The Ombudsman's final decision
Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about the Council’s failure to amend and correct information held about the complainant. This is because we would not achieve anything significant by doing so.
The complaint
The complainant, Miss X, complains that the Council has declined to amend and correct the information it holds about her on its files.
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 no worthwhile outcome achievable by our investigation. (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended, section 34(B))
How I considered this complaint
I considered information provided by the complainant.
I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.
My assessment
Miss X was the subject of a assessment by Children’s Services. The way the assessment was conducted and the outcomes that followed have already been the subject of investigation by the Ombudsman and will not be revisited.
Miss X complains that the assessment contains false information and that information held about her on the Council’s files is inaccurate. She says she has demonstrated this to the Council but it has declined to remove the false information. She believes it should do so.
The Ombudsman will not investigate Miss X’s complaint. We would not expect a Council to retrospectively remove information from its files, even if that information has subsequently been shown to be incorrect. The most we would seek to achieve is that a record of the complainant’s disagreement with the information is placed on the file. The correspondence shows that the Council has offered to do this, and the Ombudsman’s intervention is not therefore warranted.
It is also the case that it is open to Miss X to pursue her legal right to rectification to obtain the correction of inaccuracies in the information the Council holds on her. There is no role for the Ombudsman.
Final decision
We will not investigate Miss X’s complaint because we would not achieve anything significant by doing so.
Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman