Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about the time taken for the Council to answer a phone call. This is because the complaint does not meet the tests in our Assessment Code on how we decide which complaints to investigate. An investigation would not add anything to the response the complainant has already received.

The complaint

1. The complainant, whom I shall refer to as Mr X, complained about the length of time the Council took to answer a phone call. Mr X said he waited 51 minutes for the call to be answered. This triggered an existing health condition. Mr X wants the Council to pay compensation and a “genuine letter of apology”.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

2. 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)

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How I considered this complaint

3. I considered information provided by the complainant and the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.

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My assessment

4. I understand Mr X is frustrated by how long the Council took to answer his call. But we will not start an investigation. This is because we could not add anything further to the response the Council has already provided.
5. The Council has apologised for the time taken to answer Mr X’s call. It has explained the pressures the service was under on the day he called, and the changes made to improve the service. It said that because there was no evidence the call triggered his health condition it would not pay compensation.
6. We could never say the wait for the call to be answered led to the problem with Mr X’s health. The time taken to answer the call, while frustrating, is not significant enough to warrant our involvement. The Council has already apologised. We will not investigate a complaint purely to achieve a further apology.
7. Also, we do not award compensation, but can recommend small token payments if we find fault causing injustice. But for the reasons set out above an investigation would be unlikely to find that applies here. An investigation is not therefore warranted.

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Final decision

8. We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint because an investigation would not achieve anything more.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman