Mid Suffolk District Council (21 017 833)
Category : Other Categories > Other
Decision : Closed after initial enquiries
Decision date : 24 Mar 2022
The Ombudsman's final decision:
Summary: We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint about information the Council gave the Information Commissioner’s Office which it included in a decision notice in 2018. The complaint lies outside our jurisdiction because it is late and I see no good grounds to consider it now.
The complaint
- The complainant, whom I shall call Mr X, complains about information the Council provided to the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) which the ICO included in its decision notice on Mr X’s complaint in 2018.
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 late complaints unless we decide there are good reasons. Late complaints are when someone takes more than 12 months to complain to us about something a council has done. (Local Government Act 1974, sections 26B and 34D, as amended)
How I considered this complaint
- I considered information provided by the complainant.
- I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.
My assessment
- Mr X complains the Council provided information to the ICO which he believes was intended to ridicule his concerns and damage his reputation to the ICO. This information was included in the ICO’s decision notice on Mr X’s complaint in 2018. Mr X says the Council provided this information, from a letter he wrote in 2014, without his knowledge and was not honest about the information provided.
- Mr X complained to the Council about this in January 2022. The Council declined to investigate because it was a late complaint and it said the issues had been responded to previously.
- The law says a complaint should be made to us within 12 months of a person first becoming aware of the matter they wish to complain about. This complaint lies outside our jurisdiction because it is late. I see no good grounds to consider it now, several years on.
Final decision
- We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint. It lies outside our jurisdiction because it is late and I see no good grounds to exercise discretion to consider this late complaint now.
Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman