Summary: We will not investigate this complaint that the Council did not investigate Mrs X’s complaint about its decision to display a flag. This is because Mrs X has not been caused a significant enough injustice to justify our involvement.

The complaint

1. Mrs X complained the Council refused to respond to her complaint. She said it dealt with her complaint as a Freedom of Information (FOI) request and did not address the issue she raised that it displayed a Ukrainian flag.
2. She said the Council should remain politically neutral, and she saw this as a political symbol. She wants the Council to respond to her complaint.

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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 fault has not caused injustice to the person who complained, or
• 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

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

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My assessment

6. Mrs X complained the Council that it displayed a Ukrainian flag and asked it to provide several pieces of information in relation to its decision to do so. The Council did not accept it as a formal complaint but responded to Mrs X as a FOI request.
7. We will not investigate this complaint. 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 by an organisation. In addition, we will not normally investigate a complaint where the complainant is using their enquiry as a way of raising a wider community campaign about something of general concern, but where they have not suffered injustice.
8. In addition, it is not a good use of public resources to investigate complaints about complaint procedures, if we are unable to deal with the substantive issue.

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Final decision

9. We will not investigate Mrs X’s complaint because she has not been caused a significant enough injustice to justify our involvement.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman