Summary: We will not investigate Mrs T’s complaint about errors and typos made by the Council in her official marriage certificate. This is because any injustice to Mrs T is not significant enough to justify our involvement. Further, we cannot add to the previous investigation by the Council and further investigation by us would not lead to a different outcome.

The complaint

1. The complainant (Mrs T) complains about errors and typos made by the Council in her official marriage certificate. She says the alleged fault has meant her incurring unnecessary cost and spending avoidable time to get the errors amended and for a new certificate to be issued.
2. As a desired outcome, Mrs T wants the Council to apologise for the errors, refund £90 for the service charge of issuing a certificate and an £11 cost of reissuing a new certificate which was subject to yet more errors. She also wants the Council to work with her to get the typos corrected and then issue an accurate certificate.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

3. 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 or continue an investigation if we decide:

• we could not add to any previous investigation by the organisation; or
• further investigation would not lead to a different outcome; or
• any injustice is not significant enough to justify our involvement; or

(Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended, section 34(B)).

4. We investigate complaints about councils and certain other bodies. We cannot investigate the actions of bodies such as the Church of England or Roman Catholic Church. (Local Government Act 1974, sections 25 and 34(1), as amended).

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How I considered this complaint

5. I considered information provided by the complainant and the Council. I also considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.

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My assessment

6. There was an initial error on Mrs T’s marriage certificate which was made by the Church incorrectly spelling her first name. The service cost of issuing the certificate was £90. Mrs T then asked the Council to amend the certificate at a cost of £11. The Council made the amendments, but during the process made other errors which led to another inaccurate certificate being issued.
7. Though there was fault by the Council which it accepts, we do not consider Mrs T has suffered a significant enough injustice to warrant an investigation by us. This is because our remedies are intended to put the complainant back in the position they would have been had the fault not occurred. However, Mrs T would have always needed to pay these costs, regardless of fault by the Council. Further, we cannot investigate or remedy fault as a result of the actions or inactions of the Church.
8. In addition, the Council has advised Mrs T to send the certificate to its Record Office with a covering letter highlighting all of the errors. It told her it will then investigate the issues and correct and re-issue the certificate at no additional cost. In my view, this remedies the injustice to Mrs T and we cannot achieve a better outcome than that proposed by the Council.

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Final decision

9. We will not investigate this complaint because any injustice is not significant enough to justify our involvement. Further, we cannot add to the previous investigation by the Council and further investigation by us would not lead to a different outcome.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman