Summary: We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint alleging corruption and misconduct by Council officers, failures to comply with GDPR regulations and breach of his human rights. There is not enough evidence of fault to justify investigating.

The complaint

1. In summary, Mr X alleges corruption and misconduct by Council officers and the Police starting from 2014, failures to record alleged criminal conduct, comply with data regulations and breaching his human rights.
2. Mr X says he lost his home, relationships and earnings amounting more than £1,500,000.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

3. The Local Government Act 1974 sets out our powers but also imposes restrictions on what we can investigate.
4. We cannot investigate late complaints unless we decide there are good reasons. Late complaints are when someone takes more than 12 months to complain to us about something a council has done. (Local Government Act 1974, sections 26B and 34D, as amended)
5. We normally expect someone to refer the matter to the Information Commissioner if they have a complaint about data protection. However, we may decide to investigate if we think there are good reasons. (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended)
6. We cannot investigate complaints about the provision or management of social housing by a council acting as a registered social housing provider. (Local Government Act 1974, paragraph 5A schedule 5, as amended)
7. 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
• there is another body better placed to consider this complaint (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended, section 34(B))

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How I considered this complaint

8. I considered information provided by the complainant and the Council’s two complaints responses from July 2025 and September 2025.
9. I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.

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My assessment

10. Mr X raises a wide range of concerns including corruption, failures to record alleged criminal conduct, breaches of data protection legislation, human rights violations, miscarriage of justice, and misconduct by Council staff, councillors, and the Metropolitan Police.
11. The Council sent a complaint response - at stage 2 of its complaints response - to Mr X last July. It advised it had no responsibility over the Police and signposted him to the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) or the Metropolitan Police’s Professional Standards Department. It apologised for not responding to one of his emails and said housing staff were trying to visit him in connection with the email. It said staff would visit him in August accompanied by a safeguarding officer.
12. In November 2025, the Council sent another response to Mr X saying it had not identified any service failures in its service he had received. It said some of the matters he was raising were not the Council’s responsibility.
13. We will not investigate for the following reasons:

• There is not enough evidence of fault in the Council’s response to justify investigating. The Council has responded reasonably to Mr X including arranging a home visit accompanied by a Safeguarding Officer.
• We do not usually investigate matters that are better addressed by another body. Mr X’s complaints relating to GDPR can be referred to the Information Commissioner as the national regulator for information rights issues.
• We will not consider any historic issues occurring before 2025 as these are caught by the time bar on the Ombudsman’s remit. It was reasonable to expect Mr X to raise them to the Ombudsman within 12 months of becoming aware.
• We have no remit to consider the actions of the Police or any allegations relating to crime.
• We have no remit to consider the Council’s housing management services towards Mr X as a tenant of social housing.
• We do not make determinations on human rights breaches as this is for the courts to do.

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Final decision

14. We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint as there is not enough evidence of fault in the Council’s response.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman