and unreasonably imposed contact restrictions which limit his ability to make complaints.
The Ombudsman’s role and powers
- We investigate complaints about ‘maladministration’ and ‘service failure’, which we call ‘fault’. We must also consider whether any fault has had an adverse effect on the person making the complaint, which we call ‘injustice’. We provide a free service, but must use public money carefully. We may decide not to start an investigation if the tests set out in our Assessment Code are not met. (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended)
How I considered this complaint
- I considered information provided by the complainant and the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.
My assessment
- In correspondence with Mr X the Council has said why it has decided to treat Mr X as vexatious. It has said Mr X can still contact the Council, but it will consider his contact on a case-by-case basis. The Council has said it may not respond about issues previously dealt with. The Council has said it will review the arrangements in three months.
- We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint because the Council can decide not to reply to frequent and repetitious contact, whether Mr X agrees or not, so it is not at fault. The Council has not denied Mr X legitimate access to services he may need. The Council has instead decided to manage what it considers to be unreasonably persistent contact. It has not therefore caused Mr X a significant injustice we need to investigate.
Final decision
- We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint because there is not enough evidence of fault by the Council or significant injustice to Mr X which would warrant our involvement.
Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman