Summary: We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint about the Council’s handling of his request for information. This is because it is about an ongoing matter being dealt with by the Information Commissioner's Office. There is no fault by the Council in refusing to correspond about the matter.

The complaint

1. In summary, Mr X complains the Council’s has labelled him as vexatious and obsessive and is not taking complaints from him.
2. Mr X would like the Council to explain what he has done to be deemed vexatious and obsessive.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

3. We investigate complaints of injustice caused by ‘maladministration’ and ‘service failure’. I have used the word fault to refer to these. We consider whether there was fault in the way an organisation made its decision. If there was no fault in how the organisation made its decision, we cannot question the outcome. (Local Government Act 1974, section 34(3), as amended)

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How I considered this complaint

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

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My assessment

5. The Council says Mr X has not been subjected to any contact restrictions since January 2023 under its ‘Managing Unreasonably Customer Behaviour’. It says it wrote to him to confirm all contact restrictions had been removed.
6. Turning to recent matters, the Council says Mr X makes complaints and queries relating to an issue currently with the ICO. It says under its complaints policy it does not correspond about ongoing ICO cases until the ICO concludes its investigation. And it has informed Mr X of this several times in writing this year.
7. I will not investigate. There is no fault in the Council refusing to take queries and complaints about a matter being dealt with by the ICO.

Final decision

8. We will not investigate as there is no evidence of fault.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman