The Ombudsman's final decision
Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about the Council’s response to the failure to play the complainant’s deceased partner’s choice of music at her funeral service. This is because we would not achieve anything significant by doing so.
The complaint
The complainant, who I will refer to as Mr B, complains that the Council has failed to respond reasonably to his complaint about the failure to play his partner’s chosen music at her funeral service.
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 effect on the person making the complaint, which we call ‘injustice’. We provide a free service, but must use public money carefully. We may decide not to start an investigation if the tests set out in our Assessment Code are not met. (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended)
How I considered this complaint
I considered information provided by the complainant and the Council.
I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.
My assessment
Mr B says the Council’s crematorium failed to play his deceased partner’s choice of music at her funeral service, despite having a clearly labelled CD of the music. He says the Council has repeatedly failed to accept responsibility for the error, and its responses have failed to demonstrate empathy or regret for the distress its error caused.
In its responses to Mr B’s correspondence on the matter, the Council has expressed its regret that Mr B was unhappy with the service. But it does not accept that it was at fault.
We will not investigate Mr B’s complaint because we would not achieve anything significant by doing so. The fact that Mr B’s CD was not played at the service is not in dispute. Neither is the fact that this caused Mr B distress. The parties differ on whether this was because of fault on the Council’s part. Both have set out their position during extensive correspondence. There is no prospect that investigation by the Ombudsman would lead to a definitive outcome which would be satisfactory for Mr B. Our intervention is not warranted.
Final decision
We will not investigate Mr B’s complaint because we would not achieve anything significant by doing so.
Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman