Summary: We cannot investigate this complaint about congestion charge penalty charge notices. Mrs X appealed against them to the independent tribunal, and we no longer have a legal remit to investigate.

The complaint

1. Mrs X complains Transport for London (TfL) mishandled congestion charge penalty charge notices (PCNs) it had issued to her, failing to cancel them when Mrs X had provided evidence that her vehicle registration had been cloned. Mrs X appealed to London Tribunals (LT), and it cancelled the PCNs. Mrs X also complains TfL did not properly deal with the complaint she made to it about this. Mrs X remains unhappy and would like a further remedy including a goodwill payment in recognition of the time she spent on this matter.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

2. We cannot investigate a complaint if someone has appealed to a tribunal about the same matter. We also cannot investigate a complaint if in doing so we would overlap with the role of a tribunal to decide something which has been or could have been referred to it to resolve using its own powers. (Local Government Act 1974, section 26(6)(a), 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 fault has not caused injustice to the person who complained. (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended, section 34(B))

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How I considered this complaint

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

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My assessment

6. As per paragraph two, we can no longer investigate the Council’s handling of the PCNs as Mrs X used her right to appeal against them to LT.
7. Mrs X has the right to submit a claim for her costs to LT though there is no provision in law for it to award compensation for stress, anxiety or inconvenience.
8. We will not investigate the Council’s complaint handling in isolation as any injustice to Mrs X from this is not sufficient to warrant our further involvement, in the public interest.

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Final decision

9. We cannot investigate Mrs X’s complaint because the matter is no longer within our remit since Mrs X appealed to LT about it. We will not investigate the Council’s complaint handling in isolation as any impact on Mrs X from this is not sufficient to warrant our further involvement.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman