Lincolnshire County Council (24 003 137)
Category : Other Categories > Other
Decision : Closed after initial enquiries
Decision date : 10 Jul 2024
The Ombudsman's final decision:
Summary: Ms X complained the Council shared information about another child in a school admissions appeal bundle relating to her child. We will not investigate this complaint as the Information Commissioner’s Officer is better placed to do so.
The complaint
- Ms X is unhappy the Council included evidence relating to another child in the appeal bundle for a school admissions appeal. Ms X said this caused significant worry in case information about her own child had been shared inappropriately.
The Ombudsman’s role and powers
- 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 there is another body better placed to consider this complaint.
(Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended, section 34(B))
- The Information Commissioner's Office considers complaints about data protection and freedom of information. Its decision notices may be appealed to the First Tier Tribunal (Information Rights). So where we receive complaints about data protection or freedom of information, we normally consider it reasonable to expect the person to refer the matter to the Information Commissioner.
How I considered this complaint
- I considered information provided by Ms X.
- I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.
My assessment
- We will not investigate Ms X’s complaint that information about another child was included in the appeal bundle for her own child’s school admissions appeal. The Information Commissioner’s Office is better placed to consider that complaint.
Final decision
- We will not investigate Ms X’s complaint because the Information Commissioner is better placed to consider the data protection complaint.
Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman