Summary: We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint that the Council placed him on its abusive behaviour register. There is not enough evidence of fault to justify an investigation.

The complaint

1. Mr X complains the Council placed him on its abusive behaviour register following communications with various officers.
2. He says this has made him feel humiliated and he is offended. He would like the Council to apologise.

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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)
4. We do not start or continue an investigation if we decide there is not enough evidence of fault to justify investigating. (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended, section 34(B))

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How I considered this complaint

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

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My assessment

7. The Council says Mr X has sent abusive communications to staff. It has provided examples of some of these. It also says he has visited its offices and thrown objects at staff.
8. As a result, the Council placed Mr X on its abusive behaviour register. It wrote to Mr X and explained why, provided him with details of a single point of contact, detailed the support that officer would provide and said it would review the situation in 12 months’ time. It also said it would not accept any further complaints from Mr X unless they indicated a clear service failure.
9. We will not investigate this complaint. There is no evidence of fault in how the Council made its decision. Therefore, we will not question the outcome.

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Final decision

10. We will not investigate ’s complaint because there is not enough evidence of fault to justify an investigation.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman