Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about public transport because any injustice is not significant enough to justify our involvement.

The complaint

1. Miss Y complained about the Authority’s cancellation of three bus journeys, which led Miss Y to have to take a taxi to her destination at short notice. Miss Y says this cost her approximately £80 in taxi fares. She is also unhappy with the Authority’s handling of her complaint.
2. Miss Y says she paid for taxis and has suffered inconvenience.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

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 injustice is not significant enough to justify our involvement. (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended, section 34(B))
4. 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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How I considered this complaint

5. I considered information Miss Y provided and the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.

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My assessment

6. Our role is to consider complaints where the person bringing the complaint has suffered significant personal injustice as a direct result of the actions or inactions of the organisation. This means we will normally only investigate a complaint where the complainant has suffered a serious loss, harm or distress as a direct result of faults or failures. We will not normally investigate a complaint where the alleged loss of injustice is not a serious or significant matter.
7. We spoke to Miss Y about her complaint. She confirmed that for her the issue has not been about the financial cost of the taxis and this has not driven her complaint to us. She has instead referred to the issue as being about wanting to improve customer service for others.
8. While she may feel strongly about this issue, it is not a serious loss, harm or distress to Miss Y and we would not consider the cancellation of public transport to be a serious or significant matter. Consequently, we will not investigate.
9. Miss Y has also complained about the Authority’s complaint handling, which she says has been poor. However, as we are not investigating the substantive matter, it is not a good use of public resources to investigate Miss Y’s complaint about the Authority’s complaint handling. We will not investigate.

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Final decision

10. We will not investigate Miss Y’s complaint because any injustice is not significant enough to justify our involvement.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman