Summary: We will not investigate X’s complaint that the Council gave councillors inaccurate information about legal action taken by X. This is because any injustice to X is not significant enough.

The complaint

1. X complains that the Council defamed them and that it told councillors that court action taken by X had been unsuccessful.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

2. We cannot investigate late complaints unless we decide there are good reasons. Late complaints are when someone takes more than 12 months to complain to us about something a council has done. (Local Government Act 1974, sections 26B and 34D, as amended)
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 injustice is not significant enough to justify our involvement. (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended, section 34(B))
4. We cannot investigate a complaint if someone has started court action about the matter. (Local Government Act 1974, section 26(6)(c), as amended)

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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. I will not investigate X’s complaint about defamation. This is because we have previously considered a complaint about this from X and we cannot accept repeat complaints about the same matters. X has pursued these matters through the courts which prevents us from investigating them.
8. X says that in 2023, the Council provided inaccurate information about these legal proceedings to councillors. X has only recently become aware of this matter, so I do not consider that it is late. However, I will not investigate this element of X’s complaint because I do not consider that this alone has caused X a significant enough injustice to warrant investigation by the Ombudsman.

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Final decision

9. We will not investigate X’s complaint because the issues we can consider has not caused X a significant enough injustice.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman