Gloucester City Council (21 016 760)
Category : Other Categories > Other
Decision : Closed after initial enquiries
Decision date : 16 Feb 2022
The Ombudsman's final decision:
Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about how the Council dealt with Mrs X’s complaints about data protection issues as it would not be in the public interest for us to do so.
The complaint
- Mrs X complains about the way the Council dealt with her complaints that it had wrongly shared her personal information with a third party and not properly responded to information requests. This has caused Mrs X stress and worry.
The Ombudsman’s role and powers
- 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)
- It is not a good use of our limited resources to investigate complaint handling as a stand-alone matter when we will not investigate the substantive matter.
How I considered this complaint
- I considered information provided by the complainant.
- I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.
My assessment
- Mrs X has complained to the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) about the alleged data breach and how the Council responded to her information requests. Mrs X asks us to investigate, as a separate matter, how the Council responded to complaints she made to it about these matters.
- The ICO is the UK’s independent authority on data protection and information rights matters and is best placed to deal with the concerns Mrs X raises.
- We have limited resources and it would not be a good use of those resources to examine the Council’s complaint handling in this instance, as a stand-alone matter, when we will not look at the substantive issue. For this reason, we will not investigate.
Final decision
- We will not investigate Mrs X’s complaint because it would not be in the public interest for us to examine the Council’s complaint handling in this case, as a stand-alone matter, when another body is dealing with the substantive issue.
Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman