Summary: We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint that a Councillor failed to respond when he complained about the Council’s handling of his request for bereavement services and his subject access request. That is because the injustice is not significant enough to warrant our involvement.

The complaint

1. Mr X complained that a Councillor did not respond to his complaint about the lack of support for bereavement services and the management of his subject access request (SAR).
2. Mr X said this caused distress.
3. Mr X would like an investigation into how the Council handled his complaint.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

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 injustice is not significant enough to justify our involvement. (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended, section 34(B))

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How I considered this complaint

5. I considered information provided by the complainant and the Council.
6. I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.

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My assessment

7. Mr X originally made complaints to the Council about how it handled his requests for bereavement support and an SAR.
8. He was unhappy with the Council’s response and complained about this to a ward Councillor.
9. A Council officer responded on behalf of the Councillor. The officer gave Mr X information about bereavement support and updated him on the SAR process.
10. Mr X was unhappy the Councillor did not respond and complained to us.
11. Our role is to consider complaints where the person bringing the complaint has suffered significant personal injustice as a direct result of the actions or inactions of the organisation. This means we will normally only investigate a complaint where the complainant has suffered serious loss, harm, or distress as a direct result of faults or failures. This is not the case here. While Mr X is unhappy the Councillor did not respond to him directly, the Council did respond on their behalf. Therefore, we will not investigate this complaint.

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Final decision

12. We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint because there is not enough significant injustice to warrant our involvement.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman