Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about an Equality Impact Assessment carried out by the Council. There is not enough evidence this caused Ms X an injustice to warrant an investigation.

The complaint

1. Ms X complains the Council carried out an Equality Impact Assessment which prioritised one protected characteristic over the others. She says this has caused her concern the Council is not meeting its public sector equality duty.
2. Ms X also complains about the way the Council dealt with her complaint.
3. Ms X would like the Council to apologise to her, provide her with further responses and make changes to its document.

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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 any injustice is not significant enough to justify our involvement.

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

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My assessment

7. The Council carried out an Equality Impact Assessment for a Trans Inclusion Framework for its staff.
8. Ms X complained the assessment prioritised one of the characteristics protected by the Equality Act 2010 over the others.
9. Ms X says this has caused her to be concerned about whether the Council is meeting its public sector duty.
10. Our role is to consider complaints where the person bringing the complaint has suffered significant personal injustice as a direct result of the actions or inactions of the organisation. This means we will normally only investigate a complaint where the complainant has suffered serious loss, harm, or distress as a direct result of faults or failures.
11. It is not a good use of public resources to investigate complaints about complaint procedures, if we are unable to deal with the substantive issue.

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Final decision

12. We will not investigate Ms X’s complaint because there is insufficient evidence of significant injustice.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman