The Ombudsman's final decision
Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about the Council not including phone numbers on leaflets. This is because Miss B has not suffered an injustice because of the alleged fault. Also, there is not enough evidence of fault to justify an investigation.
The complaint
The complainant, who I will refer to as Miss B, complains that the Council continues to send leaflets to residents that only include websites and not telephone numbers. Miss B says this excludes the elderly and poor who do not have access to the internet.
The Ombudsman’s role and powers
The Ombudsman investigates 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 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))
How I considered this complaint
I considered information provided by Miss B.
I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.
My assessment
We will not investigate this complaint.
Miss B is not affected by the issue she complains about. So, she has not suffered an injustice because of the alleged fault by the Council.
Also, the Council has told Miss B that the leaflet she complained about included appropriate phone numbers and it was not appropriate on this occasion to include Council phone numbers.
In addition, the Council says it has made a commitment to include phone numbers in future information. So, there is not enough evidence of fault to justify an investigation.
Final decision
We will not investigate Miss B’s complaint because she has not suffered an injustice because of the alleged fault. Also, there is not enough evidence of fault to justify an investigation.
Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman