The Ombudsman's final decision
Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about a Councillor’s conduct and the Council’s handling of Mr X’s complaint about the matter. Any injustice is not significant enough to justify our involvement, and it is unlikely that further investigation would lead to a different outcome.
The complaint
Mr X complained on behalf of his son Mr Y about a Councillor’s conduct. He says the Council did not properly consider his concerns and delayed responding to him.
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, or further investigation would not lead to a different outcome.
(Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended, section 34(B).)
How I considered this complaint
I considered information provided by Mr X and the Council.
I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.
My assessment
Our role is to consider complaints where the person bringing the complaint or their representative has suffered significant personal injustice as a direct result of the actions or inactions of the organisation. This means we will normally only investigate a complaint where the complainant has suffered a serious loss, harm or distress as a direct result of faults or failures. We will not normally investigate a complaint where the alleged loss or injustice is not a serious or significant matter.
We do not have jurisdiction to investigate the actions of the Councillor, who was acting in their capacity as a private individual. We can look at the Council’s handling of Mr X’s complaint about the Councillor but wany fault by the Council in dealing with this issue did not cause Mr Y significant injustice.
The Council has apologised for the delay in responding to his complaint and it is unlikely further investigation would lead to a different outcome.
Final decision
We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint. This is because any injustice is not significant enough to justify our involvement, and it is unlikely that further investigation would lead to a different outcome.
Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman