The Ombudsman's final decision
Summary: We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint about a Council officer making inappropriate comments in a letter to an MP. There is insufficient evidence of fault to justify our involvement.
The complaint
Mr X complained a Council officer made inappropriate comments when responding to a letter from an MP.
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 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 Mr X and the Council.
I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.
My assessment
A Member of Parliament (MP) wrote to the Council about a concern raised by residents in the Council’s area. It enclosed a letter from a resident raising a number of concerns, including about comments made by a third party at a meeting which a Council officer attended. The MP asked the Council what support it could give affected residents and for its comments on the points raised.
The Council responded. It explained how the issue had arisen and the support it was providing to residents. It said the third party had not made the comments attributed to them in the meeting. The letter was written by a Council officer who attended the meeting.
Mr X complained it was not appropriate for the Council officer to comment on whether the alleged comments had or had not been made by the third party. Mr X said the Council was wrong to cover up for the third party.
In its complaint response, the Council said it had been asked to respond to the points raised with the M.P. Neither the officer who responded to the MP nor another colleague who attended the meeting had any recollection of the third party making the alleged comment.
We will not investigate this complaint. The Council responded to the MP letter, which asked it to comment on the points raised by the resident. There is insufficient evidence of fault to justify our involvement. In addition, any injustice suffered by Mr X is not sufficient to justify an investigation.
Final decision
We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint because there is insufficient evidence f fault to justify our involvement.
Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman