The Ombudsman's final decision
Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about the way the Council responded to an email. This is because there is insufficient evidence of fault by the Council and insufficient evidence of injustice.
The complaint
The complainant, whom I refer to as Mr X, complains about the Council’s response to an email he sent. He complains the Chief Executive did not respond directly and the reply was late. Mr X says the Council’s response fell short of the normal and acceptable behaviour for a public body.
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 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.
(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. This includes the Council’s response to Mr X. I also considered our Assessment Code.
My assessment
Mr X sent an email to the Council on 15 February. He raised three issues and said he wanted a reply from the Chief Executive.
Over the next few days there were email exchanges between Mr X and the Council. Amongst other things the Council said it was preparing a coordinated response.
The Council replied on 13 March. It explained there were communications on the website about the issues Mr X had raised which are regularly updated. The Council provided comments about the three issues Mr X had referred to in his email.
I will not start an investigation because there is insufficient evidence of fault by the Council. The Council did not respond until 13 March but there was contact in the interim and the Council explained it was preparing a response. There is no requirement that Chief Executives should reply to every question or email from residents and it would not be possible for this to happen. Councils have officers and staff who deal with matters on behalf of Chief Executives.
I also will not investigate this complaint because there is insufficient evidence of injustice. I appreciate Mr X wanted a response from the Chief Executive but a response from elsewhere in the Council does not represent an injustice. In addition, while Mr X says the Council should have responded within ten days, he did get a reply and updates were available on the website for some of his concerns. The Council’s response may have taken longer than the service standard but there is nothing to suggest this has caused an injustice requiring an investigation.
Final decision
We will not investigate this complaint because there is insufficient evidence of fault and injustice.
Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman