Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about the Council’s restriction of Mr X’s access to its Facebook page. This is because there is no worthwhile outcome from continuing the investigation.

The complaint

2. Mr X says the Council acted wrongly by blocking him from its official Facebook page and by not having proper procedures for making that decision. He says this meant he was shut out of a publicly funded page used for Council news and public engagement. He also says the Council admitted it made mistakes but still did not offer a proper remedy.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

3. 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 or there is no worthwhile outcome achievable by our investigation.
   (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended, section 34(B))

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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. The Council has confirmed it was at fault in restricting Mr X’s access without proper oversight. However, the restriction was unintended and temporary, and it did not prevent Mr X from accessing Council information, which remained available through multiple alternative channels. There is also no evidence of Mr X missing a specific decision, consultation, or entitlement. There is no evidence of significant personal injustice to Mr X.
7. The Council has explained that the restriction followed comments containing abusive language, and it has reminded Mr X of its expectations for future engagement on its social media platforms.
8. The Council has already remedied the fault by unblocking Mr X’s account, apologising, and implementing service improvements to prevent recurrence.
9. We will not investigate the complaint further because we are satisfied the Council’s actions provide a proportionate and reasonable remedy for the injustice caused to Mr X. There is nothing more we could meaningfully achieve by investigating this matter further.

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Final decision

10. We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint because there is no worthwhile outcome we could achieve by investigating this matter further.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman