The Ombudsman's final decision
Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about a wrongly issued penalty charge notice. This is because the notice has been cancelled and the remaining injustice to the person complaining is not sufficient to warrant our further involvement.
The complaint
Mr X complains the Council wrongly sent him a penalty charge notice (PCN) when Mr X’s vehicle details, obtained by the Council after a check with the DVLA, did not match the vehicle make and model shown in the CCTV captured image of the contravention. Mr X remains unhappy about the Council’s processes and the time and trouble he spent dealing with this matter.
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 any injustice is not significant enough to justify our involvement (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended) We normally expect someone to refer the matter to the Information Commissioner if they have a complaint about data protection. However, we may decide to investigate if we think there are good reasons. (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended)
How I considered this complaint
I considered information provided by the complainant.
I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.
My assessment
After contact from Mr X, the Council cancelled the PCN. It has acknowledged that its initial complaint response was not comprehensive enough and has apologised to Mr X for this. I do not consider there is sufficient remaining injustice to Mr X to warrant our involvement.
Any concerns Mr X has about the Council wrongly accessing his personal data held by the DVLA should be raised with the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) as it is the UK’s independent authority on data protection matters.
For these reasons, we will not investigate.
Final decision
We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint because there is insufficient remaining injustice caused to him and his data protection concerns are best deal with by the ICO.
Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman