The Ombudsman's final decision
Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about the recording of a fire by the Authority. This is because there is not enough evidence of fault by the Authority, and we cannot achieve the outcome Mr X wants.
The complaint
Mr X complained about the recording of a fire outside his property, which the Authority recorded as a ‘small fire’. Mr X thinks the record should show the incident was arson. He believes recording a small fire contributed to the police not investigating the incident, leading to stress for him and others.
The Ombudsman’s role and powers
We investigate complaints of injustice caused by ‘maladministration’ and ‘service failure’. I have used the word fault to refer to these.
We consider whether there was fault in the way an organisation made its decision. If there was no fault in how the organisation made its decision, we cannot question the outcome. (Local Government Act 1974, section 34(3), as amended) 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 we cannot achieve the outcome someone wants.
(Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended, section 34(B))
How I considered this complaint
I considered information provided by the complainant and the Authority.
I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.
My assessment
There was a fire near Mr X’s property in February 2023. In September 2024 Mr X became aware the Authority had recorded the event as a small fire and made a complaint to it.
From the information available, the fire had been extinguished when the Authority arrived at the incident. Mr X said witnesses informed it the fire was deliberate.
The authority reported a ‘small fire'. From the complaint replies, it said it used its categorisation system on how it reported the event. It was unable to confirm the fire was deliberate and gave an explanation in the complaint response.
I will not start an investigation because there is insufficient evidence of fault and we cannot question the outcome of the decision where an organisation has correctly followed procedures.
Mr X would like the category of the fire amended. We would be unable to achieve this through investigation as we could not instruct the Authority to change its decision.
Final decision
We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint because there is not enough evidence of fault by the Authority, and we cannot achieve the outcome Mr X wants.
Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman