Summary: We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint that Council enforcement agents sent his personal and financial information to a third party. This is because the Information Commissioner’s Officer is better placed to consider the complaint.

The complaint

1. Mr X complains Council enforcement agents incorrectly sent information about a debt to a third party’s address. He says he has never lived at the address and the enforcement agent’s actions caused a data breach because information about the debt was disclosed to a third party.
2. Mr X complains the enforcement agents harassed him by contacting him at unreasonable hours on three occasions. He also complains about the Council’s complaint handling and says it failed to respond to his complaint.

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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 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 fault has not caused injustice to the person who complained, or
• any injustice is not significant enough to justify our involvement, or
• there is another body better placed to consider this complaint.

(Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended, section 34(B))

5. We normally expect someone to refer the matter to the Information Commissioner (ICO) 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)

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How I considered this complaint

6. I considered information provided by the complainant.
7. I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.

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My assessment

8. Mr X complains the Council’s enforcement agents committed a data breach. The ICO is the UK’s independent authority set up to uphold information rights. It promotes openness by public bodies and protects the privacy of individuals. It deals with complaints about public authorities’ failures to comply with data protection legislation. Where someone has a complaint about data protection, the Ombudsman usually expects them to bring the matter to the attention of the ICO unless it is unreasonable to expect a person to do so. I consider it reasonable to expect Mr X to refer this matter to the ICO. The ICO is better placed to consider his complaint. So, we will not investigate.
9. Mr X complains the Council’s enforcement agents chased him for payment by text message at unreasonable times of the day (three messages in total were received on different days at 7am, 11.20pm and 7.40am).
10. The Enforcement Conduct Board (ECB) provides independent oversight of the enforcement industry to ensure that all those who are subject to enforcement action in England and Wales are treated fairly. We have a Memorandum of Understanding with the ECB. This states we will consider the ECB’s Standards for the behaviour of Enforcement Firms and Agents when deciding on complaints about local authority contracted-out enforcement activity. The ECB’s Standards of Practice for Enforcement Agents says agents must not contact the person subject to enforcement before 6am or after 9pm. The Council’s enforcement agents contacted Mr X twice within these set times. So, there is not enough evidence of fault to justify investigating. Mr X received one message outside these hours of contact. I understand this would likely have caused Mr X some concern and inconvenience, but the injustice experienced is not significant enough to justify an investigation. For these reasons, we will not investigate Mr X’s complaint.
11. It is not a proportionate use of resources to investigate the Council’s complaint handling alone when we are not considering the core issues. Any separable injustice is not significant enough to justify our involvement.

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Final decision

12. We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint that Council enforcement agents sent his personal and financial information to a third party. This is because the Information Commissioner’s Officer is better placed to consider the complaint.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman