Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about the Council’s complaint response concerning a subject access request. This is because the Information Commissioner’s Office is better placed and also because we are unlikely to achieve anything more.

The complaint

1. In summary, Ms X complains about a complaint response sent by the Council concerning her subject access request (SAR). She says its failure to apologise in full and uphold her complaint in full is evidence of ‘gaslighting’ and has caused her great upset/distress.
2. Ms X would like the Council to pay her financial compensation and train staff about ‘gaslighting’.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

3. The Ombudsman investigates complaints about ‘maladministration’ and ‘service failure’, which we call ‘fault’. We provide a free service but must use public money carefully. We do not start or may decide not to continue with an investigation if we decide there is another body better placed to consider this complaint and we cannot achieve the outcome someone wants (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6))

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How I considered this complaint

4. I considered information provided by the complainant which includes the Council’s responses.
5. I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.

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My assessment

6. I note Ms X approached the Information Commissioner for help and the Council then provided her with all the information she requested in her subject access request.
7. Reading the Council’s complaints response, I note the Council’s upholds certain aspects of her complaint. And it has provided her with an apology for overlooking her ‘expanded request’ when considering the ‘original narrower request’.
8. We will not investigate this complaint. This is because it is reasonable for Ms X to refer the matter to the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) if she remains dissatisfied. This is because the ICO is the body with specific powers and expertise to investigate the Council’s full response to her subject access request. While Ms X has already been to the Information Commissioner in order to get a full response to her SAR, we do not usually investigate complaints about complaints responses when we are not looking at the substantive issue that triggered the complaint.
9. Further, if we did investigate, we are unlikely to retrieve information to justify Ms X’s preferred remedies. The Council has apologised in part, has expressed its reasons for not answering promptly and we are unlikely to achieve anything more.

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Final decision

10. We will not investigate Ms X’s complaint because the Information Commissioner is better placed and also because we are unlikely to achieve anything more.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman