The Ombudsman's final decision
Summary: We will not investigate Miss X’s complaint that the Council sent her a warning letter about the number of complaints she submitted. This is because there is insufficient evidence of fault and further investigation is unlikely to achieve any additional outcome.
The complaint
Miss X complained the Council sent a warning letter regarding the number of complaints she submitted.
Miss X said the matter caused her distress.
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, or there is no worthwhile outcome achievable by our investigation.
(Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended, section 34(B))
How I considered this complaint
I considered information provided by the complainant.
I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.
My assessment
We will not investigate this complaint. The Council sent Miss X a warning when it received a large volume of complaints from her. It explained what measures could be applied if the volume of complaints continued. There is insufficient evidence of fault to warrant an investigation, and so we will not investigate this complaint.
In its complaint response, the Council apologised for a delay in acknowledging Miss X’s original message. Further investigation is unlikely to achieve any further outcome, and so we will not investigate this matter.
Final decision
We will not investigate Miss X’s complaint because there is insufficient evidence of fault, and further investigation is unlikely to achieve any additional outcome.
Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman