Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about data protection as it is best dealt with by the Information Commissioner’s Office. We will not investigate the Council’s administration of Mr X’s complaint as any injustice arising from this, in isolation, is not sufficient to justify our further involvement.

The complaint

1. Mr X complains the Council wrongly published his personal data online and did not treat his concerns about this seriously. Mr X also complains the Council did not properly respond to the complaints he made to it about this. Mr X remains unclear about how widely his data was shared which gives him concern for his personal security and says he has been caused significant distress.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

2. 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)
3. It is our decision whether to start, and when to end an investigation into something the law allows us to investigate. (Local Government Act 1974, sections 24A(6) and 34B(8), as amended)
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.
6. I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.

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My assessment

7. The Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) is the UK's independent regulator in respect of data protection. It is best placed to assess the Council's actions in respect of publishing the data, its response to Mr X’s concerns about this, and whether it needs to take further action to put things right. As such, it is reasonable to expect Mr X to complain to the ICO and we will not investigate this aspect of the complaint.
8. I recognise Mr X has separate concerns about how the Council handled his subsequent complaint but as we will not investigate the substantive matter, the data protection issue, it would not be a good use of our limited resources to investigate the complaint handling process in isolation. Any injustice arising from this is not sufficient to warrant our further involvement.

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Final decision

9. We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint because the data protection matter is best dealt with by the ICO and there is insufficient injustice from the complaint handling in isolation to justify our further involvement.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman