Barnsley Metropolitan Borough Council (25 017 134)
Category : Planning > Building control
Decision : Closed after initial enquiries
Decision date : 19 Mar 2026
The Ombudsman's final decision:
Summary: We will not investigate Ms X’s complaint about the accuracy of the Council’s response to her complaint in 2021. This is because it is a late complaint and the Information Commissioner’s Office is best placed to consider requests for information and data accuracy.
The complaint
- Ms X complains that some of the information in the Council’s 2021 complaint response may be inaccurate.
The Ombudsman’s role and powers
- The Local Government Act 1974 sets out our powers but also imposes restrictions on what we can investigate.
- 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)
- 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)
How I considered this complaint
- I considered information provided by the complainant and the Council.
- I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.
My assessment
- In 2021, Ms X complained to the Council about how it issued a building regulations certificate. The Council responded to her complaint. Ms X says she recently became aware that some of the information may be inaccurate and complained again. The Council said that it would not reconsider the issue because of the time since the original response.
- I will not investigate this complaint. The more time that passes between the events being complained about and a complaint being made, the more unlikely it is that we can investigate them effectively, gather reliable evidence and reach a sound decision.
- The ICO is also best placed to consider Ms X’s concerns that the Council may be holding inaccurate information or may have provided her with inaccurate information.
Final decision
- We will not investigate Ms X’s complaint because it is late and there is no good reason to investigate now.
Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman