Uttlesford District Council (21 017 608)
Category : Other Categories > Other
Decision : Closed after initial enquiries
Decision date : 02 Mar 2022
The Ombudsman's final decision:
Summary: We cannot investigate this complaint about the Council’s handling of its finances. This is because the issue affects all or most of the people in the Council’s area.
The complaint
- The complainant, who I will refer to as Mr B, complains that the Council has failed to achieve a signed off Annual Governance Statement since 2018/19 or an external audit since 2019/20. Mr B says he pays council tax but has no confidence in the Council.
The Ombudsman’s role and powers
- The Local Government Act 1974 sets out our powers but also imposes restrictions on what we can investigate.
- We cannot investigate something that affects all or most of the people in a council’s area. (Local Government Act 1974, section 26(7), as amended)
- We investigate complaints about ‘maladministration’ and ‘service failure’, which we call ‘fault’. We must also consider whether any fault has had an adverse impact on the person making the complaint, which we call ‘injustice’. We provide a free service, but must use public money carefully. We do not start an investigation if we decide:
- any 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))
How I considered this complaint
- I considered information provided by Mr B.
- I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.
My assessment
- Mr B’s complaint is about the Council’s handling of its finances. Public spending affects all council tax payers, which is most of the people in the Council’s area. We cannot investigate complaints about issues which affect all or most of the people in a council’s area. This means we have no discretion to investigate Mr B’s complaint.
- Also, even if this restriction did not apply to Mr B’s complaint, we would still not start an investigation. This is because Mr B has not suffered a significant personal injustice because of the alleged fault which would justify an investigation.
Final decision
- We cannot investigate Mr B’s complaint because the issue affects all or most of the people in the Council’s area.
Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman