Transport for London (26 014 421)
Category : Transport and highways > Traffic management
Decision : Closed after initial enquiries
Decision date : 17 Sep 2026
The Ombudsman's final decision:
Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about a charge for driving in the congestion charge zone. This is because the amount of the charge, £15, is not significant enough to warrant investigation.
The complaint
- Mr X complains Transport for London (TfL) wrongly charged him £15 for driving in the congestion charge zone when the vehicle giving rise to the charge was not his. He says TfL also failed to properly deal with his dispute against the charge, wrongly claiming it was out of time when it was not.
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 or continue 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. (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), section 34(B))
How I considered this complaint
- I considered information provided by Mr X and the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.
My assessment
- We do not investigate all the complaints we receive. In deciding whether to investigate we need to consider various tests. These include the alleged injustice to the person complaining. We only investigate the most serious complaints.
- I appreciate Mr X is unhappy that TfL has charged him £15 for a journey in the congestion charge zone which he is not responsible for but this amount is not significant enough to warrant investigation.
- Mr X is also unhappy with the way TfL dealt with his complaint. But it is not a good use of public resources to look at TfL’s complaints handling if we are not going to look at the substantive issue complained about. We will not therefore investigate this issue separately.
Final decision
- We will not investigate this complaint. This is because the injustice claimed is not significant enough to warrant investigation.
Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman