Summary: We will not investigate X’s complaint about the conduct of a Council officer or about the email address used by the Council to respond to X. Neither of these issues have caused X a significant enough injustice to warrant investigation.

The complaint

1. X complains that a Council officer was unprofessional during a telephone call and that the Council used an unofficial email address to correspond with him. X says the Council did not properly deal with his complaint about these matters.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

2. 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))

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How I considered this complaint

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

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My assessment

5. I will not investigate X’s complaint. I do not consider that the issues raised have caused them a significant enough injustice to warrant an investigation by the Ombudsman.
6. It is not a good use of public resources to investigate complaints about complaint procedures, if we are unable to deal with the substantive issue.

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Final decision

7. We will not investigate X’s complaint because the issues raised have not caused him a significant enough injustice.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman