Summary: We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint that the Council unlawfully discriminated against him, and the Council’s complaint handling. We have not seen enough evidence of fault with how the Council considered his Equality Act rights. We will not investigate the Council’s complaint handling alone if we are not investigating any substantive matters at the same time.

The complaint

1. Mr X complains the Council discriminated against him during its selection exercise for a community project evaluation panel. He said the Council discriminated against him because of his race and age.
2. Mr X also complains the Council delayed responding to his complaints.
3. Mr X would like the Council to accept it unlawfully discriminated against him under the Equality Act and reconsider the decisions it made during the selection exercise for the project evaluation panel.
4. Mr X would also like the Council to change future selection exercises to ensure they are compliant with equality laws.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

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 not enough evidence of fault to justify investigating (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended, section 34(B))

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How I considered this complaint

6. I considered information provided by Mr X and the Council.
7. I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.

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My assessment

8. Mr X says the Council discriminated against him during its selection exercise for a community project evaluation panel. He said he was discriminated against because of his race and age.
9. We cannot decide if the Council unlawfully discriminated against Mr X as this is for the courts to decide. We can look at how the Council considered Mr X’s Equality Act rights during its selection process for the panel.
10. The evidence available shows the Council did consider Mr X’s Equality Act rights. It explained to him how and why it made its selection decisions and reassured him it did not select or exclude anyone because of race or age.
11. It is open to Mr X to take the matter to court if he believes the Council unlawfully discriminated against him.
12. We will not look at the Council’s complaint handling alone if we are not investigating any substantive matters at the same time. This would not be a reasonable use of our limited public resources.

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Final decision

13. We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint because we have not seen enough evidence of fault with how the Council considered his Equality Act rights. We will not look at the Council’s complaint handling alone as this would not be a reasonable use of our limited resources.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman