Summary: We will not investigate the Council’s handling of Mr X’s complaint about a Council officer’s conduct. This is because there is not enough evidence of fault by the Council.

The complaint

1. Mr X complains about the Council’s refusal to investigate his complaint about an officer’s conduct under its corporate complaints process.
2. Mr X says he has been caused distress anxiety and frustration. He wants the conduct of the named officer to be investigated.

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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:

• 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

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

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My assessment

6. Mr X alleges that a council officer accessed and shared his medical information without justification, misrepresented his clinical position, and circulated sensitive health data to staff. Mr X wants the Council to investigate the officer’s conduct.
7. The Council has responded to Mr X to say his complaint falls outside of the corporate complaints procedure. It says it had been classified as a data protection matter, and the data protection team would be dealing with it.

8. We will not investigate the Council’s decision to classify Mr X’s complaint as a data protection complaint as there is not enough evidence of fault to justify investigating. This is because the alleged faults arise from the officer’s handling of personal data. The matters complained of (access to records, sharing information, and use of confidential data) are inherently data processing issues and I do not see any standalone conduct issues. The Council is therefore entitled to treat the matter as a data protection complaint that sits outside of the corporate complaints process.

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Final decision

9. We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint because there is not enough evidence of fault to justify investigating.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman