The Ombudsman's final decision
Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about the Council’s policy on its employees’ use of its toilet facilities following the UK Supreme Court ruling on sex in the Equality Act as Mr X is not caused a level of personal injustice from it that would warrant our further involvement.
The complaint
Mr X complains the Council has failed to correctly act following the UK Supreme Court ruling on the meaning of sex in the Equality Act in respect of advice it gives to employees regarding which toilet facilities they should use. Mr X says this means he and his family members would not consider working at the Council as they would feel extremely uncomfortable having to share toilet and changing facilities with members of the opposite sex.
The Ombudsman’s role and powers
The Local Government Act 1974 sets out our powers but also imposes restrictions on what we can investigate.
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, section 34(B)) We cannot investigate a complaint if it is about a personnel issue. (Local Government Act 1974, Schedule 5/5a, paragraph 4, as amended)
How I considered this complaint
I considered information provided by the complainant.
I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.
My assessment
I recognise Mr X has strong feelings about this matter, but he is not personally impacted from it to a degree that I consider would warrant our further involvement. Additionally, as per paragraph four, by law we cannot investigate the Council’s actions as an employer so we cannot, in any case, investigate its employment policies.
Final decision
We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint because he is not significantly personally impacted by it and we cannot investigate the Council’s employment policies.
Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman