The Ombudsman's final decision
Summary: We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint about how Transport for London dealt with his application to renew his private hire driver’s licence. This is because we could not say that the issues raised have caused Mr X an injustice.
The complaint
Mr X says Transport for London (TfL) delayed handling his private hire driver’s licence renewal application meaning he was unable to work for a week.
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), as amended, section 34(B))
How I considered this complaint
I considered information provided by the complainant and the Authority.
I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.
My assessment
Mr X has a private hire driver’s licence which was due to expire on 20 October 2024. TfL sent licence renewal forms to Mr X in June 2024, and he submitted his application the following month. TfL says that Mr X’s application wasn’t showing on its system, so it sent him a reminder in August 2024. Mr X contacted TfL, and his application was located and processed.
I will not investigate Mr X’s complaint because I am not satisfied that the actions of TfL have caused him an injustice. TfL processed Mr X’s application and issued a new licence to Mr X on 19 October 2024, one day before his previous licence expired. Therefore, whilst there may have been a delay in TfL first processing the application, this did not result in Mr X being without a licence for any period of time.
Final decision
We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint because we could not say that the issues raised have caused him an injustice.
Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman