Sefton Metropolitan Borough Council (21 008 492)
Category : Transport and highways > Other
Decision : Closed after initial enquiries
Decision date : 24 Oct 2021
The Ombudsman's final decision:
Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about the Council’s investigation of a complaint concerning an officer’s behaviour. This is because the complainant has not suffered injustice as a result of fault by the Council.
The complaint
- The complainant, who I refer to as Mr X, complains about the behaviour of a Council officer towards a member of his work team and the Council’s investigation about it. He says he wants the officer concerned to attend an anger management training course.
The Ombudsman’s role and powers
- 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 an investigation if we decide:
- there is not enough evidence of fault to justify investigating, or
- any fault has not caused injustice to the person who complained, or
- any injustice is not significant enough to justify our involvement, or
- we could not add to any previous investigation by the organisation, or
- further investigation would not lead to a different outcome, or
- we cannot achieve the outcome someone wants. (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6))
How I considered this complaint
- I considered information provided by Mr X, including the Council’s responses to his complaint.
- I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.
My assessment
- Mr X complained to the Council about an officer acting aggressively when addressing a member of his work team. The Council investigated the matter but did not uphold the complaint.
- Mr X has complained about what happened to a member of his staff. However, Mr X has not been caused any injustice sufficient to warrant an investigation and nor is there evidence of fault by the Council which warrants investigation. Moreover, the outcome sought to the complaint is not one we would seek from a council.
- Our decision not to investigate the matter would be the same even if Mr X’s staff member made his own complaint to us or asked Mr X to act on his behalf.
Final decision
- We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint because Mr X has not suffered injustice as a result of fault by the Council.
Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman