Summary: We will not investigate how the Council handled Mrs X’s alleged whistleblowing complaint or its decision to manage her contact with the Council. There is not enough evidence of fault or significant injustice to warrant an investigation. We will not investigate Mrs X’s complaint about her subject access request and other data handling matters as the Information Commissioner is better place to handle this.

The complaint

1. Mrs X complains about the Council’s handling of her whistleblowing notification, poor information governance and refusal to engage with a subject access request (SAR). She also complains about the way the Council placed her on a ‘managed contact’ register.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

2. 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, 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))

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How I considered this complaint

3. I considered information provided by the complainant.
4. I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.

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My assessment

5. Mrs X made a complaint which she claimed was under the whistleblowing procedures. The Council refused it accept it such as Mrs X was not an employee. Instead, it considered it under its usual complaints’ procedures. We will not investigate this complaint because the Council followed its policy when it made its decision and so there is not enough evidence of fault to justify an investigation. And in any case, we would not investigate because Mrs X did not experience any significant personal injustice. This is because the Council responded to her complaint through its normal procedures.
6. The Council has placed Mrs X under its managed contact procedures. In part that means it will no longer accept complaints about certain matters. Mrs X is still able to make new complaints. There is not enough evidence of fault in the Council’s decision-making to justify an investigation. Furthermore, the Ombudsman has now considered the issues Mrs X remains unhappy about, which means the Council is within its rights to consider the matter closed. Therefore, we will not investigate because there is not enough evidence of significant personal injustice to warrant an investigation.
7. Any outstanding complaints about information governance, including Mrs X’s SAR are better dealt with by the Information Commissioner.

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Final decision

8. We will not investigate Mrs X’s complaints because there is not enough evidence of fault or injustice to warrant investigating, or there is another body better placed.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman