Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about the Council sharing inaccurate information with another agency. The Information Commissioner is better placed to consider and decide data protection complaints. For the rest, it is not a good use of public resources to investigate complaints about complaint procedures when we decide not to investigate the substantive matter.

The complaint

1. Miss X complains the Council shared inaccurate information about her with another agency and did not respond to her resulting complaint about the matter.
2. Miss X says this caused distress.
3. Miss X wants the Council to respond to her complaint, apologise, review its processes and provide a suitable remedy to recognise her experience.

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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 there is another body better placed to consider this complaint. (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended, section 34(B))
5. 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)
6. We will not usually investigate complaint handling if we are not investigating the rest of the complaint. This is because there is not usually enough injustice to justify us doing so. We collect information about particularly poor complaint handling practice and report this back to organisations. (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), section 34B(8))

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How I considered this complaint

7. I considered information provided by Miss X and the Council.
8. I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.

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My assessment

9. The Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) enforces data protection legislation. The ICO can investigate complaints about data protection. This includes sharing inaccurate information.
10. We will not investigate this part of Miss X’s complaint. The ICO is better placed to consider and decide data protection complaints, and it is reasonable to expect Miss X to complain to the ICO.
11. We will also not investigate Miss X’s complaint about the Council’s complaint handling. Where we apply our discretion not to investigate the substantive matter, we can decide not to look at how the Council handled the complaint about it.

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Final decision

12. We will not investigate Miss X’s complaint because the ICO is better placed to consider and decide data protection complaints. For the rest, it is not a good use of public resources to investigate complaints about complaint procedures when we decide not to investigate the substantive matter.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman