The Ombudsman's final decision
Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about the Council’s investigation of Mrs X’s complaint about an unsuitable food product bought from a supermarket. There is insufficient evidence of fault which would warrant an investigation.
The complaint
Mrs X complained about the Council’s investigation of her complaint about beans which she bought from a supermarket and which she said did not cook properly. She believed the beans may be contaminated with plastic and asked the Council to investigate. She was dissatisfied with the outcome of the investigation and wants the Council to ensure the store refunds her costs and takes action to prevent selling further defective produce.
The Ombudsman’s role and powers
We investigate complaints of injustice caused by ‘maladministration’ and ‘service failure’. I have used the word fault to refer to these. We consider whether there was fault in the way an organisation made its decision. If there was no fault in how the organisation made its decision, we cannot question the outcome. (Local Government Act 1974, section 34(3), as amended)
How I considered this complaint
I considered the information provided by the complainant and the Council’s response.
I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.
My assessment
Mrs X says she bought beans from a local store and when she cooked them in a pressure cooker they remained hard and inedible. She bought several bags of the beans and says she could not use them and the store refused to refund her because it said they were not defective.
Mrs X complained to the Council and it made enquiries of the store and checked to see if any other complaints had been received by authorities in the area about this product. The Council found no other complaints and it sent an unopened sample of the beans from the same batch to an accredit laboratory for analysis.
The Council says the laboratory found no faults with the beans and said they were fit for human consumption. Mrs X says the Council have not sent her a copy of the laboratory report. If she cannot obtain a copy she could make a subject access request to the Council and take the matter up with the Information Commissioner if it refuses to disclose the details.
We cannot normally deal with a complaint about the outcome of a council’s properly-taken decision – for example, a decision not to investigate a complaint or not prosecute the trader. Councils have discretion on trading standards matters as to whether, and to what extent, to investigate a particular complaint. Their decisions are taken in the general interests of the public, rather than the interest of the individual complainant. In this case the Council found no cause to take action because there was no identified risk to the public.
The Ombudsman is not an appeal body. This means we do not take a second look at a decision to decide if it was wrong. Instead, we look at the processes an organisation followed to make its decision. If we consider it followed those processes correctly, we cannot question whether the decision was right or wrong, regardless of whether someone disagrees with the decision the organisation made.
Final decision
We will not investigate this complaint about the Council’s investigation of Mrs X’s complaint about an unsuitable food product bought from a supermarket. There is insufficient evidence of fault which would warrant an investigation.
Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman