Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about the Council’s decision to impose a communication restriction. There is not enough evidence of fault to justify us investigating, and we cannot achieve the outcomes that X seeks.

The complaint

1. X complained the Council wrongly imposed a communication restriction against him.
2. X said that this is preventing him from conducting his own investigations into the Council’s behaviour.
3. X would like the communication restriction to be lifted and for the Council to offer him an apology.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

4. 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 not enough evidence of fault to justify investigating, or
• we cannot achieve the outcome someone wants.

(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 X.
6. I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.

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My assessment

7. The Council decided that X would only be able to communicate with them via letter to a named single point of contact.
8. The Council said that it made its decision because X had not complied with a warning letter and later email sent to him advising that his behaviour was becoming unreasonable, as defined under its policy.
9. The Council provided a date by which the communication would be reviewed.
10. Our role is not to ask whether an organisation could have done things better, or whether we agree or disagree with what it did. Instead, we look at whether there was fault in how it made its decision. If we decide there was no fault in how it did so, we cannot ask whether it should have made a particular decision or say it should have reached a different outcome.
11. We will not investigate this complaint. Having reviewed the Council’s policy, there is not enough evidence of fault in how the Council has applied it in X’s case.
12. We therefore cannot achieve the outcome that X seeks. Given that there is not enough evidence of fault in how the Council made its decision, we cannot instruct it to remove the communication restriction or offer him an apology.

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Final decision

13. We will not investigate X’s complaint because there is not enough evidence of fault to justify us investigating, and we cannot achieve the outcomes that X seeks.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman