The Ombudsman's final decision
Summary: We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint about the Council’s release of incomplete planning documents. This is because it would be reasonable for Mr X to pursue his complaint with the Information Commissioner.
The complaint
The complainant, Mr X, complains the Council has not properly retained or disclosed full files relating to at least four planning applications. He says this has prevented him from pursuing legitimate enquiries about the applications.
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 effect 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 the tests set out in our Assessment Code are not met. (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended) The Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) considers complaints about freedom of information. Its decision notices may be appealed to the First Tier Tribunal (Information Rights). So where we receive complaints about freedom of information, we normally consider it reasonable to expect the person to refer the matter to the Information Commissioner.
How I considered this complaint
I considered information provided by Mr X and the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.
My assessment
Mr X’s complaint concerns the Council’s retention and release of planning documents. Mr X has previously referred a complaint about a similar issue to the ICO and the information he has provided shows he has copied this complaint to the ICO as well.
The ICO is better placed to investigate Mr X’s concerns, decide whether the Council has the documents he wants and whether it must release them to him. It is therefore reasonable to expect Mr X to pursue the matter with the ICO at this time.
We cannot determine if the Council has the documents and have no powers to force it to release them to Mr X. We also cannot reach any view on what the documents contained without seeing them or say the Council’s actions in destroying or redacting them caused Mr X significant injustice.
Final decision
We will not investigate this complaint. This is because it would be reasonable for Mr X to pursue his complaint with the ICO.
Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman