Summary: We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint about how the Council dealt with his Freedom of Information request. This is because the Information Commissioner is better placed to deal with the matter.

The complaint

1. Mr X complains about how the Council dealt with his Freedom of Information (FoI) request and his subsequent complaint.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

2. The Local Government Act 1974 sets out our powers but also imposes restrictions on what we can investigate.
3. The Information Commissioner's Office considers complaints about freedom of information. Its decision notices may be appealed to the First Tier Tribunal (Information Rights). So where we receive complaints about freedom of information, we normally consider it reasonable to expect the person to refer the matter to the Information Commissioner.

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How I considered this complaint

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

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My assessment

6. I will not investigate Mr X’s complaint about how the Council dealt with his FoI request. This is because it is reasonable for him to raise the matter with the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) which has specific powers to consider how FoI requests are dealt with.
7. It is not a good use of public resources to investigate complaints about complaint procedures, if we are not going to deal with the substantive issue.

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Final decision

8. We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint because the ICO is better placed to deal with the matter.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman