Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about the Council’s handling of Mrs Y’s personal data. This is because it is better dealt with by the Information Commissioner.

The complaint

1. Mrs Y made a subject access request to a School’s Parent Teacher Association (PTA). She complains about the Council’s involvement in the PTA’s response. Mrs Y complains a Council data protection officer shared information with the School, which its Parent Teacher Association (PTA) later relied on to incorrectly refuse her subject access request. Mrs Y says advice and information shared by the Council’s data protection officer and the School should not have been shared with the PTA.
2. Mrs Y complains about the Council’s handling of her complaint. She says it refused to disclose information she requested and refused to progress her complaint under its complaints policy, instead telling her she needed to make a Freedom of Information (FOI) request.

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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 most complaints about what happens in schools. (Local Government Act 1974, Schedule 5, paragraph 5(2), as amended)
5. 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 another body better placed to consider this complaint. (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended, section 34(B))
6. 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)

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How I considered this complaint

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

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My assessment

9. In its complaint response, the Council said it had only shared information with the School. In line with paragraph four above, we cannot investigate Mrs Y’s complaint about the actions of the School and whether it shared any information with the PTA. The PTA itself is a registered charity and not an organisation that we have the power to investigate. For these reasons, we cannot investigate Mrs Y’s complaint so far as it concerns the actions of either the School or the PTA. This includes the PTA’s handling of Mrs Y’s subject access request.
10. If Mrs Y remains unhappy with the Council’s handling of her personal data or its FOI response, she can raise these matters with the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO). The ICO is better placed to consider these matters. So, we will not investigate.
11. It is not a proportionate use of our limited resources to investigate a council’s complaint handling alone when we are not considering the core issues. Any separable injustice is not significant enough to justify our involvement. For these reasons, we will not investigate the Council’s complaint handling alone.

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Final decision

12. We will not investigate this complaint about the Council’s handling of Mrs Y’s personal data. This is because it is better dealt with by the Information Commissioner.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman