The Ombudsman's final decision
Summary: We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint about a penalty charge notice issued by Transport for London. This is because Transport for London has accepted Mr X’s representations and cancelled the penalty charge notice and investigation would not achieve anything more for him.
The complaint
The complainant, Mr X, complains about a penalty charge notice (PCN) issued by Transport for London (TfL) for entering the ultra-low emission zone (ULEZ) without paying the charge. Mr X says his satellite navigation device diverted him through London and he was unaware of the need to pay the charge.
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: we could not add to any previous investigation by the organisation, or further investigation would not lead to a different outcome, 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 Mr X and the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.
My assessment
TfL issued Mr X a PCN for driving in the ULEZ without paying the charge in July 2024. Mr X wrote to TfL to challenge the PCN and to the Ombudsman to appeal against it. He also paid the PCN at the discounted rate to avoid further escalation.
TfL considered Mr X’s representations and wrote to him confirming it had cancelled the PCN on 20 September 2024. Because Mr X had paid the PCN it confirmed it would refund his payment.
Final decision
We will not investigate this complaint. TfL has already agreed to cancel the PCN and refund his payment and investigation would not achieve anything more for him.
Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman